# Passed the NAPWDA cadaver cert



## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

with Beau, the "puppy" (14 mos old). Jeanne Frost was the MT, Douglasville GA. He is ready for more. I am ready to collapse.


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## mel boschwitz (Apr 23, 2010)

Congratulations!!!


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## julie allen (Dec 24, 2010)

Way to go!! Did you get to meet MT Kevin K. From Montana?


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## Craig Snyder (May 7, 2012)

Congrats! You should be proud! \\/ 

Craig


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## Gerald Dunn (Sep 24, 2011)

great job \\/


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## Jim Delbridge (Jan 27, 2010)

Nancy Jocoy said:


> with Beau, the "puppy" (14 mos old). Jeanne Frost was the MT, Douglasville GA. He is ready for more. I am ready to collapse.


 
Cool beans. Now the real training begins, aye?

Jim


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## ann schnerre (Aug 24, 2006)

congrats to both! (hope you recover, nancy  ).


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## David Frost (Mar 29, 2006)

Good job Nancy. You should be proud.

DFrost


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## Matthew Grubb (Nov 16, 2007)

Great job! First time certs with a new dog is always a gut wrentcher. MT Frost is great to work with so I'm sure it was a ton of fun!


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## Terrasita Cuffie (Jun 8, 2008)

Awesome!!!! Not bad for the baby furniture climber.

T


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

Nancy Jocoy said:


> with Beau, the "puppy" (14 mos old). Jeanne Frost was the MT, Douglasville GA. He is ready for more. I am ready to collapse.



Big congrats!!!


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

*!!!fantabulous!!!*


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

Thanks for the congrats! I just got back home (hung out with family the next day)

I honestly DO realize this is a basic skills / competency assessment - nothing more or less and we have to do annually but - being a civilian, without a trainer to work under regularly, it is still a "big thing" 

Julie-I was in a haze and really only got to know the "dead" folks, plus we left early got back late and crashed each night.

Jim-yep I hear you. Now the real training begins. I did get a lot of ideas to bring into my training, and discovered things I was doing wrong and things I was doing right, and even realizing on some things maybe I keep my OWN opinion .

Matt-yes I did learn a lot from her and she had Greg (not sure of his name but he is a trainer so he has to be LE and he is also on USAR Miami Dade-and he was very good as well). Glad I stuck around the day after for training. Smaller group, got a lot out of it.

Terrasita-and guess what. He had to climb on a sofa and perch his paws on the armrest to locate a hide in a wall cabinet. No holds were barred for him in the building 

One thing that really surprised me though was, going into the elevator, how many patrol dogs "hit the deck" going up and froze like they were hanging on for dear life. These were not our volunteer dogs. Beau thought it was something new to search and kept wanting to mash the buttons. He had never been in an elevator before but I gather a lot of puppy raisers (some in Europe) dont necessary extensively socialize the dogs..I did a bunch with Beau so that anything new is "interesting" and "fun"--though the rubble pile was larger and less stable than anything we trained on and he was a bit stressed by it though he did get through it.


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## Sarah Atlas (Dec 15, 2008)

Huge congrats Nancy. I know how hard you worked


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## Jennifer Michelson (Sep 20, 2006)

Great job Beau and Nancy!


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

We have our work cut out for us but I was so darned happy with the boat work. 

I had one real find with Cyra before she was retired and several with Grim, but always stressed over calling them and reading the dog on the boat-and hated it. I listened to some of Jim's advice and some of another MT's advice (who had never worked a cadaver dog but knew detection) and it was like magic..it was just so natural.

I knew how to work it from the way the surface of the water was rippling. Then we hit on one side of the boat, I drove out of odor, had them flip the boat around and go back and he crossed over to the other side and hit the same spot and I called it. ...... Body language only ... trying to still work out an indication but he offered his "sit" on the second water problem (two different search areas) after we passed it. I would still pinpoint based on the body language but the "sit" was icing on the cake. [he had only been on a boat two times before the seminar, then two times at the seminar before the test]--.

But we still have some things to work on - mainly even working unknowns to me, my body language when he was deciding whether to sit or not would make him question his decision and move him away from source sometimes on the land problems. So I am working on some more speed on the indication and more consistency in my own movement-something they preach from day one but sometimes you don't know the subtle things you do that trainers handlers see. They also showed me to put him in a "time out" away from odor when he was having trouble pinpoining to refocus his efforts. Our one miss was a false alert on a buried problem.

