Kyra at Water Rescue Practice

Water Rescue is a ton of fun and quite interesting to train for.  If the dog has high drive for water and swimming like Kyra (and like her nephew, King Kole), it is quite easy to teach provided they have the obed-ience down pat.  What is so interesting to me is that it is the obedience, the retrieve, and the go out that determine the dog’s success.

Kyra bringing life preserver

In Water Rescue, the object (life jacket, vest, bumper, etc.) they return cannot be dropped or it is an NQ.  It has to be taken directly to the handler.  For the “go out” the dog needs to take life saving objects to the “drowning victim.” 

In Advanced, they need to take a line to someone in a boat who has lost his oars.

We had dogs in class who were great swimmers, but would not retrieve, or if they retrieved, they would not bring it to the handler’s hands. 

why Luger and Kyra only ne-eded one weekend of training to earn their titles.  Luger (a Kyra half-sibling out of Ashlee) managed his title the first time we attended Dog Scout Camp. 

That time I didn’t have a chance to try for it since I couldn’t get the wild child under control enough to practice the exercises. She was just “crazy” for the water.

She was also two years younger than Luger and much more spoiled.  The following year, she earned her title.  The dogs also have to pass an obedience exercise patterned after AKC obedience to earn the title.

Kyra earned her WETT (Water Education Training and Test) title and her Advanced Water Rescue Merit Badge.