World’s best search and rescue dog from Hungary

9-year-old Tara and her handler from Hungary got the highest points this weekend. A Hungarian dog won the 5^th Dutch Shepherd World Championship in IPO R Search and Rescue category. Tara and her handler, Klára Salamon spent the weekend in Rodan, Netherlands, where the Championship was held – szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu reported

The owners and dogs could choose from five disciplines: IPO, mondioring, IPO R, agility and obedience. These competitions were held through 4 days, starting on the 3^rd of May. Five years ago the event had 23 participants, this year they had 150 Dutch Shepherds signed up from 17 different countries. The Search and Rescue category had 10 dogs from 8 countries competing against each other.

Tara and Klára won the competition with 287 points out of the maximum 300.

The Dutch Shepherd is a strong working dog, just like the German Shepherd and the Malinois, and it is perfect for almost any kind of dog sport. Originally, it was bred to herd and guard sheep and other farm animals, but soon modern farming techniques started to replace these dogs. Fortunately, the breed is versatile enough, and it found other ways to be helpful. Nowadays Dutch Shepherds are trained as police dogs, search and rescue dogs, they can even become service dogs for the blind.

Search and Rescue

Since both Tara and Klára are members of the Hungarian SOS Rescue Dog Association, they competed in the IPO R category.

The IPO-R program has several exercises in nosework and obedience. These dogs have to be obedient and agile, and they must show certain courage. The dog has to be able to walk over a ladder or over an unstable wooden bridge, which simulates a collapsed building where the rubble is moving. They must use their nose to find the scent of the missing person. Obedience is such a huge part of this exercise because the dogs are working off leash, independently, throughout a big area. They can’t get distracted and go off chasing squirrels. Search and rescue dogs are used in wilderness searches or after natural disasters. They can also locate missing persons in an avalanche or water.

Huge congratulations to Tara and Klára Salamon for their success!

As we wrote last week, a Hungarian dog breeder’s Majorca Mastiff won at the breed’s international dog show in Spain. The dog show was held in the island of Majorca, Spain, where this particular dog breed originates from. Rió, the Hungarian dog champion was found to be the most beautiful dog in the younger than six months category.

Also, we wrote about a Hungarian vizsla, who’s the coolest travel blogger on Instagram. Read more HERE.

Source: szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu, http://wc-wdsf2018.nl