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Talan's Memorial (Šmarna Gora, Slovenia)
On Saturday, September 10th, our Eukanuba KOSSP "Zagreb" team of three members headed for Šmarna Gora, Slovenia, where 7th Talan's Memorial was held. This memorial is held every year in memory of Bože Talan, a deceased member of the Slovenian Search and Rescue Units. This year, 15 teams competed in the Memorial: 14 from Slovenia, and one from Croatia. The members of our club, who represented Croatia in Slovenia, were: Tibor with Mav, Ana with Mona, and me with Gunna. Each team had three members, and at the end of the competition, the points won by every member individually were counted together, thus giving the total score for each team. The weather was nice and sunny until four in the afternoon, when it started to rain. But it cannot be said that the rain had spoilt the excellent job of organisation done by our Slovenian hosts: Great timing, fair judges, excellent decoys, and - in the end - delicious food, made that day very educational, and inspiring, as well. We have seen what our dogs know and can do, and on what we should concentrate in our further training. But, let us follow the events as they happened. In chronological order:
Our assembly was scheduled for 6.30 in the morning. All of the judges were introduced to us at that point. We had to do a lot of different things that day: disaster search, wilderness search, 'on-the-path' search, climbing techniques, giving first aid (both to dogs and people), obedience and dexterity. In every search, we had to find 4 people in 20 minutes. Each team was free to decide in which way they will do their search. The first assignment for our team was disaster search. Our 'disaster scene' was an L-shaped building, and we have decided that Mona and Gunna would search it. For the whole time of our search, Tibor was watching us and giving us objective suggestions about the parts of the building we still had to search. Gunna started the search from one side of the building, and Mona from the other. Still full of energy, at the beginning of the Memorial, both dogs were searching very fast, running wherever we would send them. Immediately after she had started her search, Gunna found one decoy, hidden in the dark of one room. Then she had climbed narrow, metal stairs and got to the first floor, where she found another decoy, as well. That part was a bit tricky, because she had, in her excitation, almost fell out through an open window, which was on the floor level. But, luckily, it all went well after all. She once more shown her great abilities: speed in search and lot of will to work.
Mona, who was searching at the other part of the building, was also very fast, and very efficient: she found another decoy hidden in the cupboard, in the last room on the 1st floor of the building. Satisfied, we headed for our next event: wilderness search. When we arrived to the club's polygon, Ana suddenly noticed that Mona was limping. When we examined her, we realised that she had cut her front right paw very deep! Since it was a rather deep cut, Ana decided it would be best if she took Mona to the University of Veterinary Medicine in Ljubljana, where a veterinarian would examine Mona and give her necessary treatment. Unfortunately, and it was nobody's fault, this sad event threw us out of competition, because our total score could, in no way, equal those of the teams competing with three dogs. But that did not destroy our enthusiasm because we have come to this Memorial with other goals: to learn, to see, and to hang out. So, with our team incomplete, we had to go to our next event: wilderness search. The forest was covered with thick vegetation, and it was very difficult to walk through it. It was also very long: a flat line, some 450 metres long and 50 metres wide (on each side). Tibor and me decided to use sector system search, and they were moving forward. At the very beginning, I failed to send Gunna to one side, thus missing one decoy person, who was situated right at the beginning of the field. After few minutes, Mav found one decoy person. Our dogs were searching nicely, but, still, they had no luck in finding other decoys. As it turned out, our timing was bad, and we were moving to slowly, which was the main reason for not finding any of the remaining decoys. Our search time stopped, and so did our search, after we had just reached the beginning of the other half of the terrain. As it turned out, other decoys were hidden on the other part of the terrain, one of them being at its very end. This is a good example of timing being one of the most important things in the search. Your dog can be perfect, but if it is not sent in the right direction, it won't find anyone. Perhaps, if we had Ana and Mona with us, we would have arranged our search in a different way, which would have made our search much faster, thus enabling us to find more decoys, but that is just one big 'perhaps'..
