Z, SAR Dog in Training

The end of my story...

2009-11-19T00:21:00.003-05:00

It's taken me a looong time to write this post, partly because it isn't a post I ever thought I'd have to make and partly because I wasn't ready to acknowledge what occurred on May 26th: Z was washed from SAR training. In addition, I was asked not to return with another dog (and/or as a member) until I had achieved some of the certifications the team requires.

Z washing was something I didn't see coming and something that I really think could've been avoided if there had been clearer communication with me as a new handler. Me needing to return to volunteer status is wholly my fault and something I take full responsibility for.

I'm not happy about how Z's dismissal was handled for a number of reasons, and thus I'm currently on a break from even serving as a volunteer with the team.

I still think about SAR a lot, especially with the new pup I got in May maturing into an awesome high drive dog. I've considered trying out for another team, but I think that at this time, as much as I hate it, my schedule is such that it wouldn't be fair to try to start from scratch again. I just don't have the scheduling flexibility I need for the practice and continuing education SAR with a canine partner requires unfortunately. Perhaps someday.

So here's me signing off for now - wiser, more in awe of the process, determined to try again when life permits, and wishing all those involved in SAR good trainings and fast, happy finds.

Singin' in the rain!

2009-03-17T09:24:00.003-04:00

Tonight's practice was focused on motivationals for *all* the teams, not just us. This was due to two major factors: it was pouring rain and many of the teams have been deployed recently to a search where the victim has yet to be located.

Our pattern tonight was 2 short runs followed by one triple the length of the other two. K was our victim, no flanker. Weather was 50 degrees and rainy; the ground was soaked and muddy from 3 straight days of rain as well.

Run 1: About 40-50 ft down a dirt road; K ducked in about 5ft into some brush. Z did a pretty much picture perfect find-alert-refind sequence and so did I. K rewarded with food play as last week. Good motivation/speed, clean and powerful alert and refind.

Run 2: About 50-60 ft down a dirt road. K ducked in about 10 ft. Another pretty run - again a nice level of motivation and good enthusiasm on the alert and refind. Same rewarding.

Run 3: About 150ft with a big right turn. Gave K 50 seconds to get into place, released Z. Great speed to find K; K reported that Z shot past her about 20ft, but skidded to a stop, paused and then located her. K wasn't sure if she had used her nose or visually located K, but I was just THRILLED to learn that there was no "faking" on the refind as there has been the last 3 or 4 practices. Z found K and came straight to me for *another* great alert-refind. I had K really feed her up at the end of that 3rd run because it was so wonderful to see. :)

Now to keep going in this direction...fingers crossed!

The rollercoaster

2009-03-09T22:35:00.000-04:00

So tonight's practice made up for the last one. :) We haven't had team training since my last entry due to snow (!) and thus Z had a 2 week break from training. I was a bit nervous about how she'd perform, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Z got to do two sets of runaways and D's actually having us increase distances again, so we got a lot accomplished.

I had a new volunteer with the team serve as victim for our first round, B, and she ROCKED! I'm going to really try to have her help Z and I out frequently because she can really rev a dog up well and her rewarding technique is great. I think I'm actually going to instruct others how to do it for Z as well - B basically made Z play with her food by moving it around and having Z try and catch it vs. just doling it out like most people do. Z loved the extra movement and her tail was going a mile a minute the whole time, plus the added activity makes the rewarding last longer and maintains her victim loyalty really nicely.

Set 1: Weather was really nice, about 65-70, clear, low humidity. We worked on a curvy dirt trail bordered by heavy brush. B as victim, no flanker.

Run 1: B reved Z up and ran about 70 ft down the path and ducked into the brush about 12 ft. She called out to Z most of the way and then went silent when she got into position. Z blasted off after her, went straight to her, did a gorgeous alert and refind and B kept her with her for a good 30-45 sec using her great rewarding technique.

Run 2: B again called out to Z as she ran away another 70 ft down the path and ducked into some brush again about 10-15ft off the path. Z again took off after her when released, foudn her straight away, came back to alert (slightly sloppy, but still obvious), and did a nice refind, again staying with B for her reward for a nice length of time.

Run 3: B ran about 80 ft away before taking a sharp right turn and heading down the path another 30 ft before ducking in. She called out to Z just a few times before disappearing around the bend. Z kicked up dirt as she went after B, ran past her location about 15 ft, turned around and found B, then started her return, but according to B stopped and returned to her. B ignored this behavior and Z then came to me to alert (nicely) and completed her refind well.

Set 2: about 65 degrees, clear but dark, large grassy field. K served as victim for us on this set with B as flanker.

Run 4: K showed Z her reward and then ran about 50ft away and hid in brush on the left side of the field. Z did a picture perfect run with a direct path to her victim and a nice, fast alert and refind. K rewarded as instructed, but for a bit shorter period of time than B had on Runs 1-3.

Run 5: K said bye to Z and ran about 70ft down the field and ducked in about 15 ft on the right. Z again located her easily, alerted well, and performed a spot on refind all at a good speed/motivation level.

Run 6: K ran about 60ft before ducking down a path on the right for 20ft and then cutting into the woods about 10 ft. Z left me at a good pace and found K, returned and hesitated on the alert (she was about to turn back without alerting, but I redirected her), but alerted solidly after the redirection and returned to K well after that.

I'm seeing a pattern: Z "fakes" her alerts on the 3rd run of each set! I'm going to be focusing on that behavior in the next few weeks, but the last run of tonight was good as I was able to catch her mid-"fake out" and successfully get and rewarded the proper alert behavior. This should set us on the right path hopefully.

I was very happy with what I saw tonight - a very motivated, speedy, and pretty accurate dog. :) We still have a long way to go, but it's always nice to see progress and figure out some of the issues from prior runs.

ARGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

2009-02-23T22:27:00.000-05:00

That's really all I have to say about team training tonight.

I've been so happy with Z's progress after the crittering incident and then tonight, when D is flanking for us on runaways, that silly dog from weeks ago reappears. *sigh*

C ran for us as our victim and did a great job revving Z up as she ran off and granted, Z did have good enthusiasm upon release, but D wasn't happy with her refinds. Runaway 1 was nice, runaway two she dawdled and I had to call her back, and runaway 3 she did ok, but not at a speed I'd have liked. So, given what D saw, he says we need to keep working runaways. Grrr. And he and I had a little tiff over how to recall a dog (he uses a word said one specific way and I either use Z's name or her recall word said differently than D - I don't think he appreciated my difference of opinion).

At least he did say that the woods we were working in are pretty heavy on animal scent compared to others and we can go ahead and add some distractions to the runaways.

Since we had fewer dogs to work than usual, I did get to do another set of runaways with Z using Sm as our victim. Sm hasn't worked with Z much so we had some bobbles on rewarding and communication, but nothing too major.

Runaway 1 was pretty, though Z hesitated on the jump alert part of the refind. I'm guessing this was due to the heavy leaf cover in the wooded area we were in.

Runaway 2 was also nice, though we had the same refind alert issue.

Runaway 3 was ugly: Sm ran further way this time (about 70ft vs 50 as before) and Z didn't see where she stopped to hide. On release she raced off but got confused, looped around twice, then went snifing off after something in the wrong direction. I called her off and she came quickly. Once she got back to me and I resent her she got back on task and found Sm. Her refind took a bit too long and she again missed the alert initially, but we did eventually get things accomplished and Sm rewarded her for her efforts.

Are we making progress yet?!

2009-02-16T21:30:00.000-05:00

Team training tonight! S ran for Z - I love working with S because she's got some great insights and suggestions and doesn't talk to me like a complete dog training novice like D often does.

We decided to do 2 runaways and then a short trail at the end. Both runaways were about 50 ft in length and Z did ok - she did have some trouble returnign to me quickly on the second one, but her initial sprint to S's hiding spot was nice on both - good motivation and on task.

