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Posted

This afternoon, Jazzy & I went to one of our training sites and did some cadaver search training. I picked an area of about 50 acres, walked around the area alone, placed the cadaver, took another path back(to make sure she is not tracking me to find the cadaver) through grassy and wet area.

 

She did great, I rewarded her in another area for 10 minutes or so. We went back to my car and realized my keys were missing. I froze because the keys included my work keys, home keys, car key, and also a key that opens some of the goverment gates in the city. I was also stupid enough to leave my cell phone and GPS in my car!(GPS would have been real handy to search the area where I walked) I did a grid search of each areas. After a few times of walking the same area, I was getting really worried.

 

When Jazz was still a puppy, I taugth her to find my keys in the house. I attached a little sheep key chain to the keys so that she could actually pick it up and bring it to me. I hadn't done the exercise for a long time as I never lose my keys (till today). I also removed the sheep thing months ago. I thought I'd give it a try so I asked her "the keys?" She looked at me like 'huh?' and she just wanted to play with me. After a while she just found some shady spots and watched me walking back and forth. 2 hours past, almost giving up, Jazzy came to me and gave me an indication (she jumps on me and pulls a bandana on my belt when she finds people in SAR). I thought she was just goofing around. I said 'show me' doubtfully, then she ran to this bush and did a down. I followed and checked the area but no keys. She stared at me and didn't move from the area. I checked some more ... and there! the keys were right under her belly!

 

I never taught her to find the keys outside or to do an indication on items. She only does it when she finds people. But because the little woolie key chain was gone and it was hard for her to pick it up, she decided to let me know some other way. It was amazing how she still remembered the old trick. Sometimes I can be such an idiot and I don't know what I'd do without this little smart Border Collie!

Posted

That is awesome!

 

After this ordeal with loosing Misty, I've thought about starting SAR training w/ Molly so she can search for the cat next time.

 

Good job Jazzy!

Posted

Way to go Jazzy!!!

 

One time after Piper finished finding someone during a drill, my husband discovered he had lost his brand new Smith Slider sunglasses which I had given him for his b-day to replace his ones he had lost fishing....He gave Piper the "look for it" signal and off she went, about 15 minutes later she found his sunglasses in a puddle.

 

Man-those dog's are smart!!!

Posted

Roz, That's awesome!

 

There are so many other ways to 'use' dogs' nose for our advantage - even little silly things.

 

We could train our dogs to:

 

Find a spot where cat peed so you can clean

Find termites in the house

Find cigarette in the house when your husband says he quit smoking

Find other women's purfume on BF's apartment!

Posted

lol smart is right, when I loose something I generally dont even bother to attempot to find it myself anymore, I just tell Happy to "find" and I point out general areas in which she starts doing thorough searches of till she finds the object, if I have something similier to show her for scenting she finds it within seconds, if I dont have something I just describe it lol she found somthing that way that was nowhere near hwere I had thought I lost it, I just told her "ball" and "blue netting" as it was a ball inside a blue net pouch, it took a while but Happy kept hunting and searching everywhere I asked and she found it way out in the ally. she is not a SAR dog, and has never been formerly trained for tracking stuff down, I have just always played "find" games with her ever since she was a pup. it is extremly helpfull lol she has always retrieved a roll of tape that fell under the car, a bowl that feel on the floor, lost boots etc.. I dont know what I would do without her, or Misty either lol Misty gets things for me that someone or something else takes off with, for example when Perky takes off with my shoe, I just tell Misty to go get it for me lol cuz Perky is willing to give somthing up to Misty,and Misty brings it to me

Posted

lol I just had to ask myself the question last night, what would I do without Misty? I have a guinea pig escape last night, normally he just goes behind my dresser and I just open the pen and wait till he goes back, but nope he got out of the room entirly and into the main area of the basement, well Misty helped me catch him, I took one area and Misty took the rest, basicly she forced him to come to me, if he went anywhere else she was right therr sending him back my way, until I was able to catch him, basicly she was herding the piggie lol the funny thing is though that I am so used to Happy being so serious all the time, that I noticed that while Misty was "herding" the piggie, which she was rather good at I may add lol her tail was up and wagging the whole time lol she did not take it seriously at all, maybe its just because smudge is very small but it does make me wonder what she will do with real livestock lol she is good she just does not take it seriously, maybe that will change with sheep lol but nontheless man was she ever helpfull lol

Posted

Years ago when Pete and Lena were young dogs, we'd go everywhere together. Pete, who had a couple of months worth of training under his belt, could be trusted off lead. Lena, typical for her breed, had no recall----could not be trusted off lead at all. She thought running away with my frantic efforts to get her was great fun for her.

 

One time, we drove to our destination, parked the car and I had my cousin, non dog person, hold Pete & Lena while I locked up the car. He dropped the leads, Lena knew and and off she goes. The louder I call her, the faster she's moving away from me, huge grin on her face. I could just visualize her running smack into some unsuspecting person on the trail and scaring the bejeebers out of them, big and intimidating looking as she was. There was no way I could catch her so I said to Pete, "get her". Pete took off after his buddy Lena, grabbed her by the side of her ruff and put on the brakes, holding her until I caught up and grabbed the lead.

 

I used to do grooming out of my house and we had one client, a sheltie, who was like a greased pig when lathered up. I found out the hard way that you don't turn your back on this dog because he'd be out of there in a hot minute, looking to get out. Once again, Pete worked with me on this one. He'd head off and corner this dog, all lathered up, until I could get him. The dog never got outside, but Pete was always by my side ready to help.

 

Flick, Pete's daughter, is much like her old man, only in a smaller package.

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