From Officer David Dewey
This past week I delivered Tazor to his new head trainer in Monkton. I've been referring to it as boarding school. Tazor did well on his first day of training. The first skill we need him to master is the alert. He will be trained to be an aggressive alert dog, meaning he will scratch and bite at the source of the drug odor. To do this we use a toy, and simply teach him that when he scratches at the source of the odor (we start with marijuana) he will be rewarded with his toy, at this point a chew-tug toy. This is not an exciting part of training for the handler, as it is all repetitive. Doing the same thing over and over and over and over. The hard part is that the trainer has to show the same level of excitement each and every time.
The plan is for me to train weekly with Tazor so as to keep the bond that he and I have, as well as to keep informed on his progress and any issues that may come up.
Right now working without a dog is a little lonely. I find it is also easier. No more stops to give the dog a break, far less cleaning, no water buckets to fill, no dog to entertain, and far less time outside. I do miss him already.