Does anybody out there have the illusion that having a working dog will help pick up some of the slack around  your house? Think again!

“This basket is empty. What we have here, is a problem.”

Working dogs are a lot of work. I’m constantly battling my guilt over not working them enough.

Loki has a lot of drive to work and some juice for search. But, besides the mistakes I made early in his training, I’m also a sloppy trainer, progressing too fast from step to step, skipping important details between easy and more challenging behaviors. It’s evident he wants to work. He’s at full attention whenever any training tools come out. The rewards are part of his drive, but for him reaching the goal is as important as the reward itself. Even if I had the lowest value reward, he’d keep working for me.  I wish I had more time for formal training. But I don’t. So we make it up as we go along. And I keep reminding myself he’s so much better off with me, a sloppy trainer who doesn’t work him nearly as much as he’d like, than how his life started.

And Juno’s not half bad at search or other work herself. Not surprising for a husky. But many of her handling issues would require even smaller, more broken down steps than Loki’s. Her drive is more tied to the reward itself. Are you surprised? Still that doesn’t stop her from giving me her paw, or pulling out a roll over just because I want her to. And boy does that just tickle me when she shakes her paw for nothing but a giggle from me.  But because her focus is distracted by the reward so strongly, even if it’s hidden, her brain doesn’t connect her behavior  as quickly. So she’ll offer about 87 other behaviors until she gets it right. She requires so much more repetition before she’s confident about the right behavior. Once she’s confident, that will be her new “go to” behavior.

So you see, working a working dog is whole lotta work! And I have two. Woah is me.

Enjoy the 3-minute video below. Even if you’re bored watching the search games, you’ll probably enjoy the music!

Mr. Wild Dingo often comments that I portray Loki as dumb. Then I remind him that it was he who nicknamed him Retardo Montalban. And as much as I’d love to use that name on this blog, I know it is a wee-bit politically incorrect. But it sure doesn’t stop me from using it at home.

And no, I’m not one of those people who doesn’t take the time to do any consistent training with a dog and then shrugs and says, “My dog is stupid because he doesn’t know how to (fill in the blank).”   The truth is Loki is wicked book-smart. All I have to do is get out a few training tools and he’s in. He loves to guess at what I want from him and it’s very easy to teach him anything. Inspired by the Jack Russel on YouTube doing house chores, I taught him to shut all my kitchen cabinets in less than 20 minutes and transfer it to other doors and drawers in the house. And if I had more time, I would teach him tons more and he would love it. He learns very fast and has a very long memory. Unfortunately for him, I just happen to run out of ideas of what to teach.  He’s in it for the self-esteem of learning more than the reward. Unless the reward is a tug, then he’s in it for that. 

For example, the other day I retraced our walking trail from the day before because I lost my hat. Loki, having done a little SAR and article search training, immediately found it. I didn’t even ask him to, he just did his job and as soon as he caught the human scent he pointed/alerted to it.

“You want me to find your hat again? Geesh, this is such a no brainer.”
In the above photo, he reinacts the find. The hat is just around the corner to the right.  

“Hmm. This smells like you Mom!”  Someone had found it and placed it on this post.

“Hey mom, I’ll trade you, a tug for your hat!”

This time (during the reenactment) instead of laying down by it or picking it up to bring it to me (both acceptable behaviors), he grabbed it and played with it. Serves me right for leaving my rewards at home. And that’s why my hat is dirty.  Sigh. I wish he had a better owner. He could be a better dog.

Juno on the other hand, takes much longer to grasp anything I’m teaching her. Though she’s equally motivated to learn (she leaps from her down when it’s her turn to learn whatever I’m teaching that day), it just takes many more repetitions and she often resorts to prior tricks that get her a reward. By the way, she is EXCELLENT at search. But that’s another post.

Their minds are completely opposite of eachother. Juno’s not book-smart. But boy she has a lot of common sense. And this is where Loki is, well, for lack of a better term, Retardo Montalban. For example, just look at all the effort he goes through to reach a very simple goal because he’s, well Retardo Montalban.

