K9 Stryder's page
 

A few weeks after Chip passed on, there was a hamfest in Newark, NY not to far from Cindy  Hummel's home, home of Shadowdale Labradors http://www.lochiellabradorsandshadowdalelabradors.com. I try to visit when I am in the area and I did this time too.  She had not heard of Chip's passing and when told so, she said she wanted me to have a look at a dog. Stryder came in the room and I fell in love with him at first sight. Stryder was an adult by then. He was supposed to be Cindy's stud dog but a puppyhood injury that did not have any effect on him physically showed up in X-ray and prevented him from having an OFA-elbow clearance. So there went his stud-dog career. BTW, Radar, Sonar and Stryder are from Cindy's breeding. Chip's lines are also very close to Cindy's.

How could I resist such a handsome dog? (Above is my QSL card BTW). Stryder adjusted well into our pack. Some time thereafter, Sonar got hurt and now I had only Radar who was quickly closing in on retirement as a working dog. So I gave Stryder a chance. He took off as if he had always waited just for that opportunity. I swear the SAR dogs exchange information while resting on the couch. Stryder managed to work as understudy with Radar and soon passed his NYS Federation of SAR certification. Stryder is nowadays my working SAR dog.

High angle training, an exercise in trust between dog and handler.


Stryder is the dog that worked the Lake Nipissing search near North Bay ON Canada. The area we searched was huge, covering 4391 acres or 6.61 square miles of water Our search track was 61.1 miles long, and was done in three operational periods. Stryder worked from the boat you can see above. He was allowed to lie down, as we spend hours on end searching. His nose was working and his nostrils flaring. On our third day we had an alert, narrowed it down and now it was up to the divers to to their part. Unfortunately weather conditions deteriorated fast and the search was interrupted. About ten days later I get a call from Constable Jan Nickle from the Ontario Provincial Police and upon verifying the coordinates for Stryder's alert he told me his K9 had also alerted in the same location. What more could I ask for? A find of course, but that did not happen then. While Stryder entered K9 SAR relatively late, actually he is the first dog I ever started training as an adult, he has filled the huge pawprints of his predecessors with flair and elegance. I'm ever so glad and thankful fate put us together.


Stryder and I are long time members of 1st Special Response Group www.1srg.org . We respond to searches locally and also outside our immediate area and internationally. I am also a visual mantracker at the Apprentice level with Joel Hardin's school www.jhardin-inc.com. And so I juggle the low tech K9 work and visual mantracking with high tech communications, GPS, navigation and mapping software, keeping both sides of my brain happy and in somewhat of a balance.


Go to: K9 Search and Rescue Page 

Go to: K9 Stryder's page

Go to:  K9CHP ham radio page

Go to: LEO satellite operations

Go to: Some of my QSL cards

Go to: Where am I? APRS Location Page

Go to: Operating Maritime Mobile

Go to: Welcome to Amir's K9CHP web page

Go to: IDF Service 

Go to: My HF log

Go to: Cushcraft MA5B antenna