~ Merry Christmas 2010 & Happy New Year Wishes ~

Wishing you all a wonderful Holiday Season
and
New Year filled with wagging tails and many Blessings !

Merry Christmas and from all of us on two and four legs -

 

~ 2001 was the first year I used a photo
of my dogs as a Christmas Card.  Since then it has become one
of my favorite annual traditions..... 

There is a special page on the website link below for "Christmas Cards" that shows the photos of all cards used over the years.  ~ 

Roseann DeLuca
  Von Kaltbach Kennels ~ Cold Creek Shepherds
       All breed dog training and working German shepherds
Frankford, Ontario Canada
website:  http://coldcreekshepherds.com/
(613)-921-3340     deluca.dogs@hotmail.com

For the strength of the  Pack is the Wolf and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.

                                                                                                              Rudyard Kipling

 

 

Therapy Dog Testing for Caning Comfort of Canada

On Saturday we participated in and evaluated dogs for the Therpay dog program for CANINE COMFORT OF CANADA at the Loyalist Veterinary Clinic in Belleville.

It was a terrific experience and I'm very excited to be asked to be an evaluator for their program ! 

The testing was extensive and I was very impressed with the caliber and temperament of the dogs that passed and the kind and caring owners that want to share them with others  !

Hardy has passed the first phase of this testing and now we will go on to the supervised visits and monitoring before he officially earns his Canine Comfort Bandanna :) 

We will also be offering a Therapy Dog Prep Class taught with Peggi Dugas, the exceutive director for Canine Comfort at Cold Creek Shepherds starting on January 18th. Testing will be offered for those interested for Therapy Dog or Canine Good Neighbour.  If anyone is interested in participating in the class, sign up early since we are expecting lots of interest in the course !

Evaluating and Training in Maryland

We are back from a trip to Baltimore Maryland evaluating the Ontario Provincial Police HUSAR (Heavy Urban Search & Rescue) K9 teams to FEMA's Department of Homeland Security testing standards.

Congratulations to all the handlers & K9's  for a job very well done on some challenging rubble search situations !

We also squeezed in a few days of training as well on some amazing rubble at the testing site Search and Rescue Assist Inc.     This is an amazing facility open to all types of SAR training.  Its a great place to donate if you are looking for a tax deduction towards maintaining and evolving a much needed training facility on the east coast !

Back to the temps of 27 in Canada, from the wonderful warm Maryland temps of 65 F...!!! Guess winter is on the way !

Super training days -

Happy Ben trying to be a GSD !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Had a great time search & rescue training again on Saturday and Sunday ! Lots of great hides, friends, dogs and ..... food too :)   Looking forward to next time !

Vorey open find learning not to touch the victim

Hiding for a trailing dog

Cesar Milan in Toronto !

We had a great time at the Cesar Milan seminar in Toronto on Monday Nov 1st... It was very uplifting and informational and inspirational too. His thoughts on loosing his "Daddy" dog where very close to me after having lost Faza so recently.....

Thanks for making the trip to Canada ! Hopefully NEXT time you will be able to bring your "pit bull-ish" dog JR and these insane breed restriction laws will be lifted-

(as I'm sure you know, it was all over the news,  he was not allowed to bring JR to Ontario becuase of the breed restriction laws here).... Time to make the owners responsible instead of the dogs !

Congrats to Ben for passing FEMA FSA test !

Rose & Ben PATF1

Congrats to Ben on October 30th for passing his FSA (Foundation Skills Assessment) FEMA Test at Harrisburg, PA for Pennsylvania Task Force 1 ! The FSA test consists of Obedience, (people, dog aggression testing, emergency stop, healing off lead through crowd and long 5 min down out of sight) Agility, Directional, Bark Barrel Alert, & Rubble Search for 2 buried victims.


 Ben did an amazing job barking at the first victim in the rubble pile at 17 seconds and clearing the pile finding second victim in under 3 minutes ! We were so proud of him...

Now the next step is the Federal FEMA certification test which consists of 2 rubble pile searches with a possibility of 6 victims hidden.  Ben is owned by PATF1 and trained by von Kaltbach Kennels ~ "Cold Creek Shepherds" .


The other dogs had a good time doing some rubble search practice too.... Talen, Vorey, and Czcibor

Talen

Czcibor

Talen

Vorey

CGN Test- Congrats to Keeva & Rose and Henry & Peggy

Special Congratulations to Rose and Keeva & Peggy & Henry for passing their Canine Good Neighbour Test (CGN) test on Friday 10/22.

 Showing Keeva the ribbon ~

Keeva is one of our puppies sired by our  Czcibor and Gracie from Ganaraska kennels

 Posing-

Rose & Keeva vom Ganaraska CGN

Not only did they pass, but both handlers and dogs did a truly excellent job !


