Got Dog?

[+Wazat]

GPS for your caching dog....

 

Or maybe this one.

 

Willow where have you been?

Edited July 12, 2008 by Wazat

[+Rhino and Hedgehog]

Thats for dogs that don't know where they are and where they are going !

 

Willow as you knows both ! She knows where the cache is fast than we do and once we finaly catch up and actually find it - she knows the fastest route back to the car....

 

But it may be useful to non cacher dogs - or trainee cacher dogs though.

[+anlufu]

Wizki has a nose and humans to carry the GPS. He is also good at find the quickest (not always the safest) path back to the car.. And he is a very well traveled geo-dog.

[+Louise_Gerhard]

Maybe someone will found this interesting. I have an Alsatian which is proving some talent. When he was about 3 months he had a near drowning in our swimming pool. We were in town and he fell into the swimming pool.

 

My neighbour then heard the cries of the puppy and after more than an hour he decided to investigate. He noticed my puppy clinging to the side of the swimming pool for dear life. He and his gardener then jumped the fence armed with thorn branches to keep the other dog away.

 

My neighbour pulled the puppy from the side, according to him it was just in time as the puppy was completely exhausted and did not even moved after he was removed from the swimming pool. Strange enough after they rescued the puppy my other dog just left them and went to the front garden as if he knew that they only tried to save the puppy. They phoned me immediately and we took him into the house to watch over him for a day.

 

For about a month the puppy was afraid of the water until my wife started to take him back into the swimming pool and coached him to swim to the steps. This was trouble. We could not get him out of the swimming pool and he does visits the swimming pool everyday several times for a dip. Even in the winter with frost.

 

About 3 months after his ordeal we noticed that he will remove the ball from the steps if it sank to the bottom. He was not afraid to push his head under the water. My wife then started to drop the ball at the shallow side and he went under the water to retrieve them. After about a month we started to drop the ball at the deep end. He swam down to get this ball. In the beginning my wife was always ready to help him if he gets himself in trouble. Even now it is quite amazing to see such a big dog under water and we took a couple of videos of this. It is the first dog that we had that shows this ability.

 

He accompanies me to some caches. He is quite amazing. If I sit down with the cache then he will sit down and he will go in guard mode. All I have to do is to watch his ears – you can easily tell if there is someone in the area. In the veldt he will never leave me but will stay close to me as if he knows that he must protect me.

 

He now started with something else – if I get close to the cache I will always say “Rex, soek, soek”. He will bark and start to search and I am noticing that he is getting closer to the cache location. If I retrieve it then he will start to bark and he sniffs them and I have to open it for him. I then hand him his cookie. Only when I sit down then he will sit down and then he will watch the area.

 

I believe with time he will be able to find the cache on his own. I am waiting for the day that I can log “Dog found cache but due to illiteracy his owner logged it on his behalf”. I am just wondering how the cache owner will react to this log. Some guys will probably not like this log. That will add another dimension to caching.

 

Gerhard

[+cincol]

Sounds as though Willow might have some competition soon!

[+Rhino and Hedgehog]

That will add another dimension to caching.

 

Gerhard

 

We think caching with a dog adds and aids a lot - they pick up things our sences

do not! And as for competion for Willow she does not sit arround once the cache is found - she is gone - time for the next cache, and I mean run!! It will be a while yet before Geralds dog catches the cacher hound... We like to log that we have found it by willow knows, she knows...

[+Louise_Gerhard]

One of these days I will have to bend the rules slightly.

 

Maybe I should plant a cache in a very easy area with a bone or playthings with an inkpad for his paw mark as a log.

[+anlufu]

We have a team member who would appreciate that.

[+Louise_Gerhard]

This is cacher Rex, a German shepherd, busy with his daily diving practise. He is in training to find caches and we keep him fit in the swimming pool. He does about 20 dives in a day and goes for numerous swimming laps. He holds his breathe longer than us inside the swimming pool.

 

He is going crazy when he hears the word “cache” and he understands what he must do. I have the feeling that he has the ability to find any cache on ground level with some more training. The last time he got to about 30 cm from the cache. He was barking and I do not know if this meant that he found it. Only when he does it consistently I will agree that he can find caches and that this behaviour is correct. As I spend more time caching with him I will start to understand how to control him and the signals he is giving. The trick is to get to ground zero and to say the word “cache”. I noticed that he quickly finds the caches which were visited by other cachers very recently. Find as in close by. The smell of the previous cacher is probably the sense he uses.

 

The moment the cache is removed he will go on guard mode when I sat down to complete the log. It appears as if his natural instinct to protect is well developed. So cachers you have a challenge on your hand. We will visit the tonteldoos on Amajuba with him and we will test if he can do it or not. So please keep your eye on this listing.