Our next event was obedience, which our dogs did very well. Obedience was done in the following manner: all members of one team were doing the exercises at the same time, which gave out a very striking effect of harmony. Only recall, send away, and retrieval were done in the way that every handler had to wait for a signal from the judge, and then do the exercise. The handlers and their dogs were doing the exercise one by one. By the way, at this Memorial, every handler had his own judge in every exercise. After obedience, it was our turn for the path search: the handlers were walking on the 200 metres long path, sending their dogs to the left or to the right. On the right side (from the path) there was a narrow forest, after which there was a meadow, some 50 metres wide, and after the meadow there was another forest. It is usually a problem to send dogs over such switchovers, but it was not too much of a problem for our dogs. But, Mav and Gunna were already showing some signs of fatigue, and they were not moving as swiftly as they usually do. Since there were so many events in just one day, and since they did not get much sleep, they became tired very soon. They simply lacked the (physical) shape for such efforts. For such demanding efforts, dog's physical shape can be the most crucial factor. Anyway, Gunna was doing her search on the right side, and Mav on the left. Mav had found two decoys. As it turned out, the trick was in the following detail: not a single decoy was hidden on side which was right of the path! In the meantime, Ana and Mona came back from the vet: Mona's paw was cleaned and dressed, and she had to spend the rest of the day in lying position, although she really wanted to run and play with us. Then we had to devote some of our time to the climbing and first aid exercises. Those two exercises were supposed to be done by only one member of every team, and we have decided that it would be the best if Ana did them, since she was the most experienced member of our team, and since she always excelled in those exercises.
While Tibor and me were debating some issues with the leader of the Slovenian search and rescue team, Mr. Vlado Gerbec, Ana just disappeared, and later she showed up again with the announcement that she did great in her first aid exam. Both we were shocked, because none of us knew that Ana went to take the exam while we were talking to Mr. Gerbec. Ana, together with few other competitors, won the maximum of total points won in that event. Her examiner had asked her all sorts of questions, and she was ready to answer to all of them.
It was our turn for climbing. One part of the Club's porch was turned into a heap of beams, over which ropes and pulley blocks were stretching, and over which both, people and dogs, were hanging :) Our mission was the following: while Tibor and me were safeguarding her, Ana had to climb (with the help of ropes) the top of the beams (some 4 metres high), and then throw them a rope and a spring safety hook for Gunna (she weighs the least and that is why we had picked her to be lifted.) Of course, Ana did an excellent job! At first, Gunna was not very happy with her being lifted in the air, but after her feet had touched the upper beam, she got rid of the fear, and started to walk on her own, looking down to see where I was. Ana had done her part perfectly, and we were all very satisfied with this part of exercises. I was very proud of Gunna who showed that she did not have any problems with that aspect of socialization, as well.
After the climbing techniques, we had only one more exercise to do: obstacles. Every dog had to walk the obstacles on its own, with as little commands and help from the handler as possible, which made this exercise a bit different from the standard programme. Obstacles were very inventive: tunnels, vertical ladders, see-saws, plastic bottles incorporated in the horizontal ladders and, at the end, there were wheel barrow in which dog had to climb, and then his handler was supposed to drive him in them for the next 10 metres or so (which was the most fun part for all of us :-)). To judge's delight, Gunna mastered all obstacles superbly, which earned her 99 out of 100 points. She shown her agility at the maximum! At the end of the day, all members of all teams got together in order to perform the lying down while distracted (in this exercise, two gunshots are fired, and dogs have to stay still) exercise. Dogs were on the ground, placed in a circle, while their handlers made smaller, inner, circle. (Dogs were 'surrounding' the handlers.) At one moment, we all had to hold each other's hands, with our backs turned to dogs, and walk one circle, while distracter was firing two bullets from, his gun. All in all, it was a very interesting, and funny experience. Our neighbours have once again proved that they are great and extremely well-organized hosts: the judges were great, organization of the entire event as well. Last, but not least, each participant received a T-shirt, and we were all treated to one rich and tasty meal, which satisfied our hungry stomachs.