Hello from Colorado,
Last Thursday Kim and I plus Ruffian and Tucker drove up to
Wellington Lake in the Rocky Mountains for
water training. We arrive early to take advantage of
the lake but from 11:00 am through 9:00 pm it rained. So the
dogs spent most of the time in the car while we set up camp.
That night we had a lecture about searching for bodies in lakes and
streams. The next day the dogs got to go to work.
I’ve attached three pictures of Tucker working from the boat.
Task 1. The diver was
positioned in the water about 40 feet from shore holding the dogs
reward toy. Tucker’s reward toy is a squeaky ball.
When the dog reached the diver he would tease the dog and finally
give the reward to the dog.
Task 2. The same as task one
except that when the dog reached the diver, the diver would disappear
under the water. Hopefully the dog would circle and search for
the diver. The diver would surface and play with the dog.
The dog would take the ball and return to shore. The first two
tasks got the dogs use to the divers.
Task 3. The dog was asked to
ride the pontoon boat and search for the diver with the bobber.
The diver or the handler would reward the dog when the dog reached
the diver and took the bobber. Just as on land, we wanted the
dogs to use their nose on the water to find the diver. The
handler knew the location of the diver and the handler had to read
their dogs and direct the boat to the diver. For the beginners,
the diver might stay on top of the water and for the more advanced
dogs, the diver might go under water and surface when the dog got close.
Task 4. The dog was positioned
on the shore and asked to get the bobber which was positioned 40 feet
from shore. The bobber was tethered to a rope and the bobber
could be pulled under the water. The bobber also was attached
to plastic tubing. The generator from shore sent air which was
passed through cadaver scent and sent to the bobber through the
plastic tubing. When the dog got close to the bobber, the
bobber was pulled under water and the dog would search for the
bobber. If the dogs were successful, the would swim circles
over the bobber trying to locate the bobber by the cadaver
scent. The bobber would pop to the surface and the dog would
return to shore with the bobber. Not all of the dogs would swim
so we put a non swimmer between the swimmers. The swimmer would
bring the bobber in for the non swimmers. Then the bobber was
used to coax the dogs into the water.
Task 5. This time the dog was
put in the boat. The handler knew the location of the bobber
but the dog did not. The handler was suppose to watch his dog
for alerts. Alerts are signal from the dog telling the handler
whether he has scent or not. The dogs usually stand up and
search the surface of the water. As they get closer, the dogs
usually lower their heads and body toward the water. When the
boats passes the scent the dog may follow the scent by walking the
side of the boat. If the hander and boat driver are well
practiced, the boat will follow the dogs nose to the scent pool.
When the dogs indicates a scent pool, the bobber is release and it
pops to the surface. The dog may try to retrieve the bobber
from the water.
Tucker did a great job from shore. He loves to retrieve the
ball but thinks that swimming is God’s gift to dogs. At
this time, he can swim faster than Ruffian because he still does the
frog kick under water. Some dogs don’t like cadaver scent
but the dogs didn’t care. I think because it wasn’t a
body which emits lots of scent. Searchers sometimes use Vicks
to try and cover up the scent. You can image what the dogs
smell. He had no trouble swimming to the diver or the bobber
and brining it back to shore.
Tucker was the youngest dog at the training. I probably would
have waited until next year to take him but since Ruffian needed to
go we all went. Tucker is so focused, I knew he would try to
jump from the boat and swim to the diver or bobber. So I used a
rope around his stomach to support him and keep him in the boat.
Tucker would paw at the water. I’m sure if I didn’t
have control he would have been in the water every time. He has
no fear of the water. It was difficult to read Tucker because
he moves so fast and is so focused. It’s hard to tell when
he has scent. As he gets older, I hope I’ll be able to
read him better.
The first time Tucker worked from the boat, he thought the diver was
playing ball with him. Tucker would take the reward toy and
give it back to the diver. He did it three times. He
didn’t understand the game. So the next pass we made by
the diver, I took the toy and Tucker kept searching for the
diver. Lisa, the instructor, said that Tucker was really
focused and I should not make any mistakes in his training because it
would take a long time to correct the error. I agreed with
her. We also agreed that I would have to wait until Tucker
grows up to his nose. I’m just glad that Tucker isn’t
our first dog. He’s a handful and his nose doesn’t
need to be trained but I need to wait for him to start thinking.
I’ve stopped trailing and started air scenting with Tucker.
When he trails, he pulls so hard that I’m afraid he will get
over heated. Yesterday, we worked on quartering with a lead
on. This was not the first time but we haven’t done it in
a while. He understands the commands but I’m not sure what
he will do when I let him off lead.
Brenda
April 16 2006
.... The dogs love water work but Ruffian and the other dogs
know they are suppose to remain in the boat. I’m not sure
Tucker believes in staying in the boat. Tucker is a
swimmer. When we play fetch the toy in the water, Tucker will
swim the entire distance; Ruffian will run around the pond to the
closest entry point and them jump in.
As far as Search and Rescue training goes, we are moving
forward. I can now voice control Tucker when we are out for a
walk. He understands that “Walk” means to slow down
and the “Far Enough” mean to circle. The next step is
to move these two commands to a search situation. Kim and I
plan on taking the dogs to other areas in Colorado for practice.
