The weekend of October 24th Amigo SAR dogs hosted a disaster seminar in Warren Center PA with FEMA K9 handler and instructor Theresa MacPherson. It was a wonderful introduction to a rubble pile and bark barrel which Eme had never been trained on! She learned to do a bark and hold at a subject and we still worked her refind in wilderness and got some great ones in!

Eme

We are working the go out here which eme picked up quick having never done it!

The weekend was wonderful and we had 13 dogs from 3 different teams around NY, PA and NJ.  The focus all week was getting the dogs on different footing, elevated platforms, and over unstable surfaces.  Obedience and some plain old wildnerness work tied it all together.

Bark Barrell

Eme working her first bark barrell. She caught on quick and loved the game.

While i’m not sure i have time or Eme would really enjoy rubble work it was nice to get an idea of what its like, work with a FEMA instructor and maybe in a few years when i’ve caught up i can get on the local task force!

All in all we had a great time like always training to save lives. What else would i ever want to do on my weekends??

Me and my girl

After the weekend was over we helped pick up and took the dogs out for a hike and let them swim in the pond. Eme put what she learned to good use when we hit the quarry to exercise the dogs.

Found her own pile

Just got back from a 5 day com fed in Cauyga NY. Eme had tons of fun it was great! We arrived wednesday night and in preperation for 5 inches of rain thursday AM set up our tents inside a concrete floor pole barn. It was nice and dry and we called it tent city!!

Tent City!!

Thursday and Friday we had Brenda Aloff teaching K9 Learning Theory and K9 Working Behavior.  Brenda is an amazing women and Eme and I both learned a lot from her. She used us both days for demo’s and of course Eme was great and everyone was impressed by her!

Saturday brought an advanced cadaver course with Theresea Mcpherson who is a FEMA trainer and has been working  SAR dogs for years.  Eme worked a total of 9 hides including her first rubble pile, her first building, and worked on all different scent sources she had never been exposed to.  On the rubble pile she got burrs stuck to her anus poor girl but i got them off and she started working again after a minute.

Eme relaxing in her kennel after the rubble pile

A wonderful time had by all. Eme and her sister got to spend time together and play and work on obedience.  We made new friends and met new great dogs! Eme seemed happy not only with the work she got but being around other dogs and dog people who are a sucker for that face!

I missed you Icha!

Well its been a busy last month. I have a lot of stuff “in the works” and my life is a pile of paperwork that grows everyday! Eme is doing great, we are now working larger problems, we have a refind, and it is great to watch her work scent like a big girl.  Bo is doing well to, we have been cross training him and he loves it. More to come on that soon!!!

Next week is the Comfed we head up wednesday night and get to do the 2 day brenda aloff seminar. Of course eme will get some work each day!!

Friday night we (kara, me, emeline, and Mika) went down to NJ to meet Eagle Valley and Amigo team members. We got a hotel room at the holiday inn express for the night and training started saturday morning at 0700. We shared a room with 2 of my team mates Katie and her bluetick coonhound scout and karen and her pup who is my dogs sister icha.  I have to give them props man they all did great all night long even in the tiny hotel room after riding in a crate all day in the car!!!!!!!!!! They of course had to play their little butts off for a bit when we got settled into the room.

The Girls "playing"

After they calmed down a bit we got them up in bed for a few minutes of cuddle time then put the pups into their crates for the night.  A few whines and everyone fell asleep and stayed quite it was great!!!

Starting to Settle down.

Saturday was a great team training in high falls at karens house. It was hot out, about 92 in the shade and over 100 in the sun with crazy humidity. I put the boys out in the two search areas that would be worked and almost had an asthma attack on the way back to the house!! I ran maya’s trail with her handler (maya is Emeline’s mom!) and felt as though i had just stepped out of a pool fully clothed. I worked another area with a k9 and handler and then finally settled down in the house for a bit. It was a great day the dogs all did wonderful, worked some toy drive with bo and worked on his recall a little. We took all the dogs down to the “slide” and swimming hole after we were all done and it was great! Eme continued to jump in time and time again and swim without touching, she of course cried bloody murder before doing it but she still had the balls to do it!

Water!!!

It is just so nice back on the rocks and in the water!! This is a shot of the rock area with the “slide” and me and eme sitting on the edge after she had jumped in and swam to me!

It is way harder to keep up with a blog then you would think! I just have so much to do everyday there is NO time at night to write about it. Well the last few weeks have been very busy, working 6 plus days a week is good money but shitty free time.

So eme has been progressing nicely. We work tug and retrieve daily as well as hikes almost every day. We went swimming and trained tuesday at the “unofficial” dog park. She worked 3 short run aways including one where Pat was hiding in a tree! She worked very good, played tug with her toy afterward and made me proud!

Bo has been working on his play drive. We will most likely break out the HRD next week depending on how he does.  He goes crazy for the tug rag and will play and engage for awhile. He will also search it out if i throw it and hide it in the backyard. He will search for a minute or more till he has sniffed it out! Now of course i hope we can transition that to other places and keep the toy high on his list!

Valentine is doing well, pissed as hell at me for still being in a crate but oh well. Olive is getting older by the minute and it kills me. We are changing her meds around in hopes that it will help her hips but we are in a downward spiral and i must come to grips with it.

Team training saturday, will hopefully have a post and pictures up after!