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Alen

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2006

SAR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
28/06 - 02/07/2005

In World Championship for search and rescue dogs Sara and Cap became World Champions. Beside them, in our Club's SAR team were: Tanja Janes with Croatian Sheepdog Miska Certisa, Tibor Lugar with Golden Retriever Mav, Mirela Bosnar with Border Collie Mawlch Gunna and team leader Ana Viller. Here are Sara's impressions:

"In little French town La Grande Motte 11th SAR World Championship took place, under IRO (International Rescue dog Organization) patronage. About 100 dogs from 30 organizations, out of 15 countries (Austria, Sweden, Japan, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy...) entered the competition. 47 dogs competed in area search and others searched in ruins.
Cap and me, together with three more colleagues from KOSSP "Zagreb" represented Croatia for the first time on World SAR Championship.

Golden team

Preparations for Championship began already in May. Cap had reinforced searching, obedience and dexterity trainings and we also made a plan for improving his physical condition. But, five weeks before Championship Cap started to limp very seriously on his hind left leg :-(. This happened after very intensive 3 days training on SAR camp (where I was participating as instructor). Cap was running there "like crazy" over very steep hills of Mount Zumberak. All Cap's preparations had to be stopped. Continuation of conditional trainings was out of the question. I was really afraid that he wouldn't recover till World Championship.
But, fortunately complete rest resulted with Cap's full recovery and it was decided that Cap and me will go to France. We knew that obedience and dexterity exercise we can do for sure and searching will be as God decides.

Recall

The draw of starting numbers was on Tuesday. I draw out obedience on Wednesday around 7.30, searching on Thursday around 19.30 and dexterity on Friday around 11 o'clock.
La Grande Motte is a town on the Mediterranean coast and the temperatures were always over 30°C. Conditions were very, very difficult for dogs so I was very happy that I had searching in early evening hours. Organizer decided that nobody has to work between 11.30 and 16 o'clock because of the great heat.
The first day Cap and I did obedience exercises. That day I experienced my greatest disappointment. Cap lost concentration for 20-30 m (during heeling) because of the gunshot and during the send away exercise (which he usually makes really astonishing fast and correct) he deviate from the line much to the right. We got 42 points. Judge was very correct and all the lost points were taken with reason and sense. I knew that Cap and I can do this so much better, so even the judge's praise for Cap's very motivated work, did not succeed to comfort me.

Heelwork

The next day was the time for the most exciting part of competition - searching. I decided to try to ignore my fear that, theoretically, Cap could start to limp again, because that thought had no constructive use. I used all my energy in trying to reduce the bad influence of very high temperature to the minimum. So, 3 hours before searching Cap got one third of his meal with three times more water than food. That food, rich with fats and lots of water was given in order to ensure Cap's body with enough needing fluids. My friend Tanja made for Cap can of cat food mixed with 1 l of water. Because it's tasty, Cap never refuses to drink that kind of water so I offered it to him just before searching. I took out everything from my bag, so I could carry 5 bottles with all together 10 l of water in it. Before area steward called us, we (Croatian team) made Cap completely wet with cold water.