For the track at the end, S ran about 100 ft straight away and then turned a sharp left and went into the woods about 60 ft. Z was really revved up while we waited for S to signal that she was in position and she took the scent article nicely, too. Upon release she sprinted along S's track but blew right by the turn. She got a hard negative after about 15 ft or so, looped back and S said she appeared on track for about 10 ft before veering off to the side. I didn't have to call her off of this detour (yay!), and once she came back she got back to work nicely and found S without any cuing from either of us. Her refind was a bit slow, but ok.

S believes Z was crittering on the detour, but I'm not so sure. Even if she was, I'm happy because she disengaged on her own which is a new thing for her; up 'til now she's always either been on task completely or had to be called off the critter distractions. Still more work to do, but I think we're moving in the right direction at least.

Practice Makes Perfect

2009-02-12T11:00:00.002-05:00

Today we got together with K and her dog J (lab) and S and her dog G (golden) at Croft before work. Nothing like getting up bright and early to go run about the woods.

Each dog got several practice runs in, but I'll just talk about Z's since I'm running short on time.

We started with just a regular set of run aways - the first was about 50ft, second was around 70ft, and the third was about 80? ft.

The first one Z overshot her person since they had ducked into a little wall off the side of a building, but she looped back, found them and did a decent alert/refind.

The next, Z took a different route than the person had taken, but she beelined to her at a nice speed. She did dawdle a little bit, but once she got her head back in the game she performed a nice refind.

On the final runaway, the person ran into another building (picnic shelter). Z found her efficiently and did a good refind.

Overall a good set of runaways, so I decided to set up some short tracks.

The first track did NOT go well. She was following S's DH and we had a scent article but I don't think Z really picked up the scent when I presented the article. She took off in the right direction initially but kept getting distracted by scents. The track was about 5 ft long I would guess, with several turns, so it may have just been the difficulty level, but she seemed uber-distracted. Even when I could see our person, Z spent a god 2 or 3 minutes just goofing off before she pretty much accidentally found him. Bummer.

Our second track I simplified greatly into approximately 100 ft with no turns, but still in the woods. I instructed our victim to start moving away from Z when he saw her just to amp up her motivation a bit as well. I had a bit of trouble getting Z to take the scent article, but once I did, she was raring to go. She stuck to her trail well and found her victim quickly with lots of enthusiasm. The refind was a bit rough, but considering how on task she was for the track, I wasn't too upset in the long run.

At least we were able to end on a good note and it looks like I would be best advised to ease her into actual trailing in smaller increments to set her up for success.

Another new place

2009-02-10T00:45:00.003-05:00

Team practice was at a new location this week, so we had fun exploring the property. Z did longer runaways (all between 70 and 100 ft) in one of the fields along the treelines tonight with C as her victim.

1st runaway: C ran about 70 ft away and ducked into the brush in the treeline. Z was off upon release and found C, but didn't want to come all the way to her since she was standing in thick brambles. She did return to me and do a nice alert before returning to C and inching into the brambles for her reward.

2nd runaway: C ran about 90-100 ft away and turned right into another treeline perpendicular to the first. Z again ran right to her, though she did come all the way in without brambles to contend with. She did a very strong jump alert off of me and went back to C for her reward lickety split. This was probably the best rep of the night for Z.

3rd runaway: C ran about 80 ft away back into the original treeline. Z went after her with lots of speed but shot past her and C had to call out a few times to get her redirected to her spot. Z did go in all the way to C through light brambles when she found her and did a nice refind as well after that initial bobble.

As an experiment, I had C reward Z with food for her finds but then toss her toy stuffed with tuna brownies to see if she'd engage in some play like what I see on the agility field. No luck this time - much more interested in the food vs. the toy still. It might be something else to work on in the future but I've got more important stuff to focus on right now, so we'll probably just keep trying different stuff as we get the chance.

Overall good enthusiasm and focus in the dark in a completely new location.

After putting Z up, I played victim for another puppy, G. G is at about the same point as Z is and he's lots of fun, very enthusiastic, and a bit of a goof still at 1 year old. It was pretty neat to see him take several turns on our runaways smoothly and his unbridled happiness at finding me. :)

Later, I ran as flanker with C for K and his dog C. A nice 3/4 mi run through fields, over a creek, and into the woods for all of us. Got to see some nice scenery with the moon almost full and pretty bright in the open. I can't imagine how cool this farm would be in daylight!

While waiting for others to come back in from their practice runs, I got to chat with S a bit about starting dogs and her thoughts on the matter and she said some things that really made a lot of sense about the pace at which we push dogs at the beginning and how going too fast can be so detrimental to the foundation skills you need to build to be successful in the long run. It certainly resonated with me and really helped to have someone give me a bit of a different perspective than what I get elsewhere. I'm looking forward to practicing with her and K on Thursday. :)

Show Off...and then not

2009-02-09T11:00:00.002-05:00

So yesterday Z and I trekked out to a potential new team training site with fellow teammates K and R and their dog J, a black lab with both basic and advanced certifications.

The site was private property, 100 acres, big lake, pine woods, big field, etc. - beautiful land that made me REALLY wish I had the money to buy a place like that myself. It looks like it's going to be too far of a drive for regular practices (like over an hour drive for most team members), but perhaps we can use it for mock searches or some weekend day trainings.

The property owners wanted to learn more about what SAR K9s do, so we brought both dogs and did some demos/training. We had two great kids that served as victims and had some fun with it.

J did 3 demos: 1 set of runaways and two air scent tracks. Ziva did 3 as well: 1 set of runaways, one 700-800 ft runway/tracking search, and one short tracking search.

Runaways: Ziva worked with K as the victim. All runaways were between 50 and 70 ft long. First runaway, Z got distracted for some reason, so K called out a bit and Z did go in and find her. The refind needed me to cue it but was decent in terms of motivation and the alert was nice. Second runaway, Z was raring to go and did a good find-refind sequence. Third runaway was a good imitation of the second.

Long Runaway/Tracking: The youngest kid, a girl about 10 yo, was our victim. I briefed her on rewarding and her dad pointed out her hiding spot, a big tree across a field from where we had parked the cars. It was a straight shot, but Z would lose visual contact when the girl was about 1/3 of the way to her goal.

I got a scent article and we sent out our victim. When I thought the girl was in place, I scented Z (looks like we need a refresher on the "check" cue lol), and sent her off. She *bolted* away from me after the girl and I had to book it to keep her in sight.

At the top of the first hill I saw that the girl hadn't actually gotten to her hiding spot, which i think was actually a good thing in the long run because that meant that Z was actually chasing after a moving target vs. a stopped/hidden one for her first moderate length track in a while.

The girl did get behind her tree a bit before Z, gave her the reward, Z hesitated a bit, returned to me, hesitated at the jump alert but did it when cued, and ran back for the rest of the tuna garlic brownies lol. I was beat, but Z had a HUGE smile on her face on the walk back to our starting point. Our victim was pretty happy with her role and despite the bobbles in the run, I was happy because Z did everything with enthusiasm *and* all with a barking dog just 70 ft away from her victim's hiding spot (in a pen).

Tracking search: Both kids walked around the lake and then made a sharp right turn into the pine forest and walked to a deer stand about 100 ft in just off a nice trail. I allowed Z to watch them walk away and she appeared quite keen. I scented her (again a bit of a struggle) and released her and she was again off like a shot - in the completely WRONG direction (right vs. curving left).

I called her back, and she curved around the lake properly, but was obviously just having a grand time vs. working and ran past the turn, head up, tail waving.

I called her back again, put her in a sit and rescented her. This proved to be a good move, as on this release she actually followed the track decently, made a beautiful turn without hesitation...and then disappeared into the woods. No ringing bell to hear her, no visual contact, and I was thinking the worst - that she had gone off to critter.

I kept walking and shortly thereafter heard a little jingling, then quiet. I peered through the woods to see a white dog tail and human feet about 70 feet away and realized that Z was sticking close to her victims instead of returning to me. I called her, she came in, started to return to the kids without her alert, so I recalled her and cued it, rewarded, and then she ran back to the kids.

It turns out that Z would run 10 ft to the trail, look for me, then return to the kids - who rewarded her each time (guess I should've been clearer in my instructions!). No wonder she didn't come back!! I had the kids do a big reward session on that final return after her alert and we headed in.

