Merry Christmas everyone 🎅
Just before Hans flew to South Africa we recorded our annual video as he flew out so close to the festive season; didn't seem fair for him to miss out!
Hans lands at 1610h local time next Thursday in Johannesburg, South Africa - that is just over a week away!
The last little bit needed to make this all work, without impacting Kilo 9 Academy's limited budget, is to cover the significant fuel cost to drive and pick up Hans. Staff need to travel from Zululand to Johannesburg, a journey of 600km. This will cost over 8,000 Rand (approx. $700 AUD after international transfer fees) to cover the fuel.
The sheer generosity of everyone who has donated so far has been amazing, and Hans would not be going to do this important job of not for everyone’s support. This last little bit will ensure the shoestring budget Kilo 9 Academy operates on is not adversely impacted.
You can donate at the link below:
https://gofund.me/96d69f55
Gaston - Broken Back Tie
Here is a snippet of a session that could have gone really badly if not for my absolute luck!
Gaston - Muzzle Play
This video is a good example of how I create neutrality to the muzzle through play. I get to this point slowly and in small increments of time wearing the muzzle, and go off leash once the dog has proven he is not going to just try and rip it off his face when he gets frustrated.
I am no Pat Stuart (Operant Canine), so I am not into filming explanation videos of how I use equipment, like the prong collar. I'll leave that to the bearded beauty that is Pat to do; I'll share a link to his Prong Collar video and his latest video about the proposed ban in the comments for those who are interested in learning.
What I am happy to share is a video of fairly standard obedience training session with one of my working dog prospects, Gaston. You can see he is incredibly happy, motivated, and has a clear understanding for such a young puppy of what is needed to access positive reinforcement. And he's wearing a prong collar which I didn't even end up using during this session 🤷
Finally, trust me, I can see my own mistakes in this video, but at least Gaston had fun😂
Hans - Hard Surface Tracking
Hans is becoming more capable and consistent in his tracking behaviours. I am very satisfied with his progress, especially as I have reduced handler help to almost nothing when tracking; no more stopping the dog when they miss a corner for example.
If you ever need a demonstration of the accuracy of a dog's nose, this is it...
Hans is six months old and trailing so beautifully.
Hans has done very few trails in the bush, however he has over 100 tracks in busy urban terrain under his belt already. The way the trained dedication to a single human odour taught in urban settings generalises into trailing in the bush is incredible.
Reality Based Training.
As dogs move from foundation development to running full scenarios, things start to get really fun. Frank here is doing incredibly well, and is getting ready for a job in the future.
Frank has been built back up into an awesome dog by expert development by amazing decoys here in Canberra, and the results are very satisfying to see. None of this would be possible without the community of great trainers here in the ACT.
I always try and find the most challenging locations to take my dogs I raise; this is one of my favourite creepy places to go!
