Dogs of WPWD

Our oldest dog in Wolfpack is Griff, at 11.5 years old.  He's pretty wobbly at this age, but still gets around.  He trained in the sportwork called schutzhund/IPO, and most recently called IGP.  He was excellent at obedience and tracking, and pretty good at bitework.  He was an excellent search and rescue wilderness area search dog.  He was clear headed and very stable, and never made a mistake on what game he was playing (IPG or SAR).  He loved both.

At 10.5 years old, he still enjoys coming out to train and is quite healthy. Chaffee's primary role at this time is helping teach new handlers and helpers.  We often mention that some dogs are capable of both sport work and SAR, Chaffee wasn't one of those :) . While he has an excellent nose and is quite capable of trailing, his intensity has always been better suited to the structure of sport work."

K-9 Charon, GSD, litter mate to Chaffee doesn't make it to training very often these days, at 10+ years old he is pretty much retired. We often hear, “I did not know GSD came in pure black, he is so gorgeous, and his eyes are so intense!”  Just because he is retired doesn't mean he doesn't like to show new helpers how it's done and like to take a bite from anyone willing to put on the sleeve.  Charon does beautiful obedience. He loved tracking, even though his humans did not and nobody lays a track for him anymore! But his favorite is the bite work.  Charon is so stable, and sleeve sure, he is still game for training and demos, he just takes a few more breaks now.  Most days, you can find Charon lounging on the couch and when he is outside always begging someone to throw a stick for him.

Hey, K-9 Akiya here, I am a 5 year old German Shepherd/Catahoula cross. I was about 5 weeks old when my mom Shannon picked me out as she sat on the floor with all my brothers and sisters crawling all over her.  Except me, I was attempting to tear the towels off the kitchen drawers. Mom told the breeder "I want her", as she pointed to me, the unruly little puppy across the room.  Mom knew she was looking for a search dog, and knew she wanted an independent thinker.  Well, everyone tells her, "Be careful what you ask for!"  Boy do I have a mind of my own.  Mom has trained me primarily in HRD, but I will indicate a missing live person as well.  I enjoy the wilderness air scent environment the most, I like to stretch out my legs. I am also very good at building and vehicle searches, once Mom calms me down and gets me to focus.  High finds (source material hidden above the ground, like in trees) are my favorite.  Mom and I have been involved in several searches, with a successful full body find with the help of our fellow teammates K-9 Cerin and Kathy.  Mom let me play the bite game and I love it, but she says we only have time to train one or the other and I guess she picked Search work, and that's okay because we get to spend a lot of time together in all kinds of cool places.

Fed is a five-year-old German Shepherd.  He joined the Wolfpack as Sharon’s next potential search and rescue dog as a puppy.  We did all the right things with him, but he lacked the intensity to work hard to find strangers.  Although Fed is a good tracking dog (slow and methodical), he didn’t see the point of area searching for victims as a “hurry up” type of game.  As a result he worked in slow motion when hunting for victims.  Not good enough.  At least he is pretty!  After almost a year of hanging around doing very little, our new helper Dan joined the group and asked to test Fed’s temperament a little more thoroughly.  Well!!  Fed likes to bite, as his temperament background should have predicted.  So now Fed is working on schutzhund/IGP.  His search and rescue training was left behind, but the basic foundation training for a willing, motivated dog are the same for the search search dogs and the sport dogs.

K9 Cerin here, though I've been called by a few names in my 5 years of life. I didn't get much understanding from my first humans. They wanted me to be something called a "pet"...but everything in my being, my genetics, told me I was destined to work, and work hard. This got me in trouble. I finally met this new person, and she understood my need to use my talents!  I didn't like laying around on a couch or staying in a crate. Now we go out sniffing for a specific odor, and my new person is so happy when I find it! I don't really understand the "why", it just makes her happy.  My person can't sniff so good, so she lets me do that. In return she drives the truck, something I can't do. We've become a team I guess.

I am Pogo. Somehow I ended up on something called "death row", behind bars in CA. Then this crazy lady saw my picture on FB. She enlisted the help of many friends, and the next thing I knew I was on an airplane to SD. Although I've been an escape artist for all of my 4 years of life,  I think I'm going to stay here. This team lets me be my crazy self and encourages me to dig into all of my brain cells.

Grizz is a 5 year old German Shepherd.  He has been with the Wolfpack since he was a puppy.  Grizz started training in human remains detection about 3 years ago, and he loves his job.  He is one who prefers to work in the most extreme weather conditions, be it rain or snow.  At home, it has come to the point that all his working equipment has to be stored in the truck.  If stored inside the house he will drag it out and bring it to Don, then sit and stare.  Grizz is now starting to also train in IGP/schutzhund, which benefits his performance as a search dog.  He is making great progress in obedience, preparing for his BH obedience title.