I learned a bit about Z's body language this go 'round and overall I'm still happy as the goose poop on the bank and the scent of the woods didn't distract her from the job at hand, and she's doing all of this after a hiatus on actual tracking work. :)

While J was doing some of his demos, I got to work on Zen with outdoor cats living on the property - Z got the idea about 5 reps in with the cat and by the end of our 5 minute session was ignoring the cat completely, even when it started to walk away from us. :)

We ended the practice session with some play in the lake with the property owners' blessings. J loves to fetch his ball out of the water, but Z's not so sure about the wet stuff so most of the time J would be fetching and Z would be elbow deep in the water barking at him. On the grass, she'd chase him when he fetched - certainly does appear she's got that herding dog instinct lol. During our play session we got to practice leave it and drop it with stale bread, goose poop, mud, and a catfish skull! Fun stuff!

A good few hours and a tired puppy at the end - what a way to spend an unseasonably warm February day!

Yippee!

2009-02-07T19:02:00.003-05:00

Ok I won't call the issue fixed, but Miss Z kicked butt in the little and not so little runaways we slipped in with DH before the sun went down.

This go round I didn't mark anything with the scents I have, but we worked in a brushy field near our house full of debris and I'm sure frequented by many critters.

Run 1: 50 ft through tall grass and over a rolling hillock. Found DH and had issues on the refind, likely because this was the first time he used *tuna brownies* instead of regular boring dog treats lol. She started to come to me about 3 or 4 times, but kept looping back to him, but did finally come to me, do a nice alert, got a reward and ran back to DH lickety split.

Run 2: A good 80-100 ft through briars (oops) and ending behind a pile of timber and brush. Found DH and did a NICE refind, complete with VERY enthusiastic alert. Not a flinch as she plowed through the briars and navigated them well on her way back during the refind, maintaining motivation nicely.

Run 3: A massive 500-550 ft run over fallen timber, through grass and briars and ending with DH behind a small shack. Crazy fast "Go Search", an amazing, spot on, uber-hyped refind with me at roughly 250 ft away from the "victim" sans all extra cues and with a nice alert. That little dog can MOVE when she wants to! This occurred after she seemed interested in another direction as DH was walking away, which usually results in a less enthusiastic take off, but we blew that thought out of the water tonight. Very cool!

Yay for husbands!

2009-02-02T19:13:00.000-05:00

I got my husband, S, to agree to help me get some training in today after he got home from work. I need to do it more often but my schedule is screwy enough that it's hard during the week; today we didn't have team practice since we had one just yesterday, so I decided to take advantage of the extra time.

Earlier today I had worked Z on scent zen to try and reduce her crittering in the field, so I figured I'd use my time with S's help to try our proofing out.

Before we all headed out, I took my spray bottle of deer scent out to the open field across the street and sprayed it in about 6 places, all near areas I wanted S to pass. It was drizzling, s each spot got 2 sprays to make the scent as strong as possible. Usually I don't try to make things uber difficult for my dog, but I really wanted to test the little bit of work we'd done earlier.

Z and I stopped at the edge of the field and I sent S out about 70 ft angled to the right, where he dropped behind a small drop-off. I sent Z and she blasted off, kicking up mud. She got to him, then beelined back to me where she forgot to jump alert in favor of running back to her victim. I instructed S to not reward that return and called her to me and encouraged the jump alert, at which point she was sent back to the victim with our "Show Me" cue and heavily rewarded. The track had taken her less than 2 feet away from one scent mark and about 4 feet from another with nary a backward sniff!!

Next, I had S go about 60 ft away and up a slight incline where he hid right past a small pine I had marked with deer urine. Z again took off like a shot, blew past the mark, and found her victim. I had to recall her for the refind, but she did a nice alert before being sent back with "Show Me" and rewarded nicely.

For our 3rd runaway, I had S walk about 100-120 ft away and walk behind the edge of a hill out of sight before dropping down. There were no scents at this point, but I did stand about 4 feet away from a marked plant while I waited to release Z. Z again flew off after S, found him, did a GREAT refind and alert, and headed back nicely - very purposefully.

With this nice result, I decided to go ahead and do a fourth run to get some distance past scent marks we had already passed. I had S walk back to where Z and I had started our very first runaway, so about 300 feet up a series of small inclines. His path took him by all 5 marks and I had him stop about 4 feet from one. By the time he was in place, Z was as hyped to go as I've seen her in a looong time - spinning, whining, straining at the leash, everything I like to see. Upon release she was just gone - no hesitation at any marks and straight in to S's location. She did loiter at his feet a bit longer than I'd like so I got her attention and she was back to me with an awesome jump alert like a shot, rebounding to him at speed as well.

This session was wonderful in sooo many ways - nice focus even with distracting scent, super high desire to search even with a victim that's rather boring (S doesn't run or holler and his rewards consist of just tossing about 4 treats at Z's head and maybe a few pats, no verbals), and enthusiastic alerts that were so hyped that she didn't even have a chance to grab the treat from my hand before she was off to return to her victim. Very cool and oh so heartening to see after her initial performance at training yesterday. :)

Anti-crittering work and improvement

2009-02-02T16:40:00.000-05:00

To follow up on the learning of yesterday, I went out to Academy and bought some bottled scent from the hunting section (yay for a gift card lol). I ended up with the following: raccoon urine, fox cover scent, and buck urine. Yummy. :P They will be living in the garage because OMG do they stink (even to my wimpy human nose)!

Since I was off today, I decided to do a little pre-training before using the scents as distractions in the field. The raccoon urine was first - I sprayed about 4 or 5 sprays of the urine onto a post in the corner of our backyard. I got Z all dressed and leashed and took her out in the light drizzle to work on Zen. Z wasn't immediately drawn to the scent, but once she hit it she was quite interested. I kept tension on the lead but did not correct or cue. As soon as her head came away from the post I clicked and rewarded with cat food. I walked her by the scent again and it took only a few seconds for her to turn away. By the 3rd walk by she was completely ignoring the raccoon urine, so back in the house she went and out came the deer and fox scents.

I sprayed the deer urine on grass about 20 ft from the raccoon post - 4 sprays - and squirted the fox scent onto a kleenex on the ground 30 ft from the deer scent. Of the three I have to say deer is the stinkiest!

I brought Z out again and walked her by all three scents. She ignored the raccoon still (C/T), missed the deer (still C/T), and was intrigued by the fox. Again I held tension on the lead and waited for her to turn away to C/T. Walked her by it several times, C/Ting for turn aways. After about 4 reps she was ignoring it as well.

On the second pass by the deer scent she caught it and BOY was she sniffing. To avoid creating an unwanted "find the animal scent" behavior, I actually told her to "Leave It" on this scent since she was so entranced. That worked quickly (yay!), so I started her back near the fox scent for a walk by. This time she still ignored the fox, but beelined to the deer. I waited and the head came up after about 5 seconds, so C/T and walk by. Rinse and repeat. it took about 6 reps to get her "over" the deer scent, but still not shabby at all.

By the end of our 5 or 10 minute training session, Z was *walking over* all three scents for the most part and when she did sniff it was only for a split second before turning away. Great progress, but will it transfer to our SAR work??

Back again...

2009-02-01T19:51:00.000-05:00

Poor neglected blog...

Anyway, today we had a group training on a weekend I could actually attend, so we had lots of fun. Ziva ran 2 times, which is one the the beauties of these long practices (9am to 2pm today).

At the last group training we attended (which I will post about eventually) Ziva treed a cat while out on a track - a BIG no no. I had a cold develop shortly thereafter which severely cramped my abilities to do anything with her in the past 2 weeks, so today's practice was the first once since that cat episode. Z was NOT performing at a level I would've liked, but we did get some good work in, so at least I have that.

