I cannot get over the cuteness factor. All of Haru's pups are amazingly stunning!
If you can, try and get some Sosuke water pics AND see if someone can photo his SAR training session or video? Would be fun to watch. All the best to you in your SAR endeavors, sounds like he is gonna sneak in and steal the show!
Here's a hole he dug in a different park. He loves digging! For this one, we were walking along trails and then stopped at a busy playground so dogs got tethered and he just got to work digging. Then later, Isaac came over and started digging with him!
Oh yeah, and here's a testament to the kai's ability to get along with other dogs. At our puppy class there are two incredibly shy puppies, a cavalier king charles spaniel and what looks like a chi mix or something. The chi mix has fear aggression problems, too, so any free play time with these pups is just spent making them feel better about being around a bunch of dogs. So during free play time, Sosuke went over to the chi mix and just hung out. Just stood calmly next to her, relaxed and calmly wagging his tail, and the owner fed her treats. Seeing that, the CKCS pup's owners came over and the three of them hung out. Sosuke would run off every once in a while to play rough with the big pups, and then go back and chill with the shy pups. What a good boy! He seemed so intuitive and understanding of each of the different puppies' personality. Very cool.
Sosuke is growing so nicely! I think a kai ken is perfect for SAR good luck with it!
Saya loves to dig too caught her digging at the dog park hard to stop her since people gave me the evil eye funny I see lots of holes in the dog park.. lol
That particular hole was in a pile of dirt that was cleared so they could pave a walkway, and he wasn't making a mess, so I just let him. I let him dig at the dog park or in "untame" areas. Why not? If he likes digging, I'm sure he can learn to dig there but not on lawns or whatever. It hasn't been a problem so far.
Sosuke came with me to the firing range and I learned how to use a shotgun. My car was parked really close, so he heard the shots from the car, and then I took him out on leash and we stood next to someone else who was shooting. Didn't bother him one bit. He was interested in the flying discs, though.
His sister is likewise noise-resistant- someone was shooting across the road, and she didnt think it was anything to worry about. She also pulled over a bucket full of metal cans (recycling) and everyone scattered but Juno, who dragged the bucket across the floor by the handle. This litter seems to cope well with noise!
Last night I also went to the SAR training sessions. I only got there for the last bit because I had been at the shooting range before then. I was going to duck out early, but it turns out you can't duck out early. You can't open the gate unless you have a special card scanner thingy, which makes sense I guess, because they don't want people wandering into the shooting range and getting shot, or people wandering out with guns.
Anyway, I was going to be a live victim, but that didn't work out, so I watched a couple searches and talked to the handlers, and the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) dog handler was there and I talked to her, too. I was concerned because Sosuke has lots of toy drive, but when we go to the dog park, he gets really distracted and isn't very focused on his toys. They told me not to worry, it's normal, and also to just not take toys to the dog park and have play time just be between me and him. That will translate over to search time being one-on-one play time where he knows to focus, but he's still allowed to have times when he's not focused on me or his toys or working. I told them I was actually really nervous that he wouldn't pass his evaluation, but they kept telling me to relax, he's only a puppy. I'm still nervous, but I feel better now. They're very impressed by his temperament and confidence. I just have to keep working on that toy drive, and keep working up to more distracting environments and not expecting too much from him.
Well, had the evaluation. They said his toy drive isn't high enough, and I can keep working on him and try again in three months. It probably isn't going to work out, so I think I should probably switch my focus to hunting so that he can start out with this upcoming hunting season.
Oh man, that blows. Why do you think it will not work out?
Can you not use something else for reward other than a toy? Seems very limiting to only allow dogs with "toy drive" to do SAR considering there is only a handful of toy-obsessed breeds out there. A reward is a reward.
Well, yeah, you CAN train a SAR dog without using toys, but the only method they use is toy drive. But, it's okay. I'm going to volunteer for SAR anyway, just not as a canine handler. And, Sosuke will go hunting with me, which I was going to do anyway.
