June 2014

Volume 1, Issue 1 SEARCH DOGS AUSTRALIA (Inc.)

Search Dogs Australia NEWSLETTER

MIDWEST TRAINING DAY

Midwest training commenced at 1500 hrs at bushland adjacent to Western Power Station,

Woorree, Geraldton. Louis with handler Heidi & support Lloyd were given information

regarding a missing toddler & father, last seen at this location at approximately 8am that

morning.

Terrain was sandy, and scrubby. Wind blowing slightly from the water treatment plant

may have given Louis some distraction, but 4km later, and in a timely fashion ( approx.

1.5hrs) Mispers were found alive and well.

Jessie then took over with Lloyd as handler and Heidi as support. Their information was

that father and son last seen heading towards the river at approx. 9a.m that morning.

Apart from a horse appearing on the scene, providing a short distraction, 2.5 km bush/

street track was completed in approx. 45mins, with mispers found hiding in a tree, alive &

well.

Chloe with handler Raechel then completed the remaining 2.5km, with at a jog for the last

200m, finding the mispers at their home, eating dinner!!! Approx 1hr.

Radio communication was maintained thru out, although at one time it meant base was

actually on the bonnet of her car!..... SEE PICTURES ON PAGE FOUR

ITEMS FOR NEWSLETTER

Welcome to the first edition of Search Dogs Australia Newsletter, we will be distributing

these newsletters to all members every two months, if there are any news you would like to

share, please send it in to Sonya. Hope you enjoy your first edition.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Managers report .............................................. 2

Training Managers Update ............................. 2

The Compass ................................................... 3

SDA Midwest Report ...................................... 3

Working Dog Conference................................ 4

Welcome Aboard ............................................. 4

Sponsors Update ............................................. 5

SPECIAL POINTS OF INTEREST

SDA annual membership due by 1st July

2014.

Watch this space—for date of SDA 2014

Annual General Meeting.

SDA website updated, soon to be released—

merchandise via PayPal.

http:/www.searchdogsaustralia.org/

Training has been very enthusiastic by all Perth members and the Off lead Search work contributing to a marked improvement in several dogs' confidence when Tracking/Trailing. A group consisting of Jean,Jette, Andy and Michael have been doing fun quick tracks on a Wednesday and really enjoying themselves. The work done at the Wanneroo Markets has been a tremendous success and dogs and handlers alike have loved the time spent there.

Bella and Tanuki along with Andrew & Michael and our skipper Trevor have had tremendous success with Ca-daver training in the Guildford River. All street tracks have been well executed so all in all I am really happy with all facets of training. Happy tracking and training Lesley Watson Training Manager SDA. Inc.

MANAGERS REPORT

TRAINING MANAGER UPDATES

Hello All,

Firstly I would like to thank Sonya for getting our new newsletter up and running, it's not an easy job and it will be made a lot easier if we all contribute some news no matter how mundane it may seem.

I guess you are all wanting to know where we are currently with the uni-form. This is not an easy job as Les-ley will no doubt tell you if she is asked. We have visited a lot of plac-es over the past week only to be-come frustrated by finding a good shirt but guess what, they don't come in women's fittings or they don't come in the colour we are looking for.

We don't want to rush into just get-ting any shirt, although that may well has to be the case in the end, as we are after a 100% cotton shirt that

comes in short sleeve and long sleeve and is available in both men's and women's fittings and in a colour that agreeable to everybody, or just about everybody. The trousers can be purchased at anytime as the only requirement is that the pants are black. There are a lot of black cargo pants out there, for those wanting a lot of pockets, or you may want something a bit more stylish. It's such a pity that we cannot purchase the same clothing that is supplied to the armed services as they are really comfortable and a great fit.

Cheers Michael

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SDA MIDWEST REPORT

The Midwest Region currently have 4 dogs and 5 handlers at operational status with anoth-er two dogs progressing well in training. The region have been going from strength to strength over the recent months as the members take on more challenging and interest-ing scenarios. The Midwest is a very interesting area to work as we have a mixture of lovely rivers, bushland, urban streets, sand dunes and beaches. This meant that our dogs and handlers through their training are exposed to numerous of different type of scenarios to take into account the different conditions at the Midwest have to offer.

Recently our dogs did a training in the middle of a dry section of Chapman River at night. That night, I was the handler of our dog, Jessie with Ruth as my support person. In the pitch blackness, with only the lights of our torch to see, I was finding the track a real chal-lenge especially when we were climbing over fallen branches in the middle of the dry riv-erbed and walking carefully to avoid slipping in the muddy areas. At this point, after a night work, the batteries for my head torch was starting to run low. Towards the end of our track, we were in a "muddy" section of the river and I was taking it easy not to fall over when we heard something near by.. a little twig breaking to the side of the river... We stop to listen carefully when suddenly Jessie was lurching on the lead with myself skidding across the mud when we saw this huge cow charging across our path on metres away at great speed. The last place I want to be was in front of that cow as it was running towards you! Lucky the cow ran off in a different direction leaving behind, an excited dog and two handlers with hearts beating like mad!

