Never fear a dull weekend is not near!

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The eyes that melt my heart

The summer always seems to bring about a busy time, between dog training, kid training, searches (which we have had keep us busy this last week or so) and the ever necessary paperwork that surrounds it all (which i am currently drowning in) a relaxing weekend is just not in the cards.

This past weekend was no different. Saturday the plans were to load up the dogs and finish out a search that we had attended last week in Rockaway NJ. It was called off after the subject was located on friday. Raina’s alerts had proven to be correct in our area that we searched thursday, he was found outside our search area but within half a mile attributing to her long distant scent alerts during a lot of her work.

Then the plans changed back to attending the schools annual house picnic at the local park. It would have allowed all the dogs to spend time with their favorite students and meet their parents too! But alas that was not in the cards either and our final destination put us south of Albany NY searching for a missing man. The girls worked their areas and we were home by 11:30pm.

DAY ONE COMPLETE!!

It was destined to be a busy but non emergency day sunday, and the focus was getting the puppies out into new situations to continue desensitization and socialization.  That involved swimming in a few locations, some work on the agility equipment and some basic obedience.

Abby, Raina, and Soren with toys playing in the water

The pups got some play time with each other (very limited since they have arrived with us, you never want to raise to puppies out of the same litter togther or else you will have “dogy” issues with them being more reliant and focused on each other then you the handler) and the big dogs controlled what they needed to or participated as they saw fit!

A little back and forth bite inhibition training between puppies

 

A nice soft correction from an adult member of the pack, assisting in teaching the pup acceptable body language and when you have crossed the line.

All in all, a weekend that couldn’t be complained about. Busy weekends are not always bad, just pass by to quick! Hello work week!

 

 

NJ water weekend the visual story

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A few pictures from our water weekend hosted by NJ SAR

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Sören swimming out of the water, happy to have 4 on the floor.

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Brother and sister (Sören and Jordis) take a break from socializing and play together on the dock ramp into the lake.

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Abby on the boat and on the go for her first shore search of the day

Jimmy and Raina swimming back during a break in training

Flashback Friday

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Abby, Kara, and I receiving the check from the AKC grant i wrote in 2011

Puppy Raina searching in winter 2011

Puppy Raina with her subject Tim, from the school

Explaining the search process to a new prospective K9 flanker.

 

 

 

First day of the fall semester

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I teach a dog training class at The Family Foundation School, a therapeutic boarding school for troubled teens, 3 days a week. This semester i have written all new curriculum and I have 15 students enrolled.  I also write for the blog linked to the Dog Corps. program there.   Below is the post written for the other blog.

 

Today was the first class day of the fall 2012 semester. We had 13 Dog Training students in class, ready and eager to learn! I always get excited about passing on my dog training knowledge to other people because i believe every person and every dog deserve to have the ultimate relationship, and i have the tools to do it!

It was orientation day, meet the book, meet the cirrculum, meet the dogs, and see what its like to enter the world of dog training. For me i know once i stepped foot into it i never looked back, and i can honestly say my recovery was successful because of the canine companions in my life.

So everyone got a small lesson in obedience commands, what they are (in the german language) how to give them, when to give them and they even got to practice with a few of the shepherds.

Charles working with Ripley

I explained the importance of having good focus, and how when working with high drive shepherds you need to control your situation and not allow any unsightly obbessions develop!

Teaching Raina to target without obessesing on the object she is targeting.

 

Where have you been

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Abby displaying her ever growing commitment to me that i swear i do not deserve.

I ask myself many times a day, where have you been? Whether i’m questioning the students at school, the dogs and why they smell like dead road kill, myself when i realize 45 minutes have gone by and i’m still staring at the same spot on my kitchen wall. It makes no difference, the answer is always the same, checked out. If your not where you should be focusing on what will benefit you then you are checked out, plain and simple. For me checking out is a means of escape just like training my dogs but with little effort demonstrated. I don’t want my dogs to check out when they are working with me, why should i get to do the same? Every day i think they teach me a little bit more about myself then i know. All it really takes is an emotional situation, one glance down, and i get lost in their chocolate brown eyes that seem to only know 2 emotions, happiness, and extreme happiness. Happiness is of course you being their owner, but extreme happiness, well now thats you being their owner, coming home from work, and having a T-Bone steak for dinner with them!!!!!

Of course there is always that questions, where have you been, all my life?

Terrific Tip Tuesday

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Raina in her all to typical tongue hanging outside her mouth pose!

This weeks tip is all about how to condition and exercise your dog. This is a very careful and planned out process if you end goal is to creat a canine athlete. If you just want to exercise your dog and have fun it’s MUCH easier!

For the majority of owners the latter is true, and your biggest obstacles Is making sure you want until the dog is fully developed physically before putting to much pressure on his joints and bones. Now this is a DIFFERENT age for different breeds but your working dogs (German shepherd dogs, Belgian malinois, Labrador retrievers ect) should all be limited in any high jumping or running pavement or long distances till 18 months. This gives the growth plates more time to close and the body the necessary time to mature. So for your pet dog no running or biking with you, no high frisbee catches or long stressful hikes. Once they have reached the maturity age you can slowly introduce your passion such as biking or running.

For your working dogs, i generally set up a conditioning schedule that is tailored to what the dogs job will be. With my girls who are all search dogs we started out with short runs (1 to 1.5 miles on pavement) and worked up from there. I typically run 10-15 miles a week myself so it wasn’t hard to add them in to whichever days i needed to (no more then 5 days a week) till they had the athleticism that i desired. If you are going to take this route make sure you consult either your trainer or your veterinarian prior to make sure you have a plan that is right for your dog! My 2 area search dogs cover the most ground during training versus my trailing dog who travels only where i do (we are attached by a leash of course!) but she can outrun in speed and distance my other 2 any day!

In addition to running roads we also swim them twice a week, which is excellent for any age dog as it is the most low impact exercise you can get! On average between search problems, running, ball throwing, walks and hiking they will get 20-40 miles a week. This is A LOT of exercise for most dogs and if i had not conditioned them slowly i would have joint and bone problems. Raina and Abby will be in training the rest of the summer to jog next to a bike so we can get their Ausdauerprüfung (AD)

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.