One of the newest additions to the Richmond SPCA's lineup of summer programming for children is "Dogs with Jobs," and the first session, held the week of July 6-8, captured the attention of the 27 campers who attended. Staff who could take a short break from their work often filled the back of the Track & Training Center to catch a glimpse of the fascinating working dog presentations. The dogs and handlers who presented in July will return to the Richmond SPCA for another sold-out session the week of Aug. 17; however we have an all new roster next week, Aug. 10-12, and there's still time to register your kids to see presentations from agility dogs, acting dogs, service dogs and more.
Here's a look at the guest speakers and their amazing working dogs who made the first Dogs with Jobs session such a success.
Officer AJ Jackson explains how tracking dogs are trained and used by the Richmond Police Department. During this three-day session in July, Critter Campers learned about the variety of working and service dogs and how they perform their jobs. Each day featured four presentations from guest speakers such as Officer Jackson.
Officer Jackson and his pal Hopper demonstrated their bond along with the many skills that are required of tracking dogs.
Hopper, a tracking dog for the Richmond Police Department, searches to find a scent among the crowd of campers.
Hopper receives his reward – a squirt of canned cheese – for "finding" camper Devlin Montgomery. Devlin volunteered for the demonstration and gave his hat for Hopper to get his scent.
Liberty, a black lab mix, works with Hanover County Fire & EMS on their search and rescue team. As an Urban Search & Rescue dog, one of Liberty's main duties is to search for people who remain alive and stuck in rubble after a building is destroyed.
Vernon Frayser and Liberty perform Search & Rescue for Hanover County Fire & EMS; they also enjoy meeting with children and demonstrating their teamwork.
Carol Maupin, who specializes in training obedience dogs, lets her dog Topper show off for the crowd of kids. Topper is a Belgian Shepherd Tervuren who followed Carol's commands through different obedience trials to showcase his skills.
Topper retrieves and returns a tool to his handler and trainer, Carol, demonstrating his willingness to retreive most anything.
The Richmond Police Department's K9 Corps brought Vadar to teach the campers about patrol dogs. Sergeant Bohannan explained …
Liberty visits with a group of campers.
Officer Robin Robinson with her dog Bo, who is a narcotics detection dog.
Bunny Wilks (far right) and Ephriam Seidman train puppies and prepare them to be Guiding Eyes. This yellow lab, Vera, will be a service dog for the sight impaired when she gets older.
Hunter is a working dog employed by Loyal Pest Control to detect termites.
Susan Markam explains freestyle frisbee competition as her dog Ripper waits eagerly to begin the demonstration.
Ripper is shown in a mid-air catch of a disc thrown by Susan.
Susan Markam poses with Ripper, who is training for frisbee competition, and Hurricane, a retired champion disc dog, and the campers who attended Dogs With Jobs in July.
Photographs by Sarah Babcock, Lisa Clarke and Tabitha Hanes. To read the biographies of our regular bloggers, please click here. Before posting a comment, please review our comment guidelines. Please note that our comment policy requires a first and last name to be used as your screen name.
These are wonderful photos and a great idea for a camp. Sarah is looking forward to both weeks in August!
Posted by: lee anne holdren | August 01, 2011 at 02:10 PM