Time To Train

It has already been two weeks since K9 Chava joined our team. She is a complete sweetheart, who loves to spend time with her handler. She has surpassed all of our initial expectations. It has been a fun two weeks watching her learn. Here is a short recap of what she has already worked on.

The first week with a new pup, we usually don’t push too hard. We like to let them get used to the new environment, destress, and start to blend into the family. Most of the time is spent loving on the new pup. For Chava that was clearly not enough. She has a strong drive to work and do things with a purpose. Ultimately, she was brought here to be a working dog. If she was ready to get to work, then so were we. By our count, there are over 30 broad skills she will need to master to get certified. 30 broad skills, really means 30 concepts, that each have many sub-level skills. She will need to be able to perform all of these skills in new environments, with stress and distractions. All in all, the process typically takes 1.5-2 years, to master them all. Ready-set-go.

Initial training is always obedience. No different than a pet at home, it is important for the dog to know boundaries, and for the handler to have control over them. She has certainly not passed the master level course in this yet, but these foundational skills are what will keep her safe. Week 1 consisted of making sure she knew her name, initial recall training, and of course sit, down, and kennel. She took to them all quickly. After she completes her required training, we are not sure how we are going to keep her mind busy.

The second week we continued to reinforce all of the skills from the previous week. These will be continued to be reinforced for the rest of her life. The skill should become easier, but the scenarios will become harder. This week we also added in new exposures to skills. She started the initial training for “Wait/Stay”. Stay will become one of our most used skills on deployment, and she must develop a firm grasp on it early. She also started worked on the beginning stages of directionals. We use directionals as a tool to be able to direct the dog into different search areas. She also started getting exposure to agility. She is not working on agility yet, but has been exposed to her future.

This past week the training we found the most fun was a game we call “Spot”. The game of spot is simple in concept, but has an incredible value to us. Essentially the dog “wins” the game by staring at a lid, or a “spot”. This builds in control and focus for the dog. It also becomes an early level indication training, that will be built upon later. Lastly it will also prove valuable while teaching agility, to make the dog really sharp on all the elements. If you look closely in the picture, you can see K9 Chava, staring at a small lid. She picked up the whole game from start to finish in less than a week. Way to go girl!

By the way, although they get along, K9 Murphy is still not sure we need to keep his new little sister. A bit of irony, considering Murphy was always driving the other dogs crazy when he was a pup. Murph is now an old man, and Chava certainly has way more energy than him. She wants to play and he wants to be left alone.

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