Kyle Warren Dogs

Blue track = subject and Red track = Maya

The village of Hancock, NY January 2nd, 2009.  Subject goes missing from Rid-Aid Pharmacy building… the subject is a diabetic that hasn’t taken their meds.  This was the given scenario for this training trail that Maya and I ran on January 3rd, 2009.  This trail was 30 hours old, making it our new oldest successful urban trail to-date.  During the time this trail was aging there were steady winds 15 mph or greater and approx. 2 inches of snow had fallen, was plowed and melted…. the contamination at the start of this trail was tremendous, likely hundreds of people over that span of time.

It was a around 4:30pm when we started the trail. This trail was ran totally blind… knowing nothing other than the PLS (point last seen). We had a big crowd observing today…. Patty from Amigo SAR Dogs (Maya’s past evaluator and tester), Tom from Amigo, Vickie; an owner of a bloodhound that we worked with earlier in the day, along with Sarah of EVSD (Eagle Valley Search Dogs).  And of course, my little trail-making mad scientist and sidekick, Rita.

I scented Maya off the article in front of the pharmacy doors and we went to work.  This was a very challenging start and probably took us a good 10 minutes to figure it out…. The wind had blown up these alley streets that were only 75 yards long or so… I have been finding that I don’t get negatives from the dog until I get around corners of buildings…. The trail basically went from the pharmacy south to the railroad tracks and the subject walked along side the railroad tracks until where       West Front St. / Rte. 97 /  East Front St. all merge, at that point he continued across to East Front St. and continued walking east then went into a hotel / restaurant.

Maya did great…. what made this trail most challenging were three general things: One:  the age, snow, and wind.  Two: the traffic, which kept getting the dog frustrated every other minute when I’d have to stop her.  Three:  me not trusting my own dog…. so bad.  Getting pre-conceived ideas in your head will kill you every time.  We did a good job but my dog kept pulling back to the actual track many times which was a good part along the railroad tracks…. I continually pulled her off because I was in the mindset that Rita was laying the trail “more in the village,” not just on a side street.  This was a first.  So I kept doubting my dog…. what a no-no when you know that you have trained your dog well.  Then what happened was that she started to doubt herself, I knew this by her looking back at me a handful of times.  I rarely, question my dog’s commitments but even when I have, she has always been right.  Huge mistake on the handler’s behalf.  So there was scent up these side streets but her original reaction was to continually go back to West Front St. and plowing down that…. I kept saying to myself…. no — …. well, lets just check out the intersection.  This confused her a bit.  The last intersection we were hot on it and I walked her up to the north part of the intersection, figuring if there was scent up there then the trail would have to be up there too.  Well, there wasn’t scent up there and she clinged to the walls of the buildings on the east side of  97 dragging me south back to the intersection then east around the corner to the hotel/restaurant and right into the building where Sid, our subject was hanging out. We did it!  It took us 27 minutes to do a .4 mile trail.  10 minutes of that was the start and another 10 minutes of it was me wrongly questioning my dog…. we ended up traveling a total of .86 miles before getting to the subject.  All ended well in a very reasonable time given the variables in the trail.  I know I say this all the time…. but I LOVE MY DOG! That’s my-my!

Sunday, December 14th at 11:30am Jana Martin laid a trail in Olivebridge, NY in the woods for Maya that was ran today, Tuesday December 16th at 2:30pm.  This is Maya’s oldest successful trail to-date!  51 hours old and 6/10ths of a mile long!  Previously a 36 hour old trail was the most aged trail she completed.  

I scented Maya off the gauze pad that was taken the same time that Jana laid the trail.  I had to cut both sides of the highway… she located trail scent on the south side of the road, it led us into the woods via a logging road.  She was north of the track by about 100 yards for the first 150 yards then we went south of the track about 100 yards for about 70 yards.  She angled herself back towards the track and was right on top of it for the last 60% of the trail.  The trail was .57 miles and we traveled .64 miles in 14 minutes. What an amazing thing! 51 hours old!  We’ll keep pushing…

51 hour old wilderness trail in Olivebridge, NY Blue track = subject Red track = Maya

21 hour old trail in the village of Hancock, NY Blue track = subject Red track = Maya

This dog’s nose is incredible! Rita set up a great training trail in the village of Hancock, yesterday that we ran today.  We ran this blind and did very well.  Rita gave me the following scenario: Alzheimer’s patient last seen out in front of the senior citizen home and the search team got called in, 21 hours after the subject has gone missing.

