K9 Mantrailing

 

Gallup looking so professional, though keeping her feminity obvious with her pink harness.  

2020 was a strange year, and there were so many losses, so many things that stopped or have been put on hold.  I love one new thing that came into our family.  Here's the story of how I "just happened" to meet a girl in the park, wearing a K9 Mantrailing T-Shirt.  

Tim and I took the Cousins for a hike one Saturday morning back in June, I think.  I saw Lauren, as I later came to know her with her man-trailing t-shirt, and it made me laugh, because it does sound a bit desperate for a man.  I asked questions, and she invited Gallup and I to a training session to check it out.

I was so excited!  One of my dreams since childhood was to train a dog for a blind person.  I like the idea of useful, working dogs.  The training sessions meet on Saturday morning which is perfect because Paul sequesters himself Saturday mornings so he wouldn't miss me if I took off for a few hours.  

Those Saturday training sessions are wonderful!  Turns out, Gallup has the number one talent for being a man-trailer:  DRIVE!  She LOVES finding things!  and people particularly.  So she has learned to sniff out people, with me in hot pursuit, dragging along ungracefully behind.  

Another fun thing, three of the cousins have joined me in this.  They are hiders and helpers and enjoyers of the whole Saturday morning outings.  We have tacked shakes onto the end once, and explored parts of towns where we rarely go, and just love our outings, except for eating dog hair.  Gallup is a shedder for sure.   

When she's not being an amazing sniffer dog, Gallup retains her other hobbies, particularly chasing Karoo the cat that lives downstairs.  

If I say, "Where's the Kitty?"  She runs to our bedroom window, as shown, and scans the yard tensely, hoping for a glimpse of Karoo.  I think it's too cute!  

 

Gallup's "classmate" Titan looks so pleased after a successful find of whoever was hiding.  His owner, Bruce, has been mentoring us.  Nathanael's face gives a clue on how much we enjoy these outings.   Daniel and Connie are bringing up the rear.  

Daniel, Connie, and Nathanael in their K9 Mantrailing shirts.  (Getting our shirts was a big deal to all of us.  😏)

A big perk of all this training has been a new friendship with Lauren.  She's a Christ follower too!  She goes to church where the pastor is our kids' former beloved youth group leader, Martin, so the girl talk in the middle of the dog talk is sweet.  😊  We didn't add too many new friends in 2020, but Lauren and her husband Bruce are keepers.  (She wasn't really desperate for a man, she had already caught hers.  :-)

Another of Gallup's passions is this particular frisbee.  She loves to lie down in the water and "sizzle" when it's hot.  She looks so pleased with herself.  I call her Halo-Head when she wears her frisbee.  Unfortunately, we have sunk 2 of them in the water so she doesn't have one right now.  

So I'm besotted with this dog, but who wouldn't be?  She loves me back, even to the smell of my socks!  Is that true love or what?  

I have high hopes that she will be a great asset to society and rescue missing people and give me a great story for a blog post.  😊

I want to have drive too, to find people who are lost in their sins, and need to come to their Creator.  I'd love to help find them.