It was nice to see many of our classmates from the certification workshop at the meeting. A handful of them got to put the training we went through into practice during the fires that were raging in Southern CA shortly after the workshop ended. Many of them visited the shelters and fire camps and said the training was extremely helpful when it came to going on an actual call-out, so that was good to hear. It was also fun to get to meet the dogs of many of the people I met at the workshop who were helping out as they didn't have their dogs during the training.
While most of the dogs are labs and goldens, there were also some other breeds: a pharoh hound, australian shepherd, a couple of standard poodles, a pug, and a greyhound. In all, there were maybe about 20 dog/handler teams in attendance. We had a general meeting first, then that was followed by a few hours of training. A professional trainer was brought in and lectured on topics I've heard before, but even so, it was a good refresher. After that we went through some training exercises with the dogs which was fun. That was followed by a potluck where we stuffed ourselves before leaving for home.
In our workshop, we had a huge Newfoundland named Oz in our class that Hope was deathly afraid of. He was the most gentle creature, but at probably 150lbs, he was huge and hairy and Hope would always hide behind me if he approached. We finally got her to go up to him from behind by the end of the workshop. This past weekend, I finally was able to let her get up a little closer to him from the front. It was too cute....one of these days, I'll have to get a picture of them together!
All in all, a good weekend...an added benefit was that it was 85 degrees! It was soooo nice to have warm weather and sun for a bit!
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