We had an exciting trip driving across country for the holidays, traveling from North Dakota to Pennsylvania and back again!
We’ve decided to adopt Kota, the rescued puppy we talked about in our last post, so he made the trip with us. He will be trained to work alongside Katie. Kota is excelling in his basic training, which we started while on vacation. Sit, down, shake, and come are almost second nature now. He is learning to walk on leash, both 5 foot and 25 foot, without pulling and is showing a lot of promise in nose work (ie, finding things with his nose).
Kota and Katie
While the drive east was fairly uneventful, the drive back to North Dakota was anything but! The weather was frigid and snowy and the trip took two days longer than planned. Fortunately, both dogs did well! Katie is a seasoned traveler and knows about hotels and long trips. However Kota had never been in a car for longer than 15 minutes prior to this trip. Consequently, the 26 hour drive and the hotel stay were a little stressful for him. He actually did well for a recently adopted stray dog! He even got to experience the car being towed to a car dealership to thaw out one morning! Kota watches Katie’s every move and imitates her! Katie pointed out coyote sign every time we stopped and Kota seemed to catch on.
When we got back to North Dakota, my coworkers and I decided Kota would be trained to find mountain lions. The lions move through this area and kill livestock. Problems arise when no one can tell if the lion is still in the area or has moved on. Hopefully when trained, Kota will find scent posts and urine areas so that we can track lions to make sure they are just moving through. We want to make sure the lions aren’t hanging around housing areas or playgrounds! We are optimistic Kota will quickly catch on to his new job!
Kota, waiting for his first assignment!
