Robert D. Calkins's Blog, page 5

Snow Safety for K9s

Dogs love the snow. But the snow doesn’t necessarily love them.

We are having our first little winter event in Western Washington- the kind that people in Maine or Minnesota mock us for. (“But it’s a wet snow here, and really slick!”)

This is a good time to go over some safety tips for your K9 friend if they’re going to play in the snow.

Before you go out, know your dog’s metabolism and whether it needs to wear a warming coat. Just like us, dogs generate heat when active. They might be fine playing in your yard and curling up in front of the fireplace later. But if you take them in the car, or under a canopy in your truck, you might need to put a coat on them when they go back in their kennel. You do transport in a kennel, right?

While short-haired dogs can get cold, long-haired breeds need protection from ice balls building up in their coats. Golden retrievers, for example, have hair between their toes. An ice ball there can be excruciating to walk on, and can create a bit of front nip on the tissues. My beloved Magnum with his show dog coat would come out of the snow with ice balls up to…um…where we removed his other ones.

Booties aren’t always the answer. They don’t cover the upper legs or chest and belly, and if your dog doesn’t routinely wear booties you’ll get to see an “ice dance” that would make Scott Hamilton take notice.

There are several products you can spray on the dog to prevent the formation of ice balls. The one most everybody has at home is regular, original Pam. I haven’t tried butter flavored or “Pam for Grilling,” just the regular, original Pam. Spray it on their feet and legs, being sure to rub it between their toes. If the snow is deep and powdery, get it up in the “armpit” portion of their front legs and on the insides of their back legs. Those ice balls can become quite large and also create front nip if left in place.

Periodically while out and definitely when you return to the warm, check your dog thoroughly for ice balls and break them up.

If you want to go whole hog, there is a proprietary product called Musher’s Secret that is available on Amazon. It’s a cream that will remind you of petroleum jelly- BUT DON’T EVER USE A PETROLEUM PRODUCT! For those of you into horses, I’m told that Show Sheen also works, but I haven’t personally experimented with it.

The next step is to keep your dog hydrated. Think of how much work it would be for you to bust through chest deep snow. Some snowy environments can actually be quite arid. Give them plenty of water and a bit of extra food is always in order, too. When not active, dogs use the food in their belly to generate heat to keep them warm.

Finally, play smart! Retrievers or ball-driven dogs will love a loosely-packed snowball tossed to them. The key phrase there is “loosely-packed.” Don’t throw a chunk of ice to your dog to catch in their teeth. Limit play and don’t let them over-exert themselves in an exciting new environment.

Then, with these few safety tips out of the way, get out and enjoy the snow with your K9 friend. They’ll have a good time, and you will too.

P.S. If you have or plan to use your dog for Search and Rescue, make a game out of burying a favorite toy and letting them dig it out. As much as they tend to dig up our back yards, not all dogs understand that something can be “under” something else. Having them dig a toy out of the snow is a concept that will pay dividends later. They don’t need to search for it. Just let them watch you cover up their favorite toy and dig it out.

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Home School Event!

I had the best time yesterday at an event with a network of kids who are home-schooled. I was a bit intimidated at first, because of the range of ages involved. It’s not like speaking to a traditional classroom of X-graders, all at one age and reasonably close in comprehension skills. The home school group included everyone from kindergarten to fourth grade, plus parents. How on earth could I do one explanation of Search and Rescue that would work for everybody?

My host Mattie was a great coach, and it simply wasn’t a problem. She let me know that “big words” were OK because that helps kids improve their vocabularies. She even helped me with the sensitive topic of describing cadaver dogs to youngsters.

The kids asked great questions and really seemed to enjoy watching Ruger do a basic SAR drill, a “runaway,” with one of their buddies.  For his part, Ruger loved the attention from the kiddos. Despite being a high-drive SAR dog, Ruger is able to channel his inner Therapy Dog and be gentle with the little ones.

Ruger and I are available for demonstrations or I can do readings from one of my books. You can reach us at K9Sierra outlook.com.

Product Review – Garmin Tactix Bravo

If we were playing baseball, the new Garmin Tactix Bravo GPS Watch would be scored as a hit and an error.

