Today Gail and I took Tucker on his first SAR training outing. We drove up to the Shenandoah Valley outside of Harrisonburg and met three other members of the Blue and Gray Search Dogs Team.
The exercise we did is known as "imprinting." Gail and two other members hid beside the trail and waited for Tucker to walk by. Once he saw them he went over to investigate and was rewarded with one of his favorite treats... freeze-dried liver. We then proceeded on to the next "victim" where he was rewarded generously once again. After "finding" the third person we turned around and repeated the finds. Tucker caught on quick that these friendly people in the woods had valuable treats hidden in their pockets.
We alternated Tucker with Took, Ditto and Saibre who are much more advanced search dogs. By the third time we repeated the exercise, Tucker was definitely getting the idea and started using his nose more to locate the subjects. It was fun to watch his little brain process the task.
We then drove home and he slept until we got to Wal-Mart where Gail went in and bought some groceries. I waited outside with Tucker and socialized him with several girl scouts selling cookies. Many people stopped to meet Tucker from 3 year olds to 73 year olds.
The exercise we did is known as "imprinting." Gail and two other members hid beside the trail and waited for Tucker to walk by. Once he saw them he went over to investigate and was rewarded with one of his favorite treats... freeze-dried liver. We then proceeded on to the next "victim" where he was rewarded generously once again. After "finding" the third person we turned around and repeated the finds. Tucker caught on quick that these friendly people in the woods had valuable treats hidden in their pockets.
We alternated Tucker with Took, Ditto and Saibre who are much more advanced search dogs. By the third time we repeated the exercise, Tucker was definitely getting the idea and started using his nose more to locate the subjects. It was fun to watch his little brain process the task.
We then drove home and he slept until we got to Wal-Mart where Gail went in and bought some groceries. I waited outside with Tucker and socialized him with several girl scouts selling cookies. Many people stopped to meet Tucker from 3 year olds to 73 year olds.
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