Toughest/Best Dog Sport...

Meg O'Donovan said:

Thank you for sharing the context of preparation for and management of her hard work. When I read it, all I could think was "Great heart"... and that in terms of perseverance, not beats per minute.
Thanks again.

PS Does she drop weight in the kennel because she is dropping muscle due to less activity, or does she fret restlessly when not working and burn calories like that?

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David Winners said:

We rested twice on the infill, probably for 20 minutes each time. Once was for a tactical pause and once for a find. Neither time was because the dog had to stop. We had a half hour break while the leaders did their thing when we got to the village. We split the village into quadrants, so we had a short break 3 times while searching the village, plus another half hour before our exfil. We average 2 kliks per hour when searching.

I always offer water whenever we stop, but Fama isn't much of a drinker. I also gave her a liter of subcutaneous fluid right before we stepped off on the infill, so that probably helped. She usually drinks about half a liter an hour while working in the summer, and then a couple of liters between dinner and bed.

During rest periods, she is usually pretty alert until she starts getting tired. I make her lay down when we stop, and shade her with my body while she gets a drink and I take her temperature.

An important thing to note is that we spent 3 months preparing for this type of activity, including daily runs on the treadmill and on pavement. By the time we were active in Afghanistan, Fama was up to 8 miles every morning at 8 mph on the treadmill. Then on easy or off days, we would train for at least an hour on detection, and then finish with a 4 klik run up to an OP on a hill and back.

I've seen dogs die on missions half that long in cooler temperatures. You really have to prepare for this type of activity, especially in the heat.

Fama is a female GSD from Holland. She is between 70 and 80 pounds when she's in full deployment shape. She runs about 55 pounds when she's in the kennels for a while. She was 4-1/2 years old on our last deployment. She is one of those dogs that lives to work. When you drop the ramp, she's a handful. You should see her when we're on the LZ when a bird is coming in and she's in harness. Talk about drive leaking. She doesn't even sound like a dog LOL.

David Winners

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David Winners said:

I don't like a gulper either. Dogs like that you have to really monitor their intake to avoid bloat. I never had that problem with Fama.

Dehydration is a major risk in those conditions. I would regularly check the skin on her back to be sure it was snapping back. I don't remember the technical term. I also carried a liter of fluids and a starter kit to give her intravenous fluids if necessary. I kept spots shaved on her front legs to facilitate starting a catheter. You can see her front legs shaved in the picture below.

I have no idea on Fama's pedigree. I know she came to the US as a green dog in 2008. VLK buys a lot of dogs in Holland, so it's hard to tell where she came from. She is now at Ft. Bragg with a new handler, and she is doing very well. She is apparently one of the best detection dogs they have seen. Coming from the MP corps, that doesn't mean much though (j/k). Our dogs are trained much differently than the MP dogs.

The best part of being a deployed handler is that 100% of your job is your dog. I spent 23 hours a day with her. This enables us to really share a brain, and to train some interesting methods of direction during search, like radios and some other stuff. I've trained and owned my fair share of dogs over the years, and I've never had the same type of relationship with any other dog. Out was a great experience.

Wow... way off topic. I apologize.

David Winners

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