Change

I am still alive!  There have been some very big changes in my life over the past month and it is about time I did a post.  I am now living by myself and am down to *just* two dogs.  Marley and Rafferty.  Dante has decided to live in luxury with my parents and keep my mom company.  Hugo left with his dad for a different life path and Becky has headed to her very awesome high school raiser.  It feels so weird to only have two dogs after always having 3-4 for the last 3.5 years.   

What does this mean?  Well for starters I am no longer involved in training Hugo for Search and Rescue.   He has started down a great path and I wish him well!  I still plan to stay involved with SAR work, though I may take the winter off.   Marley and I are hoping to start tracking training this month.  Marley may not be the ideal tracking dog, but we will have fun and see where it goes.  Rafferty has 2 months left with me and then he heads off to college for his formal training.  I know he will have fun and be amazing at whatever career he chooses!  I do plan on getting another puppy when Rafferty leaves.

As for me I am taking this time to find myself and delight in the simple joys of life.  Work continues to be challenging and fulfilling, my place out in the country is perfect for me right now, and I have re-discovered and made some amazing new friendships.   I traveled to the GDB homecoming event last weekend and was once again reminded just how amazing these partnerships are...at every step of the way.  I will have a bigger post (with pictures) for the Homecoming event and Becky's new raiser.  

Always remember

Don't wait for the storm to pass....learn  to dance in the rain.

Rafferty with his shiny black coat and golden eyes pants after a hike.

Dog Days of Summer

Here are some thoughts on summer as told by my dogs...

1. Relax and just enjoy the sun on your face.

2. Make time to hang out with old and new friends.

3. Turn bath time into fun time.

4. Be enthusiastic

5. Share your stuff.

6. Go for a swim.

7. Take a nap in the shade.

8. Try your hardest to get dirty!

9. Take a walk and enjoy the great outdoors.

10. Do something you enjoy with a friend.

Update #1

Well my goal of posting everyday in March has kinda gone out the window.  We have had some busy and fun weekends the last three weeks.  Here is the first of many updates!

 [Hugo pulls up on the rope on his orange toy as it floats in the water]

Two weekends ago we headed out to Colorado to spend the weekend at a friend's Ranch.  Marley and Hugo were the lucky pair who got to come along.  A couple of days spent romping in the pond, running with all the other dogs, and watching all the horses, donkeys, and assorted other farm animals left them nice and tired.  Here are some of the pictures from the trip!

[Marley doing his best stare down as he waits for Hugo to come close enough to pounce on]

[Hugo swims through the water with his eyes bright and full of excitement as he carries his orange Ruff Wear toy]

[Marley stands in the water while looking into the distance.  Water streams off his coat]

[A close up shot of Hugo swimming back after retrieving his orange toy.  His eyes are partway shut and there is water on his face]

[A close up shot of Marley looking pensively off into the distance.  The wind ruffles the hair on his ears]

[Howdy, a black and white Border Collie, lays down in the grass staring at what he is getting ready to herd next.  In the case it was the group of running children.  His ears are perked and he is practicing the 'border collie' eye]

Wilderness Rescue Training

Today I headed down and met up with Megan and Gabby for some practice in wilderness searches.  When first training a 'air scent' dog we do something called 'runaways'.  These are short, easy sessions in which a victim runs away with the dog's toy.  This is all done in sight of the dog, and at first is very simple.  The idea is to get the dog to want to find their toy, and in doing so also find the person.  As they progress they start to associate the toy with the scent of a person.

Gradually runaways get harder and harder, forcing the dog to rely more on scent than sight.  Today we did a couple simple runaways and then progressed to more difficult searches.  Hugo is being trained to do a 're-find'.  This means that when he locates a person he will come back to his handler and give an alert.  In his case this is a bark alert.  When he barks at me I then give him the "show me" command and he will lead me back to the victim.  This is very important when searching large areas where the dog may range far ahead or be out of sight due to thick vegetation.

