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.