Working In Stages

She loves what she does.  This job suits her.  Her mind needs challenges.  She needs puzzles, day in, day out, or she invents her own.

Today, she was faced with a challenge.  Not a search challenge, but a challenge none the less.  Kaeden was in the water.  She wanted to know what Kaeden was doing.  But that meant going into the water.  It wasn't deep enough for her to have to swim, but she didn't trust that.  You could see her trying to figure out how to get to Kaeden without getting wet.  She gave up on that, only to readjust her parameters so that she would only get 'just so wet'.  Her chest touching water was her limit.  She circled the water.  First clock wise, then counter clock wise.  Then back again.  Then she tried running across the water really fast, and discovered she still got wet.  So, more circling.  Kaeden, I think, felt he had found paradise.  She was leaving him alone, and he was doing his thing undisturbed.  He looked rather smug.  

Then she gave up and plunged in.  She reminded me of a agoraphobic trying to step out into sunshine.  In she was and then she was fighting with herself to stay in with Kaeden, or run like heck to get out.

In the end, run like heck won out.  Then she tried another entrance into the water only to get herself caught in the bushes and scare herself.  She was able to get herself free and then flew across the water to get back to 'high' ground.

It was funny to watch as she then tried to entice Kaeden to come out of the water by trying to tear up a bush near the water - she'd rip a stick off and then turn and look at him.  Then she'd pounce on the bush and look at him.  All the while he ignored her.  She expressed great relief when we finally called him out of the water and back to the truck so we could get to work.

She is a natural, this one.  A natural trailer, and natural air scenter, a natural search dog.  Today was no exception, as I purposely walked THROUGH a newly constructed building and she followed my trail through the building - going from hard pan dirt to cement and back to dirt again.  I have said it before, and I have no doubt I will say it again. She has done this before.   

And of late, she has been finding her voice.   From trying to get our attention to help her get her toy back from Kaeden, to tonights newest antic, barking for dinner.  THAT was a Please trick.... 

We shall see....

Mensa?

I don't believe I have ever seen such an adept puppy.  I am not trying to pat my own back or toot my own horn.  I am simply commenting on how often my jaw drops to the ground at the next thing that Raezor does.  I feel almost like I don't have a hand in it.  Like Kristi doesn't have a hand in it.  Like we're just along for the ride.

Which probably means I should just enjoy it.....

That said....  She did a problem with a brand new subject on Saturday.  It was a cold, blind start.  But one mistake was made.  The subject was not given a radio.  We had no communication with him for him to let us know when she found him, or to even talk to him about anything.

This had disastrous potential consequences.  What if she found him and didn't want to leave him... perhaps he would do something, inadvertently, to scare her in an attempt to make her leave to go back Kristi.  What if she found him and did indeed leave him..... to go off and explore the world on her own... thus discovering SHE could make the problem last longer if she didn't come back. What if HE didn't go where he was told to go.... how would we ever make this successful....

All these thoughts were racing through my head as we walked out to start the dog.  What I SHOULD have done was stop everything for 10 minutes and walk a radio out to the subject and my worries would be over.  My blood pressure would come down.  The swelling blood vessel in my brain wouldn't burst.  And all would be right with the world.

Oddly enough, that thought never occurred to me.  In fact, that thought didn't occur to me until right now as I wrote it.  

Instead, I ranted over and over to Kristi as she set the dog off with the 'go find' command....' how is this going to work?!  This could be a disaster! This is going to be awful...' and we notice that Raezor was ranging about 100 feet in front of us, obviously working a scent cone and set to disappear across the creek.  I pushed Kristi off and said, you NEED to catch up to her or this is going to be horrible.

There was no catching up to Raezor.  She had scent, she was GONE... across the creek and beyond.  

Before Kristi could get to the creek, I saw something that I flat out couldn't believe.  From the other side of the brush and creek, here came Raezor, just as hard and as fast as I had ever seen her, and she was intent on getting to Kristi in the most expedient way possible.  Kristi read her correctly that she had been into the subject,  and set her self to cue the alert, but she never had a chance because Raezor was in the air launching before the request was made.... contact was made and she did a flying kick turn and headed into the subject long before the "E" in SHOW ME was yelled.   Back to the subject she flew... and to top that off, Kristi STILL hadn't caught up, so she spun back around and back to Kristi she ran... and the sequence played all over again.

Now, my tune changed from "how horrible this could be" to "You are so f-ing lucky"  but inside, I was marveling at what I had just witnessed.  I had just witnessed a 5 1/2 month old puppy do an entire search problem, with all the elements intact.  No hesitation on her part, all concentration and joy.  She did exactly what every mission ready search dog does, without cues, without radios, without all the 'crutches' we should have had.  This she did with less than a handful of trainings where the alert/refind sequence of trainings had occurred.

Now, I am not saying "poof" at 5 1/2 months, she is a trained search dog.  Far from that.... she absolutely needs to work, be worked, and be trained to make her rock solid bomb proof.  What I am saying is that this puppy has put all these pieces together and when we were pressured and worried and concerned, she did the job.  This should predict a high probability of success for her as a search dog in the field when OUR stress level is so high because of the situation, she will be well driven to perform correctly.