The unit is a solid triple (just danged near a home run) when compared to the disappointing original Tactix. It’s much more intuitive to operate and customize, and the various screens are much easier to read in all light. For those of us with aging eyes, the extra contrast means you don’t always have to dig the reading glasses out of your pack.

The Time-To-First-Fix is awesome, meaning you won’t be standing around the parking lot waiting for the unit to figure out your starting point. The sensitivity also seems greatly enhanced, as the unit quickly determined my location inside my house. I would expect far fewer cases of lost lock even in the thickest of western Washington’s trees.

So that’s the hit- now here’s the error. (This one would make the nightly highlight reel.) Unlike its predecessor, the Bravo will not save tracks as .GPX files, which is the universal language of GPS units. For a device that purports to have a “Tactical Mode” this is a major omission.

When I’m going for a trail run, Garmin’s proprietary “.FIT” file format is just fine. It works with the online “Connect” service, and gives me great stats about heart rate, pace, etc. But on a Search and Rescue mission our GPS files need to be saved and offered to the local sheriff in the universal .GPX file format. We never know what mapping program the local sheriff will have. The only way to provide a .GPX file now is take my own computer, and use Garmin Basecamp to convert the .FIT file to a .GPX.

Ideally, Garmin should have the file format determined by the profile in use. In Trail Run Mode the user could set the Bravo to save the file as a .FIT. In Tactical Mode the user should be able to set the file output as a .GPX.

This is still a terrific watch/GPS/training tool, and I hope that developers at Garmin will be able to fix this huge omission in a future software update.

I give the Garmin Tactix Bravo a rating of: Four Satellites.

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What is SAR, really?

http://www.cajunfirst.com/news/local-news/ldwf-agents-conducting-search-and-rescue-missions-in-south-louisiana. Glenn Farley of KING TV overlayed the Louisiana flood area on a map of Washington State. It covers an area from Seattle to Grand Coulee Dam, and from Everett south to Tacoma.

s we look at the world of search and rescue, we need to admit that SAR is really a collection of disciplines and skills, and we are bonded to many more brothers and sisters than might be obvious.

Who among us would be prepared for a SAR mission in which an enemy was trying to kill both our subject and ourselves? Yet that is a given in the world of military search and rescue.

If you’re in the Coast Guard, the ocean is usually trying to kill everyone involved, and that’s a much different dynamic than looking for a lost mushroom picker in a old-growth forest.

In Louisiana there are currently many search and rescue missions which involve anyone with a boat.  We wish them Godspeed as they work to save people from massive flooding.

Even firefighters at routine house fires do search-and-rescue, by circling the interior of burning buildings while keeping one hand on a wall.

Within our world of search and rescue we have trailing, air scent, cadaver, water search. We have counterparts in mantracking, 4×4, snow machine, mountain rescue and much more.

If you’re in SAR you’re part of a much larger fraternity than you might have known. All of us working together to save lives, one subject at a time. So take heart and be proud of your accomplishments. You’ve earned that.

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GoodReads Giveaway

Hi All-

I’m going a GoodReads Giveaway starting Aug. 3. Three lucky contestants will win copies of Digger– Sierra and the Case of the Chimera Killer.

If you like to read, you should be on GoodReads. It’s much more complicated than Twitter, FB or Instagram, but well worth your time in finding the right book for you.

 

Goodreads Book Giveaway


Digger
by Robert Calkins

Giveaway ends August 30, 2016.

See the giveaway details

at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

 

Maine’s Geraldine Largay Search – An Analysis

 

GPS tracks of searchers and dogs during the effort to find Geraldine Largay along the Appalachian Trail. (From the Bangor Daily News.)

Many of us have been wondering about the search for 66-year old Geraldine Lorgay who went missing along a section of the Appalachian Trail in Maine in the summer of 2013. Two years would pass before her body was found, and searchers learned she lived for 26 days before succumbing to the elements.

I yield this week’s blog entry to an excellent story about the case from the Bangor Daily News.