Greetings, I am Oscar! I was just 12 weeks old when my mom drove all the way to California to get me. She really wasn't looking for a puppy, but a friend was adopting my sister and told her about me. Now I am 4 years old, and very handsome, as you can see, and my registered name is Cabernets Golden Oscar. Don't forget that. But I am not just a pretty boy. My mom, along with our friends in the Wolfpack, is training me to be a Search and Rescue dog! I am learning live find area search and I can do HRD as well! My mom and I love living and training here in the Black Hills!

Eli is a 3.5 year old Australian Shepherd, and yes, he has a tail.  His owner likes his tail.  He is stand-off-ish (is that even a word?) around strangers, but that doesn’t stop him from being a good search dog.  He hunts at high speed to find his victims fairly quickly, but does not get within about 6 feet of them unless they are a known person who has given him food before.  That does not interfere with being a good search dog.  He finds them, circles them, and comes back to his handler Sharon and indicates he has found a human by jumping up on her, then leads her back to the victim.   He works about four times faster than Fed the German Shepherd, according to their owner Sharon.  That’s why Eli searches for people and Fed (the slower moving German Shepherd) does not.  He is very talented at finding any and all burrs and stickers in his entire search area. And he is cute. Did we mention he has lightning fast reflexes?

Dexter (Mansae Martinez) is a 5 yr old (Aug 2022) purebred GSD. Leslie adopted him from Western Hills Humane Society after they took him off the euthanize list from Black Hills Humane Society. Mansae was renamed Dexter after the tv show since he had a similar experience in his life prior to being adopted and deserved a new name with his new start. Dexter’s previous owners had gotten him as a puppy and later decided to get him trained to be a guard dog. We are not sure where this training was done, but it was done poorly and it made him aggressive, especially towards men. It's been quite the journey but Dexter has come a long way and now loves his WPWD "pez dispensers" as well as coming to training each week. He knows when training day is and is very impatient getting ready to leave the house that day. Leslie is very grateful to have found such a great group of people willing to help her rehab Dexter and hopefully get him into SAR work. He loves tracking and using his nose! 

Qute (pronounced Cute) is a Chesapeake Bay retriever mix who was rescued in late January of 2019 at 4 months old. When Kendra went to meet her she was described as the “wild child.”  Qute definitely had all the puppy energy and wiggles but was so happy to go her forever home. Not much is known about her history but she did not like dark confined spaces, anything sizzling on the stove or loud raised voices. She also had her quirks of doing summersaults and zoomies when she got excited. It took about 8 months for her to fully come out of her shell. Now she would probably be considered a little over friendly, she wants to say “hi” to everyone. She always lets us know when the UPS or FedEx drivers show up at the house.  Qute is the family hunting dog and has a love for water and ducks. She made her first water retrieve in the Fall of 2019 and finally was able to successfully flush and retrieve her first pheasants in the Fall of 2021. We have the goal of grouse and geese for the Fall of 2022. 

Charlie is a 6 year old Border Collie/Great Pyrenees mix. People often mistake her for a golden retriever. Charlie started out as a “ranch dog” but moved to Rapid City when she was 3 years old. She started training with the Wolf Pack Working Dogs just over a year ago. Here she has been able to come out of her shell and is slowly starting to learn how much she loves people (especially if they give her food). Using Charlie’s love for food, and her great sniffing skills, she is starting to get the hang of tracking/trailing and it has become one of her favorite games to play!

Dannsair is my three year old English shepherd I received as a wedding gift while living in KS. I helped with the litter and picked the bitchiest, most dominant, and confident female. I could tell she was a firecracker around five weeks old. She’s earned her expert trick dog title through DMWYD and her CGC. I’ve dabbled in agility with her and have had a herding instinct test done. I’ve recently gotten into bikejoring and dog sledding in which she’s coming along beautifully. She takes her role as watchdog very seriously, and I feel confident that no stranger would dare enter the house with Dannsair on the other side of the door. While she loves people, strangers aren’t allowed until I decide they’re fine. I love having her with me in town or on the trail as she will watch my back. I took her to Starmark with me and had her in the program before she was six months old. Dannsair was my agility and narcotics dog along with knowing several service tasks and tricks for the program. I managed to find a complimentary stud to pair her with and she had a lovely litter of eight pups last April. She is currently loving her SAR training sessions with the group and I’m excited to see her progression!

Wren, Dannsair’s daughter, was born April 2021. I intended to keep a pup and decided on her because of her natural retrieve, drive, stubbornness, and toughness. She’s a goofy pup that loves to wallow in for snuggles, give hugs and wet willies. Wren’s proving to be a good vermin eradicator with two mice under her belt so far and always searching for more. Wren also shows strong interest in moving cattle which I’m excited to work on more as she ages. She loves people, but is also a good watchdog like her mother. I’ve been training her for bikejoring to eventually have a mother/daughter team and will continue her sessions in SAR.