tsunami
New member
Today was TEST DAY. At 6:00am, Nami & I began his SAR Stage 4 testing. Planning complete, equipment cross checked, comm plan in place and we were off. Stage 4 is an Area Search and a Trailing program where he has to locate a stationary subject in a wilderness setting, return to his handler (your's truly), and then take us to the find. The Trailing bit is to follow an 'aged' trail while I document it.
When we got there, the evaluator told us we would go through all the testing stations first so we would be out of the way of the 'real candidates'. It seems that I had found another 'Only GSDs can make SAR Dogs' chuckle-head.
Fortunately, there were 3 evaluators and the other 2 weren't so obnoxious about it.
Apparently, Nami must have heard this cuz by 6:30am we had scored a perfect score on the skills and obedience segment (inspite of some very questionable commands from the evaluator) and were headed for the woods.
I know we need pictures so I tried but only got one of his very well groomed hind end (Jeannie would be proud) disappearing into the bushes. (I've gotta get some help on cameras, low light, and moving dogs from GAD.)
Nami had 90 minutes to accomplish this test. 50 minutes into the timelimit, he alerted, returned and took us to a very surprised volunteer. Seems that nobody told him there was a Newf in the bunch!
When Nami popped out of the bushes (behind the poor guy), he caught one look out the corner of his eye and thought BEAR!. Fortunately, Nami's harness and orange t-shirt stopped any serious heart and bowel problems. (Thanks for the great idea Christine!)
The aged trail was over in 15 minutes once Nami cut the trail. We came out the other end to the applause of the other handlers. Tsunami is now a 'provisional qualified' SAR Dog/XO (non-operational). I am so proud of the big lug!
We both have a BUNCH of work to do for the very difficult Operational Readiness Evaluation. I go to NJ without Nami for training program in October and we both have an intensive program in November.
One more Stage to go!!!
(Ok, Ok ... so it's a BIG Brag ...) Thanks to everyone out here for their support and suggestions.
When we got there, the evaluator told us we would go through all the testing stations first so we would be out of the way of the 'real candidates'. It seems that I had found another 'Only GSDs can make SAR Dogs' chuckle-head.
Apparently, Nami must have heard this cuz by 6:30am we had scored a perfect score on the skills and obedience segment (inspite of some very questionable commands from the evaluator) and were headed for the woods.
Nami had 90 minutes to accomplish this test. 50 minutes into the timelimit, he alerted, returned and took us to a very surprised volunteer. Seems that nobody told him there was a Newf in the bunch!
The aged trail was over in 15 minutes once Nami cut the trail. We came out the other end to the applause of the other handlers. Tsunami is now a 'provisional qualified' SAR Dog/XO (non-operational). I am so proud of the big lug!
We both have a BUNCH of work to do for the very difficult Operational Readiness Evaluation. I go to NJ without Nami for training program in October and we both have an intensive program in November.
One more Stage to go!!!
(Ok, Ok ... so it's a BIG Brag ...) Thanks to everyone out here for their support and suggestions.
Just awesome! Congrats to a great team!
