In recent years, man's silent best friends, the dogs, have become a highly valued presence in the teams of Romania's Mountain Rescue Service - Salvamont as a useful addition for either avalanche or outdoor rescue missions. The pooches are trained through a unique method that sees them rewarded through play, thus creating a lifelong bond between the canines and their handlers.
According to the head of the Salvamont Romania Service Sabin Cornoiu, the dogs were introduced into the rescue activity approximately 11 years ago, when dog training schools were also initiated in Romania. "The first element we tackled was avalanche rescue, because we needed to cover all possible avalanche search systems of which we have three: DVA, RECCO and the search and rescue dog system," Cornoiu told AGERPRES.
Currently there are 27 canine units consisting of a rescuer and a dog operating within the Salvamont structures nationwide.
The best for such tasks are agile, easy-to-train breeds, including Border collies and Malinois. They are trained to have no qualms about hopping onto mountain rescue vehicles, chairlifts, ATVs, snowmobiles and even helicopters when the situation requires it.
"That dog fully trusts their human partner, gets in the car with him, in the ATV, in the helicopter, goes with him when he skis, sits in his arms on the chairlift, so they practically form an inseparable couple. We cover 18 counties out of the 25 with mountain rescue activity. Probably the ones that do not have these structures developed are the counties with a negligible history of avalanches. Moreover, in recent years we have started to develop the qualities of our dogs and use them also in land, above-ground searches. The dogs are very good at it, we use about 5-6 breeds - Border collie, Malinois, German shepherd, Golden Retriever and Labrador. They are lighter breeds, the snow does not break beneath them when they climb the mountain and they are very agile and very easy to train," said the head of Salvamont Romania.
He also spoke about the reward system used to train the dogs - that of offering them playtime instead of food, because food can be a distraction from the target scent, as the quadrupeds must focus on finding victims with the help of their highly sensitive olfactory system.
"The moment the dog has accomplished their mission, we play with them. It's something extraordinarily good, because a dog can get fed up with food and then stops working, but they will never get tired of playing, playing or enjoying the attention of their owner and, more than that, imagine that when we work in an avalanche or in a land search, the dog does not have to focus on the smell of the treat that comes from the canine leader's pocket, but rather on the scent of the victim, therefore we use this revolutionary system, not many countries have adopted it because it is much harder to work with it, but we adopted it from the beginning with extraordinarily good results," explained Cornoiu.
Apart from training with the mountain rescuers with whom they team up, the dogs receive specialized training at least twice a year in European camps organized under the auspices of the International Commission for Alpine Rescue CISA IKAR, the largest professional body in the world.
Regarding the relationship between rescuer and dog, Cornoiu says that it is a lifelong bond.
"As a principle, we keep the dogs in activity as long as they can fit the bill, but after they retire they remain with the leaders of the canine units who keep them until the dogs pass away. It's such a close relationship between the rescuer and the dog that nothing can break it. None of our colleagues is obliged to raise these dogs, they are not obliged to keep them and, as long as you do everything out of passion, this human-dog connection lasts for life. The relationship between the dog and the rescuer cannot be anything other than walking together until the end. It is a relationship that develops to the highest sense of connection. That dog grows to fully trust the rescuer and the rescuer does everything so that the animal feels acknowledged, encouraged, always appreciated for what they do and useful in their activity. Moreover, the entire team does everything possible to make the dog feel like they are part of the team and even if they only obey their master and his commands, that dog is showered with friendship from everyone. In the end, this is also the spirit of a team, for everyone to be united, whether we are talking about people, or human and animal teams," added the head of Salvamont Romania.
The mountain rescuers have also created a source line to supply their future rescue dogs.
"We see which the best dogs are, the best females, and we try to mate them so that we get litters from certified parents, then these pups are given into the care if a mountain rescuer who runs a training program with them, an initial program at a certain level and as they get older they develop more. It is much easier for those who already have a dog, because the new puppy in training will learn a lot from the already experienced dog, so that example it sets is extraordinary and it already becomes easier with each dog you train," Cornoiu also said.
Every year, dogs are used in at least 60-70 search and rescue missions across the country, in patrol actions and in most interventions they have proven their usefulness and have found the people they were searching for.
"Dogs have fine-tuned senses, their scent detection is much faster and they are tremendously useful in our activity. Their results are exceptional and encourage us to go further along this path and we will certainly expand our dog resource, but we want to do it naturally, so that rescuers understand what the role of dogs is and accept them out of pleasure, not out of obligation. We have found both people in avalanches and people lost in the mountains. We also use them as a support resource at the request of police inspectorates when it comes to searching for people outside the mountain area and we are glad that they have found their usefulness within the mountain rescue teams," mentioned Sabin Cornoiu.
The first Salvamont K9 unit was established in Gorj County, consisting of handler Carlos Tascau and Recco, a Border collie who left his mark among the mountain rescuers due to his energy and attachment to people.
"Our first dog was Recco, in Gorj, a predestined name, because RECCO is one of the best avalanche search systems, he was a dog that started training at a fairly advanced age, he was already an adult, but he recovered very quickly and ended up being one of the best rescue dogs in the country. Now in Gorj we have two dogs, a certified adult and a dog in training," said the head of Salvamont Romania.
40-year old Carlos Tascau has been working as a professional mountain rescuer since 2007 and in 2017 he teamed up with Recco for several years. Now, after Recco is no longer there, he has Bruno, a Border collie of almost six years, and Thor, who is one year and four months old.
He explained the method of training these dogs, pointing out that the four-legged friends also have special equipment for rescue missions.
"The training of a canine unit is done throughout the year, starting with the cold season, when the avalanche search training is done and this happens in several stages: the first is the assessment of young dogs which shows you if there is anything to improve or if you need to follow through with the dog, after which comes the actual school. After they get the certificate, the summer training follows, which maintains the same line of training and search, only that it covers a much larger area. This happens until autumn, and each dog, in their respective team, can be assigned to several search missions throughout the year. We use a special equipment for dogs, a leash enabling us to control them in certain situations or to protect them from dangers, a harness for identification in the field, as well as a special harness that is used for winching the dog into the helicopter, together with the handler," the mountain rescuer from Gorj also said.
As a conclusion, people should never forget to look with gratitude to these silent friends, because many times, dogs can make the difference between life and death.
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