This was a warm day, even though we started out early. Raphael blew past the cat several times before finding her. Once he found her, he was happy and gave a good signal. This video is just a portion of the search, not the end. Raph had a good time, which was the important thing.
20220724, Harborview Park in Everett. Of course Raph found his kitty, as expected. The thing he did that was a big improvement was that he went with me, searching, into the adjacent neighborhood, without freaking out and trying to get back to Brenda. The video shows the second time he found his cat. The first time, he smelled her from about 80 feet away, and dragged me right to her. He worked at least 35 minutes. On an actual search, he will need to work 3 hours or more. Today was progress. I believe he could pass the certification test, but I’m not in a hurry for him to work cases. Temperature was about 60 degrees.
20220717 Everett, 61 degrees, cloudy. As you can see in the video, he caught the scent from at least 20 feet away. His signal is rather subtle, but it is a cat that he has found dozens of times so you would expect him to be less than Thusi Astec than if it was a new cat. Obviously I said enthusiastic, not “than Thusi Astec.” Who is Thusi Astec? Does this person go by their middle name and have a first initial of N? Of the billions of times that people used voice to text to say ”enthusiastic,” how many times did they correct it to say, “What I really meant was than Thusi Astec”? Will I eventually find a stray dog that needs to go to a foster home and will I give that dog the name of N. Thusi Astec? Is voice to text really dumb or is it really smart and it’s playing a joke on me? Do people really save time with voice to text after they go back and correct everything? How many wars have started because voice to text put in the wrong words?
20220703 Woodinville. He found the kitty with no problem. We did have a little trouble getting him to keep working an area and not wanting to go back to Brenda. He did OK.
20220605 Narbeck Park, Everett. About 60 degrees with some light rain showers. Raph did a good job of checking where we directed him, and of course he found the cat and gave a good signal. Afterward, he played with a stick. It would be great if he learned to play fetch so that he could have that as a reward, since he is not very treat motivated.
20220327 Heatherwood Middle School.
If this had been an actual search, I wouldn’t have expected Raph to detect the cat inside the courtyard. We would have needed to go into the courtyard and check, and of course he would have found any cat in there. The trouble I was having with Raph was to direct him to the courtyard. Actually, I wouldn’t say there was an problem at all with this training search. Once we got around to checking the courtyard, he found the kitty right away. I think he was a little distracted with wanting to go be with Brenda. You can see at the end of the video that he definitely gave a signal that he found the cat.
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In this three minute video, you can see that Raphael was having a bit more trouble this time. It might be because the cat was behind a wall and the scent was pooling rather than spreading. You could definitely tell when he did pick up the scent.
He was also the target dog today, and he had a lot of fun with that.
20220227 training at Howarth Park in Everett, 48 degrees and raining. The dogs had some playtime before training to burn off a little excess energy, and also to reinforce that training day is the most fun day of the week. When Raphael did put on his vest and we asked him to find the kitty, he picked up the scent from probably 80 feet away and tracked to the location on the other side of the fence. Then he understood to go all the way around the fence to the other side and he dragged me through the brush to get to his cat. this training session seemed to be the first time that he understood that it was a game where he is supposed to find the Lost Cat. In previous training sessions, it seemed like he was happy to go wherever and he thought it was fun when we accidentally bumped into a cat. this was our fourth training session, and it seemed like things were really starting to click for him.
February 20th, 2022. We trained at a school in West Seattle. Our target cat was Ziggy, but we got a bonus target cat. An orange cat lived near the school, and would hang out with people and dogs. We had Raphi find the orange kitty as practice, and also to praise him for being gentle around the cat. The orange cat did give him a warning. We kept Raphi away mostly for Raphi’s safety, as the cat looked like he was ready to give him hell. Raph also found Ziggy very handily. If I recall correctly, he picked up the scent from about 20 feet away, and tracked right to the hidden cat. Afterward, he played with Tino.
When selecting a dog to train to become a search dog, you want a dog with a lot of energy.
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We trained at McCollum Park in Mill Creek. It was a cool, clear day. He didn’t work very long but the video shows that he clearly caught the scent of his cat, and followed the scent cone right to the location. His body language was very readable. His head just snapped to the left when he caught the scent. He got praise and treats. Temperatures were 34 to 56 that day. He searched at 2 PM, when the temperature was 54. I believe he was also the target dog that day, but I’m not positive. He really likes being the target dog.
