Cubilon del Colosseo

On September 11, 2001, I awoke to find that two planes had been flown into the World Trade Center in the city of New York. Like many others who were watching the events unfold, I felt a sense of shock and confusion. As the rescue efforts began to take place, I noticed something touching. People were actually relying on dogs to search the rubble pile in hopes of recovering survivors.

On some level of awareness I knew that dogs have been used for this type of service work, but on the horrific day, I was absolutely in awe of the task those dogs were working so hard to accomplish. I absolutely had to find out more about training a K-9 Search and Rescue.

In my free time I began searching the internet. I emailed SaR people who were already training dogs and asked questions about the work. I looked for books and articles at the bookstores and libraries. Years earlier I had researched rare breed dogs and developed a profound interest in the Cane Corso mastiffs. My fiancé also shared my interest. One day, without explanation, we ended up the driveway of a strange house. He had driven us to pick up his first Corso whom we later name Sebastian.

As a newbie in the world of Search and Rescue, I did not know that the typical breeds used for this type of work, especially in the Unites States, were Labs, GSDs and similar breeds that pattern well. From day one Sebastian had proven to possess amazingly high drive. He was also extremely intelligent. From my research, I had learned that these were important qualities when choosing a dog for SaR work. I also happened to love the Corso as a breed, so it only seemed natural to choose a Corso as my working dog.

Three months after 9/11 unfolded I put a deposit down for a puppy. I already knew that his name was to be Cubilon. I’ve never felt that Cubilon was a particularly beautiful name. In fact I thought it was kind of an ugly name at first, but it is a name with an obscure yet touching fable behind it and something told me that it was the right name for my yet to be born star.

Cubilon, along with fifteen brothers and sisters were delivered. Thirteen puppies lived. I visited the kennel twice. Finally, on my birthday my fiancé and I drove made the two hour drive to Tucson and brought my eight week old little tank of a puppy home. I bought some videos and did my best to start the basic runaways with him. When he was almost eight months old I found a local canine SaR unit and spent the first two months attending trainings two and three times a week and tried to concentrated on how to train a dog for search and rescue. I helped and watched other handlers.

At six months old Cubilon had entered a fear phase. He was practically petrified when I drove into any parking lot and turned off the car. (My educated guess has always been that someone taunted him while he was in the car and I was away shopping for groceries. To this day I recall the precise day his demeanor changed, as well as the exact parking lot where I had parked and left him that day.) During those first two months I brought him with me to some of the training sessions but I only brought him out of the car for occasional socialization.

After two months riding along with me, he was allowed to do his first runaway at the group training. It was a disaster. The training was late at night at a High School. Cubi was petrified and distracted. He was sure the boogie man was around the corner. Little did I know, his instincts were right. While attempting to get him to actually concentrate on the runaways, he was jumped by another member’s dog. This other dog was known to be dog aggressive.

The other team had just finished working a problem. As they rounded the dark corner where we were attempting to work runaways, the aggressive dog left his handler. He took off running and jumped Cubi from behind. Cubilon reacted by jumping back. He didn’t make one sound, nor did he attempt to go after the other dog. This aggressive dog had been taught to mind with an abusive and heavy hand theory. He was scared to death of his handler and retreated when called back. Unfortunately, the handler was also dating the vice commander and the incident was spun to portray Cubilon as the aggressive dog.

This was the first and last time anyone dared to make such an absurd accusation. The handful of times any other dog has attempted to go after him, it has been while they were on lead. Cubilon has never once even responded to a challenge. Everyone present has witnessed him just stand and watch. I am however fully aware of the strength and agility of this breed. I know that they will defend themselves when attacked. For this same reason, I am always overly cautious and work keep to him away from any scenario that has the potential to turn ugly.

Things did get better after that first training experience. Cubilon realized that the “game” was a hunt and he absolutely loves to hunt. He was still very much into his fear phase regarding parking lots and other urban environments, so several nights a week I would take him with me to a busy grocery store parking lot. I would sit on the curb or against a wall and read a book and submerse him in all those frightening sounds and smells. This helped him deal with his fear. Finally, it was suggested that I train him on a remote collar. He made even more improvement when I started working him on the remote.

The most difficult part of training him for this type of work has been his recall. Mastiffs are independent by nature. Cubilon loves the hunt and is a natural at the work, but he does show that independent side as well. After making the find, the dogs are required to return the handler to alert the handler of their find. Too often, instead of returning to alert, Cubi would find his subject then head out to find what, or who else he could hunt down. It was because of this training issue that I started to seek additional training advice.

