Search Tall

06/28/2025

Just a reminder the Search Tall July Training Challenge starts Tuesday, July 1st!

If you want to participate please join the group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/searchtalltrainingchallenge

06/25/2025

Small update to the Training Challenge. Instead of posting to the Search Tall FB page a FB Group will be used. This should help provide a more private place to share videos.

Make sure to join:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/searchtalltrainingchallenge

Send a message to learn more

06/24/2025

We are officially ONE week away from the kickoff of the Search Tall July Training Challenge!

How it will work:
Each Tuesday in July there will be a weekly challenge posted to Search Tall Training Challenge FB Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/searchtalltrainingchallenge it will be pinned to the top so you should be able to find it quickly.

There will be a short description of what the goal is for the week, some guidance of how to set-up the searches for different levels and a short video showing dog(s) working a search or two.

You can ask any questions you like for the week in that post. (You can also ask any questions now here too if you have them.)

Then when you are ready you will then reply to that post with your team working the weekly challenge. You can either upload your video to YouTube and share a link or just post the video in your comment through FB. You need to have your post for the current week posted to the weekly challenge post by Monday night. On Tuesday mornings I will be taking inventory of who participated as well as sharing the new challenge.

At the end of 4 weeks I will tally everything up and I think we are going to have a few drawings for prizes! Since this is a motivational and accountability kind of challenge the more weeks you participate the more chances you will have in the drawing. Each week will give you an entry and there will be a bonus for those who complete all four weeks.

I encourage people to like or comment on others post, cheer on others to keep them and yourselves motivated in under the summer heat struggle!

06/19/2025

While I was in San Diego earlier this month I got to experience what they call June Gloom. It sounds silly but it's a real thing and I think I came back to Florida with it. Not exactly the same gloom from not being able to see the sun for days on end but due to the summer heat and humidity.

The Brown Dogs have shifted into a Summer training pattern of limiting total search area sizes and search times and teaching focused hide sets.

I really liked this search with Swagger from last Thursday. Moderate sized search, variety of surfaces to work over and just a single blowing odor problem. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3mN3tCoK7E

It got me thinking if I am having trouble staying motivated in the Florida Gloom others might be too. So how about an accountability training challenge during the month of July. Each week would have a goal or objective to set for your search, record your search and post it to a weekly FB post I will start at the beginning of each week. Still thinking about what to do for prizes for everyone who posts for all four weeks, either small something for each person or a raffle for a couple more substantial prizes.

Interested to know what people think.

06/07/2025

Better late than never, scheduling for June private lessons and coaching sessions is open.

Due to the summer heat setting in training times will be limited to early morning and early evenings.

Please send me a message if you are interested.

05/31/2025

I have been seeing memories from that one time when we went to Indiana to piggy back on a HRD training event at Muscatatuck Urban Training Center.

We had fun and I took home an amazing thing for my dogs called food play as a reward for searching. I went back and found the first video I posted of this with Swagger and added a search from a couple days ago. I do wish I could convince more people to more than hand over a piece of food to their dog in training.

So here is how we started and now two years later:

05/14/2025

Actively looking for a place to teach classes in Northern Palm Beach County. If you know of a business that is willing to rent space after hours one night during the week contact me!

05/05/2025

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Scheduling for Privates or Coaching sessions during the month of May is now open. Sessions are limited so please send me a message if you are interested. June scheduling will open later this month!

04/26/2025

Raleigh and I started the Brown Dog's NACSW adventures in Ft. Pierce at this same trial site way back in 2017 at OTC's first NACSW trial. She killed it with 1st Overall and Overall Pronounced, hook set!

Today I walked the site in a different capacity; taking the CO around as she selected all the search areas for the weekend and planning all your ways in and out of the searches.

Very best wishes to everyone especially those first timers; I hope you enjoy NACSW as much as us!

Good luck everyone, have the most fun with your dogs and Search Tall!

04/17/2025

Obedience Training Club of Palm Beach County is hosting NACSW trials 4/26 & 4/27 being held at the St Lucie Country Fairgrounds in Ft Pierce.

I am the Volunteer Coordinator for the weekend and it would really help to have a few more volunteers each day. If you are interested in volunteering please fill out the google form here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfUb2nSUIPGcIa4TOPzgL-XAqg5wKkyXLpYB43rJmaHrRQpWA/viewform

Thank you to everyone who has already signed up! Final detail emails will be going out shortly with all the information you will need including arrival times, etc.

04/15/2025

Swagger got to have some fun at the NACSW Elite Trial in Starke, FL this weekend. We finally captured our very first 1st Place in an Elite search!

The Putt Putt or Mini Golf Search was one of the morning searches. It had a time limit of 5:30 and a range of 2-6 hides. Unbeknownst to us we found all the hides in about three minutes but we ended up spending another two minutes clearing the last third of the 16,000 sq ft search area.

There were lots of fun problems in this search including an elevated threshold hide, a weird hide in a tree stump and a nice triple with a close converging pair and ground hide. All things that we have missed here and there at other trials but just came together perfectly for us here.

Its amazing what happens when you spend the time teaching and presenting all these different scent pictures instead of relying on natural ability. Swagger is a quick study with a crazy level of focus which makes teaching easier but also can overshadow training shortfalls. He is a fun dog to train and run and another very good teacher.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zBcWiQp6SE

03/27/2025

All Private Lesson and Coaching Sessions are filled through the end of April.

Scheduling will open for May and June between the middle and end of April and will be announced on FB.

I may also be starting a roaming class and an Intro Class on Saturday afternoons, details still TBD.