Mist

B qualified - yippee!

Well, I wasn’t expecting to write this for at least another two weeks! We didn’t know beforehand, but we got the chance to take our B-assessment on Sunday. And passed both tracking and rundering at the first attempt. Yippee!
Even better was that both Nina with Bina and Ola with Leo, who were on the same training weekend, also passed both assessments, and 5 from our district who took the orienteering test also passed (well done Krissi, Kai Erik, Trond, John and Frode). So it was full points for District06 (Sør-Rogaland) this weekend.

(and I have to admit to being very pleasantly surprised to get the feedback that Mist and I were the best dog-handler team of the day in rundering. I apparently chose well where to send her out, followed where she was and had a good overview of what terrain she’d covered. They teach us well in Dio06 )

B-qualification doesn’t mean anything externally (re: callout list etc), but it is a major milestone in NRH on the road to reaching A-qualification which is when a dog/handler team joins the callout list. It’s great to achieve it relatively early in the year as it means the most possible time until A-assessments next year, which should allow for good preparation. My goal was to qualify before the end of summer as I expect there will be little training from September for a few months, when number2 joins the family.

We were in Etne for a training weekend - Nina, Ola and me were participants in the B-course which, although not a pass/fail course, is still compulsory and involves an incredible amount of different training exercises in the course of 4 days.

We covered:
Tracking
- trail search from an object (rucksack, jacket etc.). Had never tried this before - maybe it was an advantage that Mist still isn’t 100% indicating on objects, especially when I’m nearby. I took her forward to the rucksack, she had a good sniff, then set off on the trail away from it, as if we’d trained it lots before! She did stop up and consider alternative options (wandered back to the rucksack and around) when I didn’t follow her immediately, which I interpret as being the result of her being very sensitive to what I do all the time. But when I gave the command to search for trail,

- trail search 300m. Didn’t go so well - Mist found at least one other trail during the 300m (no surprise as the area had been used the previous day for a tracking assessment), and I stopped when I got to a fence/gate in the road as I could see another handler and dog searching on the same side of the road just past the fence. When I found nothing else going up and down the stretch I’d covered, I passed the gate/fence and Mist found something. Unfortunately, it seems other trails were laid by accident in the vicinity, and Mist managed to switch to another and actually found the bodyusing sight. Not a particularly good ending - better to not have found anyone than to be rewarded for doing things wrong. But, it’s something for us to try more of….. now we have the rest of the year without having to take any more assessments (unless we want to - search square and rundering in the dark we can take this year or next).

- 24hour-old trail. Also a no-go. The start of the trail was along a fence line, with thick juniper on the other side. There was really nowhere else to choose other than along the deertrod by the fence. So, although Mist set off in the right direction I don’t think she even thought about tracking. I found an article dropped by the trailsetter, and then let Mist find it, in the hope she would then be able to pick up the trail. But it wasn’t to be. We have successfully tracked 24-hour-old trails before (once), so it’s just another thing to add to the list…. and it’s a lot more realistic than 1-2hour-old assessed trails which are almost never going to be a reality in a real-life search!

- multiple dog-handler teams following a newly laid trail, switching dogs every 100m or so after finding an object.
This came after the 24-hour-old trail, and I wasn’t expecting too much from Mist. But she turned out to be a credit to our group! We were 4 handlers and dogs (Line + GSD, Harald + BCxgordon setter, Ola + Leo, GSD and me+Mist). One dog/handler took the trail search from a car, which after a false start, went very well, and we were off. With hindsight, it would have been good to take my GPS (easy to say afterwards), both to compare trail log with the trailsetter’s afterwards, but also to mark where we found articles ‘en route’, which would have helped us get back to the trail when we lost it. We spent easily as much time off track, re-searching for the trail, as we did following where Gunnhild had gone. But I was really pleased with Mist who not only

- tracking through a group (in my case, with a group nearby, as they didn’t actually know where the trail was!)
Went fine. Mist glanced at the noisy bunch as we passed a few metres away, but otherwise was not bothered. Unfortunately though, she then went past the ‘finish’ and we spent ages wandering round trying to find the trail again. The instructor who set us off didn’t know where the finish was, nor where the trail was, so she couldn’t stop us!

- parallel tracking - 18 dogs/handlers, a few metres apart, simultaneously across a football pitch. I hope I can get a photo from Annette (instructor) who was the photographer.
Not sure how much was tracking and how much was a race to get to the other side first! But Mist (and most of the others) had her nose down well over half the time, and considering I think she’s often easily distracted, she did very well.

- tracking on gravel and tarmac
Gravel - fine. Tarmac - no chance! Have tried this before with minimal success. If I use food in the trail, she just starts searching for goodies rather than tracking…. probably due to me setting it up wrong way back when, when I first tried. Anyway, Karen Sofie showed me how to pretty much show Mist each footstep (we’d marked the tarmac with chalk every 2-4 steps), and make sure she then tracked a step or two before getting a goodie. Will try this at home (or in a carpark somewhere!)…

- terrain changes (gravel to grass to gravel)
Not bad - I know it’s difficult, so I was expecting her to have to work. Went ok though and she managed it even with crossing of other trails and other dogs tracking nearby at the same time. In fact, tracking on short grass seemed to be as difficult as gravel.

Rundering
- indication of body in tree. No probs.
- indication of rucksack. As often, I was visible so when she found the rucksack she sat down by it and tried to stare me out! I waited her out, and eventually she barked. Something to concentrate on, as it will be part of A assessment. I need to find a really good reward that I can fit into a rucksack, under a jacket…..as it’s clear it’s nowhere near as rewarding as finding a person. A dwarf perhaps?

- indication of inaccessible body (up on top of an enormous boulder)
Fine. Took a long while to locate, but that was the idea. Indication fine.

Lyttepost (have no idea what that should be in English - dog/handler sit in one place and listen….. when the dog registers a noise, it is released and should follow up and indicate a find.
As I suspected, Mist reacted immediately and very clearly to the noise. I said ‘ok’ to try to make it positive as I expected she would be sceptical. She ran out about halfway to where the person was hiding, banging a stick against a log, but then thought better of it and came back. With a bit of encouragement from me, and from the body once Mist was within sight, she ’solved’ the problem herself. But it’s not a strong point - she’s a chicken!

Area search
- Searching an area using air-scenting, dog running free
- Planning, setting up a search for multiple lost people.
For us, during the search phase, the biggest challenge was making forward progress in huge boulders, massive holes and juniper bushes. There were places that I had to lift Mist up crags, onto boulders….and then climb up myself. Not the best for a 5-month pregnant person with a knackered shoulder!! But hey…. We didn’t find anyone- good to hear afterwards that there was noone in the area we were allocated (the exercise was partly an exercise in planning how to divide an area in to smaller search areas, and the people doing the dividing didn’t know where the bodies were).

Posted under: Indication / Melding, Airscenting / Overvær, Tracking / Spor, Rundering