Her first time out we were going to do a short runaway, a lengthy runaway, and then a short track, but it became apparent during the first runaway that she was incredibly distracted by all the scents in the woods and was not up to the increasing distances we had planned. On the advice of our trainer, who was flanking for us, we took her all the way back to puppy training and did several short (like 50-70 ft) runaways with lots of happy noise from the victim and over the top rewarding. I also was told to work on patterning her: released w/ "Go Search", find victim and get one treat, refind (call if she starts to get distracted), reward a solid jump alert and be sure I'm standing up , not bending down, say "Show Me" and nothing else, and then run like heck with her to the victim where she gets a long reward and lots of happy noise again. Rinse and repeat over and over. :P She improved on each run, though D did mention the dreaded "wash out" possibility if we can't get her off the "crittering" (searching for animals vs. people) she was doing. That was a bummer, but it was a kick in the butt we needed to really buckle down and work at this.

Between Z's runs, I flanked for M and his K9, S. S's search was on a longer trail and we were looking for a pair of boyscouts who had been sent out 2 hours prior. We actually went through some of the same territory that had given Z so much trouble and even S had her moments of distraction, so it was nice to know that we're not alone in critter interest. S found the boys aok and both M and I learned a bit more about body language changes and what they mean. S threw her head up at one point and we wondered why until we realized that the boys had made a campfire and she was likely smelling the smoke - about 5 or 10 minutes before our human noses could catch a whiff!

The second time out, Z and I did the same thing as before, but just the victim and I, not including D or the victim's nephew like the first time out. We went back into the woods at another point and she did GREAT! Fast take offs to the victim, strong alerts, minimal recalling/redirecting, especially when compared to the first go 'round. She even cleared a lot of brush on the final runaway which has been a problem in the past for her. It was a great end to what could've been a very frustrating day.

I've resolved to try to address the crittering issue using +R techniques before I go to punishment based methods, so we'll be playing around with a few things in the next week or so. I'm leaning toward buying bottled animal scent and working Z on "Zen" with the scents (rewarding turning away) to see if that helps some. Ideally I could get her to the point that she runs right over any scent when she's in work mode. We'll see how it goes...

More open lot use

2008-11-23T18:00:00.000-05:00

With the start of scent article use, I figured Z and I could use some extra work at home. We really should be practicing more on our own but there's just not enough daylight or people to do it with.

DH was our victim today and I used one of his dirty socks as the scent article.

We treked out to the empty lot and while DH hid, I distracted Z and tried to get her to "check" her scent item. It was a battle, but after about 2 or 3 mins she did take a good whiff so I released her to "go search". DH had walked about 100 ft out and hidden behind a slight drop off. Z headed straight for his spot, but overshot him a bit to the left. She got a negative about 8 feet in, turned and found him via sight. She did a decent refind, though I had to cue the jump alert this time.

Second search was L-shaped, about 100 ft in length. DH walked about 70-80 feet straight out and then turned right around the end of a hill. He remained standing about 30ft from the turn. I scented Z again for this rep, but it took much longer to get her to give a good sniff, probably about 5 minutes. As soon as I got the "check", I released her to "go search". She took off down the straight away, cast about at the turn, but picked the trail up and then saw DH. Her refind was a bit distracted by scent of some sort, but she did "leave it" and refind with a cue.

Our third search, DH decided he wanted to make his own course. He headed up the hill at an angle, looped back on the top and hid in the grass. Total track was probably about 200 feet. After scenting (where I finally gave up and just dropped a treat into the bag to get the sniff), Z hit the track going up the hill, but at the top she lost it, did a false refind alert, and got majorly distracted in a pile of rocks on the false refind, to the point she even ignored a recall. I had to go and get her, leash her and resend her on lead at that point. She appeared to pick up some scent again, hesitated, and then visually located DH. I had to cue the refind because I was only about 10 feet away from DH - we need to work on that some more.

Because the 3rd search didn't go so hot, I elected to set up a fourth one with more instruction to DH as the path he laid prior was too complicated for where she is right now. He walked down the hill at an angle, then doubled back at the base so his final hiding spot was almost directly below where Z and I stood on top of the hill. Upon release, Z picked the correct trail. She did appear a bit distracted by what I believe was DH's prior track, but reoriented and hit the base at the appropriate spot. At that point she started to sniff for his path but caught a glimpse of DH and found him visually. Her refind was better this time, but I still had to cue the jump alert.

Some frustration, but 3 out of 4 isn't too bad. :)

Work that nose!

2008-11-17T23:00:00.000-05:00

Today we worked on "elements" in training, which means we focused on parts of the big picture instead of full searches. Tonight focused on scent articles, both collection and use.

After about maybe 45 minutes of discussion about scent articles, teams were assigned to one of two groups to go work in various areas of the warehouse we held practice at. Z and I worked with our training director along with two other teams so that he could help us out with this new task. Ziva was the last to run in our group since D wanted to set a few things up for us a bit differently than the other two, more experienced, teams.

C was our victim, so I collected a scent article (leather wallet) before gearing Z up. When collecting a scent article you have to be aware of a ton of factors: who's used the item (ideal is just the person you're looking for), how can you collect it with the minimum transfer of your scent, and how do you preserve other potential items for future use by you or another K9 team to name just a few.

I gloved up, grabbed a ziplock bag and looked around C's car. We found the wallet in her purse and it's highly likely she's the only one who handles it so it was a good choice. Being leather was a bonus as leather apparently holds scent very well. I used the baggie to scoop up the wallet, carefully avoiding breathing on it or rubbing it against my clothes or other parts of the car, closed it with a bit of air inside, and voila!, ready to use.

Once Z was "dressed" (in her new Ruffwear Web Master harness even!), we proceeded to the starting point. C had already walked away w/o Z watching, starting at that point and touching each support post she passed (one every 20 feet or so), about nose height from the ground. C hid about 60 feet away on this first trial. I put Z in a sit (fun considering we hadn't practiced with the new harness yet. :P), and offered the baggie, opened, at her nose. I cued "check" and waited until she took a good wiff of the item inside before sending her to "go search".

We were instructed to mark any straying from the track with a "No!" and reward on target work with "Good Dog!". Z was very hesitant and confused, but she did do some sniffing near each pole. She was definitely using her nose - she walked right by C's hiding spot initially! When she did connect up with C, she got heavily rewarded and we didn't ask for a refind since she was on lead and I was 10 feet behind her.

Round 2 had us repeating the scenario from our first trial with C hiding about 4 posts, or 80 feet, away. Z did better - more animated and on target - and did not blow by C this time like she did before. I felt like I was getting the pattern a bit better as well.

Our third and final trial went very well. C repeated the steps from prior trials, hiding about 100 feet away, and I scented Z as before. This time however, we were working in an area with lots of items on one side of the track, allowing for more scent being trapped as C passed by according to D. Z was MUCH more focused, appeared very solid on the track, getting good negatives when off, and beelined to C at a good pace. It was a VERY different picture from our first two tries. A very nice note to end on for sure. :)

After our runs, I was the victim for another team (K and C) and got to learn even more seeing the process from another angle. Learning new things in SAR can be a bit overwhelming, but once you get the idea it seems to progress quickly to proficiency. Pretty nifty if a bit daunting at times.

On the brink

2008-11-11T00:30:00.000-05:00

We pushed the boundaries today and encountered some frustrations. All in a day's training, but a new experience for us really.

We trained in a new location for us - around a local pond in heavy woods - and all after nightfall now that DST is over. The idea was for each team to work multiple short searches around the pond and not necessarily in 3s like we generally do.

Z went first or second and did about 5 reps total - hindsight being what it is, I realized afterward that we should've probably stopped after 3 or 4 instead.

I had two flankers (C and R I think) and a victim (J). Before heading out, I instructed J on the reward pattern for Z and made sure the flankers were set. We were doing basic runaways, so the first one was to be the shortest and gradually adding distance as we progressed around the pond.

In the dark, distance is hard to gauge, but I would say the first run was about 150 feet, 2nd was about the same, 3rd was probably 300 ft, fourth was about 200ft, final was about 150ft.

First round went well - J ran of to hide with some excited talkign to z and Z was raring to go, complete with whining and everything. She found J pretty easily, came back for the refind, and then found her again for us. Nice rep.

