Our schedule is always hectic and jam packed in the spring through the end of June. Spring searches, fundraising events, community education booths and training, training and more training! But I did not want to neglect sharing our latest search successes with you!
Okie and I had our second working find during a search May 26th. We were dispatched to aid in the location of a 54 year old possible suicide at approximately 10:00AM Saturday morning. We arrived on scene and where dispatched to the field at 12:00PM. After working our task about ¼ of the way through, we located the man that was missing.
If that was not enough of a test of Okie’s skill for one weekend, a missing person we had searched for back in March was located the very next day. Okie had indicated human scent in a water filled gorge area of a local park. I reported Okie’s alert to incident command and, for whatever reason, the area was never searched with dive teams. Now that the water is warming up due to the time of year, the body floated up from its deep water resting place and was found floating almost ½ mile down river from our area of alert. He is accurate and reliable on his alerts and I have learned to trust what Okie tells me. If he says something is there….it is there! Buried, in water, under or over, makes no difference, he will locate and pinpoint human scent if it is in the area he is assigned to search!!
Blue can’t wait to go out on real search calls with us!! She doesn’t understand why she is not loading up too, she gives me those forlorn looks and I promise her some day soon she will go too! But for now she enjoys training and her therapy visits!
Blue is doing quite well. Her search training is going smoothly and is right on course. I am planning to certify her NASAR K9 Trailing III in the fall, I am sure she will be more than ready. After much thought, I finally had Blue spayed last Thursday March 22nd. I know she would have created some outstanding pups with the right stud, but she has greater things to accomplish in life at this time; and at 3.5 years old, her producing days are coming to an end anyway…..beside that, I know I can always count on Frontier Retrievers to produce the best search candidate pup when we are ready to start again….which I hope is not for a long, long time. I expect Okie and Blue to be with me in the field for many years to come.
I have saved the MOST OUTSTANDING NEWS for last……On this past Saturday, March 24th, Okie and I traveled across state to be the 1st K9 team in the state of Pennsylvania to challenge and pass, with flying colors, the new and more comprehensive expectations for air scent dogs in our state. As you may remember, approximately a year ago I was ask to serve on the committee to rewrite the standards for PA DCNR ( Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources) Air Scent K9 Specialist , making them more realistic and fully encompassing of the challenges an Air Scent team may find searching in the wilderness of PA. Those standards were accepted and Okie and I were pleased and honored to be the 1st team to meet the challenge.
The test was multi-faceted and took about 10 hours to complete. A pre-requisite of PA DCNR Field Team Leader is required by the handler as well and 1st Aid and CPR/AED certification for human and canine application. A written test covering varying subjects came first. Then, on and off leash obedience, showing acceptance to a friendly stranger and friendly canine, practical application agility and swimming for Okie. Our first field problem was a 100 acre area of challenging terrain with one well concealed subject. Next, a 1 mile hasty trail search for another well concealed subject and last, a 30 acre night problem for one well concealed subject, which was not only dark but extremely foggy! Could I possibly be more proud of my boy’s performance? Okie is an amazing dog…I can’t imagine life without my boy! The lead evaluator on our testing said Okie was an absolute “fire cracker” and a highly intelligent dog. He can be a bit quirky, but most “superstars” are, right?
Blue update.....WHAT A GIRL!! We just got back from a trailing workshop weekend and I must tell you that Mys Blue was smoking off trailing dogs that have been training for a year or better!! She is a natural. She has the same basic ingredients that my Okie has: Joy for life, a deep desire to work, intelligence and problem solving skills, undeniable drive and the ability to adapt and accept new situations and terrains............we will reach certification together probably in a year (it would probably be less if Okie and I weren't working on his next level too!!)
Also wanted you to know that Blue passed the AKC-CGC/Therapy dog test yesterday...her first of hopefully many certs....she is a love and a half. She and Okie play and romp together like they have been together all their lives....he loves her too! They are both sleeping behind my chair right now, what a sweet picture. She continues to show promise in her search abilities, her problems are super short and very rewarding right now. We did have a search call last evening, Blue went along just for the ride and to absorb all the smells, sounds and people on scene.....fortunately for us, we did not need to spend our entire evening outside searching....right before we got on scene, the 75 year old lady with Alzheimer's was found safe and sound!! Although Okie would have rather spent his evening outside on the search, we got to socialize a bit with our friends on other teams and go home.