Hugo was doing very nicely with his re-finds with only a little prompting from myself.  We also did a blind search where he did not watch the person run away: but he still found them!  While we are working in very small areas right now, Hugo is learning important skills that will later be put to the test when searching large areas.  What a fun activity that will hopefully lead to a very important job!

At the end of the training session I got to do lunch with Gabby, Megan and Paris!  Such a treat especially when Paris heads off for formal training in less than a week.  All in all it was a great day!

Cadaver Scent Imprinting

About 6 weeks ago I started training Hugo in search and rescue.  Tom and I are both partnering on this training adventure, and both of us will hopefully be certified to work Hugo in different capacities.  Right now I am doing the bulk of the cadaver work while Tom is focusing more on wilderness, with a plan to shift to avalanche once the season starts.  However we both attend training sessions and are learning to work with Hugo in every capacity.

Today we went and worked on a pigeon hole board.  This is a long sheet of plywood with evenly spaced round holes cut into it. There is a top row, middle row, and bottom row.  Behind the holes are short plastic tubes that are open both in the front and the back. The idea here is to bring a dog who has been exposed to cadaver scent and start teaching him that the reward comes from the source.  This is to create both a reliable alert and a loyalty to their find.  In wilderness training the same principle is applied, but with a live victim it is easier to have their reward waiting for them.

Once the dog understands the principle behind looking for the scent, a helper will move the source and place it in a different hole each round.  The handler will stand back and give the dog their search command.  Once the dog starts searching it is the helpers job to keep the dog focused on the search and to reward the dog from inside the hole once they alert on the scent.  Hugo's alert is a down at the source. Today was only his second time working the pigeon hole board and he was already figuring out his alert!

After a couple successful rounds on the board we took him out into a more natural setting where a source had been placed in a tree low to the ground.  It was a very easy set-up, but a very big step for Hugo.  This was the moment where we would see if he had truly learned the unique scent and would seek it out.  After giving him the search command we waited anxiously as he started to sniff the area.  He was working pretty fast when he caught the scent as he went past the tree.  His head snapped around and he went right to the source!!!  We were very excited and praised Hugo.  He did not give an automatic down, but for the first search in a new area he was awesome!  We will continue to work on his alerts and search.  One of the evaluators said we could possibly test Hugo in his Cadaver 1 certification this fall as well as in Wilderness, with an avalanche certification following early winter.

Can't wait to continue working with Hugo and watching his quick progress!

Daily Blogging, Round 2

Well, May looks to be an eventful month.  One I am going to attempt to cover with daily blog posts.  Highlights to include: a recap of tonight's bowling send-off party for Paris and Jackson, coverage of two new puppies to Summit Guide Dogs, Marley's prep for Splash! Dogs, and Hugo's trip to Yellowstone for Search and rescue training.  Today's will be short but oh so sweet.

Some Sunday Stills

Birthday Outing

Sunday was Hugo's 3rd birthday. In light of his special day we took all the dogs on a hike. Fun was had by all: Hugo played with his frisbee, Rafferty played in the snow, and Marley found a deer pelvis. Yup, that's right, not just a leg or a joint, but the whole pelvis, with vertebrae still attached. Rafferty turned 6 months on Monday and continues to be a great pup, even if he does like to wake me up at the same time on weekends. Here are some pictures from our fun day!

Thank you Mimi for the help on getting the "Big Pictures". I love it!

Bad Blogger...updates!

So I have been a bad blogger lately. No updates, no pictures...I really hadn't even logged in in the last two weeks. There even have been things to blog about! I will have to keep this a shorter post, but here are some of the happenings in the land of the PC dog pack.

I attended a pre-interview with Marley and Hugo for Intermountain Therapy Animals. This was to make sure they would be suitable candidates for undergoing temperament testing to become certified therapy dogs. I went to a workshop talking all about therapy dogs, animal-assisted therapy, and how everything works. The following day, Marley and I went down to one of the rehab centers in the valley to do our test.