Also do need to work more large problems. He still did pinpoint well but the large sources were harder for him.

It came home to me on Friday when we set up a problem in a pitch black room and he did not have me "in the way" he worked like a champ, went into another room and when his breathing changed from clearing his nose and sniffing to normal we turned on a flashlight and he was sitting pretty as you please staring at the location where they had hid the hide!


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## julie allen (Dec 24, 2010)

It's awesome how much you learn by being evaluated. Things you don't see, and others can, really helps out for training. Proud of yall, good job!!


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

Absolutely true! I asked the last day when do you get to the point where you don't make those subtle mistakes and the MT said "never" - you will always need another to take an objective look at what you are doing. I think having the opportunity to train some (though I can't do it weekly because of my job) with a master trainer has really helped.

I see more than ever why you need experienced trainers/master trainers and not just someone trained in a discipline to evaluate you. Having done this for awhile, I can read another DOG pretty well, but am just now beginning to pick up on the mistakes the handlers make......when you do this day in and day out as a professional I guess you get pretty good at it.


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## Craig Snyder (May 7, 2012)

What you're saying is so true Nancy. It's why I get so mad at many of our local PA teams that don't require and don't seek outside certifications. Having that other/stranger evaluation helps a handler soooo much. 

You learn so much in evaluations. Not the least of which is the pressure and stress that you experience which is much higher than anything you can simulate in training and is more like the stress on a real search.

And by having different people watch you and provide feedback, the more ideas you'll get for incorporating into your own training.

Keep following your gut with your dog too. No one knows him/her better than you!

Congrats again!

Craig


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## Matthew Grubb (Nov 16, 2007)

Nancy Jocoy said:


> Absolutely true! I asked the last day when do you get to the point where you don't make those subtle mistakes and the MT said "never" - you will always need another to take an objective look at what you are doing. I think having the opportunity to train some (though I can't do it weekly because of my job) with a master trainer has really helped.
> 
> I see more than ever why you need experienced trainers/master trainers and not just someone trained in a discipline to evaluate you. Having done this for awhile, I can read another DOG pretty well, but am just now beginning to pick up on the mistakes the handlers make......when you do this day in and day out as a professional I guess you get pretty good at it.


Were you working with Pat Moloney at cadaver as well as Jeanie? If so... Pat is (and looks like) Yoda lol


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

Nope, so far all I have met are Mickey and Jeanne. We also had a younger person in training to be a cadaver trainer...Greg out of Miami. Don't recall his last name. He is on a USAR team as well though.


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## Zakia Days (Mar 13, 2009)

Nancy. Just wanted to congratulate you on your accomplishment. I have a very basic understanding of scent work and the training involved. My understanding is that the NAPWDA cert is a tough one to get, so big kudos to you and your pup. I will PM you in the very near future as I have some more questions about your experience. Continue to learn and accomplish and enjoy your training experiences!


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

"He had to climb on a sofa and perch his paws on the armrest to locate a hide in a wall cabinet. No holds were barred for him in the building"

I believe a working dog with the correct desire/hunt drive can and should toss the house manners out the window. :wink:


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

Zakia, glad to talk..out and about for a long weekend just drinking coffee right now. Going for vacation in the NC mountains (yes I know about the recent bear alerts-and closed campsites-we are renting a house and staying on waterfall trails, not campsites)

The NAPWDA test is thorough and nerve rattling for most HR handlers I think because the limited number of evaluators make repeating the test a bear so there is a lot of pressure to pass it the first time. But it is a fair test at a basic level. 

The other challenge is the 6 different types of scenarios and obedience drag it out to a long set up ..when we had an evaluator come in, it still took about 2.5 days to get 5 people through thest test with no time for training . I got a lot more out of the seminar approach and NAPWDA is very reasonable, but hotel rooms still set you back.

Buried still seems to be the place where folks get in trouble. It is hard to buckle down and dig a bunch of 2 foot deep holes to train then leave out material overnight 

---

Bob, loosing house manners is a piece of cake for Beau  He never had them to start with.


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

:lol::lol::lol::lol: ;-)


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