Category Archives: Emeline Down Easter Alexa Vom Schutzburg

All about ms emeline’s training and progression towards hers certification with New York State Federation of Search and Rescue.

Saturday SAR training

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We took a break from puppy play and socialization this morning to attend our team Eagle Valley search dogs team training and took K9 Abby K9 Annika and K9 Emeline in tow.

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K9 Abby got to refine her skills and worked a few nice areas, even at 8 years old this girl still navigates,puts the miles on and searches like the genetic champ she is. 

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K9 Annika Abby’s niece worked a very nice area search problem, with little breeze and only a scent pool to work out.

And lastly K9 Emeline rocked her trail and found her subject!
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In a few weeks we have a local training coming up in Sullivan County, come on down and check out the dogs, meet the members, and get lost!

Last weeks fun trail!

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Last week at Eagle Valley Search Dogs team training our one and only Miss Emeline got a nice practice trail down a mountain side, through a creek and swamp and happily found her subject!

The trail was laid around 930am and we let it age 6 hours with both human and dog contamination at the start, plus multiple cars driving over it in the beginning.

june 20 2015 eme trail

Our subject is the teal blue, and Eme and I is the purple. Working both many known and blind trails, plus many real trails i know that taking her straight down elevation like above is complicated and she works her butt off to sort out the drifting trail scent and  stay close to right on the trail. What i love about this, is you see a dog who truly works her scent, and works it well. She gives clear negatives, always re casts and picks up the trail again with clear body language signals that let me know if we are on, or in fringe as she sorts it out.

 

Trailing dogs are A TON of work, and require not only a lot of time and commitment, but a good backing of supporters to help lay trails, go out with you running through the woods at mach 10 speed in 80 degree heat and rain, and a genetically solid dog. Anyone looking to practice some wood navigating experience in and around the Middletown NY area let me know, as long as you are at the end of her trail with some ham or a ball you will have one insanely happy black shepherd in your lap!

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A circle of sorts for Miss Eme

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Yesterday we decided to let Eme work a real life scenario trail to keep her tuned up in her trailing work for run away teens. Her last few real trails Eme was amazing, and resulted in us saving a life in one, and showing her skills in an urban trail with a car pick up in another. The nose on this girl, her work ethic, and the results we get are nothing short of a combination of genetics, training, and our relationship!!!

So yesterday i gave a student my GPS for the day, to track where he went from 7am till 3pm when he laid the trail which we ran about 3 hours later at 6pm. She overshot one turn, and gave a beautiful negative, casting back around and hitting the trail again. Watching her problem solve is one of my greatest joys! Attached below is our track, the subject is blue and Eme is pink.

 

May 1st 2014

May 1st 2014

A trailing dogs journal

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Emeline has had a busy and very successful last week with a wonderful life saving trail, so we decided to reward her with what she loves best……another trail!!!!

Pink is Eme and Red is the subject, The trail paths overlay almost 100%

Pink is Eme and Red is the subject, The trail paths overlay almost 100%

2 feet of snow, and a mile and a half later we got just that, plus a very tired Jenn and her flanker Deiber.

Eme playing with her ball after a long practice trail

Eme playing with her ball after a long practice trail

Flashback Friday

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Today’s flashback friday post for this wonderful friday the 13th of December! We are featuring K9 Max and handler Buddy and K9 Emeline and handler Jenn at a 2010 disaster workshop.   Enjoy!!!

K9 Emeline and Jenn getting ready to do a send out for a directional

K9 Emeline and Jenn getting ready to do a send out for a directional

 

K9 Max and Buddy working directional excercises

K9 Max and Buddy working directional excercises

Eme’s overnight 13 hour old soaking wet trail

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Eme is pink Our subject is blue 13 hours old

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)

April showers bring May…….quickly please???

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Soren retrieving his ball

Soren retrieving his ball

The whirlwind of life never seems to stop, and between teaching  and running the Dog Corps. program at the Family Foundation School, working at the veterinary hospital, and training clients as my 3 jobs not to mention training my 7 dogs in Therapy work, Search and Rescue, IPO, and now movie acting. Plus running Life Long Tails Rescue and keeping up with the ever changing cycle of dogs and small animals in and out of foster its a wonder i remember to breath!

