Arbor Day fun with my brother!

This was our Arbor Day booth, pretty neat, huh?!



We attended our first Arbor Day event in Bastrop and it was so much fun.  We met so many new friends, learned about trees, spread the word about how we'll help our agency and had a fun day overall! 

When my partner first told me we were going to Arbor Day, my first question was what is Arbor Day and then my second question was is my brother Dozer going to be there? He told me of course he'd be there and Arbor Day is a celebration of trees.  Well, if there is anything I love more than my brother it is definitely trees and carrots and squirrels...wait, what was I saying, oh yeah, trees!  We think all trees are terrific and especially the pine trees we have here in East Texas, they smell so good. So Dozer and I got together and designed special bandanas to wear for the big day and for all our new friends we met. They were a huge hit and we even saw some people wearing them on their heads, we thought that was pretty cool! 

Thanks to everyone who made our first ever Arbor Day such a fun day and took the time to celebrate trees with us!




We met a ton of new friends, the cuddles were so great!

Dozer hanging out with Mr. Pete, thanks for letting us
celebrate Arbor Day with you!

My brother loves to give kisses!!

It was so great to catch up with my brother Dozer.  I think he smells the
carrots I was snacking on!



We were pretty tuckered out by the end of the
day but we had so much fun!

15 Minutes of Fame!

Tracker knows I'm not very good at remembering to blog. Most of the time I'm busy with my sniffer practice and going on long walks so I can become a lean, mean, arson-fighting machine!

But I told my partner we had to take a break today because something really cool happened and I just had to tell everyone about it!

Are you ready for it...? Are you sitting down...?

WE ARE FAMOUS!!!

Our first real interview! They put us on TV! We're famous!!

Last week, a reporter from KLTV 7 in Tyler came out to meet me and Tracks. He took lots of pictures of us, talked to us and our partners and even filmed us doing some sniffer practice. It was SO cool!

And you won't believe what happened next!?! They put us on TV! We're practically TV stars!

Check out the link: www.kltv.com/story/21948766/dogs-training-to-sniff-out-arsonists

Now who wants our pawtograph?!?

Taking a quick nap before I go to work. I'm about to try and track down a reporter. I know how to find him because he wiped a gauze pad across his neck. As soon as I stick my nose down into the bag and smell his scent, I'll be hot on his trail!

I caught the scent, and I'm off!

Almost there! I won't stop 'til I find him!

I found him! I found him! That's why I'm jumping up on him. My partner and I have secret signals for each other and this is one of them. It shows my partner that I've found who I'm looking for!

I get treats when I do my job. (If you're reading this, partner, keep 'em coming!)

I get hugs and scratches, too. I might be a big, ol' bloodhound with an important job to do, but I still love snuggles. Just don't tell anyone!

Our tracking demo is over, but I'm always hunting for something! I think I smell a SQUIRREL!

Puppy book!

This is my brother Dozer at just 2 days old.  Look how small our ears once were!

  

Dozer and I have been so busy with training and sitting in on meetings this week that we haven't had much time to kick up our paws and blog.  But we finally have some free time and what better way to end the week than to show off the puppy book that just came in the mail from our momma?!  Everyone in the office loves it but we keep hearing, "y'all were so cute" and I'm thinking, were?  I guess that's because we are just so handsome and dapper now that no one believes we were these tiny little guys, barely the size of our momma's paw.  We were though and I still remember it like it was yesterday!
 
When we were born our momma made me the purple boy and Dozer the orange boy. You might have to do a little hunting in some of the photos to tell us a part from our brothers and sisters, but that is the fun part!

Look at Dozer sleeping in momma's paw! 

 

Grrr!

Our best memories...all piled up with our brothers and sisters.

These long ears look more familiar!



Can you tell which one is Dozer?

 

Hope y'all liked our momma's hard work.  Momma - me and Dozer think you did a great job. You'll have to make us scrapbooks of the first big cases we track down and when we make the news!

Training Session

Tracker here!  I had a training session yesterday outside of my office in Linden. We try to do this daily so that I get used to using my nose to track human scent versus squirrel. We have so many squirrels here in East Texas that you can just be walking along and smell squirrel after squirrel.  I hope that one day they stop running away from me so that we can be friends!

