The following video was presented during our December Dog Corps. Open House.

The Family Foundation School Dog Corps. will be hosting an open house on December 10, 2011 starting at 11:30am. We invite parents and students alike to come enjoy refreshments and learn about our unique program.  Following our open house the Family School with have “Night of the Shepherds” a winter performance starting at 2pm. Please come join us for both these wonderful events.

Below is our weekly Foto Friday postings, Enjoy!!!!

The boys hanging out before training

Zack and Drew waiting to be placed as subjects for SAR training

Ryan playing with Emeline

Emeline a search and rescue canine in training with Eagle Valley Search Dogs.

This past weekend Daisy got to meet her new mom and move into her forever home. We want to thank Alice for giving daisy an amazing opportunity at a great life. Alice was very impressed at how well behaved daisy was and very happy with her manners. She remarked many times what a good job Chris and all the Dog Corps. boys did taking care of and rehabilitating Daisy. I received an email that night from Alice giving me a quick run down of how the first day went, it included 2 mile long bike rides, 2 walks into town including to the pet store to get some new toys and other items, and a romp with her friends dogs and 2 year old child.  It really was a perfect placement, daisy loves her new home and spent her first evening just as the picture below demonstrates.

Daisy with Chris before she got adopted.

Chris and Daisy

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Written By Dog Corps. Student Adam

Adam and Buddy

My entire life I have been a jock. I play basketball, football, lacrosse, baseball, swimming, anything, you name it I play it. Recently I received a concussion playing basketball. I was unconscious and on the floor for 20 minutes. I went to the hospital and was treated. After coming back and seeing a doctor I was told that I couldn’t play sports for a year. At the time this seemed too much to handle, I had felt like the world as I loved it was going to be over. I did not know how to handle it. I cried, I was depressed, I sat and thought on ways I could get around it, but ultimately there was no escaping it. So, I tried to find things that I could do to keep my mind off of the hard time. Here is where I found K-9 search and rescue. I started it, like I said, to keep my mind busy until I was able to return to my passion in life, sports. I started out feeling a little alienated, not really knowing the ropes or how things worked. However, I learned and I had a great group of friends and mentors that helped me catch up quick. After about a month of being a part of Dog Corps, there was the 2011 COMFED. I was very excited to go and when I went I had the best time of my entire life. By the time we had to leave I didn’t want to, I could stay there forever. When I got back to the school, something was different. I no longer had that burning desire to play sports. I couldn’t believe it at first, but I had finally found something that I love to do even more than sports. Something that was even more amazing was that I didn’t even care to find a way around not being able to play sports anymore, because I no longer needed to get off that restriction to do what I truly loved…K-9 search and rescue.

By Jennifer Culver

Its fall, and with the cooler temperatures comes happier search dogs.  Don’t get me wrong the dogs will search in ANYTHING, they love the “game” we play, but when your body cannot sweat to cool off, fall and winter become your favorite months!!!! Last week we decided to set up some short but motivational problems for the three K9′s we had on campus Abby, Ripley, and Raven. It worked out perfect we had 3 kids ready to hide and play in the cool fall sun. Zach was first up and abby made quick work of following her nose down to the pipeline where she hit Zach’s scent cone and with one sharp head turn to the left took off in pursuit of her find.  Result= 1 happy search dog and 1 kid with a ball on a string.

tug tug tug!!!!!!

Next up was Ripley, we left chris out in the woods and worked our way back to swap out dogs. Ripley’s handler was away for the weekend so she would have to work for me if she wanted to search!  One jingle of her vest with her search bell and she was ready, she knows the drill.

Chris and Ripley battling it out for the ball

To finish up the activity period we had adam run down the milk road to a nice hiding spot in the woods. Starting Raven from the middle school she took the path most traveled and checked out the area where we had worked Ripley and Abby. Once she was thoroughly satisfied that it was clear of her subject she came back and we ventured down the other end of the milk road resulting in her find.

Raven and Adam

It was a great time training and the boys really enjoyed themselves. Abby, Raven, and Ripley all Certified Search Dogs with Eagle Valley Search Dogs went home happy pups!!!!!!

Last friday night training crew

Last week 7 members of the Dog Corps attended the 2011 Combined Federation training seminar hosted by Eagle Valley Search Dogs, Amigo Search Dogs, and New Jersey SAR. The seminar which took place at the Amahami outdoor center in Deposit, New York was a chance for the boys to put to use a lot of what they have learned. With over 70 people in attendance and almost 30 dogs it was a busy week full of classes, tests, dog walking, fishing, and meeting new trainers.

We were lucky to have Linda Murphy and John Valvardi who are HRD trainers with PA Recovery Dogs  come and provide new search scenario’s and feedback for any handler in attendance. K9 Ripley was able to work a few problems with Dog Corps. member Dan handling her.

Dan and K9 Ripley with 2 of our guest trainers

We made sure that the dogs got plenty of play time when they weren’t working which included walks or swimming, and of course play time on the agility equipment.

Sarah, Dan and Adam hanging with Buddy, Cisco, and Scout

Despite the rainy, cloudy weather and the mud that was found on every dogs paws it turned out to be a great week. K9 Ripley and K9 Raven owned by Rita Argiros both passed their IPWDA Advanced Cadaver Certifications, and Jennifer Culver’s K9 Abby passed her water certification, K9 Raina passed her 30 acre heavy brush and her 40 acre night tests, and K9 Emeline passed her off trail test. The kids had fun, and learned new training techniques. Dan, Chris, and Ryan took the New York State DEC Basic Wildland course on thursday and saturday and passed both the written test and the field work. The boys were also able to attend crime scene preservation, rope awareness, and geocaching courses when they weren’t laying trails for tests or hiding in the woods for the airscent dogs to practice.

All in all it turned out to be a wonderful trip despite the rainy weather. The dogs are happy, the humans are tired, and we will all return to our routines.

By Dr. Rita Argiros, Program Director

The New York State Federation of Search and Rescue Teams holds a combined federation training, or COMFED, once each year in the fall.  Three Family Foundation School employees, Dick Szczesh, Jennifer Culver and I, are members of the host teams we will be taking eligible members of the Dog Corps with us.

The boys are excited.  Now is a good time to practice the 7 P’ s—proper prior planning prevents piss poor performance—in class we will be working on a punch list of things to pack.   The dogs need to be clean and presentable. Wednesday will be bath and nails day. Between Jen, Dick and myself there will be 7 SAR dogs to groom.   There is a trailer full of equipment to be checked out and packed: ATV, Boat, batteries, a dozen dog crates….. We are also discussing how to keep our principles up. For all these boys, 4 days will be the longest time they have been off campus yet.  I expect them to be good workers and to perform well when there is a clear job to be done. But there will be some down time. Can they be polite and helpful, finding productive things to do in the absence of clear direction? Can they keep fooling around to an appropriate level?  Some of the boys are shy.  Can they make eye contact with strangers and introduce themselves.

One of the hardest things for our students to do is to keep up their spiritual lives outside of the school . Without drawing attention to ourselves, we will find time each day, morning and evening, to mediate and pray.

Ringo is a year old Springer Spaniel who is being fostered here at the Family Foundation School by the Dog Corps. If interested in adopting this dog please visit our website!!

While it was obvious it would happen eventually we finally have one remaining pup out of our litter of 4, Leo is waiting for his forever home still and hopes to have it soon! Cesar, Oreo, and Romeo have happily settled into their new homes over these past few weeks. Their new owners were beyond thrilled to have such well socialized and well mannered pups to adopt and expressed their thanks to all in Dog Corps and at the Family School who made it happen.