 

Ok, he is also trained to chase any cacher that is competing for FTF with us in the same location.

 

The only other major concern in the veldt is snakes. We tried with rubber snakes to get him to yield. It works but I am not sure if in practise he will leave it alone.

 

We will use an inkpad to stamp the logs with his signature in the form of a paw mark. So please keep an eye on your logbook. There could be funny mark in it.

 

Image 1: He is focusing on an object inside the swimming pool. Ears are up and he is alert.

 

Image 2:

No fear and in he go. Same style as with a human being, feet close and head pointing downward.

 

Image 3:

He now uses his tail like a crocodile to get depth.

 

Image 4:

He is now submerged but he is battling to go down due to buoyancy.

 

Image 5:

He lifts his hind part upwards and at the same time you can see that he is pulling downwards with his front legs to go down. Same technique human beings are using to go down.

 

Image 6:

You can see the kicking and downward stroke still continue. He is now submerged and is holding his breathe.

 

Image 7:

At the final moment before total submerging.

 

Image 8:

Down he goes to the bottom. He is keeping his eyes open under water and he is now focussing to get to the bottom.

 

Image 9

Cacher dog completing his dive and is coming up.

 

Image 10:

He now surfaced again and is swimming towards the shallow end to us.

 

No dogs were hurt during this event.

Gerhard

Edited September 14, 2008 by gerhardoosMPsa

[+the pooks]

Gerhard - good dog story. Do you also have a long coat? We also have the most beautiful German Shepherd called Amie, so I feel compelled to show her off here. She is just as clever as your dog.

 

[+Louise_Gerhard]

To me it is fascinating to see the intelligence of these dogs. In the beginning when I told my wife we should train him to find things we thought that it is impossible. I am not a dog trainer and sometimes when you train them you do more bad than good due to inexperience.

 

So we started to train the dog to become a cacher without a GPS. We started of hiding the containers with cookies inside in our backyard. He quickly got the hang of it. Containers, the word “cache” and cookies is now the link. Then it was only containers that were hidden in his presence. Then he was removed and he started to search for it and he found it.

 

The next step was in the veldt. This is the real test and he must show consistency. Maybe this will end my DNF’s and to find caches that are not accurate. I can still find them on my own as well – just leave him at home.

 

Only massive problem is water. He will go for a dip when he sees anything that represents water or a river. But at the end of the day he protects me and I feel much safer when he is with me. He will react before I realised that there is someone close by. There were a couple of places in Nelspruit where I did not feel safe at all and this was the trigger to train the dog and to use him as protection. Muggles stay far away from him. The other problem now is that after a day out in the veldt he refuses to get out of the Nissan.

 

One other thing that I noticed is that he is irritated when I return from the veldt and I left him at home. I was caching in Ladysmith and he was smelling me hands and clothes when I returned. He also smelt the car and he then ignore me point blank as if he is saying “What is your problem mate, why did you go alone?”

 

If it was not for geocaching then I would probably never trained him and he probably would have been a problem as these dogs do not want to sit idle in the back yard waiting for someone to break into the house. You have to give them some challenges and it is so cool and nice to have him with me. He is not aggressive and will not challenge anybody with no command.

 

His coat is about the medium length and one hell of a problem for the filters on the swimming pool.

 

The next thing is to start marking the logbooks with his paw and I hope the cache owners will not complaint about this one. I hope they read it and that they will accept it. If there is a problem then they should complain now.

 

Gerhard

Edited September 14, 2008 by gerhardoosMPsa

[+anlufu]

Looks like German Shepherds make good geo-dogs. This is Anka. At the age of 8 she is showing no signs of slowing down. She's a retired agility dog and has had some tracker training. (An unfair advantage!)

 

Gerhard, you don't really need to train a German Shepherd, they train you!

 

And Pooks, Amie is beautiful.

Edited September 15, 2008 by anlufu

[+Louise_Gerhard]

Yes, both are well bred and beautiful. We now proved …

 

1. Dogs in general do not need a GPS.

2. They are part and parcel of the family

3. They are good cachers.

4. They do train the owner.

5. They protect the cacher.

 

Maybe we should hold an event for dogs; after all they are cachers – ok very strange hairy cachers. Something like a FTF cookie as the price in each cache. Something like 10 caches in close distance where cachers can walk a little bit. Maybe I should stop here before I get pounded with stones.

 

Wazat, keep your eye on your Amajuba cache. We are going to try again this Sunday. (Note to myself – how many times did we plan for this one?)

 

Gerhard