Billi (4Mile Billi Blue) owned by Paula Chambers
NEWSFLASH!! Billi passed her Operational certification for Human Remains Detection one day shy of her second birthday. She is an amazing search dog for ATSAR. We are so proud of Paula and Billi on their accomplishments already. Keep up the good work!!
Here is the description of the test that Billi had to pass to be certified.
Team,
Please join me in congratulating Paula Chambers and K9 Billi on successfully passing their Operational certification for Human Remains Detection yesterday evening! I have to say that although I was the guy that set up the sector, this turned out to be one of the hardest, nastiest, tests that I have witnessed in a very long time and it was gut wrenching to watch this monster unfold. I set the materials at Noon yesterday and Paula and Billi started their test at 16:52Pm and due to the materials I selected, the locations that I placed them in, and the complexity of the terrain, winds and temperature changes yesterday is was an unusually difficult set up even for an ops test.
Paula and Billi did beautifully maintaining control in a challenging area that was filled with visitors, loose dogs, dogs on leash, joggers, walkers, a soccer game nearby, and kids running everywhere. There were 3 sources placed, each creating a unique and very nasty scent pool, and scent overlap throughout the entire area and beyond. There was a food distraction placed in the area that Billi completely ignored, then she quickly located a hide under a large rock pile, then nailed a series of overlapping sources beneath a buried silt fence. The third and smallest source weighing in at only the minimum 4 ounces required Paula to resolve two areas that were massively overlapped with scent from about 3 pounds of fully decomposed materials and a crosswind (sorry Paula).
Paula made the right decisions, covered her area and trusted her dog calling the sector correctly and completely, with 2 minutes time to spare. David and I nearly died watching this thing unfold, and I was thoroughly impressed, proud, and humbled by seeing Paula work through it so smoothly. Congratulations Paula, you earned this one the hard way, please keep up the great work..... Regards, Stuart Samples