Day Five...

Well, we'll be home one week from today, and there's still so much to learn!  The morning started with us working on a lot of obedience training.  Obviously an extrodinary amount of obedience on your dog's part and a certain level of finesse on your part as the handler are crutial to having an effective service-dog.  With each new command we've learned, different types of distractions were presented to the dogs.  This morning, we were to leave our dogs in the "down" position and go back to our seats.  Aubrey was always so sad when I walked away.  She'd sulk at me from across the room as only a Hound could do! With each of these new tasks comes greater demands on your dog as well as a new found respect and level of understanding from your dog.  Essentially, come Hell or high water, your dog shouldn't do anything unless you tell him or her to.  Think about it....the last thing you'd want at TGI Friday's is for there to be barking, meandoring dog who is not listening.  The best experience you could have at a resturant with a service dog would be the experience of not even knowing there was a service-dog under the table next to you.  Being surprised by this would mean that the dog and it's handler did their respective jobs and did them well.  While this doesn't exactly apply to us, the last thing we want is a begging, jumping, unruly dog in our house or out at the park. 

The rest of the morning and remainder of the day after our lunch break was spent on tracking.  It's still so fascinating to us.  Aubrey was so excited before we even got out of the truck.  Zachary and Joe wandered around the field and hid at Jeremey's direction, and I went to find them with Jeremy about 10 minutes later.  Well, one thing I can tell you for certain is that seeing and doing are two entirely different things.  Let me just preface the following play by play with the fact that prior to my own track, I witnessed one of my male classmates who is easily more than a foot taller than me and weighs a whole lot more than me being dragged along by his dog.  It was at this particular moment that I knew I had some seriously big problems on my hands.  Since there was no way to sprinkle Pixie Dust all over my body and pray I turned into Flo-Jo in less than 30 seconds, I had no choice but to prep Aubrey for our track and prepare myself for the ass-kicking I was about to take from my sweet, gentle girl.

Aubrey searching for the scent and then taking off like a bat-out-of-hell once she's found it for certain is far more intense when you are the person holding the lead!  She may only be about 50 lbs, BUT she is strong and fast.  I could barely keep up with her.  Wait a minute; the completely honest answer is that I couldn't keep up with her.  I sware to God, if I thought I was gonna wipe out and 15 people were going to witness me being dragged to the finished line once, I thought it 100 times as we ran and ran and ran and ran...  Aubrey definitely took me along for the ride.  It was crazy.  I'm sure if she could speak human, she'd be saying, "Hey lady, just go back to Curves already!"  LOL  Jeremey kept telling me to hold the lead at my side as opposed to in front of me so I'd have more control over my body as Aubrey pulled me along.  In retrospect, this reminder seemed more like an oxymoron as opposed to sound advice..."so you'd have more control over your body."  Seriously???  He also reminded me to breath in through my nose and out through my mouth as I plowed along with Aubrey.  Now THAT was sound advice! The fact that I need to loose a few pounds and don't have the same level of endurance to run as someone who trains for marathons, made it very easy to forget to breath as silly as that may sound. Now THAT was sound advice  It's very easy to forget to breath efficently because you're so focused on watching your dog and learning to read how he or she tracks.  Clearly, Jeremey has seen many a-people nearly pass out and be taken for a ride during their tracks!  LOL  The other thing that Jeremey indicated is that unlike jogging or running a marathon, while tracking you never quite pick up a steady pace until the end....and remember, at that point your dog practically has wings!  LOL  While you're dog is orienting themselves and locating the strongest area of the cone scent, you're starting, stopping, running, walking and turning.  There's no time to establish a "rythm" if you will. 

Well, Aubrey was off.  She did what she does.  She starts slow and steady.  There's a definite rhyme and reason to how she tracks.  With each head snap, I braced myself for the inevitable....my gentle, sweet girl becoming a maniac.  It's amazing what the prospect of a turkey dog does to her.  She made big, wide archs and stopped once or twice to reorient herself.  And, yes...IT HAPPENED!  She picked up on the scent and it was all over.  Well at least for me!  She took off, and so did I.  I did have to pull back a little to slow her down, but I ran behind her with all my might until we found Zachary.  Then I still had to jump around like a crazy lady for a couple of minutes when she found Zachary.  Then I went to Wendy's and rewarded myself with a double with cheese...JUST KIDDING!!!!   :)   For as tired as I was and for as much as my legs burned, and they really did after running over a hundred yards, I felt good about what I did for Zachary.  It's amazing what you can do when you truly put your mind to it and remain focused on the end game.

For Aubrey, the end game is getting to the turkey dog. 

For me, it's ultimately ensuring my son's safety.