Search and rescue

Yesterday I had a Search and Rescue excercise. It was the annual checkup, to see if we are good enough to be "in service" for another year. This year we also had the local "Defence Force Dogs" doing their bi-annual check at the same time, so there were a lot of people that met up early in the morning.

After the usual welcomes and greetings we were ordered to set up a temporary basecamp in the designated area. Quite soon we got called to our first assignment;

We had to come, one at the time, and do a small search. This was quite an easy starter. The figurant was hidden in atrailer and was found quite easily.

Back to basecamp and wait. [Waiting is an important part of the excercise too, but a boring part!].

The second assigment was a bit trickier. The area we had to search was smaller, but it had people lying close to eachother and the surcaes were slippery. So we had to be were catious, both for our own concern, the dogs and the figuarants. In this they also tested "handling". We, and other people, had to carry our dogs during a few sections of this search. The purpouse is to to see that the dogs doesnt show any aggression while being carried.... Have I mentioned Tasha is a rottweiler? No worries, she's the clamest and nicest rottweiler ever! She has never said a word in anger!

Back to basecamp. [Did I mention waiting can be boring?] As soon as you get back to basecamp, you check your dog for injuries; Scratches, paws, tail, dirt in the eyes etc etc. After that you rest. Resting is imortant, you never know how long you will be called out for next time! An hour, two hours... 24 hours! Anything can happen! So rest is important.

Next assigment was different, tracking (nose down on the ground, as opposed to searching where the dog work with the nose high in the air). We were called to a wooded area half a kilometer or so from the basecamp. Since we haven't trained any tracking for almost two years I think Tasha did rather well. It wasn't perfect, but good enough!

After that it was time for lunch for all the people involved, they had lunch near/in our basecamp so we joined them too, eating our own lunch.

After lunch we had to move to another area, an industrial area 15km away. This time we had to search an industrial building and the surrounded area. Serach inside building is always tricky, the scent can end up in very strange places due to ventilation ducts carrying and blowing the scent far from the actual person. Of course Tasha found all persons and did it very well!

The last area was the biggest search for the day. After having worked all day we now had to search a big industrial area one by one. Again, Tasha excelled! I'm very proud of her! She is at her best after a day's work!