Can't wait for 11

I agree with CJ, it just keeps getting better and more interesting David!

I love hearing about just how much work and how hard the training can be. It really gives a pet owner like me, a true understanding about what it takes to to handle a MWD.
I also love reading about the tremendous bond that is created between handler and dog.
It is something that is so evident and something I absolutely marvel at. It is a beautiful thing to see or in this case to read about.

My only contact up close and personal was going every year to the Minnesota state fair ( my home town) to watch the police do demonstrations with their K9 partners. Honestly, it was my only reason for wanting to go to the state fair.

Watching the focus and the bond that the dogs have with their handlers is something I will always admire and enjoy seeing.

"Battle Buddies", such an incredible and powerful bond is established. This has to be my favorite part of the whole thing!

I can imagine how you feel about Fama David. I can't wait for the day she gets to retire with you.
She is one incredibly magnificent working dog, and you sound like one pretty magnificent handler David!

 Quote: CJ Barrett

Gosh David, these reads are so much fun. They just get better and better as you familiarize us with life with Fama.

You couldn't pay me to tell Heath about your nightly bonding rituals.

And I too was wondering about that bond...just the training experiences so far, all the references to "Daddy", the traumatic events she went thru and never wanting her to experience stuff like that again.

Does it bother you that she is out there, teaching a new handler the ropes?

I had to think about this for a while to find the honest answer. It bothers me that she will be going into danger without me. We put our gear on and walked into the fight every day together, and that somehow made it OK. It worries me that her next handler won't have the same understanding of her, and they will both suffer for it. Her handler will have to deal with a dog who is in charge, and she won't be able to relax. If her new handler knows how to listen to his dog, which few people really understand, they will both be fine.

You've mentioned that your writing is therapeutic and I know its part of your job and probably best for all involved but I think I'd be in agony.

You've gotta be one tough Sergeant, in more ways than one.

Some days are harder than others. I believe in Fama, in her resilience, her ability, and her trainers. That makes it easier.

 Quote: David Eagle

I'm totally gonna get fired, too! Dangit, I have WORK to do!

I loved 9 and 10, which I just read together. Regarding vets, and other humans: I'm flabbergasted by peoples behavior around dogs. The incredible misinterpretations that occur almost constantly, from people interpreting stares as nice greetings to people interpreting barking as aggression.

It takes effort for us lowly humans to understand what comes naturally to other animals. We have communicated primarily through speech for generations, and we are losing the innate ability to read body language, because we don't rely on it any more. In general, people don't use posture to communicate with their children, they just speak, so the children never learn. I believe that because of this, most people fail to understand animal communication, unless they are interested enough to learn.

I was in PetSmart yesterday (don't ask. But I'll tell you what I WASN'T doing: buying treats. They're ALL made in China!) and I chanced across a beautiful GSD being "Trained" by the petsmart woman. The trainer was telling the handler (who was about as exciting as a dirt clod) that she was doing a good job (false) and that her dog was "fearful" (false). I've worked with a nervy GSD bitch before, and this dog was a rock compared to her.

This dog didn't like reflective surfaces. So the petsmart trainer brought it to a big reflective surface, where the dog locked its knees. The trainer stood in the reflective surface, in front of the dog, and began to pull on the leash, causing the dog to push back harder. Meanwhile the owner/handler, standing next to the trainer, called the dog to come and praised it. The trainer was praising, too. The more the trainer pulled the more the dog resisted until, finally, the dog was dragged across the floor by the leash while the trainer (who was doing the dragging) continually said, "Good dog! good dog!"

Anyway, even when the dog was locking down it showed no signs of actual anxiety. It didn't look fearful or weak-nerved, it just needed experience on that type of surface. If they keep flooding it though, it'll probably develop the anxiety that they're hellbent on "curing".

It seems like your approach was to let the vet experience some of the consequences of her stubbornness. But what do you do in a situation where you know the people aren't going to learn and a great dog is going to suffer? I was so frustrated.

I guess we can't fix all the uneducated people. That sure is frustrating.

The sad thing is, that it sounds like this dog could have been helped through this fairly easily, and with no confrontation.

 Quote:

The sad thing is, that it sounds like this dog could have been helped through this fairly easily, and with no confrontation.

Yep. Pretty sad.

I'm really intrigued by your comment about communicating to kids with body language. Do you have more on that thought?

 Quote: Joyce Salazar

I agree with CJ, it just keeps getting better and more interesting David!

I love hearing about just how much work and how hard the training can be. It really gives a pet owner like me, a true understanding about what it takes to to handle a MWD.
I also love reading about the tremendous bond that is created between handler and dog.
It is something that is so evident and something I absolutely marvel at. It is a beautiful thing to see or in this case to read about.

The two things really go together. Imagine how close most pet owners would get to their dogs if they trained with their dog for 5-7 hours a day, and then spent the rest of their time together grooming or playing.