“Oh My Dog! That water is moving! It’s gonna get me!” Loki squeals on his brakes and turns around at the first sign of the wee-waves.

“Must dig…must dig!”
Near the water’s edge, he gets silly. I have no idea what he’s up to.

“Crap! I’m outta here!”
The wave comes in and he bolts. Juno mean time is calm as a cucumber and strolls through the water, taking the occasional sip from the cold, clear, clean Lac Leman (Lake Geneva).

“Get back Lac Leman-ness Monster!”
Juno’s all, “WTF is your problem dude?”

“I’m outta here again Princess!”
“Seriously Big Boy?”

“Must dig! Must dig!”
I still have no idea what he’s up to. At this point, I think he’s just being compulsive and acting out some anxiety. Which is not uncommon for him.

“I know it’s down there!”
“Ok, now I’m intrigued Big Boy. Did you SAR something again?”

“Hey Mom, can you believe this joker?”
“This is no joke Princess! I’m serious!”

“Ok, I give up. Why did you dig so hard in order to do your SAR thing?”

“I’m so thirsty! This is so delicious.”
“You’re kidding me, right?”
Without a doubt, he specifically dug a whole in order to get a drink of the water from the lake without going into the scary lake, dog-forbid he should get his feet wet or the boogy-man in the lake should get him.

“You mean to tell me you did ALL THAT WORK just for a drink of water that you could have gotten less than a foot away without any work?”
There was no doubt in my mind he had that goal from the very beginning with all the water he drank.

“Yes but Princess, the Lac Leman-ness Monster is constantly moving that lake and he’s gonna get me!”

“Oh Big Boy, you know I tease you about the Lac Leman-ness monster, right? I mean, you really believe my tale?”

“Tale or no tale. I don’t like all that movin’ around that water does! And this water here is delicious.”

“Ok, you convinced me. Maybe I should try it and see if it’s any better than the lake.”
“It is Princess! Because the Leman-ness Monster is not moving it!”

“Dude, it tastes exactly the same over here. And the lake isn’t even moving that much.”

“No way sister. I’ll just stick to my controlled water source, minus the Leman-ness Monster!”

And with that he sprang into his favorite yoga pose.  Remember from his days in Santa Cruz, his side crow poses?

Well here it is from the back side:

And this is why we proudly call him Retardo Montalban. And we mean that in the nicest way. (wink-wink) Bien sur!

In Cooking News

The chicken marsala rocked! Early culinary critics agree. The chicken and mushrooms melted in my mouth. I used a very expensive dry Italian Marsala. I actually opened the bottle to try it though I had a bottle of Marsala already opened.

Unfortunately my risotto did not. The recipe called for 1/2 teaspoon of pepper and that was way too much so it tasted bad to me, but it would have been passable had it not been for the pepper. In addition, this particular risotto was supposed to come out light and flaky and this came out sticky, which also passable for risotto but it would have been nice if it were light and flaky. It was my first risotto. I knew it was not a great side dish for the Chicken Marsala, as the flavors were too different, but I wanted to try it anyway.

The  Marsala is definitely a keeper. I’ll probably add some butter next time to lighten the color of the sauce. I don’t even like chicken much and I had a hard time sharing it with the critics.

Mr. Wild Dingo is traveling, that meant the second piece went some for the critics and some for left-overs.  Four paws up from the critics!

And Finally some Reader FAQs

No meat stock?
Technically I have found chicken and beef stock. It came in a small jar of barely two cups of stock and it seems more concentrated than stock I’m used to. It was $6 for that small jar! There are no Swansens over here. Serendipitously, I found out that the Swiss were the one’s who invented the Bouillon cube.  Seriously, the makers of Nestle were the first to put it on the market. As Chef TravelMax pointed out, “I’m not surprised. Another Swiss efficiency.” Unfortunately for real cooks, this is one efficiency that is a faux pas. So I bucked up and paid $6 for the two cups of stock. Since it seems quite concentrated, I added 2 cups of water which is fine for Risotto.

