Mason’s SAR Training
Today we went to Eaton Rapids to meet with Mike from Mid Michigan Kennels. It was fantastic! The drive was a little over an hour and the last bit I felt that we might be lost but we found it without any troubles. Mike ended up being an extremely charismatic man, easy to talk to and with a lot of knowledge. His office walls were covered in awards and certificates. He used to be on the police force and in the army as well. Anyway, after watching me play with Mason and his tug and some discussion about the differences between scent tracing and tracking we headed out to a field not far away. We will be working on scent tracing with Mason. This means that he will not be following the direct path of the missing person, but getting their scent on the wind and following that. I was really nervous. I was worried that he wouldn’t care that one of us was hiding or not. Once we got there, Eric had instructions to walk around the outside of the field to get to the tree at which he was going to hide behind. He took Mason’s favorite tug toy with him. This way, when we started Mason out in the field he would not be able to just track Eric’s footsteps around the outside. Also, he didn’t get to watch Eric leave, we had him between the two trucks. Once Eric was in position we headed out into the field. Mason was allowed to go to the end of the leash and wander as he pleased. All of a sudden, his head snapped up and Mike gave me the instruction to release the leash. Mason darted off to the right and at first I thought he was on the trail of something not-Eric. But then he veered left. Back and forth, working the scent cone just like Mike said he would. Here’s a rough diagram of what it looked like:
It was honestly pretty awe-inspiring to watch. Once he reached Eric he got huge praise and to play with his tug, which he promptly retrieved back to me 
We were ecstatic!! Unfortunately, Eric didn’t get to see him in action. So, I went and hid this time on the opposite side of the field from the start point and behind a huge pile of rocks. He had to work a little harder and get a little closer but he found me. The funny thing was, he had lifted his head, eyes pointed right at me and didn’t even see me until he had run right into me. Mike said he “wasn’t seeing with his eyes, he was seeing with his nose”. It was awesome! 
I couldn’t stop smiling. The final verdict was to play this hide-and-seek game with Mason around 2 times a week until April, in different areas, environments and seasons. Then we could enroll him in classes. We got instructions on how to further the training but with the same basic concept as what we did right there. Mike said that he thought Mason had it in him: he has the nose, the personality, the drive and he’s people-oriented. He said we have done a good job socializing him. I am soooo excited!!