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.

Imprint we go

Posted on by

Saturday was a great training day at Rita’s in French Woods NY. The girls had so much fun playing and working. Raina got to see her  brother and mom after her first week without them. She also got her first imprint on Cadaver which she amazed me at. Not only is her focus amazing but her nose and work ability is already in place at 9 weeks old!!

My ears are up!!

Eme worked a problem with two subjects, it was short and sweet and we made sure her refind and alert occurred correctly and quickly. She was a little confused why there was two people but she worked through it and like a superb working dog cataloged what happened and will not hesitate again now!

Her perfect stay after working and playing

We also worked 3 HRD problems with scent pools that were close to each other. She did a great job finding all three and mom did an ok job rewarding her at the source while she was looking right at it. Hopefully the start of next year she will have her platz indication in place.

Raina gave me some natural behaviors and i will have to see what comes out for her cadaver indication.

OOOooo i think my nose knows!!!

 

A white Eme

Posted on by

Sunday was a nice relaxing training day for Eme. She is adjusting well to her new sister and loves to play and show her how pack life works here at Elite Instinct Canine training. Some friends came over and with the new snow fall they wanted to go get some pictures out and about. I knew Eme could use a solo hike where all attention could just be on her. Of course we never miss an opportunity to train and we worked on her recall, her find it command, and her giblaut (speak in german) Eme is trained in both english in german though only german commands are used while working. The main reason for this is so while working in public she will not be distracted by other people issuing commands.

Jeff and Jessica took some amazing photos of my girl up in the snow. As an all black shepherd (and the first all black shepherd i have ever had) she stands out in the snow!!!!

Eme in the snow

At 9 months eme is doing a little “terrible two’s” challenging right now.  Her commands where re practiced in less distractions to re build them back up and then we added the distractions again. It seems to have worked well and we get a response on the first command even under high distractions for her basic obedience commands.

Briiiiing

My amazing eme surprises me everday with her talent in searching, her ability to read me and anticipate my moves and dedication to anything i ask of her. The last 7 months have been a learning experience for both of us.  We have achieved a great balance and working relationship and i know it gets stronger everyday.

Eme after her find

First snow fall walk

Posted on by

Its wednesday, and nothing like a night walk in the woods after the first snow fall. Now we only had a dusting but up on our elevation it was enough to cover the ground. After a 12 hour shift at work my favorite thing to do is come home and walk the dogs and spend the evening in front of the fire on the couch reading a good book surrounded by soft fur and light panting of the dogs.

Walking my english bulldog Valentine is necessary daily to help build the muscle in her leg. The end of june brought her cruciate surgery and its been a long road to recovery from there. We try to do 1 to 3 miles a day and lately we have been taking Emeline with us. Its great for Val to get some canine interaction (shes leashed of course can’t have her stress her leg to much) and as usual my working shepherd is always ready for a hike in the woods.

Tonight was peaceful. The moon was hidden by clouds, the light from my flashlight reflected off the snow and emeline pranced around exploring the newly fallen snow. I took notice to the many trees that had fallen during the last two days wind storms and watched Valentine jump over them fairly easily. Its been a long 5 months.

I love my life, i wouldn’t have it any other way. All day i get to meet new owners and new dogs, learn new stories, rejoice at healing animals and cry when others must pass. Then i get to come home to the comfort of my pack, 10 dogs in all who love me, and I them. Sure its tough and a lot of work as each needs  his or her own time, plus our pack training time but i really couldn’t imagine life without them all. We each have a special relationship, a special connection and understanding.

As i type this each is in their most predictable spot in the house awaiting my next movement or command. Theirs eyes filled with love and hope and nothing but living in the moment. I am inspired everyday and vow to be just like my canines and live in the moment. Thank you

Play time in the cool

Posted on by

Eme and i took to the paths this afternoon with some treats and a water wubba. We practiced some obedience, particularly her sit, stay and down. We played tug of war and fetch with her wubba and i hid it on her a few times to get her some nose work. She has come such a long way over the past few months. Her search skills are amazing, this weekend at Karens we did a night problem. The air was calm and cool and not much wind. About 5 minutes into the problem eme takes off and I know she has scent. She is so easy to read when she is working live as she will not leave my eye sight unless she has scent. Sure enough a minute later the radio beeped and Bob had been found. Eme was hundreds of feet away from me, in the dark, through thick  brush with little wind. AMAZING!!!

We are working on her refind and she is doing well. I call her back, ask her for a bark and she takes off like a rocket back to the subject, she is getting the picture and she is only 8 months old.

On another note a quick visit friday to Rita’s brought about some new puppy pictures! Not sure which one will be mine but they are all cute. Just 4 weeks old and irresistible!!

Sleeping puppies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First trip outside!!!

Rip and pups outside!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As for me, well this weekend was tough. I took my DEC Crew Boss class and sunday proved to be a difficult test of my navigation. I was given a map and 4 instructions of various points i needed to find, navigate to document my success. All i had was the map, a compass and my feet. No food, no water and 4 miles of catskill mountains i have never been in.  Hours later i completed my assignment, found my points and passed my class!!!! I’m certified now as a Crew Boss and can lead a crew of men and women at searches freeing up DEC Forest Rangers to help the search in other ways.  I was proud of my navigation and my ability to stay calm while “lost” in the woods. I have come a long way myself in the last 2 years since i joined SAR and i cannot wait to see what the next 2 years bring!

Disaster Seminar

Posted on by

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

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

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

Com Fed 2010

Posted on by

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!

It is time

Posted on by

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!!

New Jersey Water Training

Posted on by

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.

I’m a tractor girl!!!

Posted on by

SO with  the addition of the kabota tractor to our “expensive toys” last year i have finally decided to make it work for me and my dogs!!! We are clearing and brush hogging the top of the land (which is about as level as our land gets in one area) for my agility course. Its a good hike up the path to get to it but its nice to not have it in the backyard where all t he other dogs bark and freak out. I was up yesterday with k learning to drive and pull stumps out with the tractor.

I must admit you never would have known i was a city girl a few short years ago!!!

yeeeeee hawwwww

Behind and to the left is the main area of t he agility, we will also have up another path a huge debris pile for working and hopefully down the road a bit in time a pond at the bottom of our property for swimming.  And of course we have camping and a range for the human counterparts 🙂 Look forward to a nice camping k9 party!!

Training day

Posted on by

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!

The swimming hole!