Sunrise and Sunset Times 
Taos area weather 
Current night sky phenomenon
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1/2005, Avalanche Training - Delinda and Zatoichi practice riding on a ski lift at a NMESC Avalanche Training at Pajarito Ski Area. While TSAR does respond to back country situations where avalanches may occur, we are not positioned effectively to be able to recover persons live in avalanche situations. The window of time to be called out, arrive and deploy at a back-country site is not conducive to facilitate live rescue. Ski patrol teams are positioned and trained for this type of mission in sites such as Taos Ski Valley and other well traveled ski areas. Because of this, back country recreationists should be trained and aware of the risks they are incurring while enjoying back-country snow recreation activities. Nonetheless, our skills as a back country response team are critical and we must be able to discern safety and be prepared for self rescue in an avalanche occurrence during a back country rescue mission. Therefore our K-9 Unit dogs and handlers are exposed and trained to finding people under the snow, but do not specialize or train in continuous avalanche finds. |
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| 7/2003 - Zatoichi at 6 1/2 weeks, one week before Delinda met him for the first time and took him home from Michigan. |
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8/2003 - Zatoichi (9 weeks) resting in the garden after playing with his new friends, Maggie & Gordon's Belgian Sheep Dog pups. Regular, but careful, socialization with other dogs is an important step in properly developing confidence and appropriate behavior with other dogs and people - a critical part of training a successful search dog. |
| 10/4/2003, Herding Instinct Test - Zatoichi (16 weeks) going for his Herding Instinct Basic Test. He passed with flying colors, but searching is in his future, not herding. It was a lot of fun to give it a try once just to see what his instincts were made of and to intro him to the very thing for which his ancestors were bred. |
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10/4/2003, Zatoichi's Family - Left to Right: Polo (Sire), Haley (female litter mate, now dam of Hallmark Kennels), Zatoichi (on rock), Samantha (female litter mate), and Luna (Dam). Zatoichi's sire is GRCH U-Cd Royal Von Tasz Classic, aka: Polo. Polo placed first in National UKC Best of All Breeds and Top Total Dog in 2002. He was featured on the cover of "Bloodlines" magazine that year. Besides being a Grand Champion in the conformation ring, Polo was an Obedience Champion as well. He also won the AWSA Nationals for 5 years, reining as the top white shepherd in the US until his passing this year. Polo is very missed by the many people he touched with his majestic elegance, intelligence, and beauty. His owner was Diana Updike of VonTasz Kennels. Zatoichi's dam is GRCH Stellar's Lunar Eclipse, aka: Luna. Luna is an Epiliepsy Alert Dog, able to detect her handler's seizure before it happens and lead her to a safe place. Besides being a Grand Champion in the comformation ring, Luna is a Herding Champion too. She has excellent work drive. Luna whelped two litters from Polo, with Zatoichi coming from the second. Her owner is Becky Joyce of Celestial Kennels. |
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4/18/2004, TSAR Mock Mission, Amole Canyon - Zatoichi (10 1/2 months) is preparing to hike in to his specified search grid and, with his handler and critical navigation/communication team, begin an air scent search of his area. While Zatoichi's search foundation has been laid and he can currently search an area of 50 acres with relative consistent success, he and his handler still have a long way to go to achieve mission readiness. |