But there is no rest for the weary

April and May bring us the following

Emeline- At the end of the month Eme will take her IPWDA trailing test to certify as a Internationale police working dog association trailing K9. Eme has already proved herself running a few successful trails of run away students at the school i teach dog training at.

Raina- Is in the process of learning her role as a seeing eye/assistant dog for an upcoming film shooting next month. This is Raina’s first movie and she needs to learn 20 extra commands in addition to her basic obedience. Look for plenty of details and blog posts on this amazing opportunity for Raina and I, and of course the release of the movie in 2014.

Sören-  Has his first confirmation show for the SV coming up this summer as well as his AD which is a 12 mile endurance test. This is the start to his IPO work and we are laying the foundation now!

Abby- This old girl is maintaining her SAR and therapy work and in training for an article certification that will prove to help at searches and at home when you lose your keys playing soccer with the kids 😉

Fugly- With the successful completion of his CGC this boy is on his way to therapy certification. We are continuing his training and he works almost daily with the kids at the school accomplaning them to classes and therapy sessions and spending down time in the dorms.

Anna- Also completed her CGC and will be moving on to her therapy test. Anna is usually found at home keeping things running smooth but she loves to come down and visit with the kids and hang out with them.

Kaze- The newest addition to the copilot pack is a vivacious 10 month old silky terrier named kamikaze. This girl has a bright future as we are getting her basic training in place and developing her hunt drive and her reward system. Watch for what cool events this girl will be in next!

So as our crazy spring ensues please bear with us. If you need help we are currently accepting a limited number of new clients in the Sullivan, Delaware, and Broome county area. Please visit our site as it gets updated. http://www.EIK9T.com

 

 

Some work with Emeline- A video compliation

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Trailing has increased Eme and put her into overdrive! We did a short bite pillow play session with her and the students the other day and found out she has a naturally beautiful bark and hold! Also included is a short video clip from my new GoPro of her in a short double blind trailing start. Enjoy!

A long old trail……

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Team training sunday brought about a wonderful and encouraging experience for Eme and I. We did our first sign off on our 12 plus hour old wilderness trail. It gave me the confidence in my trailing dog I had all along, it was just buried deep. This was the first time we had a long arduous trail, it was aged 16 hours and was 1.75 miles long. We ran it blind, the trail layer had supplied a GPS that my flanker had but even he didn’t know where it was.

Blue is our subjectPurple is Eme and I

Blue is our subject
Purple is Eme and I

We got a rough start on the road with the rock salt burning at her paw pads, so she took off quick barely casting and made a beeline across a very busy intersection of state route 97. She trailed along the pavement and gave me a brief head pop right alerting me to a turn that direction up ahead. This girl banged out the turn perfect and cut up and in behind the house, she worked the scent out that had collected there and in the field overnight and proceeded across and back to the road. We had 8 different changes in direction, multiple surface changes including asphalt to grass which is very difficult after that many hours and  we had contamination to deal with at the start and in the middle sections. I think the point that astounded me the most is how true to the trail she was even after that long ageing. She dipped up and off the paths and milk road multiple times which is exactly what our subject did, and even checked out a few footsteps in the snow that were our subjects. Eme is a trailing dog, but she does not work off fringe scent, this girl is true to her trail and i noticed that we have very little problems to work out even during old trails. If she gets pulled into collecting scent she pops a negative within 20 feet and circles around until she has reacquired the trail and works it out, I’ve seen time and time again no matter the age that she will only reacquire within 20-30 feet of the actual footstep trail.

I never wanted a trailing dog, never even thought about what it would be like to train one, but i have to say that i have learned a ton. Eme has really taught me how to do it right, actually she has taught me how to trail! I didn’t make Eme a trailing dog, she made me a trailing dog handler i just made sure we did it right and set her up for success like any good handler does!!!!