News
National Trainer announced
After some months of consideration and working through role description and interview process the National Trainer position has been confirmed.
Congratulations on behalf of the Search Dog Association management committee and members to Brenda Woolley.
Many of you are aware Brenda has been expertly carrying out the role of Interim National Trainer for the past 12 months.
Position Overview:
The Urban Search and Rescue Search National Canine Trainer (Contractor) is responsible for the implementation and management of the USAR Search Dog Canine Training Programme.
This is a contract position organised through the New Zealand Fire Service. The position is based on a 0.25 fulltime equivalent role, or 10 hours per week averaged across the year.
In addition to working with the National Manager Special Operations, New Zealand Fire Service, the successful contractor will be expected to work with the New Zealand USAR Search Dog Association Management Committee via the President, and the Regional Trainers as designated by the New Zealand USAR Search Dog Association.
July: AGM and National Training Weekend
Well the weather was a but suspect but nothing compared to what the North Island was receiving over the weekend of 24 -27 July.
The AGM was held Thursday night with a good turnout. New Management Committee members are: Brendon Irwin, Graham Joseph and Linda Pike with Brenda Woolley and Dave Brunsdon as special members.
The National Training weekend included a night search in the old Christchurch Women's Hospital, as well as outdoor training in the drizzle in various locations. It was good to use multiple locations and several rubble piles (concrete and timber) for training. The size of some of the rubble piles was a bit daunting for new dogs and handlers alike, but all still did good work.
Many thanks to the Christchurch team for organising a good weekend - many many hours went into planning for this! Thanks also to all those who attended the AGM and the training. Keep up the good work everyone.
May CREP: Christchurch
One of two annual Canine Evaluation Process (CREP) weekends was held in Christchurch the 10-11th of May. Five teams attempted the evaluation with being three successful.
The successful teams are all located in Christchurch and are members of Task Force 2, Congratulations to:
Brenda Woolley and Keepa
Linda Pike and Easy
Graham Joseph and Tala
While not all teams were successfull, a fine effort was put in by all the handlers and dogs.
A quick word of thanks to Inspector Brendon Gibson and his team from NZ Police Dog Section for evaluating the dog teams and their ongoing support. Also to Jenny Waters who carried out the veterinary aspect of the evaluation as well as Brenda Woolley and Linda Pike our civilian evaluators.
Finally thanks to members of Task Force 2 for their support and construction of hides for our 'subjects' on Friday and Janelle Mackie (TF2) for coordinating the event.
Central Regional Training: 29/30 March
The next regional training is fast upon us. If you are planning on attending be sure to:
1) if you are in the region - please contact Hamish Paterson
2) send your training needs/wants to Brenda Woolley
3) if you are out of the region - please contact Brendon Irwin in the first instance.
Information Night in Christchurch 15 Febraury 2008
Friday 15 February 2008 from 7:00 - 9:00 pm a successful information evening was held at the Civil Defence Training School located at 149 Main South Road, Sockburn (behind CCC Service Centre).
The program for the evening included:
- An update on USAR in New Zealand and the role of search dogs
- handler requirements
- how USAR dogs are trained.
The following day, despite the pouring rain, there was a field session with demonstrations and dog suitability assessments.
Several new people have now joined in training and we hope to see them through to operational handlers in the future.
CREP: Qualified search teams rise from 7 to 10
The 2007 October CREP was held in Christchurch over the weekend of 27-28 October. The assessment team was made up of Paul George, from the NZ Police Dog Section, as lead evaluator, Jenny Waters the USAR Vet Advisor and Linda Pike our SDA Assessor . All the handlers and dogs worked very well. It is obvious the large number of hours that these teams put in to stay prepared for a disasterous event.
Through nerves and wind all the teams performed well. The teams had to perform elements of general obedience and agility work as well as work from directions and through distractions. After completing these tasks, they had to perform on a rubble pile in a lovely Christchurch breeze (who are we kidding - downright freezing winds!) to find trapped people.
