Camo was picked up today from our sponsoring breeder Smoky Mountain Pits. Smoky Mountain Pits was chosen with specific regard to their well bred stock and their specialized breeding of Pit Bulls with the Merle gene.
Camo was a specialized Merle breeding request. There were several reasons why the APBR chose to go with a Pit Bull with the Merle characteristic for their initial Service Dog choice in training.
The Merle has two well-defined characteristics being that of one, two or partial blue eyes and/or a unique patching effect in the coloration of the coat pattern.
Camo's end purpose is to be that of a disabled Veteran assistant. Given this as her destined purpose we thought we would also choose a coat coloration pattern that complemented her service population. Camo is short for camouflage and you will notice her Merle coat pattern is very much like that of actual camouflage.
This video is Camo getting acquainted with her new foster/training home and mirrors. If you have a Youtube account you are welcome to subscribe to our video feeds and leave comments on ours. If you wish to follow along with your Pit Bull and would like to send us videos of their training progress we welcome this as well for potential inclusion in a new video library we are currently working on developing.
Another reason we chose the Merle coat pattern of Camo is due to its unique and rare status, which will help in generating more
attention. This will give us the opportunity to introduce Camo and her end purpose to people in a positive manner. Since the Pit Bull is not the breed most people think of as a choice breed for Service work this will give us the opportunity to educate them on the Pit Bull breed itself as well as the value it can be as a positive contributor in today's society.
We worked on asserting the "NO" command, mouthing respect, toy sharing, crate and potty training, animal socialization, food sharing and fetch. Camo is a quick and intuitive learner and is showing great progress for being such a young age. Camo seems to love task work and the appreciation of her trainer. We also worked on different textured surfaces for walking such as concrete, grass, carpet, wood flooring, gravel and steel grating as well as going up stairs. Understanding and not being afraid of different textures will help her in future service work.
Camo likes to whine. While this has been a positive during her potty and crate training this also has been a negative when it's sleep time. After giving her time to self correct during unwanted times of barking and whining it was apparent that she was going to need some help in the process. Spraying and use of a clacker can did not work. For a $38 INVESTMENT we visited our local store and picked up a collar that helps to deter barking. Unwanted barking stopped overnight practically with only little use even beyond the 3rd day.
In order to not deter desired barking the collar was removed during times of interaction.
This is also the week of July 4th. Happy Birthday America! This was a good time to see what kind of startle reflex Camo would have with load and sudden noises. In Service work it is often important for the dog to not let noise draw its attention away from the task at hand. Understanding how a dog reacts to noise is also important as in some cases it may evoke a violent reaction based on the dogs past experiences. Camo passed this test with flying colors. With such noise she either ignored these entirely or if startled entered a stance of inquisitiveness and not one of fear or aggression.
This week starts with our veterinarian follow-up for the second set of shots, worming treatment and general exam. The American Pit Bull Registry has over 44,000 veterinarians listed as a resource to its site readers. Click here to find one for you.
The checkup went well with Camo weighing in at 8.3 pounds and being in good health. This is the time we also start with our first Heartworm treatment. Heartworm prevention is critical to the long term health and happiness of a dog. If infected by heartworms treatment costs can be exhorbative and mortality may be inevitable.
After getting a good bill of health we visited our local pet store and got acquainted with a kitten and a large dog. Camo's attitude was of indifference, which we hope to capitalize on in moving forward as we want to insure other animals are not going to distract her from work.
Here we are at The TN Rehabilitation Center to begin our human socialization and therapy component of training. Future visits will also include going to the TN School For The Blind and the local VA and other hospitals. The goal of these visits will be to introduce Camo to the administration and see if they will allow us to work with / visit their student body. If these prove to be positive encounters we will set up regular visits where we hope to continue socialization and therapy work. We will also begin to introduce Camo to the limitations that a disabled 
individual may face and work with these to see how she can be trained to empower such individuals by helping them overcome such barriers.
very lucky to have her in their service. The Civil Air Patrol is an auxiliary of the Air Force. One of its primary purposes is to train youth in areas of aeronautics as well as search, rescue and aeronautic surveillance efforts. After the grounding of all flights during "911", CAP was the first to fly over "Ground Zero" gaining valuable information and has since performed important missions for America's homeland security. For youth interested in aeronautics this is an excellent program to join with many benefits including free basic flying lessons, education and scholorship opportunities, specialized training including that of first aid and much more. To find a CAP branch near you here is their official Website: http://www.cap.gov/index.cfm?audienceID=4&nodeid=6085
Other outside social visits included a trip to the Post Office and Wal-Mart.
This week consisted mostly of reinforcing previous training as well as another visit to the TN Rehabilitation Center and our local CAP Squadron.
One new thing Camo learned was to climb a rock wall. This training took approximately 1 hour. We will work on this and other psychological exercises as we begin training Camo for Search and Rescue work. Initial contact has been made to start Search and Rescue training with future follow-up to come.
This month most of our training has been on getting down some of the basics as well as advancing our shaking training to now understand the diffeence between Left and Right. Check out our video of Camo at 14 weeks and see if you know your left and right hand as well as Camo does.
So how did you do?We have also had our follow-up visit with our vet and have received a good report as well as our next Heartworm treatment.
As you can see in the videos Camo is growing quickly.
We have also continued to work on climbing and terrain skills as we continue to prepare ourselves for Search and Rescue Training.