Enjoy!
Abby, Raina, Fugly, and Soren all swimming on a stop on our hike
Mr man looking miserable!
Raina working her target command for heeling excercise
Wordless Wednesday
Category Archives: Raina Uptown Girl Vom Französisch Wald
Raina’s the newest member of the Canine Copilot pack, follow her in training and certification with New York State Federation of Search and Rescue in both airscent and Cadaver.
Never fear a dull weekend is not near!
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
A few pictures from our water weekend hosted by NJ SAR
Sören swimming out of the water, happy to have 4 on the floor.
Brother and sister (Sören and Jordis) take a break from socializing and play together on the dock ramp into the lake.
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
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.
Terrific Tip Tuesday
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)
A wet training
Yesterday proved to be a wet training day. With thunderstorms all around the rain was non stop but of course so were the dogs. Not much holds them back and a heavy down pore an distant thunder most certainly didn’t. Raina had a wonderful 2 acre blind HR problem which we did in about 40 minutes. One of the sources was buried 8 inches deep, the other under a bunch of leafy debris. She worked each out with little frustration despite it DOWN POURING as soon as we got to the area. Within 60 seconds the two of us, along with our flanker where soaked head to toe. The rain kept up for the first half with no avail. I was able to easily enough narrow down the sections of our area she had scent and by the time we worked out which two small sections we planned to detail the rain had slowed to a drizzle. Raina did great, and of course why would she ever let the rain bother her???
Jordis, Sören’s sister had her second batch of puppy problems and proved that she is quickly learning the game. Her drive is pretty outstanding. Keep a look out for her updates!
Eme had her second contamination trail, which was a bit different then she is used to. Typically we have different kids from the school as subjects or my team mates, yesterday we had a female handler from another team whom eme had never met nor trailed, and her 3 contamination trails (meant to distract her off the scent she SHOULD be following) were all boys she loves and trails at the school. Not once did she even deviate off her subject the whole time!! The ending was a bit of a mess due to her subject having been all down in the area the trail ended working her own personal dog, but eme went into airscent mode, worked the elevation and the scent pool and figured it out just like she would have to in a real search. Way to go Eme-lion!!!
Some weekend photos
This past weekend was all about the adult dogs, we don’t want them to feel left out when the pups come especially the other working dogs. Below are a few pics from hanging out this weekend. Of course we did plenty of work too!!!
Raina portrait
Emeline
Abby
Flashback Friday
This weeks flashback friday post is pictures of the canine copilot dogs out and about for Elite Instinct Canine training sessions.
Raina and I at Home Depot
Franky in the car waiting for the lesson to begin
Abby in a sit stay
Wordless Wednesday
Our wordless Wednesday post is all about working dogs in action this week.
Raina alerting on a door, the subject was in the back of that building.
Abby playing with her subject after the find
Emeline about to take off
The weekend report
Typical weekend for the pack consists of some fun and play after some work. Sunday was no different and the girls all got what they needed! Raina worked some HR, making fast work of a problem that was set up 48 hours prior. The dog amazes me every time i see her work. I got lucky, really lucky that not only did i get an amazing genetic package with her (thanks to my team member Rita who bred Raina and her sister from a previous litter Abby) but i also have had years of dog related experiences in multiple facets to be able to raise her to be such an amazing working dog. You really cannot have a good canine search team without both the genetically appropriate dog and the knowledgeable trainer who knows how to work their dog to its fullest potential. Raina’s fullest potential was obvious when she was a certified airscent and HR dog at 12 months old, she has been ROCK SOLID ever since.
But i have digressed obviously, can’t help it 🙂
Emeline also ran a nice short, hot trail through a parking lot and around the school building with contamination everywhere. She did great, especially getting a direction of travel when casting her on the blacktop.
After we finished up the work we piled all 5 dogs in the truck and headed out to our swimming spots, first stopping off at the Delaware river section where its deep enough for the girls to really swim.
One going out, one coming in
Next we moved on to a more shallow inlet section where max and frank really got to enjoy it, as neither swims in deep water.
hanging out in the cool water
We finished up the day with obedience. The key to a well behaved dog is regular fun obedience sessions which we do daily.
Attention healing with happiness
Elite Instinct K9 Training 