The Agony of Dog Training

Yesterday was Bender's first time officially attending search dog training and he did very well! On the first run (he is looking for me on these puppy master runs), he came to the edge of the brush where I ducked in and he pointed like a bird dog. He pointed right at me! While cute, the goal of the activity is to actually have the dog come in on the handler. These were initially very short run aways and I was essentially in plain sight, but he struggled a bit on the second one.

For the subsequent runs, we worked him into the wind and he was a natural. It is so fun to watch a dog of this age learn "the game." Bender was trotting in a straight line and when he was precisely down wind of my position, he made a hard right angle turn and came right in on me. We did about 7 runs and he nailed them all.

As for the above photo, last August I had surgery on my foot/ankle that I broke after stepping into a gopher hole (yes, during dog training). The top of my foot now lacks sensation, so I didn't feel the vine reaching out to trip me yesterday. I fell, sending my coffee straight up in the air to come down on me like a warm, brown rain. Most of me landed on my left knee and my left pinky. I broke and dislocated my finger and spent the afternoon in the emergency room. The physician's assistant was a sweetheart and she numbed my finger as soon as I arrived. The doctor was able to reduce the dislocation and I was sent on my way with pain meds and instructions to follow up with an orthopod.

Photo credit: the nice x-ray tech at St. Ann's Hospital