I also offer my personal condolences to the Largay family, and especially to the searchers who worked so diligently to bring her home.

http://bangordailynews.com/2016/07/25/outdoors/a-first-person-look-inside-the-search-for-geraldine-largay/?ref=OutdoorsBox

Unicorns and GPSs

I’d heard of such a thing, but I didn’t really believe it existed. A couple weeks ago I saw one for myself and was flabbergasted. No, it wasn’t a unicorn, they’re a dime a dozen.

It was an actual Garmin 60Cs GPS unit.  Not the 60Csx that is the grandfather of all modern GPS units. It was during production of the 60Cs that Garmin changed the game, and put new technology into later versions. They made significant upgrades that allowed the units to work effectively in heavy Western Washington tree cover. To differentiate, they added an “x” to the model number of the improved versions.

A friend in SAR was complaining that his GPS didn’t work in the trees. “What model do you have?” I inquired. “A 60, just like everybody else,” was the response.

“Bring it to me.” He did and there it was: a 60Cs logo without the “x.” I was holding it in my hand. Indiana Jones would have been proud, though this wasn’t the holy grail. In fact, it’s a very expensive paperweight unless you’re using it in a boat.

That said, if you can find a 60Csx somewhere online, and the seller assures you it’s in good working order, buy it. It’s not only all the GPS you’ll ever really need, but it might have collector value someday. It’s that good. Just be careful to look for the “x.”

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Sir….Your Autograph?

I’m spending the week in toasty Las Vegas at a conference of  mystery writers. I am getting great information and taking lots of notes. But as I was catching up my notes on a break I sensed someone standing beside me.

Then, I noticed a copy of my book on the table near me. I didn’t recall getting it from my supply at the back of the room, but I figured I needed to get it back with the others.

Finally, it clicked for my aging brain! The person had purchased my book at the conference “bookstore” and was seeking an autograph. They were quietly standing at my elbow, saying nothing, while I typed. I ’bout broke my arm getting it signed for them!

Family and friends have been very gracious about asking for autographs, but this was the first complete stranger. I gotta admit, that was a rush. I made sure to note that we’d met at a conference so he’d later have some memory of our interaction. And then, I looked at the stacks of books at the “bookstore” table. My stack’s getting smaller.

This author stuff is fun.

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Contest – Spy vs. Spy

Super-secret spies have a procedure, called “sign/countersign” for identifying each other in the dark and dangerous world of an enemy’s capitol city. It’s a scripted conversation that, upon completion, lets both parties know they’ve met the right person.

Spy #1: I like a moonless night.

Spy #2: So do the fireflies.

Hugs follow, or at least they don’t kill each other with silenced Lugers.

We dog handlers need a secret code to identify real handlers from the wannabes. So here’s what I propose:

Sign: “What’s the only thing two dog handlers can agree on?”

Countersign: …wait a minute, this is a spy story. You have to figure out the countersign.

Pop on over to my web site at www.robertdcalkins.com. Look around and find the countersign. It’s on one of the pages. Once you’ve found it, head back to the Sierra the Search Dog Facebook page and post it in the comments. The first person to do so will win a Sierra the Search Dog ballcap.

Got it? Head off to the web site, find the secret phrase, post it on the FB page, win a ballcap.

It couldn’t be simpler. And if you’re a dog handler, I think you’ll get a laugh out of the countersign.

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It’s hip to be square

Ahh…technology. And, like the mortgage commercial says, a little competition between banks.

In the 1990’s I tried doing some freelance media training, and the banks were horrified at the thought of me taking credit cards for tuition. I wasn’t selling a physical product and hadn’t been in business for 20 years. “Not possible,” was the response. The fact that I hadn’t bounced a check since I was 17 and had a very good credit rating didn’t matter.

FF to 2016, and it’s time to start selling some books. And what to my wondering eyes should appear but “The Square.” A little gizmo that plugs into my iPhone to let me take credit cards for books. Best of all, they’re frothing at the mouth to get me to use it.

The device works as advertised and couldn’t be simpler to set up. If you’re in any kind of business, even a hobby that you try to justify with a few sales, it’s worth getting.

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