Tag Archives: pack structure

The heart swells with pride

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When owning dogs you have good days and bad days, especially when you have a large pack to manage and most are working dogs that are on the path to certification. Today was a great day, a day that makes me realize that all the time, effort, love, and discipline i put into my dogs everyday is worth it.  A day that makes me realize that what i do, what i teach, and what i know really is amazing.

Emeline and Raina and i started the morning out meeting Amigo SAR dog team members at Cole park.  I worked eme first on a short snow burial, her first ever with a nice quick refind to remind her what we have been practicing the last few months.  Then i took the plunge, i knew the last few weeks she was getting the whole concept of refind and it had been forever since the girl had a LONG problem where she had to work out scent. She was first up with an off trail problem over a mile long. As we were working she stayed close and checked back at me often, sometimes with bits of frustration, probably wondering why all of a sudden she was working so long to find her toy!

I was not sure where the subject was and only had man tracking to try to tell me when we were getting close. I wanted to make sure Eme had a successful find since it had been so long but i was worried her refind and indication would drop out like it had been a few months back.  Through the first 1/2 mile i had head pops across the water towards the subject so i knew she was working good. Once we got about 250 feet down the trail prior to the subject i noticed a body language change and a pep in her step! I was about to comment i thought we were close when she head popped right and took off up the hill, after working the cone back in to the subject so got him perfect, turned around came back to me as i gave her words of encouragement, sat in front of me barked and with a “show me” we were off to the subject! PERFECT!!!  We ended the problem with a 20 minute play session on the way back to the truck. We tugged, we fetched, we lost the toy a few times and found it again.  It was a great mesh of working dog and working handler. I love it when all the work pays off!

We worked Raina on some small short problems and now that she knows the game we are incorporating a refind back to me starting now. Her loyalty to the subject is already unwavering so bringing it back to mom now will help any hesitation later on in training.

 

Pull mom PULL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After training we hit the town and made rounds to Gander Mountain, the pet store and home depot for some in store work and out of store work. My emphasis with Raina is focus in public places and work on obedience commands with distractions. She is great at tuning out any noise but kids playing in the snow was just to much so we distanced ourselves and worked our obedience at Home Depot.

FOCUS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The girls all did great and Emeline and Raina shared their truck so nicely with Bonsai and Mika during the trip.  All 4 girls worked obedience for a few hours and even made some new friends and impressed some complete strangers with their obedience!

A weekend of Raina’s firsts

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The weekend had a bunch of raina’s firsts!!! Friday brought her first demo for a preschool class. She practiced a runaway, did some obedience, and socialized with the 3 year olds.

Practice makes perfect

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She did wonderful and all the kids loved her and parents highly impressed with her obedience! At 13 weeks old raina is an amazing girl and her rock solid nerves are shining through!

 

Saturday brought raina’s first search experience where she was able to socialize, practice her focus and obedience, do some short search problems, and experience 2 huge fire trucks leave the fire house lights and sirens!

Resting in the fire house

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday after we were done searching raina got to run some live search problems, two run aways and 1 short problem. Then we headed back home. Monday brought our first store visit where we went to home depot and practiced obedience, focus, (these are so important as you can tell!!) and just plain meeting everyone!! Raina did great and made me so proud.

 

Shopping at home depot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all it was a good weekend. Raina got a lot of exposure and socialization, experience in new places and with new people. All of this goes such a long way to making her a good balanced adult dog.

The power of time

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The weekends usually fly by anymore and its sad when i look at how little i accomplish sometimes.  This weekend however was not like that. Friday brought some training time and getting the house in order and paperwork set.  Raina had her first demo which will be in detail in the next post. Saturday morning Raina and I left the house at 430 am to head to Kingston NY for a search.  We spent the weekend looking for a missing man, I in the field and Raina back at the firehouse base socializing and learning how her future years will be spent as a SAR dog.  We spent saturday night at a team mates house and raina was great even sleeping in a strange crate in a strange room with new dogs coming in and out of the room all night. The importance of exposing your dogs to these new things are so important especially if you are raising a social working dog!!

Sunday night brought a few quick search problems for Raina in which she did amazing.  She is excellent at using her nose and not her eyes despite doing a run away or two first. Her drive is high and right now she works for food and ball play once shes cleaned her plate!

 

Monday is our in town day, eme and raina both get obedience, socilization, and work some new place in town. This week we did Home depot and Eme we worked her focus and attention to mom. We also built her play drive and then moved inside and worked some obedience around the new machines, all the people and carts ect.  Raina we worked on her focus and obedience and did a lot with her socialization. She also got to work 2 problems inside the garden center of the store!

Once finished there i met Kara at the state land up by me and we worked Eme on a few short problems. She did great came right back to me, wouldn’t take the toy, barked, went right back to kara did a second refind to me where i was finally able to reward her at me for the whole sequence!! We did it one more time with kara going a little further away and i got two refind sequences before rewarding her at me. A few more times like this and we will be on the road to a SOLID refind!!! Now just gotta get the bark automatic as soon as she is on her way back to me.

We finished up our weekend by relaxing at home and cuddling on the couch.  It was a great weekend and i was not only proud of my dogs but the teamwork that i experienced and the friendships i have developed just over one common love, the canine!

 

Pack visiting hours

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Life Long Tails had a small meeting/get together sunday to go over some grant options and new programs we need to start. The pack was beyond thrilled to have an extra 8 laps to sit on. The advantage to being a dog behaviorist and owning a pack of 11 dogs most all from rescue situations is that i had the ability to mold and train them to enjoy the company of strangers in the house and still keep that calm air about them.  Its rare that you will find a pack of this many dogs in size and breed range of ours that can achieve the state of balance we have gotten.

We have just met you and WE LOVE YOU!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have to say our guests were wonderful sports about the barrage of dogs that tackle you with kisses and barks when you walk in the door!! It can be very overwhelming if you do not have trust that I have a controlled pack.

 

Fugly!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The experience for both dogs and humans is great and from the feedback of the day i believe this will be at least a monthly occurrence. If interested in joining us and either helping with the rescue, hiding for the search dogs, or just gaining some confidence around a large pack of dogs this is your place!! Keep an eye on my blog and website http://www.eliteinstinctcanine.com for the schedule of events!

One cute cuddle session