stop looking for trouble and no longer got into fights at home. When he was working a trail, he seemed oblivious to everything around him and could easily pass by dogs and people.” The instructors noticed something too—Bravo had a real talent for tracking. Brown received high marks on her homework with the exception of one critical requirement: Search dogs must love other dogs and be excited to find and meet them.
just started crying and told them that I had lied.” Instead of expelling her, the instructors encouraged Brown to stay in the program. They saw tremendous potential in the team. “We normally don’t accept reactive dogs into the program, but thankfully, Bravo was an exception. He proved to us that some reactive dogs are able to overcome their reactivity through continual training and exposure to people and other dogs,” Albrecht- Thiessen says. “I believe his excelling in this work was primarily a result of Balynda’s dedication to training him and to learning everything that she could learn about scent-discrimination trailing, lost-pet recovery work, and how to read her dog.” Full-Time Pet Detectives After another year of training, Bravo and Brown started their career with the case of the missing Newfoundland. With only social media posts and word-of-mouth, they soon had so many
cases that Brown quit her full-time job as a gymnastics coach and opened Bravo K911. They often work every day of the week. Their success stories have included finding cats and other animals as well as dogs. While Bravo’s amazing nose is a big part of the team’s success, Brown plays a key role in helping owners develop an action plan, which includes designing and placing signs, canvasing neighborhoods, setting up feeding stations and cameras, and more. “This gave Bravo and me a new start, and this job saved Bravo’s life and, in turn, he has saved so many lives,” Brown says.
“At the end of a hide, I would just stop 15 feet from the dog and throw a ball the other way as his reward. Finally, at the end of the last class, I had to tell them that I was not continuing. I
Missouri Pet Breeders Association | Page 27
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