K-9 Training with a Diver

Tonight for K-9 SAR training, we had one of our members, Teka, get in her dive gear and have the dogs get used to the idea of a diver in the water. There are certain times when we might be searching a body of water and there will be divers in the water. If we let the dogs know now that it is normal for a human to stick their head up out of the water, then in a real scenario, when they are hanging off a boat trying to pick up the missing person's scent, and a diver is there, they won't have any fear or stress. All the dogs did real well tonight, even though most of them have never experienced anything like a diver before. It was a great time as you can see in the pictures.

fathom is introduced to teka, the diver.......

here teka goes out into the water with fathom's favorite toy,

the reward he works for............
fathom is all fired up, wanting to go!......

fathom is looking around, searching for

scent (teka is under water)....

fathom finds teka!........

shasta looks to Kimberly for direction. GREAT focus!........

shasta gets rewarded for a job well done......

shasta will work for a toy.....

summit swims out to teka......

introducing ali to teka......

ali wants to go!.....

ali could hardly wait to get out to teka.....

ali was so happy to find teka, she climbed up on her!......

can you see what ali is looking at? she will do

ANYthing for her reward toy!......

lizzie checks out that strange thing in the water.....

ali and lizzie are hoping there is more!.......

oosk belongs to teka, and is beside herself to go get her mom.....

oosk finally gets to mom!!......

It was a fun and productive training session. If you ever get lost, be sure it is in our neighborhood!!!