The place where the competition took place was the former lung hospital on Sljeme. Ten competitors from the neighbouring Slovenia participated in this event and, from our Club only me and Gunna. The condition under which one could enter this competition was a passed disaster search second degree exam which only I had at that time. To our Slovenian colleagues this was also an opportunity to compete amongst themselves and to distinguish oneselves as the potential candidates for the team which will be representing their country on the next year's World Championship which will be held in Switzerland.
The disaster scene itself was rather big, comprising a total area of 966 m 2 . Search area consisted of a basement and ground-floor. Each dog had to find five decoys in thirty minutes search time. Apart from decoys, there were some "traps" on the disaster scene. For example: plastic bottles filled with frankfurters, placed so that dogs can sniff them, but cannot reach them, then a pair of sneakers and a jacket put on the disaster scene so they would, with the human scent lingering on them, lead dogs into false alerts, as well as a chain-saw which would periodically go on (each dog had to stand this 'test'), so that we could check out how dogs react to strange noises.
It was organizers idea that, along with all of the aforementioned distractions, dog's independence in search should be tested, and it was therefore decided that the competitors can only walk on one side of the disaster scene (the disaster scene was of a rectangular shape), 50m long, and that they cannot move more than two metres from the band which was put several metres from the disaster scene. In other words, handlers were only allowed to send their dogs into the disaster scene, while they themselves were not allowed to come near the disaster scene wall, let alone enter it. Such a way of sending the dog insisted on its capability of independent search of the whole disaster scene and its ability to go to the other end of the disaster scene, some 30m from its handler, where it did not have any visual contact with him anymore, and it had to cross piles of toppled walls and beams (not an easy job at all!) to find the decoy. The biggest concentration of decoys was exactly at that further side of the disaster scene. Mr. Ljubo Meglič was today's competition's judge, and he approved of the organizers' conception of the disaster scene, and the way in which it was to be searched, and he jokingly called it ¨the second World Championship¨.
That it was a difficult, "world calibre" disaster scene confirms the fact that from 11 competitors only three have successfully searched it (one of them was Gunna!). The rest of the competitors found, on the average, two decoys.
As it turned out, the greatest problem for dogs was lack of independence in their work, as well as independent going to the dark rooms, in this case, the basement.
In spite of their results, all handlers have agreed that this competition had given them better insight in their current capacities, and possible problems in their dogs' work, thus helping them to learn what should be their focus in their further training.

Me and Gunna won second place, with only one point behind first! We lost some points 'cause of obedience part which wasn't so good as it is usual. We didn't train so lot of that disciplines.
Besides obedience part, Gunna was very, very good in search and I was very satisfied with her 'cause she proved her agility, will, talent and speed once more.

After a hard day's work, judges (Vlado Gerbec judged obedience and obstacles), decoys, disaster scenes supervisors, competitors and helpers, all came back to our Club, for a brief gathering, and closing of both today's events. After a short get together, they all headed for their homes, very tired and exhausted, but richer for yet another new experience.

This entire day demanded great human resources from our Club, but it also demanded three judges, who have all come from Slovenia, and who have judged this exam fairly and impartially.