(The driving begins.) Tucker needs to work in unfamiliar areas
so when testing comes, he won’t go crazy in a new area.
Kim took the dogs on a walk last week. All of a sudden Tucker
takes off running. Kim looks up and Tucker is running straight
for this couple having a “romantic” picnic. Tucker
circles the couple and charges back to Kim to tell him that he has
found the lost subjects. Kim slows Tucker down and informs him
that he isn’t playing the game at the moment. Ruffian just
watched the whole thing. The look in Ruffian’s eyes said,
“Hey Kid, we’re not playing that game right now.
“ Kim couldn’t help himself and started laughing. He
hoped that Tucker hadn’t disturbed the couple.
Oct 2005
Yesterday, I tried to teach Tucker not to lick the dishwasher when
the door is open. I told him twice not to lick the door.
But he didn’t want to stop. Then I put chili oil on the
spot by the utensil holder that he finds so compelling.
Needless to say, he licked the chili oil and then quickly backed away
from the dishwasher. He didn’t like the taste but he
didn’t cry either. The next time I opened the dishwasher
door, he was back again.
Oh yes, he is still stealing sox and taking them out side.
After he stole Kim’s sox and took it outside, Kim was going to
walk the yard and look for his sox. I asked Kim to wait a
minute. I told Tucker to go outside and find the sox.
Tucker ran around the house and in less than a minute he brought the
sox back inside. He dropped the sox and sat in front of the
cookie jar. He expected Kim to give him a cookie for retrieving
the sox he had stolen. No cookie, of course. But if we
tell him to “Go Find the Sox” he will run around the
house until he finds the sox. Does anyone need a dog that can
retrieve SOX?
Two weeks ago we hosted the quarterly SARDOC training in Colorado
Springs. About 25 dogs attended the weekend. Saturday
morning we searched inside the buildings at the Colorado School for
the Blind and Deaf. The dogs searched in a number of different
buildings from dormitory to the administration building. The
dogs love to do building searches because they get to jump on all the
furniture in the building and peek in all the closets and
cupboards. It’s interesting, even if the find food in the
closets or on a desk, most of the dogs ignore the food and keep
searching. Tucker searched three floors in a dormitory.
We hide the subject on top of the washer and dryer in a utility room
between to larger rooms. Most of the dogs would search from one
room through the utility room and on to the next room. The dogs
would again return to the room because they knew the scent was their
but had to make a second pass before they found the subject. It
took some dogs three or four passes in to the room. Tucker was
no exception and he didn’t find the subject until his second
pass. It’s sort of like hiding a bird in a tree or
bush. That afternoon we did agility work and on Sunday we did
searches in the national forest.
Last week end the training for EPCSAR was a mock search on Pikes
Peak. The mountain was shrouded in fog. There was no wind
and the subjects were hiding up high. I was going to let Tucker
off lead and air scent for the subject but after a big cotton tale
crossed our path I decided not to let Tucker off lead. The road
was not very far away. It would have been a perfect time to
teach Tucker not to chase game but of course, Kim had borrowed
Tucker’s e-collar to use on Ruffian. The fog held all
scent to the ground and the lack of wind made it impossible to air
scent. Finally the subject was found be a hasty team. I
knew the subject was above us. So Tucker and I rested while we
wait for the subject to pass our location. It was interesting
to see Tucker’s head pop when the subject was in range. I
let Tucker go and he found the group of three which included the
subject. He returned and gave me a refind. He ran back to
the group and back to me. When we got close to the group, I
asked Tucker to “Show Me” the subject. He ran past
the two searchers and jumped on the subject. Then he returned
to take me to the subject.
Tucker understands and loves searching. He has a good refind
which can be a quarter mile and has a good signal. The signal
is jumping on me. I can scent him and he will wait until I tell
him to search. When we are searching, I can tell him to rest
and he will lie down. On Sunday, Tucker was searching for a
subject and I told him to rest but he kept walking. He walked
to the nearest shady spot and rested. The look was
“Don’t you know, I only rest in the shade.”
Everything is going well except the Tucker flies through the trees
and I can’t see what he is doing or scenting. So now I
have to teach him to slow down. It’s the difference
between working a dog on horseback and walking during a hunt. I
need Tucker to understand that we are a team and he needs to slow
down. If anyone has any ideas please let me know.
Everyone says he will slow down when he gets older. I think
I’ve heard that before and so far it hasn’t worked for Tucker.
I’m trying to teach Tucker to walk on a lead without
pulling. If we are walking on asphalt, I have no problems.
As soon as we hit the grass, his nose goes down and he forgets about
me. But we are making progress. Yesterday I took Tucker
to PetsMart to buy some dog food. Tucker tried to listen and
didn’t pull me through the store. So maybe he is growing up.
I was working on the computer last night. Tucker comes into my
office and starts whimpering. I tell him OK and he leads me to
the bedroom because it’s time to go to bed.
We took the dogs to Ice Lake today. The pictures are of the
dogs swimming for a stick leaving a wake behind them.
Tucker after a grooming ( thank you to Jerry and Kathy Hogon for
Helping Brenda ) Tucker will be trying the Show ring in August 2005.