Are Juno’s Gold Beads Not Working?
Yes and no. We’ve seen moderate changes in her behavior and pain. But its not enough for us. We’d like to see more and so we are back with the holistic doctor. But it’s likely we’ll be going down the path of THR soon. It’s just a matter of exhausting holistic options, especially since it’s the holidays, there’s really not much we can do now until they are over and guests who are coming are gone.

Are there dog parks in Switzerland?
NO! Not at all! The Swiss are not at all inclined to let mere humans make judgements about whether their dogs can be off-leash. For real. And I have to say I don’t disagree with them.  I have a love-not-love relationship with dog parks.  I prefer very large open parks with  very little visibility of where the fence line is and tons of walking trails where Loki can casually say hello to other dogs (which he does well) and keep on walking with me rather than fret about who’s coming into the gate and acting like a lunatic (and not a good way). I think most of the U.S. does a poor job with dog parks and the ones they have probably should not exist. On the rare occasions I do go to them, its usually for training or for a play date at a low traffic time.

And finally: Are you just trying to make us all sad? All the beautiful scenery AND good food.
Yes.

While we waited for the computer to be fixed, I figured I’d soak up some vitamin D so I lugged out a beach chair. Juno jumped up on it and began kissing me and before I could say, “Get your own beach chair,” I had 2 dogs sitting on the back of my chair with me hanging off the front of it.  The one draw back of training your dog with “props” is that they think everything is a prop that will get them a treat. So I got the camera.

 ”If I just do a little doga on this here chair, maybe she’ll let me stay on it.”

“A great big sibe smile always makes her cave. The chair is mine now.”

“Ahh geesh. Who invited him? Move over stud, you’re gynormous ears are blockin’ my rays.”

Saturday, Juno and I attended Santa Cruz’s Woof to Woof Dog Show event. Our trainer had a booth and a demo-team exhibiting on and off-leash obedience. Juno was the only husky to represent at the entire show and the only husky on the demo team among several of those goody-two-shoe retrievers and GSDs.  Ok, so she had a moment of stage fright among the hundreds of people and dogs and loud music. She popped up like Jiffy Pop from her down-stay and had a brief Mexican-Jumping-Bean moment as she frantically looked for me in the crowd but when she heard my voice, she darted directly to me, even as smells of hot dogs, handsome boy dogs and plenty of squirrels tempted her. She made up for her boo-boo with beautiful off-leash obedience for the rest of the show and impressive recalls jumping right through the ring side tape. She made me proud. As it turns out, Juno wasn’t the only one to crack. Other excellent dogs cracked under pressure including a toy poodle who wouldn’t sit from a distance, an excellent novice search dog who almost exited the ring entirely and froze and a protection dog who almost accidentally bit a protection helper who wasn’t wearing any protection equipment at the time. Thankfully, the obedience in the dog was there and just as she was going in for contact, she heard her handler call her and pulled out in the nick of time.  Other than those small snafu’s, the show went over very well and there was plenty of impressive obedience and service dog demonstrations among the team.

Backstage, Juno signed autographs and gave fans their own encore of her special talents. That damn sibe has more admirers than Rin-Tin-Tin these days.

“Hey Big Boy, I believe that seat is taken.”

“It looks like there’s room for two on that chair Princess.”

 ”There may be room, but I’m not in the sharing mood, so scram!”

“Here’s a little reminder bite to let you know who owns the royal chairs around this joint.”

“And that is how the chair is won.”

