What a surprise on our way back home!
We dropped by the house of friends we hadn’t seen for a long time. And they took us to the local fire brigade festival to see their daughter and the family dog perform.
Wow – it was great to watch the volonteers of the search-and-rescue-dog team demonstrating their skills on the exercise course.
From Irish Wolfhound to Mini Aussie
Size or breed didn’t matter – you could see so many different dogs in different stages of training, from excited beginners to cool and calm „professionals“.
An instructor explained to the audience how the dogs were selected and trained in order to balance on all sorts of rubble and debris and sniff out buried earthquake victims. Or help rescuing people from scenes of fire or other man-made or natural catastrophes.
Our friends‘ dog Amy, a black Australian Shepherd Mini, did a great job on all the different obstacles, including tracking and finding a person hidden in a closed dog house.
The festival was a fundraiser and attracted a lot of families with young children. So, the dog team had come up with something exciting for the kids:
They were invited to form a long „living queue“ for the dogs to crawl underneath.
There was a lot of cheering and giggling when the dogs, one by one, wiggled through the tunnel of legs.
I bet a lot of parents gave a donation and bought one of the cute toy dogs at the Red Cross stand rather than giving in to their children`s rekindled longing for a real dog.
Finally - a test of courage
At a fire brigade event you want to see real fire, right?!
So finally, the courage and trust of the dogs was put to the test. They had to slip through a metal pipe that was set on fire on the outside. A job for the experienced ones with years of training.
They all had their individual approach to the task, some very collected and serene, others zealous and dynamic.
All of them, including Amy, passed the test without hesitation and received a thunderous applause.
It was great to see how happy and content those dogs appeared. Job done well, ready to go off duty and relax after a fulfilling day.
