Dog training - 04/24/17 09:03 AM
So for the past 4 days.... Thursday through Sunday, I have been participating in a very intense HRD dog training seminar. We have worked with 3 different instructors throughout the seminar and learned quite a few things.
During this event we worked on everything from very basic boxes and scent games to a school search of lockers and clearing rooms for HRD, to a simulated airplane crash site with body parts scattered over a 1 acre field that was burned from the plane crash flames, and woods and field and building searches where crimes allegedly took place and body parts are suspected to be hidden. At the school, apparently, one of the dogs in the group before us had cut it's foot somehow and had bled all over the hallway floor. My dog was the first to run the scenario from our group and had to run it with the very attractive distraction of fresh blood on the floors. In spite of that, she focused on the job and located body parts in 2 lockers and 3 out of 4 rooms. That one room was a "negative" room.... no HR in it but there to see if the dog falses. It should be noted that they also placed bomb materials, marijuana, and cocaine in the lockers as distractions. None of our HRD dogs are imprinted on those items so they were successfully ignored as were dead animals placed as distractions in the field trials.
On Friday, we were working some training at the Wilson CO Fairgrounds when I noticed a lady laying in the grass with a camera about 25 feet away from where I was working with Lilly my dog and we were being photographed. Later the lady identified herself as a reporter covering the event.
Newspaper Story here
Hopefully, you can access this story. If not, it's also posted on my facebook page (Herb Hartley) and on Lilly's facebook page ( Lilly the Shepherd). In the picture, it's kind of hard to see, but Lilly is about to pounce on the source in a white PVC pipe in the grass. Man was she excited.
We had good weather for the entire seminar. Sunday was cooler, cloudy and a bit misty at times but we still had a great time and learned a number of new skills and things to pay attention too with our dogs.
During this event we worked on everything from very basic boxes and scent games to a school search of lockers and clearing rooms for HRD, to a simulated airplane crash site with body parts scattered over a 1 acre field that was burned from the plane crash flames, and woods and field and building searches where crimes allegedly took place and body parts are suspected to be hidden. At the school, apparently, one of the dogs in the group before us had cut it's foot somehow and had bled all over the hallway floor. My dog was the first to run the scenario from our group and had to run it with the very attractive distraction of fresh blood on the floors. In spite of that, she focused on the job and located body parts in 2 lockers and 3 out of 4 rooms. That one room was a "negative" room.... no HR in it but there to see if the dog falses. It should be noted that they also placed bomb materials, marijuana, and cocaine in the lockers as distractions. None of our HRD dogs are imprinted on those items so they were successfully ignored as were dead animals placed as distractions in the field trials.
On Friday, we were working some training at the Wilson CO Fairgrounds when I noticed a lady laying in the grass with a camera about 25 feet away from where I was working with Lilly my dog and we were being photographed. Later the lady identified herself as a reporter covering the event.
Newspaper Story here
Hopefully, you can access this story. If not, it's also posted on my facebook page (Herb Hartley) and on Lilly's facebook page ( Lilly the Shepherd). In the picture, it's kind of hard to see, but Lilly is about to pounce on the source in a white PVC pipe in the grass. Man was she excited.
We had good weather for the entire seminar. Sunday was cooler, cloudy and a bit misty at times but we still had a great time and learned a number of new skills and things to pay attention too with our dogs.