Sunday, Loki went to two search classes: SAR and Article search. On our first SAR search, we had to pair up with another dog, which sent me into a panic knowing that Loki can be naughty when he feels pressured. We went with our friends Sierra and her handler Christine.  I knew Sierra was playful which worried me because Loki can be a butt-head with playful dogs but I also knew Christine wouldn’t hold it against me if Loki was a dope to her beautiful GSD. Nothing like a “get out of jail free” card for my bully, Loki. So off they went. I released Loki first and Sierra went next. As expected, Sierra engaged Loki in play and Loki grumped at her so she backed down and he went to work while she took a moment to yahoo and figure out what she was supposed to do. Loki alerted pretty fast to the victim, however, he did not go into the victim at all, instead he chose to walk away! Some SAR dog! Remind me never to get lost or hurt when on a hike with Loki. He’s likely to go look for the local pub and leave me stranded.  Sierra eventually grew tired of her solo play time and when she went to work, she did a great job at finding the victim!

After a few more solo searches, we moved on to our second class, Article Search. Loki is making progress. His search drive and ability is good, but he’s got a little work to do on his alert. He won’t lay down in front of the article. I also train Juno at home in article search and surprisingly, she’s better at it than Loki. She not only puts her nose to the ground to find the article, but lays down beautifully in front of  it! So now it’s time to pull out the big guns for Loki. The only question is: what size skillet is best for the job?

“Hey Handsome, it looks like you found that chair just fine!”
“Very funny Princess.”

“He’s mental,” said my trainer, Lance, about Loki during SAR training on Sunday. Images of Loki’s cracker-insane behavior flooded my mind: the motor mouth in class, jumping wildly in the air for a tug or the panic attacks. “Yeah, he’s mental,” I agreed. “No, not that kind of mental,” Lance laughed.

Just moments before, I released Loki down the isle of a warehouse to search for and find a hiding person. This was our first search training inside a building. Since December, we’ve been training search outside, first in a confined environment, like the training field, then at parks and in forests. At the end of each semester of search class, dogs and handlers are tested to see how much we’ve learned and are progressing.

“Yah Mom! I’m ready to go find someone! Let me go!!!”
Loki isn’t shy about talking when he’s excited to work. His tail wags as his mouth motors!

During the first semester, Loki tested very well on the field. He showed to be a very methodical searcher, and did not get confused by planted human objects, such as a jacket. He moved from object to object down the field until he found his target. In the forest, he looked much more random and chaotic in his search, but there were times I observed him making very specific decisions about losing the scent and turning around and choosing a line directly to his target.

Searching inside a building was a whole new ball game for the training dogs. For one thing, there’s no wind. For another there’s usually some sort of ventilation or air condition that causes the scent to bounce around and confuse the dog. It’s a true test of the dog’s continued drive to find the target when frustration sets in.

Above, another dog, Rolf makes the same decision most of the dogs including Loki make and follows the scent down the left isle.

When Loki set off down the isle, Lance noticed he was making logical decisions, he went down a left side isle where it was obvious the scent was bouncing off a wall and going down that isle. But he came back and circled some boxes where the scent was heavy. “This dog is a thinker. He’s making choices based on what is going on in his brain. He’s mental.”

“Wait a dog-pickin’ minute! Something here doesn’t smell like jarred pickles or canned beans. It smells like a bi-ped!”
Just moments before, Loki had circled the boxes to the left. The scent must have been lingering there heavily.

To tell you the truth, it felt really good to hear our trainer say Loki was a thinker. Usually he only observes Loki working obedience where his confidence is low and his anxiety is high and exhibiting a different kind of “mental” behavior. (Not the good kind.)  I have always known Loki was a thinker. He loves guessing games and even chaining behaviors together.  In fact, I leverage that thinking brain and make him guess whenever I teach him a new behavior.

“Mom! Come on over here and check this out! It’s Debbie hiding in these boxes. She sure is weird!”
I made sure to shut my mouth and go to him to praise him this time so he stays with his target.

Unfortunately, Loki’s confidence can get the better of him and his biggest issue in Search is being too locked onto me. He relies on me for help when he’s uncertain and I’ve too often caved in to help him.  He’s also not confident enough to stay with his target until I get to him. If he hears me praise him from a distance he’ll unlock from his target and return to me too soon. As his handler, I need to stop helping him make decisions so he can start trusting his nose.

