Sardog

K9: At the end of the day, the only dog that cant do it faultless, is a perfect dog, & we all know there are no perfect dogs... I beg to differ on this quote Steve..... just ask Andrew ;)

:D Erny rang me today and I conveyed your thoughts to her and she was very flattered. She is going insane :p without her computer but expects it to be up and running within the next week. With all that pent-up energy.......look out everyone, I can just see th flames coming off the keyboard. Kind regards, Julie

Have you tried Victorian Obedience Dog Club? They are at Surrey Park, Cnr. Canterbury Road & Surrey Drive, BoxHill. OR Eastern Suburbs Obedience Dog Club @ Simpsons Park, Cochrane Street, Mitcham.

Hi Colleen, Erny is fine. Her computer has been in la la land and is being repaired - it seems like forever. I spoke to her today and she's busy working with her "human" job and "canine" job as well. I will let her know you were asking after her. Cheers, Julie

HR: I would love to say yes, but it would greatly depend on time and location as I don't have the luxury of lots of time, I will ditto this HR, I have spoken to Erny (who is off air as Haven reported) and she is also of the same thinking. As we are all self employed, it would depend on where, when etc. Boy, 2007 is already filling up fast for the sarda team.....oh well, keeps us out of mischief!

For the money involved you really need to get the right person. For someone to run a workshop in a specialty field (ie k9 sar/) I would consider someone who has actually gained the qualification by training the dog to top level and retained that level over a number of years. I have been to a lot of workshops where there is a lot of "talk the talk". Most of the workshops I have been to overseas there has been a mixture of problem dogs and others who want to increase training level/standard. We have always had the one instructor for the courses who is able to produce both of the above. The evening discussion was note taking and participation in open discussion which was always extremely beneficial. The Germans who attended these workshop all spoke English BTW. This is where it is important to research.....

Credibility is the key these days. Way too many courses are run by people who can talk the talk but are unable to walk the walk. You need to do a lot of research before committing to bringing such a person to our shores as it costs so much money to bring them out and accomodate them as well.

RB:As long as it was a GOOD trainer and not just someone who happened to come from Europe (That doesn't impress me very much!! ) Please explain what you mean?????

Hi Myszka Since 1999 I have attended 4 search & rescue dog workshops in USA, Holland & Germany and had the sardogs from Poland attended as well. The itinerary was similar and we stayed in a boyscout camp in the forest and had caterers come each night from the town to deliver 3 course meals. After the meals we sat and had intense discussion of the days training and the information "thrown around" was extremely valuable and the next day I absorbed the discussion from the night before and saw each dog progress accordingly. I think the social side of these workshops added to the incredible rapport between all attendees and even though I didn't have my dog I still enjoyed and gained so much from them. The average cost for the 6-7 days (accomodation and meals included) was $450AUS. Mind you we slept on the floor in our sleeping bags but that didn't matter!!!!! Of course I had to pay for the air-fares to Europe & US but it was so beneficial as we do not have anything like this in Australia. The contacts and friendships developed after these workshops are fantastic. We had the Chairman of National SARDA UK,Scotland & Wales here this weekend assessing our dogs and this input is so necessary- unfortunately we have to pay for these highly qualified people to come here to our country as we cannot take our dogs overseas....quarantine etc to get them back!! Our country is so different so it is better the dogs are worked in the environment they have to be deployed. Julie

ALSO..... a Lab with a prong collar NEVER........

You should not allow a dog to wear ANY collar in the water let alone a prong. We don't allow out dogs to wear anything when they are searching a disaster site because of the risk of catching on reo or similar. The dog swimming in the water with a collar can get it snagged on anything. That's just MHO....and the opinion of a lot of working dog people.

Myska: Yes the lab is wearing a prong Julie. OMG.......

Hi Myska, Sorry girl, I am a bit confused....."a blonde moment perhaps" I am not very familiar with YouTube and I had a look at your video and then clicked on the black lab that appeared on the same page. I thought you may have seen it, when I had another look after your post I realised it was nothing to do with you. BUT, have a look anyway and I would be interested if you think it is wearing a prong. It's a black lab retrieving a dummy from a bed of water. Regarding the Mal and healing, yes you are probably right with your perception of eagerness, I had another look at it also. Going to have a strong drink now.... Cheers, Julie

Hi Myska, I had a look at the Sch video and saw the other videos listed and saw the black lab with the retrieve in the water. In the Sch video, is the Mal healing with handler after the bark at the victim supposed to be keen and eager? To me the dog looks scared of the handler? Tell me, is that a PRONG COLLAR the Lab is wearing????? :p Julie

M-j and Jade, so many thanks for your promoting efforts. I know when I was on 3AW about 4 years ago I was really tongue-tied (now those who know me would say... NEVER!!) I could not locate the radio station because of the distance but 10/10 for supreme effort. GO THE NEW SARDA GIRLS Can I organise a date with our radio stations here in Melb????? I have had Labradors all my life (we bred them) so I suppose I am a bit bias when someone asks me what the ideal retrieving/sar dog is. This weekend we have a new member starting who has a cocker spaniel puppy - I am really looking forward to this pup's attributes toward becoming a sardog. Once we get him to settle into the search & not the hunting instict, I think we will have a nice little dog. We have has all breeds in the unit with all kinds of attributes