Given the niceness of the first, on the second rep we kept it the same length but added a bit of a curve vs. a straight shot. Z was raring to go again and took off like a shot, but did overshoot J by a bit before getting a negative and finding her. refind was ok, but not real strong.

We increased on rep 3 and that caused some issues - Z got a bit confused and J wasn't giving her many hints when she probably should've given the increase in distance. Z did find her but we may have had a false refind.

At this point I felt rather discouraged and should've reinstructed J on what to do if Z doesn't locate her easily or appears to be struggling, but this was new to me as well so i didn't think of it. J added more distance and in the process took off on the wrong trail, confusing both Z and myself as well as the flankers. Z apparently passed by her but didn't pick up on her location. Disappointing.

The final rep was just as bad as the 4th - Z was utterly confused, I was frustrated, and we had no idea where J had hidden so all the humans were having issues as well. Sigh.

I came out feeling a bit defeated and such, but C did say that she thought Z performed as is to be expected with all the uncertainty and mixups and did pretty well for the increase in difficulty.

I talked to our training director to get some tips and he mentioned that I might've been well advised to switch victims after the first mixups (it's my duty to see how to help my dog in training) and sticking with fewer reps of that difficulty would also be a good idea in the future. All things are well filed in my brain now.

I flanked for a few teams after Z and I worked and got to see how other dog-handler teams work in the exact same setting which was incredibly helpful. I was feeling kind of icky (tummy upset), but as long as I kept working I was ok.

Before packing up for the night, D suggested I get Z out for some quick, easy reps to help him see where she was and leave her and I with a more pleasant memory of training that night. We had K hide for us while D flanked.

First rep was about 70 or 80 feet in deep shadow on the edge of the woods. K reved Z up and she was pretty happy to be given her "go search" cue. She beelined for him and did a beautiful refind (D was impressed!).

Second rep was about the same distance and about the same results even with K's decreased talking and animation. Another nice refind as well!

Final rep, K was silent but Z was still hyped. Distance increased to approximately 100 feet, but she still beelined for K and did a wonderful refind, including an uncued jump alert! :D

Certainly a nice note to end on and D says Z's doing very well. He's very happy with her progress and remarked on her focus and victim loyalty - all very good!

A great use for open lots...

2008-11-01T23:18:00.000-04:00

...includes SAR practice of course!! :)

DH and I took Z out to a cluster of empty lots in our subdivision this evening to do some short searches. We're very lucky that we live in a small subdivision with low traffic and about 6 empty lots in the middle, complete with rocks, ridges, tall grass, etc. that's perfect for short search patterns.

Tonight's details: about 18:00, temp around 55 degrees F, no breeze, sunny, rocky/sandy terrain with sections of tall grass (2' or more in height).

Search 1: Gave DH his instructions and dog treats and had him hide about 40 feet away behind a drop off. He walked out slowly with no sound or excitement at all. When released, Z bounded off after him, found him and did a perfect refind including her alert: bouncing off my thigh! DH fed her up for about 20 seconds, until he ran out of treats. He said she pretty much took a flying leap off the drop off, which is about a 3 foot drop - she really has no fear and loves the game, doesn't she? :)

Search 2: Started at DH's first hiding spot. DH climbed a rise and hid about 10 feet off the crest in tall grass. Total distance was about 50 or 60 feet. Again he had treats, but did not do anything special on his way away from us. Z bolted up the rise as soon as she was released, bouncing over the tall grass to see better. She again found DH easily and did an uncued refind with alert! :D On her way back to me on the refind, she again used hopping to locate me vs. trying to wade through the tall grass.

Search 3: Started at the top of the hill where DH hid. DH walked down the hill and turned right at the bottom, walked for about 20 feet and crouched down for a total distance of about 70-80 feet. You couldn't see him from the top of the hill, but he was visible once you hit the bottom. Z didn't see DH leave this time, but she took off in the correct direction when released, despite some neighbors making noise nearby. When she got to the bottom of the hill, Z used her eyes to find DH, raced to him, did her beautiful refind with alert (even with me standing on a steep incline) and went back to him, where I realized he had no food rewards! I had her do a second refind from just 5 feet away and handed him the food to reward with.

I was very pleased with Z's enthusiasm on these short search patterns and also thrilled to see the refinds gaining some reliability sans cues in various locations. I wish I had had my camera on the second search - she was just so cute bouncing through the grass and obviously loving the opportunity to work. :)

Back!

2008-10-27T23:27:00.000-04:00

I know, I know, it's been ages since I posted. At least you've only missed a few practices since I was out of town for two practices. I'll update with today's work and go back later this week to fill in our missing practice details.

With the days getting shorter, the vast majority of this week's practice was in the dark. Z ran her stuff first, but it was still pitch black by the time we got into the woods.

Details on the conditions: about 7 or 7:15pm, probably 40 degrees F, brisk wind, mix of cleared paths and woods ranging from thin to heavy undergrowth.

Search 1: C ran about 50ft away and hid just off the trail, light off. Z was released, found C, and DID A PERFECT REFIND!!!!!! No recall from me, just hit C, turned and came straight to me at a dead run, bounced off, and went straight back to C!!!!! Very cool! C mentioned that Z was awesome and did exactly what she needed to. :)

Search 2: C ran about 60ft away and hid off the trail again. Z was released, found C, paused a moment, but then came straight back AGAIN for a nice refind, returned to C and was obviously proud of herself - she got major praise from C since she was the victim and we're still working on victim loyalty (I stay quiet until C's done rewarding, then catch Z and give her a pat or two).

Search 3: Because Z was doing so well, C made this more difficult: she ran down the trail about 40ft, then cut into heavy brush and crouched down about 30 ft in. I released Z and she didn't think twice about navigating the brush and brambles. C said she did have some trouble with some animal scent, but refocused and found her before coming back to me for the refind. On the way back she got a bit distracted by the animal scent, but still did a refind with only a little redirection from C - usually she needs a leave it cue and a recall when distracted by animal scent, so that's improvement there as well.

C said Z was obviously improving nicely and that, depending on trainings in the near future, she likely will get to start working longer "searches" soon! We won't rush her if she needs more time, but so far so good. I think I practically glowed when C said that she was really proud of both Z and I! I was floating on air all the way back to base. :) C did seem to gush about Z's work when we got back to base (she was talking to our training director who had designed our search patterns tonight) as well. That made me feel even more wonderful!

This week also marked a milestone for me: I was given responsibility for being the "puppy person" for a new dog on the team! We did a shorter, easier version of what Z did with the new dog (I'll call D) and she did nicely for her first time out. I enjoyed being on the other side of things since I could see differences between Z and D more easily that watching from the sidelines, and it gave me new insight into both how my dog is doing comparatively and how other dogs perform in similar situations - pretty nifty stuff for the dog trainer side of me!

Overall a great practice, despite the brisk weather.

Using our nose

2008-10-21T02:00:00.000-04:00

I just got back from being out of town for a week last night, but both Z and I were raring to go to practice tonight, so that's what we did. Us? SAR addicts?! No! Never!

Our addiction was given a bit of a boost tonight in the form of a major milestone: Ziva was asked to find someone with senses *other* than sight and hearing! She also did her first work in pitch black as well, so it was a highly productive practice. :)

Round 1:
Big field with open and brushy portions, approximately 19:30, about 50 degrees F, clear, slight breeze. Had D serving as flanker and training advisor/observer, C as "victim".

Search 1: C hid about 70 feet away behind light cover. No sounds on the runaway or during hiding. I sent Z, she bolted to C, sniffed a bit, ran toward me but arced away to potty, then needed a recall to finish the refind. Ok performance given the distraction of needing to potty.

Search 2: Started at C's first hiding spot. C ran up and over a slight hill and hid in some tall brush and grass just off the trail about 100 ft away. Z headed straight for her, needed one recall to refocus on the refind. Good given the increased distance.