“Good boy Loki! You found the lost person and the day is saved!”

After Search (SAR) class, Loki and I headed to Article Search for an another hour of training. This type of search is searching for human scented objects. The object is generalized and not specific. For example, we’re not training him to go find my keys and give them to me, instead I’m training him to go find some human scented object that is probably lost in the woods or on terrain. Loki wagged his tail the entire class and was too happy to play this game.

When I got home, Mr. Wild Dingo, the skeptic, asked why we bothered training in SAR and Article Search. He doubted Loki was any good at either.

“Are you kidding?” I exclaimed. “These are great party tricks! Just think: we can take $5, $10, $50 bets on Loki finding anyone’s keys, wallet or object hidden on our property.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear you finally have a viable business plan,” he replied.

Rather being instructed for this class, we had only two search opportunities and we were being evaluated with constructive criticism on how we train our dogs in SAR.

Since we haven’t searched in months, and we were in a brand new unfamiliar location, I decided for my first search with Loki I’d put him “in drive” to search rather than have him do a cold search (an unknown person already hiding on the field) right off the bat.  I set up an easy, fast search with a person he knows and has searched for before to let him understand what we were there for. The target teased Loki then ran away to hide. When the target was hidden, I walked Loki  in a circle to disorient him, sat him and gave him the cue. Loki ran 40 mph out of the gate and flew past his target. He then came to a screeching halt as if he ran into a brick wall. It was obvious he lost the target’s scent. Loki then made a 180 degree turn and a diagonal beeline straight to his target. The whole thing took about 45 seconds. Success! It was an immediate find. This is the kind of practice that sets the dog in drive to want to search.

For my second search, I decided to test him on a cold search: a new area (other side of the park), new hiding place, a new person who is already hiding (he doesn’t know who he’s looking for). I took him out of the car, forgot to check the wind (bad me), sat him, put him in drive and released him. A few times he fell out of drive–he would potty or sniff a gopher hole. One time he “found” a person sitting at a picnic table (it’s still a find but not a rewarded find) and I had to move him along and give him his cue. He found his target, kinda-sorta. She was in the woods near a tree. He was 3 feet away and saw her but ignored her. When I saw that, I made the mistake of leading him to her by giving him the cue again and pointing. He eventually went to her. The find should happen without any help from me! 

His cold searches are still not where they should be but then again, I haven’t really worked them as much as I’d like to. When the class ended, a few of us stayed behind and did one more round. This time, I had him smell a scented object from the target before I released him. It took about a minute or two, and he ignored another person hanging out at the picnic table, but he found is target lying on the ground in a playground sandbox and he went right to her on his own this time.

I forgot to get photos from this weekend but below are photos from one of his searches in February.  This was at a high school with a child hiding in some sort of concrete structure. It was a cold search, meaning, the dogs did not know who to look for or where to look. Children are harder for dogs to scent because they are so small. The scent should be coming up out of the structure’s hole. All the dogs in class found the child.

“Mom, what are we doing here and why are all those people up on the hill watching us? Are they here to watch me do zoomies?”

“No Loki, no zoomies. We’re here to find a person who’s holding hot dogs hostage!”
“No way Mom! What kind of sicko holds a hot dog hostage? Lemme at ‘em!”

“I don’t smell anybody down here.”

“Oh wait, there’s a bunch of smells over here.”

And just when I am relieved to think he’s found the person who’s hiding in this structure below…

“Hmm… I smell pee-mail from Rolf and Mika!” 
(Yes, about 5 other dogs pee’d right there.)

“I’d better leave them a pee-mail or they may think it’s rude that I didn’t return their call.”
Sigh. He misses the find the first time.

Loki runs off but it becomes obvious to him that he lost the scent and makes his way back on his own.

“Wait a minute. There’s nothing over there. I could have sworn I smelled something other than pee-mail back there before…”

“Yes, I think I found the hot dog terrorist. But I’m so confused. Where can she be?”

