Enjoying the beauty of Bello at work

Working and training with Bello has been one of the best experiences I have had. It amazes me every day how smart he is and how quickly he picks up the new tasks I introduce to him.  Sometimes I get distracted by the shear beauty of him working.  

Watching him catch a scent trail in the air and then working back and forth in the scent cone until he locates the right and strongest trail...

Then dropping his nose to the ground to track the object or person he supposed to be locating

One of his favorite things/people to find is my 10 year old niece Railey! Since their first meeting back in Nov 2016 she has been one of his favorite people and when they are together they can often be found rolling around on the ground together, playing a game of fetch, or chase and hide and seek! Railey is amazed that Bello knows how to find her!

Bello's other favorite object to find is his medium, neon green, glow in the dark ball! He can often be found carrying this object around even when "finding game" is over! 

 When my last SD, NaKoda (also a therapy dog) passed away (July 2016) I tried really hard to not get another dog. I had her for 13 years and she was one of the best dogs I have ever known. However, by Sept I knew that I truly needed a service animal to compliment my other coping techniques to manage my illness. I knew I would not be able to have another Rottweiler so close to losing NaKoda so I researched other breeds and chose German Shepherds.  However, Bello was not the dog I traveled to observe and see if we were a good fit.  Bello wasn't even in my selected few.  However, upon arriving at the DFW German Shepherd rescue site I learned the ones I wanted to meet had some behavior issues or did not get along with cats (NaKoda left me a cat named Monkey).  Bello however upon my arrival while keeping a distance of about 10 ft continuously walked circles around me checking me out.  I sat down on the ground to see if he would approach and eventually he did, allowing me to pet him and put a leash on him and walk him around the property.  Bello chose me.  I made my donation, and loaded Bello into the truck for our 3 hour drive back home and this has been one of the best decisions I have made!  I can't imagine now not having Bello with me every day; all day long!  I am excited to see where our journey takes us!

Bello on the scent trail

 Bello has now advanced from just finding his ball in grass and trees to us laying a scent track for him.

We start by making  a scent pad or starting point.  This is the spot where I lay my hat or a scarf or something with my scent on it or if you don't have an object you can wipe for you feet on an area for a bit.  This leaves the scent of you or the item and is the starting place where Bello will pick up the scent he is supposed to be tracking.

Once the start pad is established I walk a trail away from Bello stopping ever 6 or 10 feet touching the trail with the object I want Bello to find.

After about 20 ft away from the starting or scent pad I find a place to hide or hide the object I want Bello to find.  I then return to Bello who has been waiting.  I give Bello the find command and allow him to use his nose to track the scent trail I have laid (in our case we have a trainer helping so he lays the scent track during class and I do so at home in between classes when we practice) to find the person or object I want him to find.

So far Bello has successfully found his ball in the pile of concrete rubble at Riverside park several times, on the nature trail at Riverside park, in the trees and tall grasses at Fabis park, in the trees and bushes around our own yard and around the yard at his Granny's house in Bangs.  Bello has also successfully found me hiding in the pastures at his Granny's house in Bangs and my niece in the pastures at his Granny's house in Bangs.

As he continues to advance we will change the locations he has to perform finding an object or person and the distance as well.

The Power of Touch

Bello has been working on the touch alert for his service dog skills.  The touch game is the basis of many of the skills he will need to be able to perform his job for me. The touch skill will allow him to get my attention to alert for medical condition.

Bello seems to enjoy this game.  What I do is hold my hand out to him palm down. Usually this will trigger a dog to at least smell or look at your hand to see if you have anything for them.  When Bello looks or smells my hand I use the clicker to click and say the word touch.  Then I reward him.  If a dog doesn't pay attention to your hand, in the beginning it is ok to move your hand towards the dog's nose with a gentle touch and reward that behavior.  In the beginning it is fine to reward if they show any attention to your hand such as looking or sniffing.

Bello has progressed from general interest of my hand to actually bumping my hand with his nose, so we reward him every time.  We generally spend about 5-10 mins on this game and alternate it with the previously mentioned eye contact game and the name game.

As Bello progresses with his Search and Rescue Training while it is not our turn at a task I usually fit a brief session of his "clicker games" in while we wait for our turn.  These quick "clicker games" can be fit in anywhere, any time and the distractions of what might be going on around us help work on his distraction skills.

Search and Rescue Training update

Bello has been going through Search and Rescue Training (SAR) for aproximately 3 months now and he is making great progress!

We began as all forms of training do making sure that his basic obedience skills were in tact. Over the last 3 months he has been working on cementing his basic obedience in all situations. Then we moved on to making sure that he has a strong drive.  We begin by playing catch with his favorite ball which for Bello happened to be a large glow in the dark green ball. We bounce or throw the ball against a wall and have him retrieve the ball and return to me. Once it was established that he wanted this ball we moved on to hiding the ball in tall grass, trees, bushes, etc.  Once the ball was hidden I would give Bello the command to "find".  Bello has found the ball every time in every location we have worked on this skill!  

In between training sessions Bello and I regularly go off leash at my mom's house which has approximately 80 acres of wooded area.  When Bello is not paying attention to me I hide and wait for him to find me.  Bello has been able to track and find me every time! Once my niece walked with us and I sent her to go hide and took Bello away so he didn't know where/what she was doing.  Upon returning from getting a drink at the tank I instructed Bello to "Find Railey".  He was able to track and find Railey as well! I am so proud of him and the progress he is making!