Search 3: Started at C's second hiding spot. C ran down a mowed row in the field about 150ft, then cut into the heavy brush at a 90 degree angle, headed in about 15 feet, and hunkered down.I sent Z and she headed straight for C's cut in location but overshot it, stopped about 15 feet past and spun around, started tracking, cut in *exactly* where C did, and found her!!!!! She took the shortest distance back to me for the refind, but then got distracted after the "Show Me" cue and I had to issue a strong "Leave It!" cue and recall her to reset her. She did find C again for her reward. This was the rep where she first used her nose vs. eyes and ears and both D and C were very proud of her performance.

Apparently Z does both air scent and trailing behaviors in our practice work, though we'll likely stick with air scent given the difficulty of the tests required for trailing dogs. We'll keep an eye on how her training develops both skills and go from there.

After putting Z up, I flanked for a couple of teams working on a new search problem: finding someone hidden and unreachable. Each dog had their own unique reaction to this problem and it was neat to see what worked, what didn't, and how each team worked together to solve it to the best of their abilities. That training was done in conjunction with a handler/trainer from a local K9 unit, so we got to see his dog work as well, which was pretty cool.

C and I discussed incorporating the "unreachable victim" idea into some of Z's foundation work and decided that it would be a good idea down the road so we can prevent her from developing any of the problems we saw at play tonight - they're all pretty easily solvable, but it'd be great to avoid them all together with work now instead of later.

In a rare twist, Z and I got another 3 search session in after official practice was over. C and I trekked into another field on the property, similar type to the first, and worked on nighttime skills. This was the first time I got to use Z's LED collar and bell and also meant that I had to learn how to use my own LED headlamp while working a dog - you don't want to ruin their nightvision by shining your light into their eyes but you also need to see where you're going, too. :) I'm getting better I think, only shone it directly at Z once and she didn't seem too phased.

Round 2:
Similar field to the first, about 21:00, about 40 decrees F, dark, clear night, with little light from stars or moon. Little to no wind.

Search 1: C ran about 40 feet ahead and ducked into grass off the path. Her runaway was animated, but she hid quietly. Z found her readily, needed one recall cue, completed her refind aok.

Search 2: Started at C's first hiding spot. C ran about 70 feet away and again hid just off the path. Z again found her readily and needed the recall cue to direct her refind.

Search 3: Started at C's second hiding spot. C ran about 70 feet away, cut into the heavy brush at a 90 degree angle and hid about 10 feet in. Z again ran past the cut in when released, but self corrected after a shorter distance (about 5 feet I think). Z then forced her way through the heavy brush to C, bounced back to me (can't remember if I had to recall her or not), and did a nice "Show Me"/refind.

C said Z was doing well for only her second "using her nose" experience and working in the dark for the first time. We had thought Z had trouble with heavy brush on the first round of searches because she really picked her way around it, but this go 'round she obviously had no issue despite very heavy cover, so that's very good to know, and she definitely followed her nose on the last "search" of the night. Yay Z!

Vocab word of the day: the run past with self correction I mentioned above is referred to as the dog "getting a negative" - i.e. they realized there was no scent in that area and backtracked to find it again - as I learned tonight. :)

Distraction - aka "mmmm animal pee"

2008-09-16T02:34:00.000-04:00

Yea weird title I know, but hey I have to keep things interesting somehow. ;)

Tonight was our second practice with the team and as usual, the "puppies" go first. Zive was the only puppy at this practice, so we headed off into the woods with C our friend from last week (puppy person) and S (another active K9 handler). C was the victim again and S flanked us.

Our practice area was in brushy woods, about 7pm, 90ish degrees, light breeze.

Search 1: C ran off with a fair amount of cheerleading and hid about 60 feet away behind a tree. I released Z with her "Ready? Search!" cue and she took off. Halfway to C's hiding spot, Z got mucho distracted by some leaves - S had me give Z a "leave it" cue and Z started looping about trying to find C. i gave a lot of encouragement and she did find her after a few minutes. This go 'round Z didn't do a refind at all, just hung around C, so S had me recall her to me. We're starting on the actual alert behavior - jumping up on me in this case - so I cued her to "paws up" and then sent her back to C to complete the refind. Z didn't need any sound cues from C during this search.

C and S gave me some pointers:

- The distraction was likely animal urine and thus a leave it cue is necessary at this stage; if she starts sniffing again like that I'm to cue "leave it" and then shut up.
- I, just as in agility, have the tendency to talk too much to my dog, which doesn't help anything at all and can hinder Z's focus.
- S said she liked how focused Z was while watching C disappear and said "she obviously knows what she's supposed to do" already, which is great. :)

Search 2: C again ran away about 65 feet, but with less noise, this time. Z focused as before and found C much more quickly, though she still did a bit of casting about looking for her at first. The refind was about 50% - Z came back about 10 feet and then returned to C, so I recalled her, cued "paws up" and sent her back with the refind cue "Show Me!".

Search 3: C ran off about 70 feet with little noise and hid behind some trees. A pile of brush stood in the middle of the area we were working, so Z had to navigate that first, then looked for C - again some searching before finding her, but she did find her person. Again no refind, but a fast recall to me, good paws up, and a nice return to C when told "Show Me!"

C and S talked with me after the 3rd search and gave even more pointers and insight:

- Z is showing some leanings toward air scenting vs. trailing. S thinks if she keeps up with what she's been doing she could be a "kick ass air scenting dog" in the long run.
- Z is still progressing incredibly well given her inexperience w/ SAR work until recently. Even her bobbles are fine; they're very normal at this stage.
- We need to work on distractions - C and S both think that Z's distracted because the woods is just so cool to her. To address this, we're supposed to go hiking more, especially off lead, to desensitize Z to the woods as a unique, "cool" place. It needs to be commonplace and no big deal for her to focus more easily and just going out once or twice a week actually lends more excitement to the outing vs. lowering its value.
- It's ok for Z to roam about after she finds her person - the idea of the game is that finding people allows the dog access to whatever they find rewarding and for Z that is food and sniffing around at this point.

The rest of practice I flanked for two dog teams and talked with other team members. I got my official membership packet and more info on certs as well.

I threw in a few tug toy sessions and some heeling practice for Z in between flanking missions since I would like to build her tug drive in this environment (it's very high in agility, very low at SAR practice) and work more on obedience with distractions. She performed well in each respective session and by the end of the night was showing much more of her normal tug obsession and some very nice heeling and eye contact behaviors.

In other news, I successfully passed my first FEMA IS class earlier today and am well on my way to the second. :)

Homework

2008-09-09T09:46:00.000-04:00

I was pretty tired last night so I didn't mention one other key events from our first practice as members of the team: I now I have *homework*! Who would of thought that I'd be happy to have homework again after getting out of college?!

Over the next few weeks I have to take 4 homestudy exams through FEMA (yes that FEMA - the Federal Emergency Management Agency) and complete a home study course and exam to earn SarTech III certification.

SarTech III certification is very important as it's a well respected certification and can thus often provide easier access in search situations by lending more credibility to the dog handler. It's also key to have other outside certifications and keep good training records so that in the future, once the team becomes deployable, there's no question that they know what they're doing and have been appropriately trained and tested.

Guess I'm going to be getting my own titles instead of just putting them on my dogs. ;)

My Dog ROCKS!!!

2008-09-09T02:02:00.001-04:00

Z had her first real SAR practice today after I cleared the final interview and entrance evaluation and she was AWESOME!!!!!!! :D Our "victim" was the team's "puppy person", so she really knows how to do runaways and rewards and all that good stuff. She was impressed with Z's performance her first time out, especially the quality of her refinds - apparently she is *very* advanced for this stage of the game.

Practice was held at a big warehouse - very dim/dark inside, no air circulation, concrete floor, HOT - so it was a totally new situation for the Z. She hesitated briefly at some open metal stairs leading into the building, but had no issues working in the dark or on the slick floor.

I watched one puppy go before us so i knew what to expect and then it was our turn.