“There she is! Release the hot dogs little lady!”

Yes, sometimes dogs leave pee-mail when they work. Sometimes they go potty. We all have to go potty when we work. It’s perfectly fine. The important thing was that he lost her scent and came back to her and when he couldn’t figure out how to get to the scent, he went up. He made me proud that day!

A few weeks after this search, he had to be tested on a cold search in the woods for a person laying down in some bushes. We had 5 minutes. He found her in just under 3 minutes. In the end, Loki doesn’t have a super high natural drive to search, but the more I work him in it, the more comfortable he gets. I love watching him work. He’s actually an easy dog to train in many ways. But compared to other dogs working search, I can see his drive to do it is much lower.  I still enjoy it because it gives him confidence and as our trainer once said: “I’d rather have a mediocre dog searching for me than no dog searching for me if I were stranded!” Woof!

And Now A Word from Juno

Mr. Wild Dingo has been gone for a while and is on his way now to Shanghi. He has a soft spot for girls who disregard him and has requested photos of Juno. He sent me the photo below of the woman he’s been seing behind Juno’s back:

Mr. Wild Dingo tells me this girl above has a better recall than Juno because she comes running to the fence any time Mr. Wild Dingo approaches.

 Juno is not amused with how and with whom he’s been spending his time.

“Pop, I think it’s time I meet you in Shanghai to reorient you in proper Siberian behavior.”

“For the record: just because I’m getting in this suitcase to meet you in Shanghai does not make it an excellent recall. I’m only coming so I can ignore you face-to-face.”

We’re now in the second level program and prior to this, Loki did fairly well in his first level of search. On the final day of his Level 1 training at the clinic training field he got the second fastest time in all the novice search dogs and he showed to be very methodical and confident. But that was the training field he’s familiar with and naturally he’s confident in familiar places with familiar equimpment.

As we progressed to new areas in “cold searching” where the person is already hiding in an area the dog’s never been to and there’s new equipment, Loki has run into a little trouble. He alerts to the target very quickly, but he freaks and runs when he finds the person. The issue with him is not the person itself, because Loki’s friendly with strangers, but the context. Finding a person, for example in a garbage can or a dog crate is, well, freaking weird and not something a dog, let alone a person usually experiences. So he gets very nervous and backs away from his target.

On Loki’s second search out, one of his favorite people, Christi is hiding for him:

“Oh my dog! I think I found a human she may be holding a treat hostage!”

My trainer Lance instructs me not to go into the target as Loki is still unsure and stressed about going inside. He wants him to work it out for himself rather than me coddling him. So I watch and hope he goes inside.

“Um, mom, I think Christi’s here and she’s definitely got something delicious. What should I do? I’m so confused. Is it polite to enter without being invited in?”

 He sticks his nose half way in and Christi rewards with lots of chicken treats and praise.

 ”Oh my dog, thank you so much for not keeping those chicken treats hostage! Its such a tragedy to see them kidnapped and hidden!” 

Then I’m allowed to go give him praise.

 ”Mom, I totally rescued that chicken Christi kidnapped!”

 On our second search, a new person is hiding in the dog crate far down the field to the left of the photo. I’m instructed to release him in the middle of the field:

 ”This sure is a neat place mom, but I need more time to scope it out.”

It looks like I’m yelling at Loki here, but what I’m actually trying to do is excite drive in him when I give him his command.

“Get your cry-baby butt out there and find the person or no dinner for you!” 

 Smart boy first goes to and checks the tent he found a person in last:

“Gee I wonder if  there’s a chicken hostage holder in here?’

He runs around looking nilly willy and tries to cheat next:

“Am I getting warmer? Give a guy a break and help me out here.”

I’m not allowed to help him, but he catches air scent to the person in the crate pretty quickly:

“What the? There’s a HUMAN in that thing? No way!”

He goes to the crate to confirm what his nose tells him but as soon as he sees the person he cracks up:

“Holy CRAP! There’s a freaking HUMAN in this dog crate? I’m so out of here!”

