There were, altogether, 18 competitors, from Croatia and Slovenia. They were divided into 6 teams: each team consisted of three handlers and their SAR dogs. My KOSSP Team were represented by Ana with Mona, Tanja with Miska and myself with Gunna.

It snowed during the night, and the morning was very cold, but the rest of the day was really nice and sunny and we have all enjoyed the weather very much. The competition was held on three different terrains: two forests and one 'disaster' scene. Teams had to search every area in a different way, and there was a different number of 'missing' people in each area (there were nine decoys altogether). On each of these terrains we put different obstacles, as it was our goal to make this competition as close to the real situations as possible, thus evaluating the work of the competing SAR dogs and their handlers in the best manner. The competitors did not know the precise number of decoys they were searching for, but instead they were given the minimum and the maximum number of decoys hidden in a specific area (for example: 'There are between 3 and 6 decoys in this area'). Search time on each terrain was 20 minutes, and after each search teams would have 20 minutes of rest. For every decoy found, each team got 100 points, and 50 points were deducted if the dog located the 'victim' in an improper way (going away from decoys, jumping on them, biting or scratching them, and so on). Also, negative points were dealt if dogs responded to various distractions: a cat in a dog crate (do not fear, this cat lives in a household with three dogs, and it was well protected in this crate J ), food that was thrown on the floor of the 'disaster' scene, the sound of a chainsaw, trumpets, etc. Total time needed for each team to find all decoys was also taken into account (in case there were two teams with the same total points won, better ranked was the team which searched for a shorter period of time).

At the disaster scene, handlers were not allowed to go into the demolished building, but were only allowed to send dogs in from its one outer side. It was a rather big 'disaster' scene, which consisted from 2 buildings, some twenty meters apart from each other. In each building there were some rooms which were completely in the dark.

I'm very satisfied with Gunna that day. She was full of positive energie and she shown that she hasn't any of problem with dark places in ruin or to be sent to a lot of distance in woods.