JOCHEN - USAR DOG
Jochen at 12 months of age
Jochen is a German Shepherd Dog bred on show lines. His sire is the German import, Lafer von Batu and his dam, the beautiful Duval Uska, a daughter of Iwan vom Lechtal, arguably the best German sire to be imported from Germany. Both parents are now dead.
Jochen is a very handsome dog and is a very good representative of the German Shepherd Dog breed. Whilst not of absolute top show quality, he nonetheless looks what he is, a very well bred Australian German Shepherd Dog carrying excellent lines in his pedigree. He is now 7 years old.
He now no longer has that cheeky grin on his face as in this photo. These days he looks into the middle distance like most mature dogs do, 'been there, done that, I'm cool.'
Jochen - baby puppy
How Jochen and I met
Jochen and I met when he was 5 weeks old. He was one of three boys - a small litter. He came waddling up to me when I was lying on my stomach on the breeder's lawn. I tickled his chest and asked him if he would be my new canine partner. (My previous qualified search dog Achim, had died of bloat four months earlier.) As then un-named, this funny little baby puppy yodelled at me and has done so ever since.
Jochen proved to be a strange, quaint and quirky dog who took quite a few months to be fully 'here'. What however was fully 'here' was his voice. He learned to bark on command within just a few days, and as he was a bold, fearless puppy, he was playfully introduced to barking for other people. This proved to be child's play for him and so very quickly he was introduced to the bark alert at, and in, the big concrete pipe. We all fell about laughing when we heard this huge bark coming from within the pipe (having been allowed in to the 'buried victim' after digging and barking outside) and when we opened up the pipe, out trotted this baby puppy with his toy in his mouth.
Jochen and I met when he was 5 weeks old. He was one of three boys - a small litter. He came waddling up to me when I was lying on my stomach on the breeder's lawn. I tickled his chest and asked him if he would be my new canine partner. (My previous qualified search dog Achim, had died of bloat four months earlier.) As then un-named, this funny little baby puppy yodelled at me and has done so ever since.
Jochen proved to be a strange, quaint and quirky dog who took quite a few months to be fully 'here'. What however was fully 'here' was his voice. He learned to bark on command within just a few days, and as he was a bold, fearless puppy, he was playfully introduced to barking for other people. This proved to be child's play for him and so very quickly he was introduced to the bark alert at, and in, the big concrete pipe. We all fell about laughing when we heard this huge bark coming from within the pipe (having been allowed in to the 'buried victim' after digging and barking outside) and when we opened up the pipe, out trotted this baby puppy with his toy in his mouth.
Jochen - 2 years old & looking serious
Jochen's training
His training went smoothly as did his socialising with every other breed we could find, and being introduced to as much about life and our society as I could possibly acquaint him with. Shopping centres, railway stations, the bush, rubble sites, lifts etc was all in a day's work. At age 7 months he came with us to the Country Fire Authority (CFA) disaster site in Fiskville where I gave a talk on ASSDA search dogs and their training. This is quite a difficult site and not constructed with dogs in mind, but we still did some easy exercises with him which he did with style.
In November 2006 was his first introduction to a 48-hour exercise with the South Australian USAR Task Force. Just two years old and still very much in training, he was to be a support dog only, but because the older dog had already worked hard and was struggling, Jochen had to fill the breach and become the primary search dog. He also struggled due to his youth, inexperience and the very hot conditions, but he managed to search, find victims and bark to let me know of his finds.
Like most dogs, he has had rough patches in his training and this was particularly so after the November 2006 exercise, but given time and care, he recovered never to look back. He has given me the wonderful experience of 'telling' me that there is no point in continuing to send him to search because there are no more victims to be found. He has them all. When I first realised what he was doing, I struggled to accept what I thought I was seeing in his body language, wondering if I was imagining it. He has done that quite often now and has given the phrase 'trust your dog', a whole new meaning. I adore this dog.
He is now so good that ASSDA members are having to dream up some way-out there challenges for me rather than Jochen. Our sites are just not complex enough to challenge him all that often.
It will be very interesting to see how quickly Jochen and I adapt to the huge and complex rubble sites that are available in Les Epeisses but also elsewhere in Switzerland.
His training went smoothly as did his socialising with every other breed we could find, and being introduced to as much about life and our society as I could possibly acquaint him with. Shopping centres, railway stations, the bush, rubble sites, lifts etc was all in a day's work. At age 7 months he came with us to the Country Fire Authority (CFA) disaster site in Fiskville where I gave a talk on ASSDA search dogs and their training. This is quite a difficult site and not constructed with dogs in mind, but we still did some easy exercises with him which he did with style.
In November 2006 was his first introduction to a 48-hour exercise with the South Australian USAR Task Force. Just two years old and still very much in training, he was to be a support dog only, but because the older dog had already worked hard and was struggling, Jochen had to fill the breach and become the primary search dog. He also struggled due to his youth, inexperience and the very hot conditions, but he managed to search, find victims and bark to let me know of his finds.
Like most dogs, he has had rough patches in his training and this was particularly so after the November 2006 exercise, but given time and care, he recovered never to look back. He has given me the wonderful experience of 'telling' me that there is no point in continuing to send him to search because there are no more victims to be found. He has them all. When I first realised what he was doing, I struggled to accept what I thought I was seeing in his body language, wondering if I was imagining it. He has done that quite often now and has given the phrase 'trust your dog', a whole new meaning. I adore this dog.
He is now so good that ASSDA members are having to dream up some way-out there challenges for me rather than Jochen. Our sites are just not complex enough to challenge him all that often.
It will be very interesting to see how quickly Jochen and I adapt to the huge and complex rubble sites that are available in Les Epeisses but also elsewhere in Switzerland.
Abseiling in the SA-USAR Shed, Adelaide
Jochen practising being raised and lowered in SA-USAR shed.
Our dogs have to get used to all types of transport and abseiling is one of them. So on one of our trips to South Australia to again work with the South Australian USAR Task Force, one of the guys experienced in high angle rescue gave our dogs the chance to be raised and lowered in a specially made harness for the purpose.
Everyone of our dogs copes exceptionally well with what must be a strange experience for dogs. Jochen was no exception and comfortably hung in his harness just under the roof of the big USAR shed.
He does not look all that comfortable but he was calm and did not struggle at all. This calmness and capacity to adapt to whatever conditions he faces, is part of what makes Jochen such a good USAR dog.
Everyone of our dogs copes exceptionally well with what must be a strange experience for dogs. Jochen was no exception and comfortably hung in his harness just under the roof of the big USAR shed.
He does not look all that comfortable but he was calm and did not struggle at all. This calmness and capacity to adapt to whatever conditions he faces, is part of what makes Jochen such a good USAR dog.