Guard Dog Training

My sister worked at a Guard Dog Training facility in Arizona before she moved to Connecticut.  I went to see her at work when I was visiting.

There was a big outer fence with barbed wire surrounding the facility, an inner fence, rows of kennel cages, and a house in the middle of it all.  I saw Dobermans, German Shepherds, Rottweiler’s, and a couple Great Danes.  As I walked around the kennel some dogs seemed to dislike my presence.  One was biting the chain linked fence and was yelled at.  I would think there have been broken teeth because of that.

Upon entering the house there were dogs in every room.  Even the bathroom!  Several of the dogs were free to roam about the house.  I was new to them so they came to greet me.  What do you do when you are told “Don’t be afraid, they can sense fear!”?? 

·         Do you put your hand out, or not? 

·         Do you make eye contact, or look away?

·         Do you stay standing, or sit down?   

·         Do you grab a towel to wipe the sweat from your brow, or just remain still? 

In any case, they didn’t harm me. 

I was told they raise and train guard dogs for individuals, businesses, etc.  They sell their own dogs and current owners will bring their dog in to have trained.  The presence of a dog can stop bad people from doing bad things.

Guard dogs are a great deterrent used in the military, law enforcement, home protection, etc.  Not all the dogs being worked with would become guard dogs.  Will the dog retreat at a raised hand?  Are they aggressive or passive?  Are they obedient?  And so on.  This Rottweiler was one of the top dogs and was going to the military.

I observed the trainers “agitate” the dogs.  The trainer will give a command and the dog will become aggressive toward the intruder.  The dogs were wagging their tails. 

When agitating these 2 German Shepards you can see one became aggressive and the other didn't engage.  The one that didn't engage did not end up becoming a guard dog. 

There were dogs that were not people friendly.  My sister said this dog did not like men but was fine around women.  She said it was a great dog but overall not a people dog so would become a “junk yard” dog that would roam free behind a fenced in area to protect whatever was behind the fence. 

My favorite dog was this one named Cowboy.  He was big and very friendly.  I watched him as they agitated him.  I learned that he would not be as expensive as many of the other dogs because of his smile …

Once given a command the demeanor of these trained guard dogs change.  The first thing I noticed was their smile.  It is intimidating when a dog becomes aggressive and smiles at you with all their pearly white teeth showing.  That smile may be all it takes to stop a bad guy so big dog smiles command more money.  I was still sold on Cowboy …  

Observation:   As these guard dogs were working and doing their job, they were smiling, wagging their tails, and seemed to enjoy their work.

Dogs are used to help protect the lives of our hero’s serving every day.  Meet this Military Working Dog (MWD) K-9 Belgian Mal Marine dog named Kevin.  He has served in Afghanistan sniffing out explosives and IED’s. On his last tour of duty, Kevin saved the lives of his handler and others in his Marine unit.  The handler now has a tattoo with Kevin’s number and will hopefully be able to adopt Kevin when he is to be retired.
 
7/23/2016 ...  MWD Kevin (L374) passed away yesterday at Camp Lejeune from complications from cancer.  What makes this really sad is that he was about to be retired to his handler.  Rest easy, Marine.  Semper Fi.

Below is K-9 police dog Boris (German Shepard) and K-9 police dog Charlie (Belgian Malinois).  Both are excellent bite dogs, trackers, and drug dogs doing a demonstration.

Rawlings Roberto Clemente Brooks Robinson World Series Special

On our latest summer vacation, we took the usual assorted play toys: Bocci ball, ladder toss, baseball and gloves, football, Frisbee, RC Rock Crawler, bicycles, etc.  The kayaks were already there.

I decided to join in and throw the baseball around so I went to get my glove only to discover my old glove had been packed.  Ok … it still works.  It's broken in and warn but still a good functioning glove.

It was pretty old so I told my nephew how I acquired the glove.

In 1972 on a family summer vacation, we were visiting relatives in Arthur, Iowa.  The church softball team had a game coming up.  I asked if I could play.  They said I may be too young but said they would make an exception for an inning. 

I didn’t have a glove and I was a lefty … Reese J. played shortstop and had a nice Red, White, and Blue Rawlings glove.  After seeing it I just had to have that same glove.  I remember my parents driving quite a distance to a particular store after persistent begging on my part to buy it for me.

I played an inning at first base.  No errors on my part, can’t remember if we won the game … Fast forward … I used this glove playing in several softball leagues through high school, and in college, and sporadically years after.

Looking at this old glove I noticed a couple things on it that got me thinking so I decided to find out what I could about it.  Below is what I found.

My glove is a Rawlings Roberto Clemente Brooks Robinson World Series Special.  It’s a Rawlings Fastback baseball glove and was sold in stores shortly after the 1971 World Series which featured the Gold Glove winner Roberto Clemente, with the Pittsburgh Pirates playing against fellow Gold Glove winner Brooks Robinson, with the Baltimore Orioles.  The Pirates won four games to three. Unfortunately, the celebration in Pittsburgh would soon turn to mourning as fourteen months later Roberto Clemente was killed in a plane crash.

The WSS Rawlings Fastback Glove was issued in 1971 and came in two models (The World Series Special and the Gold Glove Award). My red, white, and blue glove reads World Series Special on the pinky finger.

Since I used my glove for so many years in all types of weather I have restrung it a couple times.  I mainly played 1^st base as I was pretty good a catching almost everything thrown at me.  In one of the leagues I was called in by the umpire and told I couldn’t use this glove because the outside webbing was white.  The same color as the ball.  If I turned the glove it was hard for the umpire to distinguish between a white ball caught or the white webbing.

I wasn’t about to buy a new glove.  To keep tradition with the Red, White, and Blue I took a Red marker and colored in the white webbing to solve the problem.

Years ago things were different.  This must have been a prized possession of mine.  Why, you ask?  Because there are 2 distinct things I noticed on my glove.  My dad took one of those branding-type pencils and we branded my name on the glove.  I can still read it.  OH … We also branded my SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER on the glove and yes, I can read it also.  I have no idea why we did that!!!

This got me thinking ... Has the world changed?  Are things different now?  Should it be that we all emboss, brand, write, or chisel our social security number on things of importance?

SUSPENDED OVERHEAD

When I started taking drone pictures it gave me the ability to climb a 400-foot ladder so to speak creating different angles for a picture.  

I have taken some interesting pictures directly over a subject.  I came up with several names and through polling selected the name above.   Hanging Around,  A Bird's-eye View, and From the Top Down were also in the running.

In any case here are some pictures in no particular order.

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