Since that night, I had made sure that I have plenty of batteries in my kit to ensure that the whole area is lighted up as I worked the dog!

Regards, Lloyd Storey Regional Liaison Officer - Midwest

A LITTLE BIT OF

AGILITY FUN AT THE

PLAYGROUND

WE RAN ACROSS A VERY NICE

PLAYGROUND TO PRACTICE A BIT

OF AGILITY ON.

THIS LITTLE PARK HAD EVERY-

THING A SEARCH DOG NEEDS.

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Introducing Von Forell Leila as prospective team member for Search and Rescue dogs.

Leila is a three year old Doberwomann from Mel-

bourne. In my house she is known as the Royal

Puppy! Leila is a very happy and friendly dog with

a lovely nature and boundless energy and drive.

Her enthusiasm to fetch a ball is genetic apparent-

ly. All I have to do is hold her leash and hang on

while trying keep up with her and she does the

rest. Her Grandmother is on the cover of How to

Achieve Precision Tracking by Kris Kotsopoulos.

Any credit for Leila is due to the Von Forell breed-

ing program and she is only limited by my inexperience.

I come from a farming background where my Grandparents bred horses amongst other stock, so

I was brought up handle horses from very young I am told. I turned professional as a horse rider

at 15 and ran an agistment and show horse training centre in Wanneroo for several years before

I went to Indonesia as chief riding instructor and horse trainer for 1200 students. During my 5

yrs in Indonesia I travelled and rode horses in South Korea and Malaysia. The highlight of my

Asian experience was bringing my students up from never having touched a horse to competing

in junior World Cup show jumping. This was a stretch for me as I had not trained a show jump-

er before then as I had been a specialist in Western horses whilst in Wanneroo.

I returned to Australia after the 'democratic revolution' in Indonesia to attend UWA and gain an

arts degree majoring in political science. Since then I have been training racehorses and have

been a volunteer ambulance officer for St Johns,

worked as the ward clerk for the maternity ward

in Port Hedland, worked for Mazzuchellis jewel-

ers, been in political offices for both liberal and

labor parties- state and federal and been a lec-

turer at TAFE in equine management.

Leila and I hope to be a worthy addition to your

team and justify the time you have all spent

training us.

WELCOME ABOARD MEL AND LEILA

Cont.. From page one

MIDWEST TRAINING

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WORKING DOG CONFERENCE 2013—ONLINE RESOURCES

The inaugural Working Dog Conference 2013 brought together 150 working dog breed-ers, trainers, handlers, veterinarians, facility managers, research scientists, animal advocacy and government representatives from across Australasia.

The conference program was compiled following an open call for presentations, with aims were to: share the best initiatives that individuals, companies, working dog organisations or research groups can contribute to improving working dog welfare and productivity. encourage open communication and knowledge sharing between all working and sporting dog stakehold-ers, including researchers, on a national scale and promote a sustainable and evidence-based best practice industry environment with an ethos of continuous education and quality im-provement. We are pleased to be able to share most of the conference content online. Please click the link below to obtain a variety of slide show presentations,, audios and videos of a number of presentations.

http://www.workingdogalliance.com.au/conference2013/

Louis with

Heidi

Louis with

his Bunny

reward

Jessie,

Lloyd

Heiner &

Benjamin

after being

found

SPONSORS UPDATE

Did you know that your spine is very sim-

ilar to that of your dog? Just like us, slips,

falls and repetitive strains that may be

incurred while doing your SDA training

can cause misalignments in the spine that

can affect your dogs perform-ance. Deli-

cate nerves can be irritated when there is

spinal misalignment that may cause

pain , but more often may be indicated by

changes in behaviour, appetite or even

movement. Rachel Young is a certified animal chiropractor specialising in iden-

tifying and correcting spinal misalignments in animals. Recently Dr. Young and

the SDA successfully lead a presentation on “Animal Chiropractic” to the Chiro-

practors of WA. The presentation not only highlighted the benefits of un-

derstanding animals and the role a certified animal chiropractor can play in ani

-mal health care, but also raised

awareness for the SDA with

“Bella” providing an outstand-

ing case study and demonstra-

tion.

Rachel

Dr. Rachel A. Young B.Sc., DC

Chiropractor

Caption describing picture or graphic

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OUR SPONSORS

SEARCH DOGS AUSTRALIA (INC)

PO Box 2200

KARDINYA WA 6163

admin@searchdogsaustralia.org

SDA MANAGER: Michael Margot 0419 801 840

FACEBOOK:

https://www.facebook.com/#!/

SearchDogsAustralia

WEBSITE:

http://www.searchdogsaustralia.org/

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