Peggy & Henry in the ring...

A hug in the ring for a job well done !!

Farm finds....

Special thanks to "Sniffer" friends for coming out to do the farm finds with Ben on Friday 10/22...

I set up some pretty challenging stuff for him and couldnt be happier, not sure the chickens were all that happy- but only a few feathers were ruffled in the searching :) and I'm sure they will get over it- or maybe lay an extra egg from stress.

Looking forward to the weekend !

Sunday 10/24 Rainy Training day.................

Search training was terrific on Sunday despite all the rain.

After getting settled with all the raw food for the dogs and getting it all passed out and picked up....... we headed out to work all the dogs in Trenton, especially the youngsters on bush finds ! What a great time they had and didnt mind the weather at all !

That's our last USAR work with Ben before the FSA test on 10/30...... he is on R & R now till the weekend... 

Lots of fun and great stew and company afterward !

HUSAR K9 Training

Had a great day Wed training in Bolton with the HUSAR (Heavy Urban Search and Rescue) OPP K9 dogs.

Ben had a great work out and Vorey got to do some running around on the rubble. 


Perfect fall day for training with lots of good hides for my floppy eared fellow !

Faza z. Podvihorlatu, Type1 FEMA USAR, SchH3 2008 CDN Nationals, CGN

Faza died peacefully on Monday after complications with uterine infection and bladder in final stages of DM. 

I am so thankful for all the time we had together through thick and thin- she was always there as my partner and even more as my very best friend. 

I thank God for the extra time she was able to spend in my life and for her strong spirit and determination in all she did ! 

Rest easy and run free now -

FaceBook LInk Faza z. Podvihorlatu, Type1 FEMA USAR, SchH3 2008 CDN Nationalss, CGN

More Beach Days at Lake Ontario

 Today was another beautiful day at the beach with good friends and good dogs !

Air Base Search and Rescue Demo

Ben watching during lift off

We had a great day yesterday doing a demo at the air base for Search and Rescue Family Day. They had a wonderful event with all kinds of things, the Falconer that clears the air base, cup cake & pumpkin decorating for kids, a petting zoo, lazer paint ball, and blow up playgrounds.... and of course wonderful food !!

We did a search set up with 3 bark barrels with Ben, Hardy and Vorey and directionals with Ben and Hardy. It was terrific since there was a large crowd which was behind the demonstration areas.. all the dogs did really well ! It was a lot of fun to wear the "Brittany Spears" microphone headset ! - I have to get one of those for my classes !





 Here are some photos of Ben and Vorey with the helicopter rides.....

Vorey

Ben- Now thats a good stay !

Vorey looking quite noble

Weekend Travels.....

We had a great weekend with family time and training in Pennsylvania. Picked up Ben, the yellow lab, who is back with us for training and certification for FEMA USAR work. 

Vorey got to do a little rubble work too. And they both had a great time at the playground at my old grade school which is now abandoned and up for sale.   There is an old fashioned sliding board there with open steep steps which both dogs loved climbing.... Rehya worked on running up and down bleacher steps to expose her to "odd" footing levels.

Lost the pics in the camera though, so nothing to share there !

Beach days at Lake Ontario

On Saturday I took Jero to the beach at Lake Ontario with a pack of dog friends. Company was great and a good time was had by all - you cant miss in this beautiful weather ! 

Jero

This is our suggestion to "dog park" alternatives, having an extended pack family of dog friends you know !

Ontario Dock Dogs Fall Frolic @ Bowmaville, ON

Today was a fun day, Hardy went dock diving and received 2 of the needed 5 jumps for Novice Jumper "Big Air" and 1 of 3 jumps for the Speed Retrieve. One of the jumps was also a 2nd place for that "wave", quite a surprise ! (the novice jumpers jump under 10')

We decided to enter him in the speed retrieve after a successful one time practice at the competition- hopefully he'll get even better with some practice :)

Czcibor, Rehya and Jero went along for the day too and enjoyed hanging out with the people and soaking up the environment.

We're looking forward to the next time and getting a few more of the dogs involved in the fun !

Here's a link for all the photos on Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=2069109&id=1194446425

See you at the dock diving !

Had a great day dock diving practice. I decided at the last minute to take Czcibor instead of Rehya, the photo is him jumping.

Hardy was the best of all the dogs and is entered in waves 5 & 6 for Sunday. Should be lots of fun to see what he can do.......

Veena has puppies at the Seeing Eye

Veena had puppies at the Seeing Eye... 2 girls and 3 boys !

She looks like a happy and content mother :)