Tag Archives: black shepherd

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 wet training

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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!!!

Our first negative trail

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Eme has had a good week, a lot of really challenging good trails set up thanks to the hard work of my teammates!  Today we attempted our first ever negative trail area. Essentially the scent article was collected from my subject and presented in an area he had NEVER been in. Instead a 30 minute hot track had been laid by another subject whom she had not been given a scent article for. This was a completely new concept to Miss Emeline as she has ALWAYS had her trail somewhere in the vicinity of where i have casted her.

Well she really did wow me today. I scented her on the tshirt and she gave me negatives in two directions saving the direction down toward the water where she did have the distraction trail as last. I sent her down there to check it out and she showed some interest in it, i told her no and casted her a bit further out same reaction but she steered herself back up to the scent article. She stopped and i re scented her again and she just sat down “um duh mom it’s not HERE!” You’ll see that around 1:20 of the video.

So proud of her!!

 

Wordless Wednesday

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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

Emeline- The trailing German

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Eme and Raina

So the last 3 weeks Eme has had to survive life with no trailing, i just couldn’t do it with one hand, not the way that beast pulls.

So today one of the Dog Corps. interns, Luke wanted to set up her trail. I wanted something short and sweet, but i didn’t want to know anything about it. He hung out on the porch of a house and took off about a half mile. An hour later we suited up.

Our ritual is set, she understands as she sits in the truck what is going to happen. She watches as i grab her trailing vest, her long line, and the baggy that contains “her persons” scent.  As i walk to my LKP (last known point) to place out her paraphernalia she whines ever so slightly so i do not forget her. Not like i can, i mean i would look pretty funny following an empty harness around in a circle! My nose certainly can’t do the things hers can but she doesn’t know that, she thinks the world of me for just being me!!!!

I got her dressed, presented her article gave her the german command to track and we were off like a whirlwind. No doubting her being correct in our direction of travel, her nose glued to the ground and her four legs moving faster then mine as i run behind her to keep consistent tension on the line.

Emes’s trail July 6th. Subject is blue eme is red

She took her turns perfect with no hesitation and never once airscented (little wind but his scent pool would still be present after an hour of sitting out there) her head finally came up once she reached his shoe!