What a beautiful day...

Very hard to believe that today is only March 18th.  The weather today started out kind of iffy with pretty heavy fog and a slight chill but around 10:30 it burned off and the sun came out.  It reached about 70 at Hickory Run State Park where we had K9 training today. 

Storm handled one of his biggest search problems yet today and he hung in there like a trooper and never gave up.  The wind was constantly changing on me while we were in the woods and he never really had an advantage at all until we were literally on top of our subject.  He did appear to catch some scent in a specific area, and we focused our search in that general direction which led to the find.  He did finally find his subject, but I was disappointed in his bark to let me know he had found someone.  It is obvious that it is an area that we will still need to work on. 

Storm did get to put his new search vest to good use.  It fit him well but it has some room for improvement on my side with the materials I used as the edge piping didn't hold up very well.  I'll have to find something a little more durable.

An old picture....

This picture was taken by a friend..(I didn't know she had it)  This has to be about 2 months after I got Storm and I just had to share it because it is PRICELESS!

Looking forward...

Well, we are supposed to train on Sunday and I'm looking forward to it.  Storm has been doing excellent and I just can't wait to see him excel even more.

On wednesday this week, I accompanied another team member, Audie Poole on an excursion to find a search puppy.  After many miles we think we found a puppy that will do great and she is now the proud owner of a border collie.

Sadly Storm is no longer the puppy of the search team, but I think this new border collie will be a great new addition and I look forward to seeing great things from him.

Storm in his new hand sewn search vest

What am I going to do today..

While most people had to work yesterday, I put in some long hours at work so I had off.  In addition the school is on Spring Break, so I am off for 10 days!  This has its pluses and minuses, but this is not the place for that. 

I called up Mike, and he agreed to meet me after he got off of work to do a little training.  Storm and I haven't been able to train much due to his being Neutered, and that we had just been busy, so it was a real treat to be able to get out there and train. 

The weather was kind of chilly, but the sun was out and it was a nice afternoon/evening.  Storm went first.  We are still working on his bark and hold and so we only did something really short.  Mike hid behind a nearby tree.  When I released Storm he seemed to lack focus, ran all willy nilly all over the place before coming back to Mike.  He did take a little coaxing, but he started barking his head off.  I was VERY pleased.

Molly went next, but when Storms turn came again the weather had turned, just like that.  The clouds rolled in and the wind picked up and it started snowing, SIDEWAYS!  Mike was already hidden, so I released Storm and he took off immediately.  I trudged through the blinding snow up the hill to the area where Mike was hidden, when he calls me on the radio that Storm has found him.  I wasn't anywhere close and I couldn't hear him barking as the wind was just deafening.  I finally made it up to both Mike and Storm, but Storm wasn't barking much anymore.  We got him to bark a few more times, and then we rewarded him with his ball.

We ran Molly again and then did another quick one for Storm.  Mike hid and Storm just found him right away, even against the wind and started barking at him for his ball.  All in all I would say a pretty successful day.