My only contact up close and personal was going every year to the Minnesota state fair ( my home town) to watch the police do demonstrations with their K9 partners. Honestly, it was my only reason for wanting to go to the state fair.

Demos are great fun. Fama and I used to have people watch us train all the time. I used to have bystanders plant training aids for us, while we were around a corner, so we could demonstrate how hard it was to fool us.

Watching the focus and the bond that the dogs have with their handlers is something I will always admire and enjoy seeing.

"Battle Buddies", such an incredible and powerful bond is established. This has to be my favorite part of the whole thing!

Me too. The work was always great, but the relationship was what I found really rewarding.

I can imagine how you feel about Fama David. I can't wait for the day she gets to retire with you.
She is one incredibly magnificent working dog, and you sound like one pretty magnificent handler David!

Thanks Joyce! I wish you could see us work.

 Quote: David Eagle

 Quote:

The sad thing is, that it sounds like this dog could have been helped through this fairly easily, and with no confrontation.

Yep. Pretty sad.

I'm really intrigued by your comment about communicating to kids with body language. Do you have more on that thought?

Sure I do.

When you are teaching a small child to communicate, you have a tendency to exaggerate words, and then explain their meaning, so the child puts a picture to the word, and remembers it. Then the child will learn, through repetition, how to effectively recognize that word, and eventually how to speak it. The same principle holds for body language. Facial expressions are the most common. A smile means happy, a frown, angry. Kids learn this through repetition of associating the facial expression with the communication or actions that follow. We can help our kids understand much more than facial expressions if we exaggerate our posture and mannerisms just like we would a word, and then explain it's meaning. The communication or actions that follow this exaggerated posture or mannerism will re-enforce it's meaning, just like with a word. It's the same way we teach hand signals to a dog. The problem is, that you need to first understand body language yourself before you can teach it to someone. That involves paying close attention to yourself and others, a skill many people lack.

It is exactly the same in dogs. When I was younger, I grew up with dogs, lots of dogs. My mother was a great trainer and handler. I learned about body language from the time I was born, because my mother was so tuned into non-verbal communication. I had a hard time understanding why everyone wasn't this way, especially with dogs. I would see a person trying to interact with their dog in all the wrong ways, and it just wouldn't make sense to me. It used to really piss me off because I thought the people were intentionally making their animals uncomfortable, which is abuse, when in truth, they were just ignorant.

Episode 11

After we got home that evening, I put on some gym shorts and headed out with Fama for a run. The hotel is located adjacent to a shopping center, and the parking area is a maze of drives and parking lots. We wandered through the complex of buildings and parked cars, sometimes running, sometimes walking, and sometimes just hanging out at a vacant bench or table outside of a restaurant. I never issued a command or expected anything of Fama, other than to just be a dog. I would respectfully reject requests from passers by to pet my dog, saying that she didn't play well with others. It was refreshing to just run together, with no particular place to go, and no objective except to have fun.

We walked through a drive-thru and picked up some dinner for me. The DelWorkers were crowding the window as we strolled up to pay. One of them stuck a hand out towards Fama, and retracted it immediately when she lunged. They had a good laugh at this. They may have been making fun of us. I couldn't tell. I don't speak Spanish. They were very friendly, and seemed honest when they hoped to see us again soon. My love for tacos made that a certainty.

On our way back to our second floor room, how inconvenient for someone that has to carry a crate to and from the truck every day, we were headed up the stairs when we ran into someone at the top of the stairs. Fama was ahead of me going up the steps, so when I saw a person up on the balcony, I turned her around and headed back down to avoid a potentially ugly situation. It turned out to be the Sergeant Major in charge of all the Military Dog programs, who has over 20 years working Military Dogs. SGM quickly called us back up to speak with him, and to meet Fama.

"Just come on back up here Soldier," he said. "How are things going for you?"

Fama was trying to go greet, or eat, the SGM, and I wasn't sure which, because I was looking him in the eye while he spoke to me. She was pulling on the leash, and I was holding her back. Fama biting the SGM would have been just shy of biting the President. I didn't think I was up to doing a billion push-ups, so my left hand was a vice on that leash.

"Things are just fine Sergeant Major," I said, glancing down to see if I could get a read on how Fama was taking all this.

"You just let that dog come up here and say hi."

I said, "Sergeant Major, she's not very friendly sometimes."

"I've been a dog handler for 23 years, and if I get bit, it's my fault."

I still had the incident at the Vet's office fresh in my mind, but I decided he was right. If anybody could make friends with her, or defend himself if necessary, it was this man. I grudgingly let go of the leash, and noticed my knuckles hurt. Fama went right up the stairs and greeted him like they were long lost friends.

"What's her name?" he asked.

"This is Fama, and I can't believe how good she is being with you."

