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.

All in a days work

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Part of my job with my K9 partners is to search for runaway students from the school i work at teaching dog training, The Family Foundation School. Monday morning comes and I’m minding my business getting my lesson plan for the week together when i see a girl take off running. K9 Abby and I deploy with two flankers and get a direction of travel. She has a good head start on us and as the only K9 team out we make a search plan up as we go.  Checking frequent travel routes by runaways we pop out 4 miles later and get back to the school for a break and some food. Next we harness up K9 Raina and redeploy covering another 5 miles of potential land.

Raina with PA and the Delaware river behind her

Tuesday morning brings us back out again, this time covering another 4 miles with some beautiful views of NY and PA, some great quarries, and some hot weather. The girls did fantastic working tirelessly for hours and each got closure wednesday morning when they got to meet there subject after she was returned to the school. Unfortunately she has no idea where she went, but Abby gave us a pretty good picture.

Raina working the quarry

 

We gave the girls their “paychecks”  by giving them a short easy find with a lot of play time!!!

I’m always amazed at the level of dedication in the dogs and the people, especially my students who go out on the searches with me. It was a lot of miles and a lot of gator aid.

The view

 

A very tiring holiday weekend

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Raina

 

Friday morning K9 Raina and K9 Abby deployed with me south of Utica to search for a hunter who went missing on thanksgiving. We were on the road by 5am and in the field as soon as we arrived.  We met Kara our flanker from Amigo and got Raina started first, working Abby later in the afternoon to finish up our area and recheck a couple places Raina had scent. The search was called off later that afternoon after he was located deceased. It was a sad ending but at least the family had closure. Raina and Abby worked about 7 miles total and were happy to get home and take a break!

Of course there is no rest for the weary and we were deployed last night at 7pm to Ellenville to search for a missing man. He had been missing for almost 22 hours already and K9 teams were out all day. We took the night shift working from 7pm till 5am this morning. It was a crazy night in rocky mountains and high mountain laurel up and down over the hills chasing scent and clearing areas. After 7 miles with Raina I got abby out to clear the rest of my area. She dragged us up to the same mountain top and worked scent all over till my phone rang. It was our subject, he thought he was on the mountain across the street from his house and he was cold, hungry, and not 100% coherent.  After the area was thoroughly checked with no trace we re deployed raina back in our area where the dogs had interest. The subject called back again, he was confused and scared and said people were chasing him, and he could see our flashing lights. I looked at my flanker from Amigo Erik and knew we had to step it up! Raina had a bright blue flashing light on her vest and i knew we had been closing in on someone earlier when he had called. Our suspicions were right he didn’t want to get found, he wanted to make it out on his own!! After a scary run in with a confrontational pack of coyotes we took our sticks and moved on clearing the rest of our area. We emerged from the woods and went home at 5:30am. Halfway home my phone rang again, our subject had walked out on his own an hour after we left down the street from his house! He was safe, the girls did great, and we managed a few hours of sleep before our week began again!!!

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!

 

Rainy brainy

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Raina 7 weeks old

 

Raina is my 12 month old German Shepherd. Her half sister (same father) is Emeline and her full sister from the previous litter is Abby.  I was the first person to touch her the second she was born, and i was honored enough to be her owner. Her career started out at 8 weeks when i brought her home. She was a pistol and the other dogs loved her. Emeline thought she was the best thing in the world, her very own puppy!!!

The past 10 months have gone by fast, i cannot believe my girl is a year old! Her worth ethic is amazing, the photos and video of her say it all. She is a proof positive that phenomenal breeding’s make amazing working dogs! She is just like her mother whom i fell in love with 3 years ago when i started search and rescue. She is disciplined, focused, full of hunt and prey drive, and loves everyone she meets. She is one of those dogs that just makes you look like a damn good trainer! Well i knew she was special, i knew she was capable, and i knew she was fast……i guess i just didn’t realize how much!

Raina took her final airscent test on Saturday November 5th in Rochester NY. Her assignment was to search 100 acres and locate 2 subjects. Typical time for K9 and handler is between 2-4 hours to clear the area and locate both subjects and typical age for K9 is 2-3 years. We had a tough one, a large open field with high and low points and many wooded areas whose elevation changed and consisted of swamps in some sections. We also had people walking, loose dogs, and kids fishing in the stream as it was a local park.  Raina’s age is 12 months, but that doesn’t hold her back at all, her total time was 62 minutes, she knew her mission and i trusted my dog.  We finished up that great day with her certifying in human remains as well. She is officially a dual purpose dog has just started a long and successful search career. Her testing is far from done though as we will have her certified by outside agencies to, just to show proof positive how good her, and all my girls are at their jobs!

Raina 12 months

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!

Problems, problems

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That is of course search problems 🙂 below is a picture of our GPS log. We use the Garmin Astro, this way i can track my path and with a collar on Raina i can track her exact path as well. Then we load them into MapTech software and bingo i know exactly where we have been!! This track i believe is in Harpursville New York and the BLUE track is mine and the RED track is Raina. You can see the huge swing out she took away from me, this was when she had a blast of his scent from his location which is right after the curve. If  the wind had been stronger, she would have gotten him before we finished the area around.

Me blue Raina Red

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.