Gunna passed exam for searching in woods of second level!
17th April 2005 - KOSSP "Zagreb"/ Bundek Lake

The first ever rescue dogs exam was held in Croatia! Since, at the moment, there are no qualified judges in Croatia, we have invited licensed judges from Slovenia to judge in this exam. In the searching exercise, the judge was Mr. Anton Grad, MD, while Katja Skulj, DVM, was a judge in the obedience and obstacle exercises. Also, the exam was supervised by Mr. Vlado Gerbec : cynology judge, the head of the Slovenian crack units, the president of the Slovenian Rescue Dogs Commission, and an international IRO judge.
Obedience and obstacle exercises were performed in KOSSP, while searching exercise was held on the area bordering the Bundek Lake. A sunny, warm day, with a light breeze was really ideal weather for this exam.

The First degree wilderness exam area was of a rectangular shape, 50 meters wide and 320 meters long. In the middle of that rectangular, thee was a path where the handler was allowed to walk, and from that path he had to send his dog to the left or to the right, to the distance of some 10-15 meters. There was a mild elevation on the left side of the terrain, and it looked like some sort of an embankment, approximately three meters high. The dogs had to search that area as well. The furthermost part of the terrain was rather swampy. The right part, near the handlers' path was extremely rugged, for the handlers and dogs alike. Because the terrain was so difficult, full of thorny shrubbery, the dog had to be easily conductive, highly motivated, and in a good physical condition. Second degree wilderness exam included the whole area of the first degree exam, but the starting point was much earlier. The handlers' starting point was in a 200m long arc, at first on the meadow, where handler had to direct his/her dog to the right side, where there was some thick shrubbery, and where a dog had to go in, and, on its own, search an area of some 50 meters. The second part of the terrain was identical to the first degree exam area. It was of great importance for handler to direct his/her dog in the right direction, and it was absolutely necessary that the dog was in a great psychophysical condition. The terrain was everything but easy, quite large, full of thorny bushes and, at its furthermost border, partially interwoven with silty, and muddy swamp floor. Because of the said conditions, it was, at times, extremely difficult for handlers to get to the decoys. On the other hand, such a difficult terrain presented a great challenge, for both dog, and its handler. The whole searching area was spread on some 25.000 m2. Dogs had to find 5 decoys in a half an hour time.

My respect to Gunna is very high after this exam. Gunna was extremely fast with great self-confidence in intensive working all the time. It was so beautiful to watch her all the time, especially last minute when she finally found the last decoy hidden at the end of area. She was so tired but she went and went... Her bark alerts were great and unfailing. Gunna received, excellent, 193 (out of 200) points for her good work, and thus met with all the requirements needed for this year's World Championship, in France where I go with three other kolegues.