Search 1: Our victim did a very active, excited runaway to a spot about 70-80 feet away and hid behind an RV. Z was super amped - making funny noises and straining at her collar before I released her with our "Search" cue. She scrabbled on the concrete and tore off after our person - running past and then doubling back, finally finding her after a few sound "hints", getting a reward, sprinting back to me on the refind (VERY GOOD), and then returning to our person after a bit of initial confusion about how to get back to her. She got a great reward (45 seconds of verbal praise and cookies) and it was time for the next rep.

Search 2: Our victim crossed the warehouse floor to hide in some palletized wood about 60 feet away. The runaway was slightly less energetic, but Z's anticipation and release mirrored the first go 'round. Z only needed one sound from our person to orient her this time, despite the strong smelling wood and much darker surroundings. The refind on this was a bit harder for Z and she ended up going down the wrong aisle - we did wonder if she was trying to find a shortcut back to the victim and/or doing some air scenting since she perfectly paralleled the victim's position. A few "Show Me"s later and Z found her woman and got another good, long reward.

Search 3: Victim did another, even quieter runaway to hide behind a bus about 60-65 feet away. Z again was very interested in finding her person and didn't need a single sound "hint" to find her. Her refind was a bit odd as I was already fairly close to our person, but it worked for our first official time out.

Z performed well in a very different environment, with all sorts of new people and scents. Each search was progressively harder, but she continued forward progress and showed a lot of good traits and skills already. Getting kudos from the team's puppy person who has seen each team start for the most part is very affirming and a bit of an ego boost for sure. :)

We've been instructed that she can do several refinds in the same search rep if needed, so we'll work on that in similar situations in the future.

Z was also introduced to cadaver materials today and performed admirably. Some dogs react quite negatively to the "smell of death" that body parts carry, but Z was pretty interested in checking the stuff out - some initial "boogeyman" fears, but she maintained interest each time I led her into the area of the jar containing the cadaver item. Our team training leader has said he'd really like to see her trained up as a cadaver dog given her small size - she's the smallest dog on the team thus far and her petite build would allow her to get into tight spaces *much* more easily than the larger dogs can.

Sounds like we'll prob start working cadaver stuff soon as well as regular tracking work. I personally hope we can cross train and certify in both live search and cadaver work, but we'll see where her skills and aptitude lead us.

What a rush!!

In the Woods

2008-09-08T00:40:00.000-04:00

Went on a hike in the woods with the girls this evening and got DH to tag along. Happily, he also agreed to play "victim" at the beginning of the hike so we got 3 reps in tonight. We saw better results than our earlier object searches thankfully!

Search 1: DH walked down the road to the trail and hid behind some brush about 40 feet away. He doesn't understand how to rev up a dog, so I encouraged Z myself; she was very interested in following him. :) I let her go on the cue, "Ok, Go Search!" and she ran full speed ahead, over ran his spot by about 8 feet, then turned quickly and located him. He gave her a treat, she did a nice little refind, bobbled a bit on the "Show Me" cue, but eventually ran back to him for the rest of her reward. (he was pretty boring and missed giving her some of the treats - def not an ideal victim unfortunately)

Search 2: After some coaching we ran a second rep after getting on the trail. I had DH go around a bend in the trail about 70 feet away and repeated the reving and cue from the first search. Z once again bolted after him, got her cookie, did her refind, and got her "Show Me" cue a bit better. Her reward was better, but still not perfect.

Search 3: This search was a short one - just about 30 feet with DH around a bend in the trail again. Z did well on the release with cue as usual, found DH, and then completed half the refind before being distracted by some horse apples on the return trail. I gave her a "leave it" and she came back to me and did a decent "Show Me" given the distraction an short distance. Her reward was more animated thankfully.

Overall a decent round of searching, with a few bobbles to work on. As usual, distractions are not our friend, but she did well in the woods off leash in a location where she's not used to many rules (it's our usual off leash hiking trail). Hopefully with a more animated and experienced victim we'll see a strong refind and less susceptibility to distractions. :)

Playing Catch Up

2008-09-07T12:51:00.000-04:00

I'm about 2 weeks behind when it comes to updating my poor blog - I swear I'll do better in the future!

We've not been doing much unfortunately - practice 2 weeks ago was cancelled (very rare!) due to flash flood warnings in the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav. We got about 5 inches of rain in a day and a half and they were predicting storms. The next week we didn't have practice because of Labor Day. Poor Z was absolutely bouncing off the walls after a week without agility as well.

Since the last update, we've done two short object search sessions, both at the agility training field. I was rather disappointed in the results of both.

The first round was last Monday and involved searching for her toy among the stored obstacles. The first "search" was good - fast, accurate - but the next two were much more lackadaisical. The day was hot and we were at the agility field after practicing that for a while, so I'm guessing those two factors combined badly, but Z will need to get over that if she's going to make it as a SAR dog - being hot and tired is not an excuse in the real thing. :\

The second round was last Wednesday and the set up was similar thoguh we used a different toy. All three reps were slow and took a while for her to focus on finding the toy. This round was not during the heat of the day, but it was after a full hour of agility class.

**bad trainer, bad trainer** Isn't the definition of insanity trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?!

Ah well, we have practice with the group tomorrow finally if the weather gods cooperate, so I'm hoping we can get some good victim reps in and some pointers on improving things outside of practice. I have a feeling this means I'm really going to have to buckle down and work a LOT more with her in a more methodical fashion - imagine that!

Good thing I'm an addict...

happy dance

2008-08-18T14:25:00.001-04:00

(BIG HAPPY FACE HERE)

Z got the go ahead to start coming to practice after I updated the powers that be on her last search with a victim! Apparently she's farther ahead than they expected her to be at this stage in the game (the returning to me was indeed the start of an indication/refind!) and thus she needs to start working with the team to maintain her progress. Rockin'!

In other news, she got a clean bill of health from the vet today so we're good to go on that front. The only blip in the exam was that she has a slight heart murmur, likely genetic, but it won't affect her performance in SAR or in daily life. Yay!

Wooo HOOOO

2008-08-17T21:00:00.001-04:00

I FOUND A GOOD VICTIM!!! A friend of mine and I went hiking with the dogs today and when we got back to the cars I asked if she'd mind being a victim for Z; she said "sure". :) We got three good reps in on runaways!

Rep 1: My friend ran away from Z after showing her that she had cookies. She made lots of noise as she ran, then hid about 60 feet away behind some brush. Z was raring to go at that point, so I released her with her cue "Go Search!". She bolted after my friend at top speed and ran right to her hiding spot, where Z promptly got her cookies and a verbal praise party. When the cookies were gone, Z ran to me (beginnings of an indication?!?!) and then returned to the victim when I asked her to "Show Me". :D Awesome.

Rep 2: I held Z while my friend ran a similar distance away and hid behind one of our cars. Rinse, repeat of the first rep: high speed, accurate find, return to me and then back to the victim. Yay!

Rep 3: My friend ran behind a rock pile about 20 feet away from Z and I. She wasn't able to hide completely this time, but was about 1/2 behind the pile. Z was just as enthusiastic when released and just as quick "finding" her victim, but we didn't have a return to me because we were already so close.

Great reps in all - a very nice start imo. Of course I may be creating a monster - Z kept circling my friend and I in anticipation of another rep and then refused to get in the car when asked the first time (did on the second cue lol) - that never happens after just a regular hike or practice in agility. Seems like she's taking to this well!

First Saturday practice

2008-08-17T03:00:00.000-04:00

Every week we have a practice on Monday evenings for about 2 hours, but two weekends a month there's a long practice (about 6 hours generally). Usually I can't make Saturday practices because they are held while I'm teaching classes at work, but this week practice was in the evening, so I could make most of it. :) I got there at 7:30pm (it started at 6) and didn't get home until just now (midnight)!

Tonight I was on two searches: one longer one (about 45 mins) and one shorter one (about 9 mins and 1/2 mile). I "flanked" for both, which means I walked to the side of the dog team so we could cover more land and help each other out as needed. On the longer search the team had the dog handler and two flankers, the shorter one only had me flanking.

The first search in one direction was through a pretty brushy woods and I spent most of the time walking perpendicular to the slope of a hill, running into cobwebs every few feet, and ducking through overhanging limbs. Going back was through a field of grass, but we got tangled up in brambles several times - yuck! The dog found the victim on the double back and we headed back to base.

