A tough training day

Before I start.. the photos spread out in this post are of a much younger Munchkin searching for me in much shorter grass. Why post these photos you ask? Well... every post about the Munchkin needs photos of the Munchkin. :)

Back to the story.... the Munchkin worked hard yesterday afternoon. It was a hot, albeit windy day and Robyn from the Gauteng K9 SARA unit was visiting us for training. We trained on a piece of ground on the side of a hill. The wind was blowing straight up the hill. This is going to be easy, I thought..... We sent "the victim" in to hide - I didn't pay much attention....why pay attention when we have trained on this ground previously and the Munchkin always finds her victims. What is the old saying - "Pride cometh
before a fall". The end of the story is that the Munchkin found her victims but we had to work very hard to find them and I realised how much I have to work and learn. Back to the story, before I get too side tracked....

While I was waiting for the victim to finish "losing" himself, I worked though a search pattern in my head, noted the way the wind was blowing etc. But, because I was being "watched", I was nervous. How silly.... but I only realised that later.

The Munchkin and I went into the grass to look for the victim and, wow it was tall and thick with brambles, black jacks and Khaki bush. There were also big holes that were hidden by the grass. Thoughts of snakes hiding in the grass went rushing through my head but... what can you do? At times I to see the Munchkin.  I could just hear her bells jingling. I also assumed that the victim was hiding on top of the hill in the Blue Gum Trees not at the bottom of the hill where the Munchkin found him.

When the Munchkin indicated that she had picked up the scent of the "victim" at the bottom of the hill, I thought "no ways - it can't be". What is rule no 1? Always trust your dog. Anyway, to cut this long story short (there is another story)...... The victim soon popped out of the bush with the Munchkin hanging onto her favourite toy. Well done Munchkin!!!!!!





Robyn then proceeded to "crit" the exercise. Wow, my mind was blown away with how much I learnt just with her watching us work. It's going to take a while to absorb everything she said.

We then sent another "victim" into to lose himself... but that is a story for next time....