Sunday Sunday Sunday!

Yes I realize that technically as I type this it is actually Tuesday, however, better late than never, right?

Sunday, after an extremely hectic week of driving to hockey games and relatives and parties it was time to get back to the grind.  Mike and Molly met Storm and I for a quick evening training in the area of Station 22.  I didn't get to see or hear them, but Mike said he heard and saw quite a few deer in the area, which was slightly funny as Monday started hunting season.

Sadly no new photos to share but training tomorrow night and then Sunday a big one where photos are possible.  Stay tuned for more updates!

Busy week...

Once again I have failed at the "Daily" part of this blog, in my defense it is the week of Thanksgiving and I was out of town for a day or two.

I went and had dinner with the family and took both Storm and Lola with me.  In the grand scheme of potty training Storm had a minor setback when he peed in his crate.  In his defense though his schedule with the holiday and all was all kinds of screwy. 

On Friday we drove back as Storm had a vet appt. at 3pm, we made it there just a tad late, but in plenty of time to get his last series of puppy shots and his rabies!  We made a follow up appt. to get his lyme disease shots in 3 weeks. 

After the quick visit to the vet, I managed to get a hold of Mike and Molly and we did a little training at the local park. 

All in all a pretty busy but good day.  Here is to hoping that we can get together on Sunday to train some more, we'll see who is interested.

Another day of success!

I put Storm in his crate again last night before I went to bed, and woke up this morning to a whining dog, but a clean crate!  Crate training works people, when you do it right that is.  I admittedly had no clue what I was doing when I tried to crate train my other dog Lola, however this time I am doing it right and successfully. 

For anyone interested and in need of help, the crate has to be just the right size for your dog, it cannot be to big.  The crate should be just big enough for your dog to stand up in and turn around.  I am currently leaving Storm in the crate for about 9 hours with no issues.  You MUST feed and walk the dog before you put him/her in the crate and allow him/her to eliminate before going in the crate for the best chance at success.  You should start crate time at smaller intervals to begin with and slowly increase the time.

Hopefully a few of us will be able to get together for training tonight, despite the weather being crappy, but hey, people get lost in the woods when it rains too.

Misinformed...

So at training yesterday we were discussing the basic training of the puppy.  Potty training and the like and I described my setup to both Brenda and Mike.  My understanding, based on a number of sources of the book form, was that Storm was too young to be kept in a crate for an average workday, basically that he could not hold his bladder for the whole time I would be at work.  According to them that was incorrect and basically all I was doing was promoting Storm to "go" all over the place and not really training him.  So, I agreed that when I got home we would start crate training him. 

I got home from training and put Storm in the crate for approximately four hours.  After that period of time I fed Storm and then played and had activity with him until he basically whined (his indicator that he needs to go).  I took Storm outside and he relieved himself, after which I brought him in, played with him some more and then, about 10pm, put him back in the crate. 

Storm woke me up with whining again about 4:45 this morning.  I immediately got up and took him out where he relieved himself again, I then put him back in the crate and went back to sleep.  I woke up again at 7:30, fed and played with Storm for about a half an hour, then we went for our morning walk.  Storm relieved himself again, then we played some more until I had to get ready for work.  I put Storm in the crate and HE MADE IT, all the way until I got home from work.  I immediately took him out when I got home and he relieved himself. 

With any luck he will be potty trained in a few short days!

...and still more training.....

Out of the last 7 days we have trained four of them to some extent or another.  I once again tried to use my camera. but it appears that the camera is not the issue as much as the card that goes in the camera.  I did manage to catch one photo to give you an idea of what kind of result comes from these trainings.  This was taken in the car on the way home, Storm was laying on the front seat next to me.

I can't believe...

It's Saturday!  Looking at the blog my last post was on Monday and well, that is a fail on the "daily" part.  It has been a bit of a crazy week.  Storm trained on both Tuesday and Thursday nights and did fantastic as usual.  Tomorrow is Sunday and still more training.  Maybe I'll have pictures tomorrow.

Seems I keep apologizing...

This blog should have been written yesterday, however once I got home from training around 6ish I plopped down in front of the TV for about an hour where I got really tired and by 7 was in bed.  I slept for about 11 hours, guess I was tired AND worn out from training, not to mention sore.  I haven't carried a backpack with any weight in a while and holy hanna my back is sore.

Anyway, yesterday we had the multi-company training and it was a lot of fun.  Met some more new people with search dogs and even met a shepherd named Storm!  Storm did amazing as usual, the dog continues to impress me on a daily basis, and everyone who met him a month ago was amazed at how big he had gotten.

Ahh, Yesterday.

I apologize for not posting, I was busy taking certification classes online and doing laundry.  Yesterday however, Mike, Christine and I got together near the station with our dogs and did some runaways.  It was a beautiful day, wind was gusty at times, moving west to east, which was actually perfect for where we were set up.  All of the dogs performed really well, and I think I was a bunch of improvement in Gwynn.  I took my camera, but as soon as I started taking pictures the camera stopped working, I didn't really get any shots, I'm sorry folks.

Today is training again, this time a multi-agency training and it should be fun and exciting.  I'll report back more later.

Ah...how invigorating!