This is when it truly hit me that what I was doing was seriously something out of the ordinary in canine search and rescue work. Online and in real life I was told that I was a hot shot and that my only goal in training a mastiff for search and rescue work was to prove something. Instead of helpful suggestions, I was given the same stale reasons why I was an idiot for wanting to train a dog of that breed for that particular job. Most of the “good intentioned” had never even heard of the breed, let alone ever seen a Corso in real life. They just knew it was a mastiff.

But by then we had been training long enough to discover that Cubi was really very good at the hunt. I also knew he loved the work. I just needed to find a way to make him want to tell me about his find. Unfortunately no one could or would help me, so I spent a lot of time thinking outside of the box.

We tried a lot of different exercises. Most dogs who train for this type of work do it because when they have a successful find, they know they will be rewarded with their favorite food or a toy. Since Cubi loved the hunt, his reward had always been the actual find and the toy or food offered was just an added bonus that never really excited him much.

One thing I knew was that he has always loved to play rough. At first I started joking about making his reward a bite sleeve so that he could indeed play rough and feel rewarded. Then I started commenting on it with some seriousness. That brought a whole lot of criticism. Knowing that there was some seriousness in my quest, one of the more experienced handlers suggested that I visit Ray Allen’s website and invest in what is called a ”pup tug”.

The first one arrived in the mail and he Cubilon elated. I, however, was wondering how I was going to work with a toy that practically felt like tossing around a sofa (This is an exaggeration, but that thing was big). Three sizes later we were both happy. The one that works is still quite large, but at least it is almost manageable.

During the time we were training in canine skills I was also busy learning skills such as land navigation, compass works, man tracking and knots. I became certified as a SARTECH II through the National Association for Search and Rescue. This qualified us to test as a canine and handler team. On January of 2005 we tested and passed the Canine SARTECH III test. It has been said the Cubilon is the first Cane Corso in the entire United States to be nationally certified in wilderness air scent. There are no official statistics, so there may have been those who made it there before us. Should this be the case, my hat is off to you because I understand what an uphill battle it was, in many different aspects, to get to that peak.

After training with my first Search and Rescue team for almost a year, a group of us made the decision to move to a different team. I have remained with that team through out the remainder of our training, but many in the break off group have moved on in life. Although Cubi and I have taken and passed two different pretests, we still have not been given the opportunity to actually test for certification with our current team. That being said, we have not been on any live searches together. (Our current status is somewhat comparable to having a degree, but still needing a state license to practice our trade.)

For several months now I have been contemplating taking his talent elsewhere At this point I have not reached a final decision.

I do pray that what started several years ago out as inspiration and a sincere desire to simply make a difference in my community will come to fruition somehow, some way, by some means.



Silly Trivia:

Cubilon’s most popular nicknames (there are many): Doobers and Stinkus

His most annoying trait is his absolute lack of a sense of time. It does not matter that the post office closes in fifteen minutes and I have to get there it does. Checking all the bushes on the way to the car is a necessity no matter how long it takes.

His best trait is his soulfulness (you can see it in his eyes in the puppy photo with the kong) and his completely amazing ability to offer his love to us unconditionally. That has to be one of the best things about dogs in general.

He has an amazing sense of smell and he is always smelling everything. This can prove to be embarrassing. Try explaining to a stranger on the side lines of a soccer game exactly why your dog is so mesmerized and interesting in his gym bag full of sweaty smelly shoes and clothes. This also means that many times something will be in plain site but he does not see it until he smells it.

He is obsessed with cats. He has never been raised with cats, yet is obsessed with them. He has been amazingly gentle with any cat he has tried to befriend. Unfortunately, he typically manages to step on their feet and they no longer like him.

My scariest moments were:

His first day home I found him barely treading water after being knocked in the pool by one of the bigger dogs. (It happened so fast.)

During a training in a somewhat remote area, he took off after a victim and we lost him. Forty five minutes later we finally found him about a half of a mile away from where we lost him.

The day I came home to find the living room window shattered and a hole through the screen where he had still managed to stick he head through, even though a large icicle of glass hung by a thread up above. (You do know that the easiest way to check out that stray cat wandering through your front yard is through the window, right?)