Sara with judge before searching

Full of expectance, I went to the judge. At first, Cap had to bark on the so-called 0th "body". That person is in dog's sight and dog has to run to him and show the judge how intense he barks and that he will not injure the person or something like that. We got all the points on that exercise. Than, the judge took us to the searching area. The area was 100 x 300 m big. The handler was allowed to walk in the middle of that area and the dog had to search over the left and the right side of the middle path. The soil was sand-based (the sand was hot!) and on its first part the vegetation were just some pines. In the back part, area was widening and also the sand was covered with tall bushes, trees and grasses. Cap searched all the time in gallop with his full heart. He ran like an arrow wherever I sent him. He found "bodies" one after another. Every time he barked persistent until the judge and me ran to him to check his finding. You could see that he is getting more and more tired only by the fact that his barking was, because of his gasping and the heat, a little bit broken and not so "crazy" as on the beginning. During the searching I gave Cap many times water to drink. I knew that I have got enough time and that the most important thing is to cool him down and rehydrate him. Whenever I hold Cap to re-send him in some direction, he would run away in the same excitement like in the beginning and get lost in bush, trees or grass. After less than 20 minutes we found the fourth "body" and I felt very relaxed, because I knew we had a placement (because of the heat, judges decided to reduce the criteria, so finding 4 out of 5 "bodies" was enough for placement). But, since we had more than 10 minutes left, the hope that we'll find them all was beginning to grow in me. And we did find them all!! Cap probably used his last strength to run in farthest part of the searching area, disappeared for few minutes and than let me know, by his barking, that the last person was found. There was no end to our happiness :-). The whole Croatian team was cheering and crying, unknown people were hugging us and congratulating me. The judge was honestly delighted. We got 192/200 points. We got so high points not only for thoroughly and correctly done work but also because Cap gave 100 % of himself and clearly showed his love for work and cooperating with me. When we had to go to our car, totally dehydrated and obviously exhausted, Cap hardly got up. His hind legs were tottered. My friend Tibor took him in the arms and we put him quickly in acclimatized car and we put him under water tap too cool him well. Vet told us that his condition is pretty serious because of impossibility to cool him self naturally, Cap's temperature raised up to 41°C. After 10 minutes his temperature dropped to normal 39°C. The astonishing fact is that my Cap would go and search for 6th, 7th or 8th person. He did not show his exhaustion until everything was finished. Cap is a dog that would really give his life for me and for the job that we have to do together. His increased temperature was not that dangerous as it maybe could seem to someone who does not know Cap or other real border collies. Cap sometimes looks similar after very long training with sheep. But, the questions, which should be asked: would he ever stop? Would he know that it is too much for his body?
On Friday we still had dexterity exercises to do. Because of the fact that Cap is the real agility dog, our biggest problem in this discipline is stopping before and after each obstacle. Cap would be the happiest dog it the world when he could do all the obstacles in continuity without any stopping J. And so, after negotiating the long jump he almost did go alone through the tunnel, and he did not stop on the first half of the moving plank, but he walked almost to the end… Altogether we got 43/50 points. Because of the interrupted preparations (because of his injury) I did not succeed to train the obstacles as well as I wanted and should have, so my expectations were in harmony with accomplished points.

Cap negotiating ladder

On Saturday, we had to wait for last dogs to finish searching, so that we can finally know which place we won. We knew that the "throne" is smiling to us. Until then, nobody had as many points as Cap did. Colleague from the Club, Tanja with Croatian Sheepdog Mishka was at that moment on the 2nd place. On Saturday a real little drama was taking place. One Kelpie from Germany did his searching job very well (and obedience and dexterity also), but in finally score he was one point behind Cap. And so, Cap and I became SAR WORLD CHAMPIONS!!! That's not all - KOSSP "Zagreb" SAR team became team winner of the Championship (thanks to Tanja's 3rd and Tibor's 10th place individual). "Little" Croatia came for the first time to competition and left spectators, experts and competitors in wonder.
I would like to praise the organizer and the judges of this World Championship. Not only them, but all the competitors and spectators were very friendly and pleasant. The whole beautiful atmosphere of the competition will stay in our dearest memory.
And, in the end - thanks the Lord and to everybody who believed in us, thanks to those who helped us do this, thanks to all the people who congratulated us and many thanks to Cap who did his job with so much joy.

Sara"

Words are unnecessary :-)

SEARCHING IN WOODS EXAM
17/04/2005

On Sunday 17th of April, our Club was organizing first search and rescue exam in Croatia.
Mirela and Mawlch Gunna participated in second degree of exam (RH-FL/B) and Sara and Cap used this exam as preparation training for their participation in SAR World Championship this year. Obedience exercises and negotiation of obstacles both Sara and Mirela pass without problem. Although the searching area was rather big with abundant vegetation, Gunna successfully found all 5 "bodies". Mirela and Gunna were only team that managed to pass second degree exam this Sunday. Congratulations!
Sara and Cap found 4 "bodies" in very short time, but because Sara was impatient and skip one little area, they missed one person.

Mirela and Gunna - last preparation before beginning of searching

Cap negotiating a long jump

2004

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