Avalanch Dogs

[mtbakerskier]

Me and my girl, also known as pshyco bitch havea dog that has one year of avy rescue training. Since then the dog, ahs moved in with me, and I need to know what I have to do to get it fully trained. We really need a avy dog at Baker and Id love to have this dog help out when needed but I need to know hat I need to do to get it fullly trained. It had its first year of training at Stevens pass, but I believe the trainer there is no longer in the northwest. any of you magots have any info?

[Eldo]

Paging Redskea!

(Or Red, if she can work a keyboard with her paws.)

[PNWbrit]

Crystal has a big avy dog program, you might want to try there.

[summit]

Just be sure you understand the massive time commitment involved with training a search dog. I have friends who have search dogs and I've participated in SARDOC training. A well trained search dog is an amazing thing to watch in action.

These people should be able to tell you what you need to know:
German Shepard Search Dogs of Washington State:
http://www.gssd.org/

If they can't, drop these guys and email:
http://www.sardoc.org/graphics/sardoclogo.jpg
www.sardoc.org
They'll probably be able to point you in the right direction.

[Hacksaw]

Having been a secondary handler for one dog I can tell you this. Training an avalanche search and rescue dog, requires a lot of time and effort. You need to do training at least weekly, and year round too. Are your ready for that sort of commitment? You also really need to a member of a rescue team or on pro ski patrol (there's lots to work out with area management about the dog).

I don't mean to discourge you. I'm just a realist.

There is lots of information about avalanche rescue dogs at www.avalanche.org

And there is Patti Burnett's book. "Avalanche! Hasty Search: the care and training of avalanche search and rescue dogs." Published by Doral Publishing, Inc. Its a very good book.

Cheers,
Halsted

[mtbakerskier]

I completly understand the time requirement involved. My GF has put the dog threw one year of training while living at Stevens pass, and now that she has the time to do it, she wants to get the dog back involved. Im just trying to get her the proper contact info.

[PlayHarder]

Im just trying to get her the proper contact info.

Listen to Eldo and PM Redskea, her pup is certified in NZ and she just went through Canuck certification. I know she'd looked into American certification as well.

[AltaPowderDaze]

I'm sure you can find plenty of info on the net/from other mags.
Is your do fired up about hide and go seek games yet? That was one of the most important parts of training my water dog to keep working for me on blind retrieves. I guess that would be the equivalent of avy recovery.

[Redskea]

My dog Red is cert avi + wilderness + USAR trained in NZ and avi in Canada. We have been training together for 4 1/2 years, about 1000 hours training I think!
If you need any info about what I have done with my dog and what I think is a good idea PM me. Other people have different methods, it depends on the dog and the handlers temperment. There are some very "strong Personalities" (read jerks) in SAR the main difficulty is putting up with the BS and being determined to search anyway.
The main thing is that both you and the dog have fun and love to search more than anything else.

[Foggy_Goggles]

I got this email from the Colorado Avalanche Information Center

Hello Friends, we have a quick inquiry for you. Does anyone have a story about amazing dog

If you have any stories, please send them to caic@qwest.net