KOSSP Zagreb Search and Rescue workshop was organized from 23rd to 25th June 2017 on Petehovac. Petehovac Mountain Center is located in the hinterland of Rijeka and the Kvarner Coast, in the central area of Gorski Kotar and close to the town Delnice. Petehovac Petehovac is a cradle of Croatian hiking and skiing, located at an altitude of 1035 m.
70 dogs from Croatia and Slovenia came to the exercise, and upon arrival they were divided into 8 different groups. One search was scheduled for Friday, on Saturday two and Sunday one again. In addition to standard forest searches, searches in ruins and simulation of search exam were organized. The search consists of sending the dog in the desired direction, dog searches the terrain and when he finds the lost person, notifies his guide by barking. After that, dos are awarded with food or toys.
A lecture about maintrailing was held on Friday by Matjaž Zanut. Maintrailing is the skill in which the dog follows the scent of a certain person. A lecture about dog obedience and solving problems in rescue obedience was held on Sunday by Ivan Miholić.
Didi was in a team with border collie Juppy, aussie Speed, labrador Donom, doberman Saga, samojed Plišom, german shepard Hernes and husky Kira. On Friday we first tried a search for one person to see what degree of knowledge was the dog. We made a simple search, the lost person was hidden along the way and all dogs found it very quickly. All tree days, searching was done without motivation. This means that the dog does not know where the lost person is hidden and the person does not give him any sound or visual signal – such as calling or waving. After the first search, we did another search in the tall grass. That was rather complicated to the dogs because the scent travels differently in tall grass than in the woods. Dogs were jumping in order to move easier and to catch the smell in the air. With some help, they also overcame this obstacle.
The second day we went to a harder field, which was quite steep. Dogs have been very successful again. Generally, natural barrier are quite complicated to the dogs, so if they find a creek, for example, it will happen that they will turn and continue searching along the creek rather than crossing it. On the video you can see Didi in search over two barriers. Some dogs have done altitude search on this training, which means that the markers are hiding on the tree.
In the afternoon we had a simulation of the exam situation. Since Didi officially trained for only 3 months, she did not go to the simulation. But she did search for 6 lost persons in a single search, without coming back to her guide. Lost persons were hidden 5 to 30 m away from the road.
The last day we were back on the steep terrain so dogs were doing a search along contours line.
U ova tri dana naučili smo zbilja puno, susreli smo se s različitim razmišljanjima, metodama rada, različitim terenima, markirantima i za kraj, uvježbali smo lajanje. 🙂 Hvala Jasni Šporar, koja nas je vodila ova tri dana, na svim savjetima i predivnim slikicama.
Nakon ovog tabora, motivacija je definitivno porasla i jedva čekamo sljedeći trening i naravno, brojimo 365 dana do sljedećeg tabora.
(Dio zagrebačkog tima)
