Hey Tribe,
Earlier this week Fly and I had the honor of being deployed for a search mission involving a missing hiker with bears on location. Fly was the ideal K9.
The location was in the mountains - a very steep and rugged beast of a mountain - so we were inserted via Blackhawk helicopter.
She wore her muffs to protect her precious ears and I believe she traveled quite comfortably in relative quietness. Since we would be off-loading hot (with the helicopter blades still chopping) Fly also wore her goggles to protect those keen eyes from flying debris. Does she look mission ready or what?
Fly enjoyed her Blackhawk transport and wanted to stick her head out the window as we traveled - dogs and their windows! Here is a video of me holding her back from sticking her head out the window with her helicopter doorman buddy:
Here is another video of the Blackhawk lifting off from the landing zone with us huddled under the rotor wash and Fly waiting cool as a cucumber as if this is an everyday occurrence:
We had some lovely glacier and alpine views and we also saw at least 4 black bears, 2 brown bears, and 1 moose, but I didn't get any wildlife photos, sorry, I had other things on my mind at the time.
Riding in Blackhawks seems to come as easy to Fly as pushing bears, though the former is a result of training and the latter from genetics. Either way, there isn't another K9 partner I would rather have in the field and I am so thankful for and proud of this Karelian Bear Dog.
Special thanks to our terrific support teammate, TheDogTrainer, for taking most of these photos for us!
