# FEMA Canine Evaluation



## Konnie Hein (Jun 14, 2006)

A few pics from the FEMA Canine Evaluation (CE) this past weekend in Mass. I didn't attend because my husband was the chief evaluator and I stayed home to babysit our child and pets.

Places we hide people...











What it looks like when they are completely buried. The flagging tape is not present when the testing teams are searching...











Dog is alerting and handler is working her way through the rubble to get to the dog. For the most part, our dogs work completely independent (and often out of sight of) the handler. When the dog alerts, we make our way through the rubble to them to investigate the alert. The dog must stay in place and continue to alert as we approach so we can accurately pin-point the location of the alert...











What the chief evaluator does (hubby doing paperwork with teammate and good friend Tara)...


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## Mary Lehman (Oct 2, 2008)

Thanks for sharing Konnie. Nice Pics. How many tested/Passed? who passed?

Is that Mark D behind the steering wheel?


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## Konnie Hein (Jun 14, 2006)

Yep - hubby = Mark D in the van.

I'll have to ask Mark who passed - I'm pretty sure there were only 3 (of 7), one being Kevin Racette and Uber from MATF-1.

I heard it was a pretty straightforward test, so I'm not sure why the pass rate was so low.


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## Mary Lehman (Oct 2, 2008)

Wow, that is a low pass rate. I was trying to find the pics from our test in CA to post. I think they are on the other PC. I'm sure Mark told you about the piles - construction wood. We had never worked on anything like that before - Casey had no problem with it, but it was slippery for the handlers to walk on. FUN.

I had no idea Mark was your Hubby. Different last names I guess..........


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## Konnie Hein (Jun 14, 2006)

Please post your CA pics!! CA has quite a reputation with those of us here in the east for providing interesting "terrain" for their tests. The rubble for the first ever CA test I attended (as an observer only, Mark was testing) included a huge pile of broken drywall sheets. That same pile had a steep drop-off on the backside into a huge gravel pit. One mis-step back there would have sent a canine or human down on one heck of a ride.

The different last name thing gets a lot of people. I like to remain incognito 8) .


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## Chris McDonald (May 29, 2008)

nice, thanks!


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## Konnie Hein (Jun 14, 2006)

Chris - just so you know, I'm going to steal that ladder-climbing, agile dog of yours to train for disaster search, OK?? 

I'm having a b---- of a time finding my next dog to train, so I'll just steal yours!


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

Thanks for sharing


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## Jennifer Michelson (Sep 20, 2006)

good pictures Konnie!! Looks like a big pile....is it?

How come I havent seen any pictures of our Canine Search Specialist class......arent you proud of us?????


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## Konnie Hein (Jun 14, 2006)

Jennifer - 
Of course I'm proud of you guys! I figured the video of the class was publicity enough. :smile: I do have some goo pics though - just am too lazy to upload them onto flickr.

And yes, this pile is fairly large. It's an active rock-crushing facility, so they have no shortage of rock piles for us to work on.

Hope all is well with you! Keep me updated on your training progress!


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## Mary Lehman (Oct 2, 2008)

*CATF5 FEMA Canine Evaluation (June)*

Konnie, here are the pics of the CA pile we tested on in June. Gnarly!!!! :smile:


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## Rose DeLuca (Oct 24, 2008)

Hi Everyone ! I see lots of names I recognize ! Hey Leslie- sorry your trial was cancelled any chance it will be re-scheduled ? I'm looking at going to Central PA SchH club on Nov 30th if all works out.... 

Konnie; thanks for the MATF1 pics..... I didnt get to take any at all. Are there any out there of Faza by any chance ?  

Karen Meadows and Ace VATF2 and Faza and myself PATF1 passed there too with Kevin and Uber. All 3 of us were re-certs. 

Konnie- I'm hoping to get out there soon for the work you are doing with Randy Hare USAR style- thats such a huge contribution to the way we train ! Ground breaking stuff....I'm not sure I can wait for a spring seminar ! I will post a picture of my diffused scent box; we'll see how good it works in November with Hardy at MDTF1 test. 

have you checked with Ivan B. for a f mal......there's a fellow up here with an ot vitosha line mal and he is an incredible dog. Very balanced and super drive, endurance and courage


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## Konnie Hein (Jun 14, 2006)

Rose DeLuca said:


> Konnie; thanks for the MATF1 pics..... I didnt get to take any at all. Are there any out there of Faza by any chance ?


I didn't see any of you and Faza. The pics I posted are from the MATF-1 website and the only dogs I saw in the pics were labs.



> Konnie- I'm hoping to get out there soon for the work you are doing with Randy Hare USAR style- thats such a huge contribution to the way we train ! Ground breaking stuff....I'm not sure I can wait for a spring seminar !


We're hoping to do a seminar in January - we have an indoor location to work the barrels. I'll keep you posted! We'd love to see you there! 




> have you checked with Ivan B. for a f mal......there's a fellow up here with an ot vitosha line mal and he is an incredible dog. Very balanced and super drive, endurance and courage





> I'm not really looking for a female. I posted the question about the bitch with the FPr title because she is the dam of a dog I'm looking at. Hopefully he pans out to be what I need. I'm having a hard time finding a dog with the drive/nerve I want. I'm being patient though - what I want is out there somewhere!


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## Jennifer Michelson (Sep 20, 2006)

Mary--wow, that pile is a little scary looking!! How do the dogs over it? Looks like fewer deep voids than our mainly concrete/ slab pile, but lots of scrambling......


Konnie--I know you are proud of all of us LOL. Yeah the tv coverage was worth a bunch of pictures. I actually have pics that I should post--but havent gotten there yet......


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## Mary Lehman (Oct 2, 2008)

Hi Jennifer. I had a harder time on the piles than the dog. Wood on Wood can be very slippery and unstable - moreso than I thought it would have been.

I think they did some pretty good hole building, but they weren't super deep. Since my dog is a penetrator, this type of pile works well for testing her. Otherwise she will continue looking until she can find the tiniest void to get into. On this pile, she got to the victim and started barking immediately. Yea!!!

We had never worked a wood pile of any type before so it was a little intimidating when I first saw it. As it was, it turned out great.  

Mary


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## Jennifer Coulter (Sep 18, 2007)

Cool Pics Konnie.

Thanks to you and Rose I got to get to know some of those nice hiding spots at a big rubble pile in Ontario and see how the Urban SAR dog folks get the job done=D>


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