Sorry about the late post but I’ve been busy the last couple of days. We did training early this week with some other local agencies. They had several short training problems set up. It may sound like we did training all day but it only took a few hours.

The first problem was a rail car and some fuel trucks. After we finished the problem without finding anything I looked at the trainer and ask her if there were two training aids in the problem. She said yes and then I told her where they were. Rogue’s change on both training aids was strong enough for me to see them and know the general location of the training aids. Rogue’s problem of walking away after he gets his nose on source is getting out of hand.

The second problem was inside a building. Rogue had a hard time finding source on the first aid but when he did he responded. He did an awesome job on the second training aid. It was under a table in a small class room. Rogue had his change from a row of tables away. He worked under the table that was in his way and around some seats that were in his way. As soon as he got his nose on source he responded. I was proud of him after the trainer told me that every other dog has had a hard time finding this aid. I just wish he could find the easy aids also.

Problem number 3 was also in a building. Rogue missed the only aid in this problem. He found it on the second try. This miss might have been my fault. The aid was in the corner under a desk and I didn’t make sure that he got all the way into that corner. The next room in the training problem was blank and Rogue did a great job in that room.

Luggage was the next search area. This is Rogue’s weak area but he did very well. There was one aid hid in the 40 bags that were spread out on the ground and he found it without any problems. There were also small groups of 4 or 5 bags standing alone the perimeter of the room. These bags also had 1 aid. Rogue was all over the back wall so I know he was on odor he just wasn’t sniffing in the right area. I had to present every group of bags. I knew which bag the aid was in by reading his body language but for some reason he didn’t want to respond. He stopped and took a long sniff but then walked away.

The 5th problem was more vehicles. Rogue did an awesome job finding the type of aid that we don’t go to train with very often. Rogue only had one issue with this training problem. After he found the first aid that was behind the passenger side headlight he started to respond on the passenger side headlight of the second vehicle. Even though I didn’t know where the training aid was I knew he wasn’t on odor and I didn’t let him respond.

The next 2 training problems where set up the same way. The search areas were paths about 100 yards long going through a wooded area. By now it was raining pretty hard but the rain didn’t bother Rogue at all. I think he even worked better in the rain. During these 2 training problems Rogue went 5 for 5.