Heeling under distractions
The basis of IPO centers around obedience, and heeling is one of the most important exercises as well as being plain beauty in motion of a canine human team. The obedience routine involves heeling through the whole exercise, as well as the protection routine. To have a dog who can heel focused in any environment shows great self control, and dedication to their handler.
Annecy vom Kugelblitz
Annecy has developed into the biting Mali powerhouse i knew she would. My all purpose Malinois is making me proud! This girl has a long list of jobs to accomplish in the coming year. If all goes well and her hips and elbows come back she may become our foundation for vom Kugelblitz Malinois breeding program. You don’t often see Malinois in the SAR world, a few in disaster and recovery work but a malinois in an airscent position is rare. We have one, Maxwell, so i know it can be done and takes a very special kind of mali. Annecy is working in the wilderness airscent role currently but with an interesting indication, she performs a bark and hold at the subject, till called off for a refind. The reasoning behind this long behavior chain is because we are not sure exactly what role Annecy will play in the future and we want both a disaster option or a wilderness option. Please enjoy a few photos from a recent drive building session
What is IPO you ask? Well by meaning it is Internationale Prüfungs-Ordnung but unless you speak German that will mean very little to you.
So in english IPO is a dog sport which predominately features German Shepherds, Belgian Malinois, American Bulldogs, Dutch Shepherds, Rottweilers, and Dobermans. Once called (and still somewhat called) Schutzhund (meaning protection dog) it consists of 3 phases tracking, protection and obedience. Originating in Germany in the 1800’s its a dog sport that has been around for a long time. Consisting of numerous “titles” the dogs can earn to show courage, intelligence and utility it is frequently used as a breed survey to test the breeding suitability for German Shepherds.
I become involved in IPO in January of 2013 after acquiring my male German Shepherd puppy Edgar von Ramhaus aka Soren. Soren will be trialing in spring 2014 for his IPO titles as well as taking his certification test for IPWDA Cadaver. The Dog Corps. traveled to Easton PA last weekend to watch the nationals and get an overview of how trialing a dog in IPO works. The kids enjoyed watching the human canine partnerships and that evening over dinner we had lengthy discussions about training.
While working with the students at FFS i try very hard to provide a solid basis in canine body language, because if you can read a dog you can train him to do anything. I always encourage the kids to maintain a healthy balanced relationship with the canines they work with, which means keeping their emotions in check and not in the training. Our dinner conversation revolved around another topic in dog training, the use of punishment and aversives. The kids were able to pick which handlers had used more positive vs more negative in their training relationships. The dogs body language was documented and discussed out loud during the obedience and protection routines. Despite the chilly air and lack of sunshine we had a great day observing some amazing handlers and their canines.
Soren 16 months
Abby indicating during a mock search
What are the first thoughts that come to mind as a search dog handler?
Annecy has been with us now for 10 weeks and we have been balancing her “job” training with her basic obedience. Just a little update on her heeling and sit and down out of motion exercises, plus some drive building. Love this girl she is so great to work!
Defiantly something to watch out for, you just never know what it is till you go get it tested.
Eme is pink
Our subject is blue
13 hours old
Last night we did a quick hot trail for Eme as i had to deploy her in the morning for 2 runaway kids. She gave me a negative all around the perimeter of the school, and she was correct as the kids were hiding on campus no where near where we had checked. So as her reward later in the day she got a nice fun hot trail!
And then of course i decide to squeeze in laying a track last evening to motivate myself to be up early and run today. And well it worked!! Beth was my subject and i dropped her and Jaime off with basic instructions. Just as the rain started pouring down around 1830 they had moved out of the woods and were heading in quickly. They finished laying the track at 1842 and we left.
6am this morning came quick and just before the girls went to get into place Eme and i were dropped off at our starting road. Figuring our trail was 1.25 miles it would take us at least 20 minutes to scent it all out and run it (yes i said run as in the pace we move, Eme does NOT walk her trails) 22 minutes on the dot we were up at the subjects location and Eme happily indicated (barked at her subject that she was scented on) and proceeded to eat her steak and play with her ball. Success before 730am i think so!!!!
Eme is a certified trailing K9 through International Police Working Dog Association (IPWDA)
At just a little over 4 months annecy is developing nicely. Currently in training for airscent SAR, narcotics detection and service work with a recently blooming conformation career I couldn’t ask for a more well rounded malinois. This girl really impresses me with her can do attitude and hunt drive. She is definitely not the typical over drive, defensive, unstable malinois with no off switch we have seen a lot of lately. This girl has a bright future ahead of her, and no I don’t believe EIK9T is starting a Mali breeding program!
Elite Instinct K9 Training 