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    2010

  Watsonian

Ft. Lauderdale Training Techniques - from Cyndi Shaffer

It was a hot day in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. I was training a new PHA in field visit techniques. I explained to him how to approach a house, look for dogs, mail, notice the types of shoes by the door and other things that might lead him to the person we were searching for. We shook the front gate, no dog. We opened and started to walk toward the front door. All of a sudden, we heard this racquet and from the back of the house came running a huge, MAD rooster! He was as tall as our knees, had large spurs on his legs and was not happy to have us visiting in HIS yard. He came at us, comb flying back and forth, beak poised to take chunks out of our health department hides. I told my trainee to turn tail and run...not walk! We survived the near catastrophe and returned happily to the office for debriefing. When we shared our experience with our colleagues at debriefing that day, you would have thought we were providing a stand up comic routine for the gang. After all, here we were, two grown health department officials being chased by a chicken!! Who would have thought??? They howled in amusement at our recitation of the harrowing events of the day. But, they also listened and did take in the warning about another type of guard animal that must be respected when one makes field visits!

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