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May 19, 2007
High Speed Dogs
Last week Mausi attended the Annual Meeting of the German Accelerant Dogs and their handlers. In Germany the accelerant dogs belong to the police and not to the fire service as in Britain. Therefore they often have two jobs - search dog and guard dog as well. The preferred breed is the Malinois, a Belgian Shepherd. They are extremely playful, lively and smaller and swifter than a German Shepherd. And they make very good guard dogs as well. Mausi sometimes thinks that on a fire scene a smaller and lighter breed would be more useful but then - who would be impressed by a small spaniel standing guard over him?
One of dogs rushing back to its handler after having successfully completed a search. With a Malinois in action hardly more than one foot ever touches the ground at the same time.
These meetings are always good fun. Mausi is always impressed by the eagerness and dedication the dogs show in going about their work. It never fails to make Mausi smile to see a dog being ordered to sit down before it is being send off to search. You see the dog lowering its bottom but it is not quite touching the ground and as soon as the dog thinks the handler isn't looking it creeps forward a few inches. Most dogs seem to rush about the place during their search at high speed although the more experienced ones have found out that going about the search more systematically is often more successful and lets them get their rewards much quicker. Sometimes even young dogs are just naturals as that lovely young bitch, a silver-grey German Shepherd, who always seemed to wrinkle her forehead while searching the ground very methodically. It gave her an air of deep concentration, which was funny to watch but she was also very successful in completing her tasks.
Well, apart from all the fun it was good to see how effectively the dogs and their handlers work together, which makes ones own work at a fire scene very often so much easier.
Posted by Mausi at May 19, 2007 08:10 AM
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