The second search was a fast one through grass and after dark vs. sunset. The dog stayed on track nicely for the most part and the search was over super fast. It's much easier to run through grass than woods. ;)

It was fun to see the teams in action, but I also enjoyed hanging out at base while the trails were laid as it gave me a glimpse of all sorts of things that go on to support the teams both in training and in a real search.

I think the most interesting thing was seeing how they use GPS to "see" victims (and thus the track) and the teams following behind (and thus their accuracy on a track). Lots of info is gained with this technology and it ensures that no one gets truly "lost" during practice as you can "see" where everyone is. :)

I'm looking forward to Monday's practice!

Challenges!

2008-08-14T10:20:00.000-04:00

Last night was agility practice and I decided to do some SAR exercises before and after class. Despite having tons of dog people around, we really didn't have much opportunity to recruit victims, yet again, so we did a combo of things.

Before Class:

Search 1 - 3: Put Z in a sit stay and hid her tuggy among some miscellaneous agility stuff. I immediately saw the challenge presented by doing this on the agility field when I released her - her focus was on the obstacles, not finding the toy. :\ I redirected her once or twice each time and she was successful in finding the toy, but I think that was mostly sheer luck as it was obviously not her primary focus. (Note to self - stop making huge leaps that leave the dog in the dust!)

One small benefit to this round was an increase in drive with her tuggy. Since we're no longer using the rabbit fur tug (it would work at cross purposes in SAR), I've gone back to a plain fleece tug which is not nearly as interesting. After the first "find" the drive for the tug leaped a lot, and continued to do so after each subsequent "find". :)

After Class:

Search 4 - 6: Put Z in a sit stay and hid myself (no victims, plus I wanted to see what she'd do). I did this in various locations on the field but made it easy. I released her with a "OK! Go Search" cue and then stayed quiet. The first two rounds went very smoothly and she easily found me, on the third I hid under the A-frame and that threw her for a loop - she ran back and forth over the obstacle and I did have to repeat the search cue to help her out in locating me. She had good, sustained interest throughout and we got to reward with both a tug as well as her hedgehog squeaky toy.

I did get one victim to help me for one rep at the end of things. She did better than my other recruits (made a great big deal while running away, hid well, etc.) but her rewarding left a fair amount to be desired (make squealing noises, but forgot to reward with food or the tug I gave her), so I ended up doing the rewarding myself. :\ Less than ideal in that realm, but Z was very speedy at running to the spot where she last saw the victim and then methodically covering the area until she found her. :)

We ended after the victim rep because Z had been working for a good hour and was getting a little bit frustrated/tired. Didn't want to push too hard at this stage, especially given the challenge inherent in working on the agility field.

Where are the good victims?!

2008-08-10T11:36:00.000-04:00

So today we were shooting for doing some good runaways while on a hike with a friend and my family - yea they weren't very good victims and thus I don't know how much help the reps we did were. :P I need to find people who understand the whole "stop and get super happy when the dog finds you" bit and I need to be more explicit in what they need to do. *sigh* From now on I'll also be setting "searches" up on their own, not during another activity with extra people and other canines in close proximity. Live and learn.

Search 1: I held Z while the group of people walked away down the trail. Reved her up myself since they didn't. Released when they were behind some brush about 60 feet away and she was intently watching. She sprinted after them, but turned back when she saw me running behind her. She did return to the people with another "Search" cue.

Search 2: Same pattern as the first but the people were about 50 feet away when she was released and I didn't run behind her. She didn't turn back, but kind of "bounced" off them and returned to me once she had located them.

Search 3: Same pattern as the first 2, but people were about 150 feet away (no good brush until that distance). She started off rocketting away, ran to one of the people in the group, bounced off, returned to me, and then refused to refind them. I used multiple "search" cues. Overall this was obviously too great a jump in criteria for her.

Search 4: I did one more search about 20 mins after the first 3 to make up for the last one that frustrated both of us. This i set up methodically: one person (my DH) walked about 60 feet away and hid behind a bush. When Z was raring to go, I released her and she shot after him. She almost overshot his spot behind the bush, but skidded to a stop and ran up to him. She got a food reward but not a ton of praise (he's not the most enthusiastic victim) before a jogger with a small dog suddenly appeared and I had to recall her to me.

Mixed reviews on this practice, but we have to learn somehow. Lots of things to keep in mind when setting up training reps, that's for sure!

Day two, Round two

2008-08-07T20:55:00.001-04:00

We did another set of 3 object searches after work this evening, this time indoors in the training building where I teach classes. I tried to make these searches harder and she still seems to be doing well to my novice eye. I hope I'm not accidentally doing something to mess her up...

Search 1: Z left behind 1/2 wall, hid wubba toy behind trash can after moving and faking a placement in other places. She was more methodical about searching for the toy this time instead of beelining for it. She scanned the open area then moved from left to right across the area investigating hidey spots until she found it. Played a game of fetch as a reward.

Search 2: Z left in a corner behind the half wall again, similar placement strategy. Hid the wubba toy in some miscellaneous toys and training equipment on the other side of the room from the trashcan. Z went to the right side of the room this time and worked over to the left side in a similar fashion to Search 1. She spotted the wubba and maneuvered to pull it out from its spot behind a bike and other obstacles easily. Rewarded with wubba tug game.

Search 3: Crated Z and hid wubba on training floor instead of entry area. Released Z to "go find it" and she worked the floor from left to right quickly (there are fewer hiding spots on the floor vs. the entry area). Rewarded her find with another game of fetch before heading home.

Down the Rabbit Hole!

2008-08-07T17:06:00.000-04:00

Yesterday marked the beginning of a crazy adventure for my young dog, Ziva, and myself. Ziva passed the basic evaluation required by Foothills Search and Rescue to be accepted into training as a wilderness search and rescue dog! Here's a copy of a post I made to one of the dog forums I frequent:

Yup, Z passed her eval today, despite the 101 degree temps (we were outside for about 45 mins).

She's not stellar in terms of toy drive with other people yet, but she works nicely for food and they think she should do well with some work with others using her tuggy and/or a ball. On the "search" test she did nicely, especially given the heat - she looked for her ball for a good 10 mins before she wandered over to get water and flop on the grass, which apparently is a good start.

Our homework is to build drive to the victim using "runaways" and "pop ups"; runaways are just that: the dog is restrained while the victim hides and then is released when they are raring to go, pop ups are similar except the person goes out of sight to hide and then "pops up" every so often so the dog gets glimpses of them.

Z's not to come to the next few practices until we get some more of the above training under our belt at home, but then she'll start training for real with the club.

I'm soooooooo proud of my little girl, especially because she'll be the smallest dog and the only mixed breed on the team!

It was certainly a great day and as soon as I was on my way home, I made calls to all my friends who know Z to give them the great news. Everyone is psyched for us - which is good since we'll need various practice "victims" to do our homework over the next few weeks!

****

Today is one of my long days at work so we aren't doing much in the way of training, but on my lunch break Z and I went out in the light rain with her ball and did some baby object searches. As instructed, I'm adding the cue for searching already ("Find it" in our case) and only doing 3 reps of any one exercise to keep her in the game.

1st search: Z sat behind a tree while I hid ball in bushes about 15 feet away. Released to "find it", she sprinted toward the bushes and spotted and retrieved the ball immediately. Playtime and lots of "good girl"s, tugged with the ball.

2nd search: Z sat behind a tree while I hid the ball in brush about 35 feet away. Exact repeat of 1st search but she overshot the ball initially.

3rd search: Z laid down behind some low bushes while I tossed the ball about 10 feet away. Once released she zeroed in on it's location and retrieved the ball quickly. Praise and tug as a reward and back in the house to chill.

I'm happy with her performance so far: lots of drive to "find it", accurately locating the object even w/o seeing it hidden, and happy and upbeat throughout. She looks like a coiled spring when I leave her on the stay to hide the ball - she seems to really be enjoying this "game"!