Leavin' On A Jet Plane Today

This morning I feel like I did the day I left for the beginning of my six-month Appalachian Trail hike filled with anticipation but anxious about the unknown. And like that adventure, I leave today for my three-month stay in Nepal with no doubt I can finish what I'll start. Who knows what future starts this experience will lead to, but how dull life would be if we always knew what was in store for us.

So, I'm down here in Phoenix, having just woken up in a shaft of sunlight with a sweat ring around my neck. What a difference a two-hour drive can make. Had I awakened back in Flagstaff, where it was snowing yesterday morning, I would have grabbed a fleece as soon as I got out of bed. But I'd better get used to waking up warm, as it'll soon be monsoon season in Nepal, hot and extremely humid.

My plane leaves at eight this evening. I change airlines in Los Angeles, then sit for another 13-some-odd hours in another flying tin can with a couple hundred of my closest friends (flying is not my favorite pastime) till I arrive in Hong Kong. After 13 hours wandering and people-watching there, and I'll be in another airborne capsule for seven hours until I land in Kathmandu at 10:30 p.m. on May 5 (which is about 9:15 a.m. on the 5th here in Arizona, I believe.)

Once I clear customs with my one large suitcase, mostly filled with t-shirts, synthetic convertible pants, at least 15 pairs of underwear, and nearly as many pairs of socks, along with a half-empty duffel bag and a carry-on backpack full of electronics, I'll hopefully find HRDSN member Karna Bahadur Dura and Yolanda, Ingo's Swiss friend who runs a hotel not far from the airport. I'll go to the hotel for at least one night, but I hear there could be "political unrest" in the city, so I may make my stay in the capital a very short one before flying to Pokhara.

As with all mostly unplanned adventures, and even most that are planned to a T, we shall see.

A New Generation of Nepali SAR Dogs

I wanted to share some videos with you from the Himalaya Rescue Dog Squad Nepal's training and breeding center in Shyauli Bazaar. I'll be trekking from Pokhara to Shyauli Bazaar in June, along with HRDSN leader Ingo Schnabel and two SAR K-9 trainers from Germany.

(If you can't view the embedded videos here, I've added direct YouTube links below each.)

Shyauli Bazaar in Lamjung at the Middim Khola River is one of the most beautiful places in Nepal. Here, you'll see HRDSN's newest litter of SAR dogs-to-be.

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Meet Hunter, a SAR dog donated to HRDSN by Lynn Martin from Oregon. Lynn teaches at the Dog Obedience Academy. Here's Hunter demonstrating his man-trailing skills after just a few lessons.

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See a bit of the daily "shaping" training at Shyauli Bazaar. "The shaping or fine-tuning of the dogs' performance has to be done step by step. With the help of the clicker training method and voice commands in Nepalese language, the dogs learn to negotiate obstacles of different kinds and shapes. This is preparation for entering and searching collapsed buildings for disaster victims."

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And here's Dunston, reporting his find to his handler and leading him back to the subject. "Rückverweisen" is German for "search, find, report back and then lead your handler to the subject."

The way Dunston communicates a find is jumping up and placing his paws on his handler's chest. This method is taught step by step with clicker training and small treats and is used with dogs who don't like to bark at a discovered person. Dunston was never a barker, and since he is an excellent air-scenting dog, he was trained to do his reporting (or alerting) in this manner.

 

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