Another newbie

[kittiesmom]

  hi just like to say my two cats were feral kittens when we brought them home to our dog zack who is a newfoundland, they all get on so well the cats think he's just a giant cat .      

[Jiji]

Hi Tony  welcome to Purrs  I have never heard of a cat tracking dog before and hope you manage to find a cat to help with training Buddy. George sounds a lot like The General who one of our lovely members managed, amongst other things, to find a fantastic outdoor home for 

[Sue P (Paddysmum)]

Hello Tony!      A big warm welcome to Purrs to you and Buddy, who sounds like an amazing dog.     Poor george.  Hard to know what may have led to his lack of trust, but how lovely that in his way, he trusts you.   

The training you and Buddy are doing sounds great, and I hope that you'll be able to find a cat who is happy to work with you, maybe through some of your contacts in the area.  It made me smile, because I remember when we first oved to the house we're in now, we had tess (a beardie cross) and Paddy - back then a mature 8/9 year old ginger and white tabby.  They got along so well together.  Well, Paddy had been wanting to be out for a number of days, but being new to the area we weren't confident about letting him out, but the first thing we did was put the flap in the front door, and afetr a week, we let him out for a wander.  trouble is, he stayed out all night (it was summer and he was in his element).  I was beside myself with worry the following morning when e wasn't in.

Anyway, OH decided to go out with Tess, and see if Tess could find him.  And guess what?  She did!   She located him partway down the big field to the back of the house, where he was investigating a large cherry tree, chilling out in the branches, where he got a bird's eye view of his new territory.   

I wish you and Buddy (and George too) every success in your endeavours.  Keep us posted as to how you get on, and meantime, enjoy having a look around Purrs.     

[buddypi]

George the cat doesn't like Buddy to much as I think he's been a stray so long that he doesn't trust dogs, George comes and goes as he please's and is a total out door cat. I don't think George trusts all humans which I find really sad, if only they could talk what a story they could tell.

The hardest training for the cat detection dogs is having a cat to train with, the cat in question must like being in a cat carrier and wearing a cat harness so Buddy can follow a scent. It's not a job the George can do and to tell you the truth I wouldn't even try, so at the moment I'm scratching my head on what to do.

First it starts off with training your dog to use the "Search cue" while using the search harness but I also have to teach Buddy to recognise other cues including "Are you ready? Do you want to work?" "find the cat" "Push" "Check this" "Check Hi" "Which way" and others. His reward for completing the cue is a treat or toy.

He's then taught what the Target cat smells like, and learns how to find or follow the scent of the cat and find it in its cat carrier. After this the idea is to follow the cat that is on the harness through different area's such as woods, streets, fields, sheds, garages etc to get the dog use to searching different places.

After the dog can tell the different specific scent the dog will keep training then when a lost cat job comes in the dog will just think that he's still training and will look forward to the search ending so he can have his treat or toy to play with, its that simple (who am I kidding)
I hope it makes sense to you all.

Tony.

[Tiggy's Mum]

  to Purrs Tony

You don't have to 'own' a cat to be part of Purrs, in fact how many of us who think we own cats truly 'own' them - not many I think  Does ypur stray cat George get on OK with Buddy? I love the relationships between cats and dogs, fascinating!

How does the cat tracking work, does he work on a specific scent to try and track a specific cat?

[buddypi]

My name is Tony and I live in Wiltshire with my Wife and 2 year old Labrador called Buddy, I use to have a cat called Harry who I got from the Cats Protection in Bristol many years ago. I do sort of have a cat and his name is George who is a stray, but I've always loved cats and enjoy meeting them around the town with Buddy.

I run a Small Charity helping people who have lost and found cats in my Town but I've also spoken to people from all around Wiltshire as well, Buddy my Labrador and I are training together to find lost cats. I love cats and so does Buddy I hope to make lots of friends on this forum, I'm sorry I don't own a cat at the moment although I might again in the future.

Thank you for letting me join the group and I look forward to chatting to you all on the Forum.