A lot has happenned!

Lets go back 2 weeks.  I went down to North Carolina the weekend of Sept 28-30th for a class on Human Remains Detection.  It was a great class and I learned a lot and met some really great people from that area.  I even managed to pick up a southern drawl in 2 days and then loose it again 2 days later, although my co-workers had a good time laughing at me for those 2 days. 

Storm got exposed to the smell of human remains and WOW, did it smell.  He worked his butt off down there and sadly the only nice days were the day I came down and the day I left, On Saturday it poured like all get out, and we were camping!

This weekend (yesterday), was Storms (and mine), K9 certification test.  It was a really long day and the culmination of a years worth of training.  In case anyone doesn't know what the test consists of, it is a 4 stage process. 

1) A written test on knowledge of working your dog, and dog health and safety,

2) A day search problem consisting of an area search of 80-120 acres.  You must notify the proctors of dogs alert and you have to successfully locate the victim in 3 hours or less.  There is actually more to it then this, you get a briefing, then the proctors become your support members, you brief them, you go out and search, once you locate the person, you have to assess him medically and treat him, then you have to radio in your location and any necessary needs for extrication.  I can honestly say that I almost failed this part, but my brilliant dog saved my butt by finding the subject before I made a fatal error.  There is a waiting period of at least 45 minutes between this problem and the next one.

3) A trail problem.  The trail problem consists of a person going down a trail up to a mile long and off of the trail between 20-30 feet.  The dog must work the trail and find the subject.  Storm did brilliantly and here I screwed up again by not bringing my full pack.  They gave me a patient with a serious leg injury and I didn't have any medical supplies on my because I had left them in the car.  Lesson Learned.

4) The Night Problem.  After Dark you get a briefing, them brief again the proctors as support people and you must search an area up to 40 acres in an hour and a half.  Storm did BRILLIANTLY.  We found the victim in very short order thanks to Storms lead and we managed to pass the day despite all of my personal failures. 

It was a REALLY long day, I think I left the house at 6:15 in the morning and got home about 10pm, but a most satisfying day as we (I say we because Brenda Richards, my Search team K9 Coordinator helped me pick Storm out, and the rest of my team who helped me train him), taught a rescued dog, to help rescue others.  I can only hope that he and I have a long career together saving lives.

Looks like we will be heading down to North Carolina in about 2 weeks for a training class.  I know it seems kind of far, but for the money they are charging it is well worth the drive. 

I think I have also decided not to put it off too much longer, I'm going to schedule Storm to take his test.  I'm both nervous and excited to go do it, I can only hope that I perform as well as Storm does.

Success!

Well it has certainly been awhile since I have posted on here it was a long hot summer and we really didn't train much, but some other interesting things happened.

I started my own business, Working K9 Wear, making vests for working dogs of all types.  You can check out my website at www.workingk9wear.com.  Since I started the company I have had a logo contest where I got some help from an awesome local company called Mosaic Interactive located in Bethlehem PA.  They called me in, got my input on what I was looking for and came up with an AMAZING logo.  I immediately had business cards, a banner and plastered it on my (newer) car.  (I was in a car accident over this summer as well and my car was totaled).  Here are some photos so you can see the awesomeness!

We had an interesting weekend this weekend as well.  Storm and I spoke at a local dog training/pet supply place named CHAAR in Allentown.  They brought us in to talk about search an rescue dogs, their training, etc.  They had also brought in 2 Bethlehem police K9 handlers and their dogs to speak and do a demo.

Sunday Storm and I drove out to the Fredon area of NJ for some multi-team training.  We were joined by at least 3 other teams for a beautiful sunny day of hide and seek with the dogs.  Storm and I were assigned a 20 acre area, where a subject was hiding.  Myself and a support person walked out in head high soaking wet weeds(from the previous days storm), for a little over an hour before Storm was able to locate his subject.  Storm did an awesome job and the subject told me that once Storm found him, he didn't hesitate to bark at all!  It was awesome to hear as his alert is something we are working on.

Looks like I may be assisting with another dogs testing this weekend, sadly Storm would have to stay at home for this one, but who knows, his time for a test may be coming soon!

The search team responded to a call last night of a missing grandfather and his two grandchildren.  Most of the team got their faces plastered in the news report, but Storm got his own face shot up close!  He didn't even get to help, but he made the news in one of the vests that I made.  Here is a link to the clip.  http://www.wfmz.com/news/news-regional-berks/Grandfather-2-grandchildren-found-alive-on-Hawk-Mountain-in-Albany-Township-Berks-County/-/121418/15184684/-/6haerr/-/index.html

I know it has been a while, and I apologize.  I'm in the process of trying to create a business making vests for working dogs.  I have put in an application for assistance on Peerbackers in the hope I can raise enough funding to gain the equipment I need to fund this venture.  Stay tuned for updates!

What a great week!

This past week was SAR-EX, the PA search and rescue conference.  I had never been to one before and it was cool to meet search and rescue people from all over the state (and NJ).  I took a bunch of classes, but the real big day was Saturday. 

Saturday morning I took my FTM (Field Team Member) exam and passed it without much difficulty.  Immediately after taking that exam I signed Storm up for his Canine Good Citizen test.  In all honesty I was more worried about how Storm was going to do that how I was going to do.  Needless to say Storm passed his exam (I still don't know how), and got yet another step closer to being able to be certified later this year.  There were definitely some nail biting moments for me and I really had no idea what I was doing for the test as I had never taken it before.  Storm LOVES to meet other dogs, but when doing so he usually lunges at them, well for some reason, during the test, no lunging.  Storm also has a tendency to do the same thing when meeting people..during the test...again, no lunging.  Storm and I have NEVER worked on stay, and when the test proctor told me to tell him to stay, and then drop the leash, I assumed that was going to be the automatic failure.  I was STUNNED!  Storm listened, and stayed long enough for him to pass his test.

Later that afternoon I took my FTL (Field Team Leader) test and passed that as well.  It was a really good conference for me and I look forward to leading Storm and other team members on the search for missing people in the near future.

Nearly a month since my last post...

It has been some time since my last post.  There was a week where my training partner Mike was out of town and I was busy with work and didn't really have time to train, but since Mike has come back I admit we have trained quite a few times.  Most recently we trained on Saturday.  Storm did a rather long problem and the wind was definitely not in his favor.  We were training in our usual area near Kidspeace but we decided that we would work the area a little different then we usually do, the opposite direction.  Starting from the West end of the property Storm and I moved up the valley, following the creek looking for Mike.  We went from one end to the other with no sign of him.  It was then we started back in the opposite direction.  Mike called me at one point to tell me that we had passed him a while ago, to which I informed him that we were working our way back through the assigned area.  I caught a glimpse of mike first, he was hiding in a blue tarp, but not long after Storm caught his scent and headed in that direction.  Storm had a small issue with the tarp for about 5 seconds but then figured it out.  Mike had timed me from the start and told me that Storm was working for a good 45 minutes.  Not too shabby!  I managed to snap this picture of Storm while we were taking a small break.