Search Tall

08/14/2025

Update: NW Levels working spots are FULL. Audit spots are still available.

08/11/2025

Announcement!!! Online Classes starting 8/18!

There will be two separate groups NW Levels for NACSW NW1, NW2 and NW3 and AKC Novice through Master Teams and Elite for NACSW Elite Division and AKC Detective Teams.

There will be a weekly Zoom call on Monday nights for both groups to discuss the exercises for that coming week and also review some student searches from the previous starting week 2.

Class duration will be four weeks with working and audit options available. Working spots in NW Levels will be able to post two three minute videos during the week. Elite working spots will be able to post for a total of eight minutes either one video or split between two. For feedback before the Monday night call you will have to post your videos before noon on Sunday, otherwise feedback will come after.

Auditors will be able to participate in weekly call and ask general questions in the FB group. Auditors will be able to post videos to the FB group for personal accountability but will not receive feedback.

Session 1 Topics:
NW Levels - Stamina and Resilience, Area Coverage, Blank Areas and Hide Age
Elite - Navigating Converging Odor
Registration Fees:
NW Levels $125 Working / $65 Audit
Elite $150 Working / $65 Audit
Send me a message if you would like to register.

07/29/2025

Don't miss out!

August Trick Dog Challenge

Beginning August 1, 2025 we invite you to join our weekly trick dog challenge and have some fun with your dog.

All age-groups welcome. Join me and other dog lovers by posting your videos and participating in the challenge. Post as many videos per weekly challenge as you want 🙂

- This is a great time to get your kids involved in teaching your family dog some tricks.
- Great indoor engagement activity during the hot summer months

As an added bonus for those who complete the August trick dog challenge, I will again offer free virtual AKC trick dog testing upon completion of this challenge. Go AKC.org to view the criteria and list of tricks required for each level.

Video submissions should be sent via email by either attachment or YouTube link to [email protected]. AKC NOVICE-ADVANCED levels only. You must submit your videos, AKC trick dog list of tricks performed, owner/dog and AKC registered number.

This offer will be valid from September 1-7, 2025 only. Let’s have some fun, earn some titles and get out of the hot SFL sun!!

07/23/2025

The summer is a really great time to work on containers. Containers are one of those skills that really needs maintenance. At trials there is a stark difference between teams that train containers regularly and those that work them infrequently or only at trials.

One of my favorite exercises for containers is the distraction blitz. In these setups every container has something either a distraction or target odor. You can really get a lot of bang for your buck setting these for experienced search dogs. This is not something I would setup for a very green dog unless the distractions were very very very low level.

Containers are annoying to setup because it takes time to setup and age but just seconds to run. But you really need to do them often to stay at the top of your game. If you can get a small group together you can relieve some of the setup burden and everyone running them can bring some distractions so you end up with a nice variety of distractions.

07/18/2025

So much truth here!

06/28/2025

Just a reminder the Search Tall July Training Challenge starts Tuesday, July 1st!

If you want to participate please join the group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/searchtalltrainingchallenge

06/25/2025

Small update to the Training Challenge. Instead of posting to the Search Tall FB page a FB Group will be used. This should help provide a more private place to share videos.

Make sure to join:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/searchtalltrainingchallenge

Send a message to learn more

06/24/2025

We are officially ONE week away from the kickoff of the Search Tall July Training Challenge!

How it will work:
Each Tuesday in July there will be a weekly challenge posted to Search Tall Training Challenge FB Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/searchtalltrainingchallenge it will be pinned to the top so you should be able to find it quickly.

There will be a short description of what the goal is for the week, some guidance of how to set-up the searches for different levels and a short video showing dog(s) working a search or two.

You can ask any questions you like for the week in that post. (You can also ask any questions now here too if you have them.)

Then when you are ready you will then reply to that post with your team working the weekly challenge. You can either upload your video to YouTube and share a link or just post the video in your comment through FB. You need to have your post for the current week posted to the weekly challenge post by Monday night. On Tuesday mornings I will be taking inventory of who participated as well as sharing the new challenge.

At the end of 4 weeks I will tally everything up and I think we are going to have a few drawings for prizes! Since this is a motivational and accountability kind of challenge the more weeks you participate the more chances you will have in the drawing. Each week will give you an entry and there will be a bonus for those who complete all four weeks.

I encourage people to like or comment on others post, cheer on others to keep them and yourselves motivated in under the summer heat struggle!

06/19/2025

While I was in San Diego earlier this month I got to experience what they call June Gloom. It sounds silly but it's a real thing and I think I came back to Florida with it. Not exactly the same gloom from not being able to see the sun for days on end but due to the summer heat and humidity.

The Brown Dogs have shifted into a Summer training pattern of limiting total search area sizes and search times and teaching focused hide sets.

I really liked this search with Swagger from last Thursday. Moderate sized search, variety of surfaces to work over and just a single blowing odor problem. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3mN3tCoK7E

It got me thinking if I am having trouble staying motivated in the Florida Gloom others might be too. So how about an accountability training challenge during the month of July. Each week would have a goal or objective to set for your search, record your search and post it to a weekly FB post I will start at the beginning of each week. Still thinking about what to do for prizes for everyone who posts for all four weeks, either small something for each person or a raffle for a couple more substantial prizes.

Interested to know what people think.

06/07/2025

Better late than never, scheduling for June private lessons and coaching sessions is open.

Due to the summer heat setting in training times will be limited to early morning and early evenings.

Please send me a message if you are interested.

05/31/2025

I have been seeing memories from that one time when we went to Indiana to piggy back on a HRD training event at Muscatatuck Urban Training Center.

We had fun and I took home an amazing thing for my dogs called food play as a reward for searching. I went back and found the first video I posted of this with Swagger and added a search from a couple days ago. I do wish I could convince more people to more than hand over a piece of food to their dog in training.

So here is how we started and now two years later:

05/14/2025

Actively looking for a place to teach classes in Northern Palm Beach County. If you know of a business that is willing to rent space after hours one night during the week contact me!