Off to training, part TWO..

[Stripe]

T-minus two hours to launch. Will try to get as many pics as allowed.. 

Weather permitting we will be doing mostly outdoor stuff in and around the few vehicles they have up there. Plus the old run down 14' travel trailer.
I pointed out several things on it that needed attention of course, lol. The owner says he dun care as it's most likely going to the scrap yard soon to be replaced by another junk trailer.  Then I told him how much the refer itself in it was probably worth in these parts if it worked. 
His eyes opened wide.  He didn't believe me, then I showed him the CL adds on his phone of just the old junker ones for sale and what they were charging and he said he may have me remove it and list it, lol!

Will be picking up Ryan, my 'First Officer' as oldrockandroller calls him, lol, just north of Everett. Then on to Custer.

This trip I will not be pulling the 'Fast Patrol ship'.. (Land Rover).  I will keep an eye on the fuel gauge and see if that makes any difference.

Stand by to disengage all mooring lines, pressurize fuels systems.  On my mark disengage mooring lines and bring us ninety degrees to port, plot a course for Costco Fuel Station then set waypoints for Marysville and Custer..

Ahead Full!

[M & J]

I thought we decided he was your navigator Sulu.

And never make him an Ensign with a red tunic on an away party.

Let me know if you need that Comm link amigo.

[legomybago]

Wave Hi to the Holy Grail of Sprint Car clay ovals in the west!! Skagit Speedway...in Alger, WA

I miss that place dearly....

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Have fun with the pups!

Kev

[Stripe]

So, just a quick update.

We landed safely at the training facility and quickly started setting up camp. A quick text off to oldrockandroller confirmed that I shouldn't have any trouble hooked to 15 amp service as long as I don't use the AC and microwave at the same time..

After we got hooked up we setup a small projector in the rv pointing out a window at a big white sheet we used as a screen.  Watched a movie and ate dinner. Was actually kinda cool, but with the limited signal Ryan had on his phone, streaming Netflix, it did a lot of "buffering"..  After that we all chewed the fat for a bit then headed to bed.

Mike, I may just have to relay pics off to you after all.. Will let you know in advance..

[M & J]

Affirmative Captain.

Advise when you wish to initiate the comms link. I'll redirect the geosat in preparation.

[Stripe]

Where do I start??  Lol, I had the phone plugged in last night to charge it but I somehow knocked it off the shelf at the head of the bed and it came unplugged from the cheapie cord I was using.  I must have tossed a pillow without knowing it. I think I was able to get one more pic at the firehouse today, then BEEP it died, Lol.

Sorry ORAR I'll just post all the pics when I get home with a synopsis of what was done.

So today we were all kept busy!  Non stop from about 1000 to 1930hrs and I enjoyed every minute of it!

Three runs each through the firehouse then back to the kennel facility to train in the building four times this time and we had the extra challenge of seeing how Penny would handle expanded metal mesh stairs.  They didn't phase her one bit and had a fun time finding the explosives. (To the NSA Please note I am a K9 Handler training with my new partner Also, I lost the password to my myspace act, Help?).

After that we did vehicles.  This time we used the wind to our advantage and WOW Penny nearly pulled my arm out of its socket when she caught the scent of the training aid from three cars away!  Dragged would be more appropriate..  Penny Rocks! 
In reality if we were doing a large parking lot, the moment Penny would start digging into the pavement to drag me to where ever the scent is coming from, I would grab her and walk calmly in the opposite direction while at the same time making a discreet phone call.. W%

After that we decided to do what we call an "Open Area" problem..

Justin our trainer (VERY SMART KID, I know him from working with some high speed folks in Afghanistan and Iraq(no names)) went out to a decent sized narrow strip of property between the pond here and the tree line that runs down the opposite side, it's about 10 meters wide by about 60 meters long. There he hid a small amount of scent kit upwind of where our starting position would be.

I let Ryan go first as his pup, Chloe, is more experienced and would actually help him. I did not observe as it's supposed to be a blind training problem like all the rest. None of the handlers know where the stuff is. 
He and Chloe did pretty good.

My turn, I've done this type of problem during my tenure as a Navy K9 handler and even with a green dog, as long as you keep to the pattern and keep track of the wind it will be a "breeze" pun intended.. Penny only having done this MAYBE once before in her life, Justin's not sure, was still raring to go. I showed her the ball, pretended to toss it into the field, pocketed it and told her to "search!".. 

Off we went, her nose to the ground.
Now to help you visualize this in your minds' eye, picture if you will a football pitch the size I described. We are starting at one goal line in the left corner the wind coming at us at a lazy 2-3 mph. First thing we do is go right until we reach the boundary, turn left walk two maybe 2.5 meters then sudden like make another left again working our way to the opposite boundary all the time Penny is keeping her nose close to the ground sniffing.

