[nagdu] Dogs and snow

[Tracy Carcione]

Someone said something about Leader dogs, and other dogs from schools in
snow country, having an advantage because they'd been trained in snow.  I
used to think that too, until someone pointed out to me that only half the
dogs had actually worked in snow at the school.  My Ben was trained in New
Jersey, but he came in sometime in April and left in September, so he
probably did not work in snow before I got him.  The only way to be sure a
dog had experience with snow work would be to go to class between December
and June, I think.  A friend of mine says that the people in the January
class at TSE are really serious about getting a dog.  You'd have to be,
because you'd have to be willing to be out in truly nasty weather.

I had 5 dogs from GDB in California before switching to TSE, and they all
did just fine in snow, despite never working in it before.  They'd all
seen it though.  Four of them were raised in snow country, and the family
of the one who wasn't made a point of taking her up to the mountains to
experience the cold white stuff.
Tracy