IKAR Dog Handlers Conference
Baśke Ośtarije, Croatia
June 11th – 14th 2009

3 members of the Dog Section (Dave Jones, Gavin Roberts and Emma Whittle) attended the IKAR (International Commission for Alpine Rescue) dog handlers meeting at the request of the Croatian Mountain Rescue Team.

The Conference attracted teams from 13 different countries including Croatia, Slovenia, Poland, Germany, Italy, Macedonia, France, Austria, Switzerland, England

The conference ran over 4 days and included a number of presentations on dog training techniques on various aspects of search work using dogs such as avalanche work, summer searches for missing persons and cadaver detection work.

Both Gavin and David also gave presentations of the work done by GRS in the fields of Cadaver Detection and Water Search. A  number of interesting demonstrations were also given. Notable demonstrations were the bloodhounds used by the Sud Tirol teams and an interesting demonstration was given by the Polish team on how they train their cadaver detection dogs. They have developed a contraption which the scent of the cadaver is stored and when the dog finds and indicates the handler presses a button on a remote control which then allows the contraption to deliver a reward to the dog – in this case a toy ball (see photo for automatic reward contraption).

On the Sunday just as the conference was coming to an end a call out was issued for a missing 60 year old Alzheimer’s patient on the nearby island of Pag. The details provided for the search were that the missing person also had a pacemaker fitted and he had been missing for 24 hours. The weather was extremely hot and sunny and the Croatian Mountain Rescue Team along with their dogs were deployed with immediate effect and a helicopter was scrambled from Split to do an ariel search of the island.

We were travelling in a Croatian Mountain Rescue Team vehicle and due to return to Split but were having problems with the vehicle overheating. The answer to the problem was simple. The helicopter had to fly to the hotel where the conference was being held, in order to collect details of the missing person along with a map of the search area. The 3 GRS members were to be picked up by the helicopter and assist in the ariel search by acting as “eyes in the sky”. The helicopter duly arrived much to the delight of a group of walker just arriving at the hotel for refreshments. We jumped into the helicopter and were then off to the island of Pag. The helicopter search the island in a north to south pattern followed by a west to east pattern. After covering the whole island and nothing seen the helicopter turned around and flew straight back to Split – a journey of around 200+ kilometres. On arrival at the helipad in Split we were greeted with the good news that the missing person had been found alive and well albeit dehydrated and tired. He was found sheltering under a tree near a wall (hence hiding him from the searchers in the helicopter) by a dog and his handler from the local team in Gospic.

The conference had been an very successful one on its own but with the drama of the last few hours it made the whole experience for the GRS members one to remember for the rest of their lives.

Gavin Roberts
Dog Section Leader