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!