Enough about my soon to be friends and back to the fun stuff...training!  Suanna, the nice lady in our office, helped with the training.  She rubbed gauze on the back of her neck and placed it in a zip-lock bag.  Then she walked about 50 - 75 feet to hide.  Once she hid my partner let me get a good whiff of the opened bag and I took off!

Here I am "air scenting" with my nose in the air.  I am on her trail!

Do you see her feet under the truck?  When I was tracking I had
my head down using my nose before I spotted her.

 

I found her, partner!  Another successful locate!

Well I better get off of the computer and get a little rest before our afternoon training session.  They keep saying that this is just the beginning and I just can't wait for what's to come!

Day at the Capitol

 

 



My brother Dozer and I had great day in Austin yesterday.  We attended our agency's Rural Fire Advisory Council Meet and Greet, so we got to hang out at the Capitol all afternoon.  We met so many new friends and they asked a lot of great questions that even stumped me at times.  But my partner, Officer Lemmon and Dozer's partner, Officer Pierce filled everyone in on how we will help our agency track arsonists, find lost childern and elderly people using our great sense of smell. 


All the smells, I mean, petting was great. 
We can't wait to visit schools around the state!

 

It was so great to see my bro after a few weeks apart.
 



Got a little grassy from all the playing we did but
that didn't stop us from getting our picture taken.

We sure were tuckered out by the end of the day!

 

We had a great day and can't wait for our next adventure of meeting more citizens of this great state.  We are off  to College Station today to have more pictures taken and to see our friends at our Headquarters office.  Thanks again to everyone who came out to meet us in Austin, it was a blast!

Officer Dozer, reporting for duty!

 

It's official! Got my badge today! Ready to track down some arsonists! 

Hey guys! Officer Dozer, here, reporting for duty!

My brother, Tracker, has been bugging me to come over here and check things out. So this is a blog, huh? Looks pretty cool. Way to go, Bro!

I would have been here sooner, but my new partner, Kevin, has been hogging the laptop, filling out lots of reports. I sure am glad they don't make me do all that paperwork. I guess sometimes it's good not to have opposable thumbs...

Me and Tracks have only been here for a few weeks now, but I already love Texas. I've been spending most of my time getting to know Kevin and testin' out my sniffer.


One of my first days on the job... Check out my new office. I miss my momma back in New York, but it sure is hard not to love Lufkin.



Meetin' my namesake... I'm gettin' real good at posing for pictures.

I can't wait to be called to my first fire. Tracker told me all about his first fire and all that black stuff he got to sniff around in. I'm super jealous! I'm crossing my paws that I get to go to the next one!

Uh-oh. I better go. I hear Kevin calling me. Must be time for more sniffer practice!

My first wildfire adventure

Hey guys, it's Tracker and I experienced my first wildfire yesterday!  It was a 55 acre fire in Morris County that my partner Officer Lemmon and I responded to. He let me sniff around and walk in the "black".  He told me the black is where the fire has already burned and that the powdery stuff all over my paws was soot. Turns out the cause of this fire was a debris burn that escaped containment.


I'm just taking it all in.  I have my work cut out for me but that is what the next 6 months of training is all about!

 

Walking through the soot in the "black".  I wonder if I'll be as big as my shadow one day?

 

What great smells!





Welcome to our blog!

Howdy!  We are Dozer and Tracker, Texas A&M Forest Service's new K9 Law Enforcement officers. I'm on the right and Dozer is on the left.  He was talking to me while we were having our picture taken, silly Dozer.  This was the day we met our handlers Kevin Pierce and Jarred Lemmon in West Virginia before they brought us to our furever homes in Texas. We will be training with our handlers for the next 6 months then we will be ready for action.  Our training will prepare us to help our agency with tree farm security, trespassing, arson awareness, timber theft, responsible burning and much more.  So stay tuned for updates!

I live in Linden, TX with Jarred and Dozer lives in Lufkin, TX with Kevin, we love our new homes and hope we don't see that white stuff again because, brrr, it was cold on our big paws. Speaking of our paws, please excuse any typos we might have, these things are hard to type with. They keep saying we'll grow into them but I'm not so sure. These things are huge!


Hanging out with my mini me that my friends in College Station gave me.

 

Guess which one of us this is?  You guessed it, my brother Dozer!

 

This is what our momma Sunshine has been doing since we moved
to Texas...playing at the beach!