Olina and sink with an avalanche search test

« I have been with rescue and search dogs for many years, this is the third dog I train in avalanche search and for search and rescue work on land, » says Ólína Kjerúlf Þorvarðardóttir, professor and faculty president at the University of Bifr. Ólína was passing an avalanche search test with him his sink during the BHSÍ winter course, which has been in the last few days on Mýrdalsjökull.

« In 2005, I started training the first dog for this purpose. It was the Dalmatian dog Blida, which now turned out not to be very well, so I got another one. It was Border-Collie-dog named Skutull, and he served his community for twelve years. Immediately. « 

A-test ahead

Vaskur has now passed both C and B testing in avalanche search and has therefore become qualified to go to Landsbjörg’s call list. Ólína plans to take a B-degree in the open field search soon. Training a full-fledged search and rescue dog, whether in avalanche search or wide range, takes three years and is a huge work.

« Next year, he has to pass the A-test and after that he will audit every year, » says Ólína, who works with the search dog herself and needs to practice reactions with him. « We have no search tools that are more effective in avalanches than dogs. A fully trained search dog does not conceal it when he has found, he gives it very definitely, but of course I need to read the dog all the time I am looking with him. Otherwise, the dogs manage this well when they are working, »

Yellow tennis ball to wages

The dogs receive a prize when they find the person looking for, whether in an avalanche or in the open field. It says Ólína is a very important message to the animals, they need to find that their meeting not only entails rescuers’ actions, but also follow wages and rewards. « The prize that Vaskur receives is a yellow tennis ball game, it is all now that he gets in his share, but he is completely satisfied with it ».

The sink is waiting for the A-test next year, which Ólína describes as the doctoral degree.

Photo/Submitted

« When he is at work, he is in a certain mode, but outside of work he is just a regular domestic dog I have. Between these tasks, he is a wonderful dysate, » says Ólína of a sink who today passed the tense of avalanche search tests.