Tuesday, March 17, 2009

An emotional moment and today's training....

On the way to training this morning David and I both had an emotional moment as we glanced back and saw Koolio sitting closely by Hannah and her grinning from ear to ear.

This picture is the one that made us the most emotional. Koolio laid his head on Hannah's arm and she tolerated it. She even enjoyed it!!!!!
I have talked alot about tracking but thought I'd show a little about what I've been talking about. We go to a local park that most of the time has wooded areas. Today Hannah and I walked around these wooded areas and found a place to hide. Here are a few pictures of those woods.
After Hannah and I have had enough time to hide David tells Koolio to track his girl and he heads off. Today we hid beside some woods and he actually tried to go through the woods to find us because he got our scent from where we were hid. He was full of burs and had to have a hair cut to remove them all. He did go around because he couldn't get through and the next picture shows him coming lickety split when he found us! I do not have editing software on David's laptop so it's not the best picture but it still shows what he did. He is THRILLED when he finds us!
The whole process is rather incredible. Jeremy explains how we shed human skin cells and how the dogs can track them. Seriously, it's unbelievable what these wonderful creations can do.
This afternoon we met back at 4paws and went over more tracking notes and grooming. I asked several questions about school and think I got some great feedback on it all. I can't wait to get home and continue in this experience. I know that I'll miss the trainers and 4paws staff and wish I'd have brought at least one of them back to Texas with us. LOL! Really, this experience has been worth EVERY minute of time and energy it took to get here.
This evening we all got together for a 4paws ST Patty's party and had a great time. We thought for a moment we were going to be doing a "live" track as Hannah took off after one of the other 4paws parents and we didn't see her go with her. Talk about a moment of panic. LOL! Luckily she was with another parent safe and sound.
Kyle may have sprained his ankle playing basketball tonight. It's pretty sore and swollen but he is able to walk on it. I've got him sitting with it propped up and ice on it. Please pray it's nothing serious. We've already made one trip to urgent care. Uggggh!
Only 2 more days and then our access test and graduation on Friday. Time has flown by! I'm definately ready to go home though.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for all the pics. I enjoy them immensely. Its almost like I'm there with you. Koolio looks like he's at home with y'all already.

(((((cyber hugs)))))

Praying!

Love ya,
hisvessel

Sally G said...

Marcey,
those picturess are truly priceless, a perfect match of a beautiful dog and a precious girl.
Many blessings to you.

Sally