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.

PSARC an april event

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April brings us the yearly Pennsylvania search and rescue council experience and 2012 was a different one! The one and only time I ever attended this was when Bo was in training back in 2010. This year I went sans 3 German Shepherds, 2 Belgian Malinous, 1 Chihuahua, and 6 students!!!!!

As always a lot was learned for both the dogs and the handlers. Raina and Abby worked with Linda Murphy and John Valvardi of PA Recovery Dogs. They set up amazing search scenarios and both girls had some challenging nose work all 3 days.

John instructing Jenn on her search area with K9 Abby

Eme got to work a few trails, giving her variety in her locations and allowing other handlers and trainers to watch her raw talent. She has some impressive natural trailing traits in her genetics, we are fine tuning them and me as a trailing handler!!  It was also great to watch a bunch of other trailing dogs work, i never knew how many people did trailing and the variety of dogs too!!! This was my first experience as a trailing dog handler at a public trailing event, most of what i learned came from the days when Maya, Emes mother was a trailing dog and my general overall absorption from over the years.

Of course the kids had fun, they had responsibilities too like helping take care of the dogs, taking a few classes for humans, and assisting the trainers with setting up problems. Everyone also took turns helping work the dogs through drills or other search work. Some times though they just hung around.

Our evenings held one of the greatest activites, the pack walk! Now we were in a public campground with not only other SAR dogs and persons from this event but hundreds of locals who keep campers at the campground year round. We took off each evening with 6 Shepherds, 2 Malinois, 1 chihuahua, and 1 golden retriever. If that isn’t a site to see I don’t know what is!!! Everyone was well behaved and it gave us time to fine tune our obedience in a busy public place.

Ready Rainy

The kids behaved wonderfully, the dogs were amazing, and the experiences priceless!! What a better way to spend an April vacation?

Relaxing tuesday

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Best friends

 

The girls have been hard at work these past few months so we took today off and just relaxed. The shepherds and the pug and I hit the trails and took a nice hike in the fall sun. As usual i had the camera, just can’t miss a moment to capture them in nature!

Which one of these doesn't belong??

 

They loved running through the leaves and chasing each other all over. Fugly didn’t get picked on to much which was good, its not his fault hes the smallest!

gawwwrrr

 

Run guys run!

 

The day finished out with a 2 mile run with the girls and then we picked up Otto from Kara’s house to come stay with us for awhile. The pack was pretty happy to see him!

 

Playing catch up!

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Well it would be impossible to catch up this blog as i have lagged behind to much! My free flow of words just seems to get stopped up, whats that called writers block???

A quick recap finds everyone well. The sar girls are amazing, really working their butts off!! Emeline is doing great, her indication is solid and fast. I will never have to question whether or not she finds a subject. Her multiple refinds provides long hard bark and  bounces at me loud enough to wake a deaf person! She actually makes the ground tremble!!!! Her searching was natural, just pure genetics but her brain was assembled differently then her sisters, something her mother threw in to the mix. She is a thinker and will not allow me to pass by the scent cone. I’m amazed at the progress she has made and am thrilled that i gave her the chance to nail everything perfectly like i knew she could do before moving her on. Bravo Emeline Bravo!

Eme-lion the beast!

Raina will be a year old in less then a month! It’s crazy to imagine that she has already been with us for that long. Such a quick learning pup she amazes me every day with her balance, work ethic, and drive to be a prominent friend to her owner. I have held back on her testing because of her age, not lack of ability. She could have certified months ago with flawless searching and indication, and has yet to reach that “hiccup” period in her youth. While everyday i wait for it, every time we train she re confirms to me that she really is just that good. There are good things to come in the future with miss Rainy and i will keep you posted!

Rainy taking a quick break from her search area.

Abby has been doing great and is proving to be a solid worker. Her skill level is above and beyond what i had dreamed and she is fitting into the pack well now that she has learned all the dog play rules. The remainder of this month will be a huge test for Abby and i know she can do it. I’m so proud of her and what she has already achieved!

My amazing "knock you to your butt" indication dog!

Mom’s home!!!

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Everyday i come home, you would swear i’d have been gone for years 🙂 Makes you feel a little better about yourself doesn’t it???  Below is a short video shot of the pack, you’ll see most of them weave in and out of the kitchen happy to have me back home safe and sound. Take note of Otto the 9 week old GSD pup, hes new to the pack only with us a few days when this was shot. His body language in the beginning playing with the other dogs is great, he learned how to position his ears and what to do with his body to solicit play without coming on to aggressive or scary. This boy is amazing and my pack is incredible at giving dogs what they need.

 

The working girls

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Last weekend was a rough one, but we still did what we could and the girls had fun. Saturday we trained with Amigo Sar dogs up in New Berlin. We ran everyone on some HR hides as well as live hides. The HR was great, we hid it in a 130 pounds replica guy from the firehouse!!

Our "subject"

Abby decided not only was it an easy find but also an easy indication to mom!

BAM!!!!!

It was hot out and everyone went for a swim after their problem to cool down. Raina had a blast jumping into the fast moving water to grab her ball. She’s getting pretty good at catching it, though mom doesn’t let her do it often she is still to young to beat up her bones like that!

I bounce like Tigger!!!!!!

 

 

play time after a job well done

 

Raina and Abby both sustained some muscle and pad injuries and were put on light duty.  This last week they rested up and appear good to go! Down time is always the worst with these girls, they are just not meant to be couch potatoes!!

Foto Friday

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Emeline meeting the horses

 

Playing like the big dogs

Busy time!

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The last week or so has been crazy, and the blog posts just haven’t seemed to roll off the fingers in my free time. This weekend was great and i’m happy to have a few free minutes to update everyone before we go swimming and training all evening!

Saturday started out with a good team training, we were able to run all the dogs even in the hot sun and get a little swimming done in the pond.  The girls did great despite the hot weather and 4 hour meeting in the morning that left them sleeping with plenty of pent up energy to spend! Working with the boys was great and they did an amazing job saturday and all weekend long!

We spent the night at ritas so we could get right back to work sunday morning. Once the boat, motor, batteries, lunch, and kids were loaded up we went off to the lake to get in some water training!

Raina playing

All 3 girls loved the boat, and the water!! Emeline is not a strong swimmer but after mom, the boys, and her ball got in neck deep my girl jumped in over and over again swimming like a champ!!!!! A few more times and she’ll be a pro like her sister.

We mostly worked HR from the boat and the shore, both were completely new to Raina and she impressed me. I think we got some on video and hopefully this week i can get it loaded!

Eme heading down to the boat

 

It was a good weekend filled with dogs, sun, and friends. Gotta love this life!

Todays escapades

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Today started like any normal day, up early out with the pups for the morning routine. The 4 shepherds ( we can’t leave out the little foster GSD) hit the truck and head to Vestal to get a day of search and rescue training in. We meet up with some Amigo girls and work some outside airscent and cadaver problems. The girls did great and mr Weib got to hang out and meet some cool new people, dogs, and sniff some new smells!

Weib!!!!

 

After a quick lunch break its on to building work where i was able to fine tune Emeline’s refind sequence.  My girl is ready to start on the path to certification!! It was a bumpy ride, and one her sister sailed past her in but it has been worth it, Eme has a wonderful bark, a great indication and refind and is an amazing search dog in the making. Now we must balance her airscent work, with getting her ready to IPWADA HRD test this September and of course not leave out her obedience that will be tested in September as well for her certification! Ohhhh boy gonna be a busy summer at the Canine Copilot homestead!

Eme in her group down stay with distractions!