Courtesy Post for a Friend

TRACKING SEMINAR

Saturday & Sunday, May 25 & 26, 2013
Start Time: 8:30 a.m. (CST) each day

Location: Glendhenmere Kennels south of Murray, KY, or Paducah Kennel Club Building and Grounds
Fisher Road, Paducah, KY

Hosted by: The German Shepherd Dog Club of West KY

This will be a seminar of interest to both beginners and experienced trackers. You will be introduced to some new and more efficient ways to reach your scent work goals. The main focus will be on quickly and efficiently obtaining AKC Tracking titles and improving scores on the Schutzhund Tracking fields. Instructor: Dr. Mary Belle Adelman AKC Tracking judge and NASA Schutzhund judge.

Some of the things covered will include:
* Introduction to scent work for practical use and competition
* Setting realistic goals
* How to keep your air scenting dog on the track
* Are you training your dog to fail?
* Plus lots more!

We plan on running at least 4 individual tracks with every dog during the two day event, so come prepared to work. Bring good working gear including rain equipment. It could be wet—you know KY

Pre-registration gets a free tracking lead. All other $150. Early registration is encouraged. The Seminar is limited to 20 working dogs slots (limited audit slots). Location will depend upon number of entries. Only one dog, per participant, to work. All dogs must be crated, plenty of room outside with shade..

There will be continental breakfast and lunch provided both days, plus many food establishments are located within 15 minutes of the seminar site. If we have over 15 entries we will probably move to he PKC which has a great facility including: Indoor Training and eating area, plus 19 acres of tracking just outside the door. Good crating both inside and outside under cover.

Instructor: Dr Mary Belle Adelman (AKC judge in conformation, herding, obedience, tracking; and former Schutzhund judge. Author of The German Shepherd Dog Handbook)

For Registration Form and Directions, please contact:
Dr. Adelman at maryba@toast.net or phone 270-436-2858

Workshop In Progress

I'm getting back to my scentwork roots with my dog-training lessons.  Mostly, lately, I've been offering obedience training in a format resembling piano lessons: bring 'em in young and practice, practice, practice.  However, it's not paying the feed bills all that well, so I'm offering something that most training facilities don't.  Coming May 18, the "My Dog Can Do That" SAR workshop.

You see, SAR is something lots of people want to try without making a commitment, and it's also something where the groups who have made the commitment don't want to use training time on dilettantes.  I figure there's probably a niche there for me.

My husband says my ad should include the number of hours I've trained.  I'm not sure what that is over the course of the four years I was actively training in SAR, never mind the more casual observations, related training, and book-reading since then, but I am pretty sure that nobody'd believe the number if I came up with one that was even close.  A lot, okay?  I worked Sunny a couple of hours a day minimum nearly every day for four years, and participated in two to six group trainings with other dogs every  month for most of those four years, plus a few in the following year as helper and advice-giver.

He also says I shouldn't mention the thorns and poison ivy, but that's part of a realistic SAR experience.  If you haven't done a faceplant into one or the other, you haven't really trained.  Likewise, if you've never had a Labrador get tangled in your hair, you've never properly hidden from a search dog.  It isn't a comfortable pastime.  It is a worthwhile one, though.

I think what worries me is that total strangers are going to ask why I'm not still in SAR, and I'm not quite sure they'll understand the answer, "My partner died."  In most fields of dog training, you just train another one.  This was different, at least for me.  Which I'm going to have to get comfortable explaining, apparently.