She was wrestling around with him, play biting his hands and rubbing up against his legs like a cat. He then took the time to explain to me how not feeling fear or discomfort around a dog put it at ease with you, and that restraining her when meeting people was building frustration and drive, making her more reactive and likely to bite someone. It all made sense to me, and I had thought of this before. I just hadn't worked out how to train through this, given our current situation.

I thanked the SGM for his time, and headed back to the room with my brain going a million miles an hour, trying to come up with a plan to help Fama become a social dog. The meeting with SGM had given me hope. I thought that if Fama could meet one person cordially, she could eventually meet all people with the same good manners. The problem was, a short-term quick fix was not going to happen. This behavior had gone on for a long time, and I was going to have to wait for the opportunity to spend some time working with her in just the right setting. For now, we had to work on finding bombs first. The rest could come later.

We had dinner, and a bath, followed by some fun obedience games with a tug. I had put all the unused furniture and my luggage up on the sofa so we had lots of room for activities. The downstairs neighbors had to be pulling their hair out. We were working on an UP command by jumping up on the bed, getting the tug, wrestling around with it for a few seconds, and then hopping back to the floor to do it all again. We knocked over a lamp or two, but that's the price you pay. You can't make an omelet without breaking some light bulbs. We settled down on the bed when Deadliest Catch came on TV. It's Fama's favorite show, along with Dirty Jobs. Maybe she has a thing for Mike Rowe? He does have a sexy voice.

Episode 12

All the handlers, including myself, had been bitching to the trainers about running every morning because it was hot as hell. The run kept getting longer too. This was understandable, as both the dogs and handlers needed to be in top physical condition in preparation for operating in the mountains of Afghanistan. Understandable? Yes. Fun? Not on your life. The trainers decided to take us swimming with our dogs, as it is great exercise, and the change of pace was welcome. I had memories of swimming with Gunner, my Chocolate Lab of 14 years (miss you buddy), and we always had such a great time in the water.

We showed up at the park, which was located on the river by Laguna Dam, and changed into our swimming apparel. We made our way down to the water, dogs in harnesses on their long lines. The idea was to play fetch into the water for a while to get the dogs used to swimming. We all lined up along the beach with some space between each dog team, and chucked our balls out into the water. Fama charged the water, took about 2 steps off the beach, and turned right around, coming back up onto the sand. She looked at me, eyes saying, "I hope you don't think that I'm going in THERE after that ball, do you? Because that is NOT going to happen."

I sacrificed that first ball to the river gods. I had put some arm into the throw, and didn't feel like swimming all the way out there to get it. I took a second ball out, don't ask where I had it stored, and got Fama all worked up with it, tossing it around and teasing her. I flipped it underhand into the water right at the edge. Fama raced to the edge, and then tip toed out one more step with just her front feet in the water, stretching her neck to reach the ball, and jumped straight backwards 6 feet until she was on dry land. It took me a good 3 minutes to get the ball back. I tried several more times to tempt her into the water with the ball, with no progress. I got in first and tried to call her to me. She would get excited and bark, whine, warble, and jump around, but she refused to get into the water. We were going to have to do this the hard way. I was glad I had a shirt on.

I took her by the harness and gave the SHOULDER command, at which time I put her up on my left shoulder and headed into the water. She was just fine up there, looking around, digging her nails into my skin to establish a more stable position. The water got up to my waist and touched her back feet, which were tucked into the back of my trunks. Feeling the water touch her paws, Fama tried to climb on top of my head. I felt like a beanstalk, with Jack's sister Julie trying to climb me using her brand new Lee Press-On Nails for grip. She came around the front with her feet on my chest, trying to face the shore. I stopped her with my hand on her harness. Then she backed up a little and tried to go over my head. When I restrained her, she just pulled harder. I brought her off my shoulder and cradled her in my arms, bending at the knees to lower her gently into the water. I could feel the sting of the claw marks as I entered the water.

Here is my fearless Military Working Dog, ears back, sorrowfully whimpering, trying desperately to get back to the shore. Her feet were thrashing in the water against my stomach and legs. I could feel the scratches multiplying by the second, so I let her go. She sensed her chance to make a break for it and poured on the steam. I had her leash in my hand and I let her have about 10 feet of slack and stopped her forward progress. Now we're swimming, not the way I had hoped it would go, but it would have to do for now. I floated a ball towards her head, and she snapped it up like an alligator, continuing to flail towards the shoreline in vain. I let her in to the beach to have a break and got my ball back.

We continued "swimming" for about an hour, with frequent breaks on the beach. I kept letting her have her ball once we got out into the water, and she started to lighten up after a few repetitions. She wouldn't go into the water on her own accord, but the protests grew less and less over the course of the afternoon. After we were done swimming, I took Fama up to the parking lot and played some ball in the sun to help her dry off. Fama was not the only dog with swimming issues. Several of us stood in the parking lot comparing scratches. Tired and hungry, we headed back to the hotel for dinner and some sleep.

:-D