I cannot believe the huge outside interest and response we have had since the weekend. The follow-up and great encouragement from the weekend included the newspaper article in the Albury Border Mail and m-j has been approached to speak on radio tomorrow morning with her "where do you go from here?" type interview. M-j and I spoke extensivly this morning about this and she will be a great ambassador for us...go girl :p We have also had keen interest from a leading dog food company and also keen interest for us to run another workshop in NSW Central Coast and Kenthurst...this is in the pipeline as we speak. We just let the dogs do the talking. Thanks again guys and Pat's bikkies went down well as usual OMG....LL, we forgot about your share

What a great weekend of training! I have now had time to reflect our achievements from our trip to Culcairn and would like to reiterate all accolades to M-j and Jade for their hard work in coordinating the training sites and their superb hospitality. All outside attendees had a good insight of the mechanics of working a sardog in the three necessary disciplines that they will be put in on deployment - disaster (quarry site) area/wilderness and building (tannery site). All those attendees who took on the responsible role of support crew to the dog team realised that there was so much more to working a sardog than just guiding and directing the sardog. The base communication, navigation and constant assessment of situation are all a critical part of deployment and they all passed with flying colours To gillbear, latisha and winterpaws who travelled from Central Coast and Richmond, our praise must go to you for your efforts and interest in SARDA and it looks like they will be taking up the opportunity of conducting a workshop in their area when we organise an intended sponsorship visit to NSW. We were very pleased with the way our sardogs eagerly took on all challenges put before them without any hesitation and it continues to put us in good stead for any emergency that we will be called for. The overall mateship that resulted from the weekend was sealed. Erny (Judi) did a great job of support crew to dog team 1 as did latisha (Kristy), Jade and winterpaws (Cindy) all did for dog team 2. Thanks to our Base Operator -Sarda member Pat, for her super job of coordinating all searches at the base camp. Thank you to Culcairn Hotel hostess Jan and her helper -Labrador "Mitch" for their hospitality and as mentioned in the photo section of dol, Mitch used his dinner bucket to collect dontations for Sarda - well done Mitch We had a great time and look forward to another trip interstate. Kind regards always, Julie & River, Andrew & Gus & Sarda member Pat.

A huge thank-you must go to m-j, even before our training workshop begins, for her hard work over the past couple of months to find suitable training sites and extras. M-j is keen to persue this discipline and this has also given her another insight to the requirements needed to train the sar dog by creating as close to the real life situation with training venues that the sar dog and handler will be put into upon deployment. Over the three days we will be working an old tannery building, an operational quarry/disaster site and 300acres of bush/hills all to give the attendees a complete overview of how the sar dog and handler operates. The behind-the-scene requirements will be demonstrated with rapid log sheets completed, communication sheets and navigation skills applied. M-j and Jade attended our Training In Drive/Sar Workshop with K9 at the end of May and they have been busy ever since setting up for this workshop. We have 3 attendees from the NSW combined workshop in April also coming and it will give them further knowledge from that gained previously. The whole weekend will also be applied to the theory and practical areas of Search & Rescue. Should be great and we will all have fun as well. Thanks m-j

Warley, Lablover can help you in this area .... where are you Julie? out training all those black shadows... :rolleyes:

Hi CTD, I watched your video as I am not familiar with the new CCD. I was really impressed with your NDTR. What club do you train at? Cheers, Julie

Welcome back Erny, I bet it was warmer up north than here! I, too, would like to send my on your response to this interesting topic, I wish more dog people would take this on board with their training and general rapport with our canine buddies. :rolleyes: glad you are back Julie

K9: lol note the "one of" disclaimer.... Well, you have redeemed yourself - this time.

K9: He would be one of the best Labs I have ever seen both here & overseas... Hmmmmm......be very, very careful here K9 .....you have a lot of Lab owners on this forum And we ALL think we have the best Labs in the world..even I have Son of Stamp

Northcote Obedience Dog Club is a very good club. The President is Ray Hanson and I think maybe his daughter Loretta is in charge of the younger/newbies. Give that a try, they will steer you in the right direction, they have been there for many years and are very experienced. Mavis Hanson is the Secretary also. Hope this helps.

What a fantastic 3 days we have spent with Steve and the workshop attendees. This is the first Victorian workshop Sarda has been involved in and from comments throughout the course it was very well received. We all had a great time, the weather remanied favourable until the later part of yesterday when we were out searching for the 5 victims in the dual dog search. You will be pleased to know that we successfully retrieved Steve (who wanted to be a victim) from the "snake pit" ;) I really hope that all who attended gained a more indepth insight to the capabilities of a search & rescue dog and the "behind the scene" requirements to make successful dog/handler relationship. The combination of Training in Drive/Search & Rescue workshop really complimented each other. A huge thank you must go again to Steve for allowing us to use his very high profile to achieve recognition and from these three days we have gained an enormous step forward. It was great to meet the people behind the psuedo dol posters and I would like to sincerely thank Lablover and her boys (Stamp and Yank) for a great three days and their excellent contribution. I think we wore her out..... On a sadder note, Lablover's Mum passed away yesterday morning. Our sincere condolences are extended to her from the the Sarda team.