The trainer has the target person call Loki’s name happily and alas he gets over it (sorry about the blur):

“Wait a minute, that person in there knows my name! Must be ok to go see who it is!”

“Mom, get a hold of this werido in a dog crate. Are we in whacka-doo land?”

On our last search we’re instructed to use the leash and release the dog from the leash when we believe he has alerted. We’re supposed to walk a sqaure within 50 feet around the recycling container and to keep closing in on the container until we think our dog alerts. Our trainer will tell us if we read our dogs correctly and released on time.

This time, Christi is hiding in a recycling container. Man, I hope she gets paid some big bucks to hide in there! Yuck!

I go out with Loki. Notice I’m not heeling him. There’s no obedience in Search training. We just let the dogs do their job.

“Hey mom, this is kind of fun. I love rescuing chicken treats!”
“Whatever Retardo. Just don’t make me look bad.”

Loki alerts really fast, we didn’t even turn the first corner and he caught Christi’s scent. It looks like I’m holding him back, but I”m trying to release his clasp on his leash to let him go.

“Cheeses Mom! Let me go! I smell a human who may be holding chicken treats hostage! I must go save them NOW!”

Loki quickly ran to the container but again bolted from it, but within a few seconds, he turned around and went back to it deciding it was probably a good idea to check out the human hiding in the trash can. Maybe she had some chicken.

“Mom, why is Christi staying in that can? Does she live there now?’

I’m not sure Loki will ever make a great SAR dog but it sure is fun training him. If he can just get over himself and gain some confidence, he would be very good because he seems to alert really quickly. In the end, Lance tells me I read him correctly.

Well, at least we got that going for us, which is nice. (That line is for Dennis the Vizsla.)

Here are more photos of Search with my Classmates

“Hey Rolf, I heard it was your birthday today! Happy 4th dude.”
“Thanks Loki.”

“So Rolf, what do you feel like doing on your birthday?”
“I’d sure love to show Yahoo! what a real Yahoo Search looks like! You up for a game of search?’

“Absolutely Rolf, buddy. You go first. Age before beauty.”
“Keep it up wise-guy. Remember, I’m bigger than you.”

The scene is set. Search games begin on the bluffs of the Pacific Ocean in Santa Cruz.

“Dad lets show this hepcat how a purebred GSD can out-search any manic Formosan GSD, or whatever-the-hell he is.”

Rolf revs up his snooter and goes to right to work.

“Ready or not, here I come!”

“You can run, Loki’s mom, but you can’t hiiiddde! I will find you!”

“There you are! Give me my treat and give me my ball!”

Then it’s Loki’s turn and he searches for Rolf’s Dad, Dan. He frantically goes left.
“Oh my dogs, oh my dogs, where the hell is that guy? I gotta find him or the world will end!”

Is that a gazelle? No, it’s Loki, making an about face turn.
“MUST. FIND. DAN! Oh MY DOGS… I think I smell somethin’ that smells like a surf board. Is it…? Could it be…?”

“It’s Dan! Thank Dog and Praise Cheeses! I found him!”

 ”Dude, I’m so glad I found you. I thought you were gone forever!”

Have I mentioned how fun it is to train Loki in search? He rocks it.  Dan really challenged him and hid long and far. At first it seems like Loki just covers a lot of ground frantically and illogically but as time goes on, he puts together a real strategy. On his last search he made his own little scent triangle and made logical decisions at each point until he found Dan. It was really beautiful to watch it.

And it’s such a pleasure working with a real GSD like Rolf, who’s awesome at tracking and search. He once found a woman’s lost keys in the beach for reals! But more importantly, he’s a calm, confident dog. Errrr… Loki, are you reading this? Hint, hint…take a lesson or two from Rolf. Chill. You’ve got a great food, shelter and a husky to play zoomies and bitey face with. Ain’t nothin’ you should be stressin’ about!  

Happy Birthday Rolf! You are a rock star! Thanks for sharing your birthday with us!