I scented Maya and we went to work.  She circled in front of the senior citizen home for three or four times then we advanced down Leonard St. making a left onto Vestal Ave. continuing on across School St. down the grassy hill in front of the school, this was an area where scent had been blown down the hill due to the prevailing wind in this very open area and the over night downhill drift.  She marched transversing the hill around to the north side of the school and behind the tennis courts to the front parking, where there was a lot of scent drag westward and as soon as she got around a building she gave me a negative and we crossed E Main St. to end in  a small parking lot near Center St.  Absolutely amazing! Great!  With our casting and mild overshots we went .84 miles in 21 minutes to completion.  At our most distant point we were 75 yards off the track. I walked with Maya back to the truck at the start with a the must proud thoughts a handler and dad could have.

Tonight, we ran a trail that was set up at  7:30 am by Rita and Sarah.  Rita was my spotter and Sarah was the subject.  We had a typical Eagle Valley Search Dogs training day ….. all day long.  During the time that the trail was aging more than 2 inches of rain had fallen and we were having wind gusts up to 19mph  in the afternoon and evening.  We had worked many dog teams on area search problems all around the first 300 yards of the trail for contamination.

It was 8:00 pm, Rita and I are looking outside into the darkening sky, where the rain continues to fall with force.  She asked me,”well, what do you think?”  I replied,”I have no idea if there is still scent out there but lets find out.”  So we were all game for the challenge!

Maya’s scent article was a pepsi bottle.  She took it with great focus and as far as Maya was concerned it could have been a beautiful spring morning.  She was on the move and on the trail!  She trailed her heart out… it felt like the never-ending trail as the rain beat down on us all.  But it didn’t beat our spirit… we could believe that the dog was on the trail and rearing to go?!  

The trail had started in Karen’s back yard, went down into the woods towards the Coxing Kill Creek, crossing the creek, up the opposite hillside a few hundred feet, back across the creek, transversing up the mountainside, popping out onto Clove Valley Rd. and continuing down that for a good 1/3 mile then back into the woods to end the trail at Sarah about 100 feet off the road.  58 minutes later, Maya and I had traveled 1.88 miles in the dark, the wind and the rain to locate our subject and never drifted more than 100 yards off trail.  My mind was filled with a few words: amazed, proud, and thrilled!

11 hour old wilderness trail in High Falls, NY Blue track = subject Red track = Maya

Today, Maya and I took our second trailing test out in Warren Center, PA.  This was a 12 hour old test.  Maya has completed a fair number of trails up to 24 hours old, so the age wasn’t the hard part….. it was the weather…..

We had 15-20 mph winds over night and during the majority of the test.  I have a saying,”wind is an area search dog’s best friend and a trailing dog’s worst nighmare.”  In my experience, excessively windy days, are the greatest challenge for a trailing dog even more than temperature and rain on this age trail.

Warren Center, PA, where the test was being held has very open, rolling terrain; fields and pastures.  This enables scent to be carried great distances by the wind.  Sometimes the scent picture will be distorted and spread over large areas.  It took Maya and I several hours to complete this test on this unfriendly scent-conditioned day.  Not our most crisp trail by far, but nonetheless successful.  The trail was nearly 1.5 miles in length.  What one has to remember is that when the scent is distorted on windy days that you cannot think that you and the dog are traveling in a linear direction, as the subject has traveled.  What created the challenge was that scent from different legs of the trail had overlapped and they were close enough in age on a 12 hour scale to not show a difference to the dog.  The handler must look at their GPS; determine where they have been, where the dog has scent, and where they haven’t been to cast the dog in that direction.  This will bring about more success in a more reasonable amount of time if the handler can assist the dog’s nose with this challenge.  A true example of what is a, “K-9 team.”  Maya and I are now in service.

Today, Maya and I took our first off-team trail test towards certification out in Warren Center, PA.  The test went very well.  It was one mile long and took about 50 minutes.  The start took about 15 minutes to get going before she would commit and from there on she was very solid to the end.  One more to go and we’re operational!