Oct 4, 2008

I sucked it up and got my courage back and decided to take Juno to Tampa today to meet Ed, the trainer for the Tampa FD search dogs.  I've trained with him many times, but always with Rascal, not Juno.  I had no idea what she would do, so I decided to move back to the very beginning and do a run-away myself, onto the rubble.  Ed and I walked over and up onto the pile to see where we could hide today.  Juno went up with us just to explore.  She has no issues with clibing, slipping and sliding on the rubble.  I should have taken a picture of it, because it is quite large and difficult to maneuver.

Ed suggested that he hide right at the top and get her excited about climbing onto the rubble.  She did great!  He then moved across the pile, but did a call-out when she got to the top.  Again, she did fine.  For the third rep, he stayed in the same place, but did not call her.  She got to the top and barked in frustration - Where was he?  She saw him and ran to him and alerted.  He was not concerned about this, because he said she stayed in search mode and didn't begin to wander or break off.  A fourth run cleaned this up and she ran back to where he was hiding.

After a break to work other dogs, Juno got another chance to work.   We repeated the same problem and she did a great job.  Ed then moved about 6 feet away.  She ran right to where he'd been hiding, didn't find him and turned into the wind and there he was.  He does this to get them to begin to use their nose and not their eyes.  Over all, a very nice day for her.  She was speedy in finding him, had a good, confident alert and enjoyed her food reward.

Ed was pleased with her and said she was progressing well.  He said if he had her, he could have her ready for testing in 6 months.  I guess that puts the pressure on me  :-)  Her biggest problem is me, because I've started and stopped her several times, and she is not totally confident going to new areas.  That is something I can work on.  Working her a minimum of two times a week with helpers and on rubble will be far more difficult.