Needless to say it is a tad bit chilly outside and in looking forward to this weekends training I was determined to finish Storms impromptu safety orange vest.  This is me sending out raspberries to our Team Coordinator Brenda who told me that I would not get the impromptu vest sewn fast enough before Storm grew out of it.  What I did was take a childs extra small orange shirt and more or less cut it to fit Storm.  Yes, it is not a perfect fit, but I did sew it by hand and it more or less fits him as can be seen in the following photograph. 

On a side note Storm does seem to be all well and fine, the poop issue was more than likely stress related.  In addition I was able to get Storm to poop outside, and not in the house which is a HUGE improvement.

I will probably have more pics tomorrow and on Sunday with all the training going on.

Back to normal?

I hate to think that the blog is becoming a poop status, but with a puppy it can be an indicator of something bad.  In this case, it seems that all is well again.  Storm seems to be back to himself and his umm...poop appears to be normal again as well.  Yes I was worried for a bit, but he did not seem dehydrated, and I gave him plenty of water.

I may not get time to post any pics in the morning, the car is making funny noises and I think I need to take it to the shop first thing.

Stay tuned though because I'll have a chance to get some photos of Molly, Gwynn and Storm on Saturday.

All is not well...

I woke up this morning and came out to find what can only be described as Storm having explosive diarrhea.  The floor of my kitchen was a disaster area, a haz-mat if you will.  In addition Storm seemed really lethargic, not coming out of his crate, not whining at me, etc.  I cleaned up the mess and fed him, but he had absolutely no interest in food and promptly walked back into his crate.  I went about my morning routine and by the time I had to leave for work he was walking around and nibbling at his food, basically acting more like himself.

I came home after work tonight to find a similar situation, diarrhea all over the floor again.  At least this time Storm was active and didn't seem to be lethargic at all, in fact he seems fine.  From my reading he should be able to go without food for a day, so I will try a liquid diet for now, and if he doesn't improve by the morning, another trip to the vet will be in order.

I understand that stress can have this affect on puppies, and yesterday Storm sure had a lot of it, but just to be sure we will wait til morning and see what is going on with him, see if a vet visit is in order.  I did give him his once a month interceptor(worm pill), maybe that will help a little bit.

Meeting night...

Well tonight was the Valley Search and Rescue meeting, I arrived late having been at work til 7, then having to drive home, change and get Storm, then drive to the station.  It was good to see some familiar faces and friends, and I got accepted as a probationary member of the team (YEAH!).  After the meeting Storm got to do a few more runaways in the dark and again he was impressive.  Even with Team Coordinator Brenda hiding, he still managed to find her, with a bit of coaxing, but he did great!

There is a big multi-agency training on Sunday and I'm really looking forward to that as well.  It's a bit of a drive, but it will be worth it.

As an addendum to this note, yes I added this later, Storm found some, what we assume was cat poop, and promptly ate it.  I attempted to stop him, and wound up with poop all over my hands.  At the time it was a funny joke, and Storm was being called a poop eater.  See tomorrows blog for the follow up.

Oh!  I got the batteries for my camera today, Finally!  Here is one of the better shots that I took in the house.

Good Morning!

This morning Storm had his follow up appt with the vet for some more puppy shots.  He gained 6 pounds since 2 weeks ago and is growing like a weed!  He did great on his shots, not even a whimper and the vet scheduled his next appt for a month from now.

Tonight, after work, is search and rescue training.  I'll report back later after that on how it went.

More Training..

Today Brenda Richards(VSAR K9 Team Coordinator) and I got together for some one on one training.  We talked a bit about search gear and training logs and Brenda showed me her log and how she keeps her records.  Right now my records are this blog, until I come up with a system I like. 

After our talk we put the dogs to work.  Storm went first doing a quick runaway with great success, then we upped the ante a little bit.  We did a few run and hides with storm. and while he showed a little bit of hesitation, he came through with finding both Brenda and I. 

We then did a more involved search problem for Brendas' dog Blue.  I ran and hid, and when I was in place Brenda let Blue come find me, which she did, successfully.

After some more chit chat, we parted ways and I'm looking forward to more training on Tuesday night after the meeting.

I've been bad...

It's been several days since I have posted anything, let alone pictures, and for that I apologize.  I am eagerly awaiting the batteries and charger that I ordered for my digital camera so I can show you some more quality photos.  In addition it has been a very busy week at work and at home.  I've been shopping around for the required items I need for my search and rescue pack, and I am slowly getting there.  The pack was delivered today, although I was not home when UPS came, so now I have to go to them and pick it up tomorrow, otherwise I would have to wait til Monday! 

I put out a Email to some people on the team to help train Storm on the days and or weeks when we don't actually have team training and a couple of people were gracious enough to offer their time.  There might be training this Sunday, but not entirely sure, I'm hoping that there is. 

I PROMISE that there will be more photos soon.

More Training...

Tonight was training with the whole search and rescue team, and I took storm along.  I was finally able to hand in my application for the team, despite attending training 3 times already.  Tonight we took a short walk in the woods and discussed and started/setup fires and shelters.  I got the feeling that a lot of the people who attended learned quite a bit, I just wish my new pack would arrive to I can stock it and be ready to go!

After training a few of us K9 handlers hung out and did some runaways and or quick search problems.  Storm performed like a champ as usual and didn't even require a toy to come running to find me.  I have to say that he is growing up so fast.  He is probably twice the size of when I picked him up just 2 1/2 short weeks ago.

I am working on getting batteries for my digital camera so that I don't have to upload these crappy cell phone pics anymore, so stay tuned!