Once we reach the boundary, we make a right face and again two to 2.5 maybe three meters this time and turn right. We repeat this process until Penny catches a small amount of what we call the scent cone. She perks up, starts pulling in one direction then when she loses the scent (out of the scent cone if you will) we double back to the last place she had scent and start again, this time progressing upwind.  She's got it!  Left right bracketing from scent cone boundary to scent cone boundary until finally, BAM!  She's got it! It's up in a small tree (about a meter high) hidden in the leaves.  She stands up on her hind legs, take a deep sniff and sits and STARES at the location of the training aid! I toss her her ball and give her the best "Praise voice" she's ever gotten and I LOVE her UP! 

We are going to be a great team her and I!

Tomorrow we get to do that again in another field.  I totally cannot wait!

We got done with that, then did a somewhat short debrief on what we did and then put up the dogs for the night.

To prepare for the day I get to bring Penny home, I took a small towel into her kennel and wiped her down with it then left it in her kennel for a couple hours then put it into a plastic bag to preserve her scent.
She loved the attention!
I will then take that small towel and leave it in a couple of well traveled places in the house for the other pups we have at home to get used to her scent before her arrival.

By the way, if this sounds familiar, this is the same technique used for folks with pets that will be bringing home a new born baby.  With the obvious exception that the baby isn't in a kennel at the hospital.  At least I hope not..

That's it for tonight, have a good one and I will be back!!

Oh and Mike?  I am SO TOTALLY going to get Ryan a red shirt...  Muahahahaha!!

P.S. He's kinda like a Sulu, Checkov,and Spock all rolled into one..

P.P.S. Kevin; Napoleon and Em say "bark!".  Napoleon is such a funny dog. Em is looking better too.  I found out more info on her skinniness. She had recently been spayed and had lost a lot of weight after that for some reason. She actually looked worse but is def getting better.

[ClydesdaleKevin]

"(To the NSA Please note I am a K9 Handler training with my new partner Also, I lost the password to my myspace act, Help?)."

Now that's some funny stuff right there!

Kev

[Stripe]

Okay, all training here is done. Time to pack up and take off..  Make a stop to dump then back home to Seattle..

[M & J]

I'm sorry Stripe. Very busy day and I apologize for not posting up the pics you sent me.

[Stripe]

No need to apologize.  I got so busy myself I forgot to tell you not to worry about putting them up if you were busy at work.. I'll post them later tonight or tomorrow..

[Stripe]

The long over due last day of training update....

Got up about 0900 perked up some coffee even thought I could have used the B&D Under-cabinet coffee maker.
With the coffee we enjoyed some home made breakfast burritos of the nice n' spicy variety..

Once breakfast was out of the way we took out K9 partners out for a break while the trainer set up our first problem of the day.  During our brief the trainer told us, "Don't sweat it, you guys are doing really good and this first problem is easy and will go by quick. Then we can move on to other training areas.", yeah, don't sweat it.. Famous last words, know what I mean?  The problem WAS easy, just for some reason neither I or Ryan can fathom is how did we nearly blow it.  There was no pressure we weren't getting graded or anything like that, Lol..

Suffice it to say, the Marx Brothers would have looked better...

Weird part of it is that all the other problems after that went without a hitch... Go figure.
There were were a few stumbling points during the day and by the time we figured it all up, it occurred to the trainer we put both dogs through more training  in two days than most do in a week.. 

They were both tired.  The first days training was long indeed.

After everything was finished It was time to pack up and head back south..

Here are some pics for your viewing..

The Aluminum Goose setup with Solar deployed the afternoon we pulled in.  I ended up being able to hook up to 15 amp (as noted in a previous post)with an adapter but I needed the space inside anyway.

Still, gotta admit, she kinda looks good..


That night we setup entertainment. A portable projector with Ryans cell phone running the Netflix app on his Android phone.

The movie for tonight will be "G.I. Joe: Retaliation".  The projector is inside sitting on the back board for the pullout  table over the ice machine between the swivel seats. The screen is a new white sheet I had gotten a while back for just this purpose. I mounted it on the awning spindle in the same way I had mounted the flags (which I had to pull off to accommodate the screen). Sound was provided by the projector which actually has a nice speaker setup.

Eat your Heart out THX.

The next pic is the only shot of training I got as I somehow managed to knock the phone off its perch and it came unplugged from it's charger.

Ryan with his K9, Chloe..

Me contemplating just what the heck went wrong on our first training session of the morning.

Sorry, not my e-pipe I had to go full tobacco on this one. That's a Meerschaum pipe in the shape of a wolfs head.

On the way back home, we hit some turbulence. A rain and sleet storm hit us not more than 8 minutes into our drive.

I told Ryan we were going through an Ion storm while traveling through a small meteorite field.  He got a kick out of that.. He asked how the shields were powered, I said the aux power does that and drove on..

Well, that's that. Hope you enjoyed! 

[TripleJ]

   I can't wait to pull those shenanigans on the kids when we go for a trip 

[Stripe]

Hehe, I did that all the time when I would drive them around in my Rover..  And they dig that the most!

[M & J]

Gravy!