Sara Rad (with Sasha), Janelle Mackie (with Cairo) and Brenday Wooley (with Boss) all certified as Basic teams bringing three new dogs into the fold, while Tania Spence (with Mocha) recertified to keep the ranks strong. Brenda Woolley (with Easy) also certified as a new Advanced team.
Thanks go out to all who participated and particularly to our Christchurch group and their small army of helpers that organised sites, hides and subjects, lunches and the freezing weather of Saturday, much appreciated.
This is a great trend and there are more handler teams working hard around the country to certify at an operational level next year.
Teams:
A listing of all of our certified teams.
SDA in the news.
Jack Perkins recently did a Spectrum piece on Radio New Zealand about USAR SDA dogs. You can listen to the audio podcast at http://www.radionz.co.nz/nr/programmes/spectrum/20070930
Christchurch Regional Training
weekend - 19/20 May 07
The CHCH Regional Training Weekend is happening on May 19/20. Included
- rubble search work on the a very large concrete
rubble pile
- building search in the old hospital
- agility training
at our permanently set up facility (now including a small but fun
pallet pile) and much more.
With the 2-3 younger dogs in training, so did lots of things from runaways to advanced problems.
Wellington Info night - 9 March 07
Janelle reports:
"The “Welllington weekend” started with an
information night held at the NZFS Kilbirnie Training Centre. Sue Chesterfield
did
an awesome dog publicising it with articles in local papers, interview
of
Radio
NZ etc,
but you are never quite sure who is going to turn so it was a relief
when at about 1850 a steady stream of cars started filling the carpark.
We collected almost 40 names on a sign-in sheet and there were a few
late comers that slipped past us.
Jim Stuart-Black started the presentation with an overview of the need
for, and structure of USAR in NZ (personalized with a graphic of the
faultline running through the Wellington CBD). Jims’ support and
recognition of the role of USAR search dogs really came through and gave
a great intro for looking more at the “wet nosed, four paws” section.
I gave a presentation focused on what attributes and drives
we want from both handlers and dogs while also covering how search
dogs
work,
the
NZ standards
and an introduction to training methods. Despite the “reality check” aspect
to it, a lot of people stayed on to ask questions and where appropriate
arrange to have their dog suitability tested by Linda and Brenda.
While many of the people present will never go on to train a
USAR search dog, more people knowing what we are doing and why can only
be a good
thing. "
72 Hour exercise
7 USAR dog teams recently took part in the 72 hour exercise at the end
of
the Cat2 USAR Technicians course in Palmerston North , and four handlers
(Tania, Sue, Malcolm and Brendon) completed the Support Course immediately
prior. We will make sure there is an article in the next newsletter
outlining some of the exercises they went through and the lesson learned
but
sounds like they all did really well and some young dogs had their
experience well and truly extended.
First Honorary Memberships awarded
At the recent AGM inaugural honorary membership was given to three people.
Paul George, Jenny Waters and Shirley Hammond have all made a significant
contribution to the development of USAR Search Dogs in New Zealand and
this
was one small way we could show that we recognise and appreciate their
work.
AGM - 26 August 06
The USAR SDA AGM was held in Christchurch on 26 August. Following
the meeting members of the Management Committee and a couple of
others took the chance to do some extra training. We started at
the Sockburn training school using some bark tubes, followed by
agility at the Pound and finishing with some training on the new
rubble site we have found near the airport. More details on the
outcome of the AGM will be forwarded to members soon.
Mocha (Handler Tania Spence) alerting on the bark box. |
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Information weekend - Palmerston North
On weekend 18-20 August Linda, Brenda
and Janelle traveled to Palmerston North to run an introductory
evening, dog suitability testing and
some training with Donna Field (and Kaos) and Ross/Cruise and David/Olive
from Taupo. Some good interest and some great training happened
this weekend.
Brenda Woolley is shown here
rewarding Easy for good work. |
 |
The 2nd National Training Weekend
The Training weekend was held in Christchurch beginning 31 June
through to 2 July. Weather was fairly cooperative and a lot of good work
was done. Be sure to check out some photos from the weekend.
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