Monthly Archives: July 2012

Sören’s first exposure to gunshots

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Sören sleeping upside down!

As part of Sören’s training and desensitization he needs to be stable in ALL environments and be neutral to loud noises including gunshots. The weekend brought a perfect opportunity to get him and his sister around not only a lot of other dogs and people but gunfire to. The first few shots that went off were hand guns, mostly 9mm and we stayed about 10 feet behind the shooter. Once we moved verified no issues the shooter got out the AK-47.  Below are a few videos, not great quality but you hear the loudness of the gun and you see his reaction which is either nothing or a bit inquisitive. His ears never pin back, he never gets scared, or displays any body language that worries me at all. Stable nerves, stable dog, good German Shepherd breeding!

Many people firmly believe that gun shyness is a genetic trait, I am not going to argue that one way or another but i defiantly know their are some things you just cannot acclimate a dog to whether they have noise sensitivity or not.  I was extremely careful to make sure i picked the right situation, right age, right time, and had complete control of the situation before exposing both puppies to gunfire. Whats that saying again????? Prior planning prevents piss poor performance!!!!!

When the word Busy has a WHOLE new meaning

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I am not by nature a relaxed type of person. In fact i’ve been named “fiesty” by many and i guess have accepted it as a compliment. Sometimes though i have a week or so that sets me back, where i stop being super-women and just return to normal pace.  The past week has been pretty crazy with the addition of the new pups, but the dogs have all adjusted to their new brother and sister and the family has blended perfectly.

I have a laundry list of things i want to write about, i want to film, i want to show but i can only do so much so quick! With that being said look for a few new posts on the pups and how life is going.

 

 

A wet training

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Yesterday proved to be a wet training day. With thunderstorms all around the rain was non stop but of course so were the dogs. Not much holds them back and a heavy down pore an distant thunder most certainly didn’t. Raina had a wonderful 2 acre blind HR problem which we did in about 40 minutes. One of the sources was buried 8 inches deep, the other under a bunch of leafy debris. She worked each out with little frustration despite it DOWN POURING as soon as we got to the area. Within 60 seconds the two of us, along with our flanker where soaked head to toe. The rain kept up for the first half with no avail. I was able to easily enough narrow down the sections of our area she had scent and by the time we worked out which two small sections we planned to detail the rain had slowed to a drizzle. Raina did great, and of course why would she ever let the rain bother her???

Jordis, Sören’s sister had her second batch of puppy problems and proved that she is quickly learning the game. Her drive is pretty outstanding. Keep a look out for her updates!

Eme had her second contamination trail, which was a bit different then she is used to. Typically we have different kids from the school as subjects or my team mates, yesterday we had a female handler from another team whom eme had never met nor trailed, and her 3 contamination trails (meant to distract her off the scent she SHOULD be following) were all boys she loves and trails at the school. Not once did she even deviate off her subject the whole time!! The ending was a bit of a mess due to her subject having been all down in the area the trail ended working her own personal dog, but eme went into airscent mode, worked the elevation and the scent pool and figured it out just like she would have to in a real search. Way to go Eme-lion!!!

Flashback Friday

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This weeks flashback post photos are of Otto, a 1 year old german shepherd that Elite Instinct Canine trained (from 8 weeks to 7 months) and placed into a Search and Rescue home.

Otto working on his bite

“Whatcha looking at?”

Otto playing with his handler

Otto is now starting his certification process with Amigo Search Dogs and by 2013 will be a certified search dog!

Sören- A few videos

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Well it hasn’t even been 24 hours since Sören has entered our life and he is adjusting quite well! Below are a few videos to hold you over till the thunderstorms can roll past and we can get some good video and photos.

 

Just after getting off the plane, we found a nice grassy area to potty them and wear them out before the trip home from Newark.

 

Last night once we got home we took a little walk and romp in the field alone without the other dogs.

 

 

This morning playing in the backyard, working on some tug drive.

Some weekend photos

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This past weekend was all about the adult dogs, we don’t want them to feel left out when the pups come especially the other working dogs. Below are a few pics from hanging out this weekend. Of course we did plenty of work too!!!

Raina portrait

 

Emeline

 

Abby

 

 

 

 

We are pleased to introduce…………..

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The Canine copilot pack is expanding once again! We are pleased to introduce Edgar von Ramhaus and Electra von Ramhaus. Both west german line working shepherds who will be an integral part of our future plans.

They are litter mates from Ayla von Julich and Asko vom Haus der Greene.  These pups were hand picked by myself and the breeder and will be an asset to the future of German Shepherds. We are VERY excited to be bringing these guys into our home and life. I searched far and wide for the exact combination of genetics, drive, temperament, and workability and found it in Ramhaus K9  I want to send many thanks to Christine for her patience with me as we struggled with puppy picking, arranging their arrival, and of course providing all the pictures and video!!!! These guys will be joining us Monday July 23, 2012 from Jacksonville Florida. 

Edgar von Ramhaus call name Sören- God of war (pronounced zoren)

Electra von Ramhaus call name Jordis-Goddess of the sword.

Our first negative trail

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Eme has had a good week, a lot of really challenging good trails set up thanks to the hard work of my teammates!  Today we attempted our first ever negative trail area. Essentially the scent article was collected from my subject and presented in an area he had NEVER been in. Instead a 30 minute hot track had been laid by another subject whom she had not been given a scent article for. This was a completely new concept to Miss Emeline as she has ALWAYS had her trail somewhere in the vicinity of where i have casted her.

Well she really did wow me today. I scented her on the tshirt and she gave me negatives in two directions saving the direction down toward the water where she did have the distraction trail as last. I sent her down there to check it out and she showed some interest in it, i told her no and casted her a bit further out same reaction but she steered herself back up to the scent article. She stopped and i re scented her again and she just sat down “um duh mom it’s not HERE!” You’ll see that around 1:20 of the video.

So proud of her!!

 

Flashback Friday

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This weeks flashback friday post is pictures of the canine copilot dogs out and about for Elite Instinct Canine training sessions.

Raina and I at Home Depot

 

Franky in the car waiting for the lesson to begin

 

Abby in a sit stay