I might be able to work really hard on getting him nuts about toys. He IS nuts about toys, but when we go outdoors, it's hit or miss. He gets distracted, which is why they told me to work on it rather than an outright rejection. But, since SAR and hunting are both things I'm going to do anyway, it's okay that Sosuke will go hunting with me instead. It's just as good, as far as I'm concerned. If he does develop the necessary toy drive over the next couple months, then absolutely I will do SAR with him.
You know, I was playing ball with Sosuke at the park today, and I don't think it would be too hard to get him ball crazy in the right situations. It was a distracting situation, too. There were strange kids running around and someone else playing fetch with two dogs in the same field.
Since they gave me a second chance, I'll go for it. We'll see how nuts we can get Sosuke to act about his ball! At the park, he was only so-so about his ball, so I clipped a leash to it and dragged it around like a little critter and then the light went on. We can do this. Something else I remember is that the tester said something about some handlers giving treats to their dogs as a reward for a successful search, but she thought toys were better. So, if other people are using treats as well as toys, I will probably do that, too. Why not?
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so many times he compromises by carrying the pine cone in his mouth for a while, then stopping to play. It's really precious.
I have never compromised so much with a dog like I have with Koda and Mei. I think it's a Kai thing.
Matea goes down the slide...
Me too?
Weeeee!
Dance time!
Slide time again.
I cannot get over the cuteness factor. All of Haru's pups are amazingly stunning!
If you can, try and get some Sosuke water pics AND see if someone can photo his SAR training session or video? Would be fun to watch. All the best to you in your SAR endeavors, sounds like he is gonna sneak in and steal the show!
Matea's pretty darn adorable too!
Jen
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Saya loves to dig too caught her digging at the dog park hard to stop her since people gave me the evil eye funny I see lots of holes in the dog park.. lol
Sosuke came with me to the firing range and I learned how to use a shotgun. My car was parked really close, so he heard the shots from the car, and then I took him out on leash and we stood next to someone else who was shooting. Didn't bother him one bit. He was interested in the flying discs, though.
Anyway, I was going to be a live victim, but that didn't work out, so I watched a couple searches and talked to the handlers, and the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) dog handler was there and I talked to her, too. I was concerned because Sosuke has lots of toy drive, but when we go to the dog park, he gets really distracted and isn't very focused on his toys. They told me not to worry, it's normal, and also to just not take toys to the dog park and have play time just be between me and him. That will translate over to search time being one-on-one play time where he knows to focus, but he's still allowed to have times when he's not focused on me or his toys or working. I told them I was actually really nervous that he wouldn't pass his evaluation, but they kept telling me to relax, he's only a puppy. I'm still nervous, but I feel better now. They're very impressed by his temperament and confidence. I just have to keep working on that toy drive, and keep working up to more distracting environments and not expecting too much from him.
Let us know how it goes, Heidi!
Can you not use something else for reward other than a toy? Seems very limiting to only allow dogs with "toy drive" to do SAR considering there is only a handful of toy-obsessed breeds out there. A reward is a reward.
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I might be able to work really hard on getting him nuts about toys. He IS nuts about toys, but when we go outdoors, it's hit or miss. He gets distracted, which is why they told me to work on it rather than an outright rejection. But, since SAR and hunting are both things I'm going to do anyway, it's okay that Sosuke will go hunting with me instead. It's just as good, as far as I'm concerned. If he does develop the necessary toy drive over the next couple months, then absolutely I will do SAR with him.
Since they gave me a second chance, I'll go for it. We'll see how nuts we can get Sosuke to act about his ball! At the park, he was only so-so about his ball, so I clipped a leash to it and dragged it around like a little critter and then the light went on. We can do this. Something else I remember is that the tester said something about some handlers giving treats to their dogs as a reward for a successful search, but she thought toys were better. So, if other people are using treats as well as toys, I will probably do that, too. Why not?