Maia

Tell us about a day in your life.

Our days on the hill start with 2 lift rides up the mountain with a chance to get a morning run in-between. Once the morning meeting concludes we head to our duty station for the day, sometimes 2 mountains back. We always have opportunities to sharpen our skills whether it’s doing obedience in the summit areas, snowmobile or ski transport, drive work, isolating foundational skills or full on search drills. I work on a daily basis to keep my mindset on fun, not work. Once the day starts to wrap up we will be assigned a sweep and I get to run the flat parts of the mountain and get carried on Zak’s shoulders for the steeper or unconsolidated parts. I’m is always excited to hit the truck at the end of the day for a nice meal and nap!

How long have you been doing this?

Zak’s been patrolling for 13 years, and I’ve been doing this my whole life!

What skill or trick are you most proud of?

I can ride lifts, snowmobiles, helicopters, in between Zak’s legs when he skis the flats and and on his shoulders in the steeps.

Tell us something you've trained your human to do.

He takes me on fun adventures; paddle boarding, rafting, camping, hiking and sometimes I find people in the woods. In the winter he digs holes and people hide in them, they are stinky so they are easy for me to sniff out even if the hole is very deep. They are always so excited to see me and give me the biggest reward for the find!

Anything else we need to know?

Please feel free to say hi on the hill, but please be respectful of our space! It may appear that we are playing, but this may be a very important moment after completing a task. Please communicate with handlers before approaching any of the patrol dogs. Ski edges and dog paws do not get along well, so we always want to remove gear before approaching an avalanche dog, and leave extra space when skiing by our training. Thanks for helping keep our pups safe!

Favorite BIXBI Treat:

Salomon Hip & Joint jerky, cut into strips or nuggets for frequent treating!

Favorite BIXBI Food:

Liberty Ranchers Red.

Where should we visit to learn more?

This is our internal 501c3 and how we can directly raise funds for the avalanche dogs at Keystone.

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