Now I had felt for a long time that Marley was ready in almost every category...except meeting another dog. Now don't get me wrong, Marley loves other dogs. But his first reaction is to bark and make alot of noise when he sees another dog while he is on-lead. So the test starts out easy. Loose leash walking, sit, down, stay, come...walk through a crowd, let a stranger pet him: he passed all these with flying colors. And then it came time for the "meeting of the dogs". The other dog was a very nice standard poodle...but when facing the dog across the room, with all of my stress traveling down the leash, Marley decided this was something Not Good. And so he barked. I redirected, taking him out of sight, and doing some quick obedience. And we faced off again. While better, I knew he was still not ready for the walk by. Finally, after about 3 min...I had calmed down, and so had Marley (hmmm...relationship?) We squared off and walked the dogs past each other without further incident.

At this point I was not sure what would happen. I had maintained complete control over Marley, but his loud vocalizations may make him not be able to pass his test. My evaluator told me that as long as we worked alone on visits, or only with dogs Marley is already familiar with, we would be fine. I was relived, as Marley tested SO well on every other aspect of the test. I can't wait to start doing visits with my fun-loving boy! I actually had him at a school presentation on Monday, with a crowd of 10 1st graders sitting around him, and he could not have loved it more!

Hugo tests the first weekend in March, and then I will have my therapy dogs ready for work!

Millie is still in phase 8. Lots of Stuff to Learn at doggie college. I can't wait to see what career she chooses.

Rafferty has not gotten very much mention here, because, well, there is just not much to say without sounding like an overly bragging mom. He has just been a near-perfect puppy so far...almost making me feel guilty for having such an easy boy as my fourth pup. He has been house trained for months, is a joy to take into public, a wonderful pup to have around the house, and just continues to remind me how lucky I am to be a puppy raiser.

Phase 8

Well Millie is still cruising along in phase 8. She skipped phase 7 three weeks ago. Here is what she has been working on. I will do a nice big update this weekend. Rafferty continues to grow and be an amazing puppy, Marley and Hugo are going in for their Therapy Dog testing next month, and Dante is wishing the snow would just go away. I am loving it, and trying to ski as much as possible. Maybe one of the days I will actually be able to keep up with Tom. Watching him ski telemark is almost like watching art.

Phase #7

• Guidework in extremely challenging downtown urban areas (San Francisco and Portland)
• Training on buses, light rail/subway systems and platform edges
• Introduction to low overhead clearances
• Advanced off-leash obedience
• Formal traffic training

Phase #8

• Advanced guidework and obedience training continues
• Intensive indoor mall training with crowds and slick floors
• Advanced sidewalkless training with obstacles.

Fun in the Snow

A morning pack walk with some of the Innsbruck dogs. We are having a pretty good storm move through the area, so some of the pictures are a little fuzzy due to all the snow!

A House Full...

So I am house sitting for my parents this week while they enjoy lovely warm weather and I am stuck here enjoying super cold temps with no snow. This also puts me in the chief role of dog wrangler and cat tamer at the house. With my dogs it makes for 6 dogs and 3 cats enjoying the high life this week. We have everything ranging from Missy and Sparky, (a pair of 14.5 year old Dachshunds) to Gizmo the half Persian cat (his mom looked normal, have to say dad was a Persian) to Rafferty the rambunctious lab puppy. Milo the exploring cat (who still wants to go outside even though it is approaching zero, and Elise the recluse make up the rest of the feline pard.

Marley and Hugo are the resident 'big-dog' contingent. And Dante brings up the rear in size, but not in fight (he steals the big dogs toys).

And while some would love to party when mom and dad are away it just doesn't happen when 9 wonderful animals are looking to you for their every single need. Here is to playing dog (and cat) mom for the next week!

Keep on Rolling

I have decided to try for a post everyday until the end of the year. I have loved blogging everyday, and it is such a fun way to look back on the past month! With that in mind, here are some pictures from a recent outing with ALL the dogs. Enjoy!