Crazy Conditions

Bill with Koda, Sherri with Belle, Susan with Gryphon, Shane with Rosie

It is 19 degrees Fahrenheit, a cold wind is blowing out of
the north at 7-10 mph, and you are excited to be out in it. You aren’t just out
in it, you will be sitting still for 30 minutes or more, waiting to reward a
dog for finding you. If that sounds like a lot of fun then you might just fit
in with German Shepherd Search and Rescue Dog Association (GSSARDA) as they
train.

January Training

Thanks to Tops Kennel, GSSARDA was able to use facilities generally
reserved for S.W.A.T. and canine officers. It was a collection of abandoned
barns, industrial buildings, and office spaces. There were also some junk cars
used to train police canines for vehicles searches.

Team Members Participating

For the first time since the evaluation all operational dogs
and handlers were able to attend the same training so a few minutes was taken
to get some pictures. At 19 degrees the handlers were not about to sacrifice
warmth to look pretty so everyone is bundled up, but it was nice to finally get
a picture of the group.

Susan and Gryphon

Susan watches while Amanda gives Gryphon his play reward for finding her and alerting.

Susan and Gryphon led the way as the tested type 1 USAR dog
on the team. Gryphon was awesome, swiftly spotting and alerting to a subject
hidden on a vehicle’s roof. He then raced through the office building finding subjects
hidden in a shower. Gryphon took full advantage of S.W.A.T’s activities to
crash open a door that was breached in a training exercise. Gryph gave an
excellent alert. He ended the day in a barn stacked to the rafters with bales
of hay, scrambling up 20 feet into the air to alert close to the subject.

Bill and Koda

Koda alerts to a subject on top of a van while Bill looks on

Koda followed Gryphon with her first opportunity to do a
building search. She was completely un-fazed when her first subject hid on top
of a van. A few minutes later she alerted to a subject in a closet. She quickly
found the shower subject and made swift work of finding a subject hidden on the
roof of one of the buildings. It may have been her first building search but
she handled it like a pro.

Shane and Rosie

Susan gives Rosie her play reward after being found hiding in the bed of a pickup truck

By the time it was Rosie’s turn she was dancing with excitement.
She raced laps checking empty barns as her handler gathered his pack and radio.
She quickly spotted subjects in vans and pickup trucks and gave a decent alert.
The subject in the show was quickly found and then she went out and found
another subject hidden on an ice machine in an abandoned concession area. She
bounced up the bails of hay to land on her last subject for the day.

Rosie and Shane head for the next search in an old concession stand

Sherri and Belle

Belle locates her subject and alerts

In true Belle fashion she methodically searched each
building quickly finding and alerting to the subjects in the vehicles. When let
out to find the next subject, she tracked him through the snow and into her
second building. The shower subject finally got a break when Belle alerted to
his position. Hiding under counters and behind doors were no problem for Belle
and she scaled a second stack of hay, even jumping from a wobbling bale to gain
a higher position and finally locate her last subject.

Lots of Fun

Judging from the smiles on the handlers and the relaxed
dogs, everyone had a lot of fun and would be more than happy to go again.

Belle comes to a sit prior to demonstrating heeling, stays and emergency stop

On Tuesday, January 10, 2012 Mrs. Oshinski, 7th grade
science teacher invited Sherri and Belle from German Shepherd Search and Rescue
Dog Association to come in and talk about canine search and rescue. The class
had just finished a section on forensics.

Sherri presented the who, what, where, why and how of canine
search and rescue and demonstrated  some
of the obedience requirements with Belle and why they are important. She
included stories from some searches the team had taken.

The students asked some excellent questions and at the end,
those that wanted to, spent time petting Belle. Sherri passed out trading cards
for Belle and bookmarks for the teen novel “Dangerous Turn Ahead”.

Sherri answers questions from Highland 7th graders

A Carson's customer pets Rosie

Carson Pirie Scott and all the Bonton stores host
“Community Days”. They invite not-for-profit organizations to give
away coupon books for a $5 donation. The not-for-profit keeps all of the money.
The donor gets a coupon worth $10 off anything in the store and several coupons
for 20% off many other items.

Community Days Donations Covers Insurance

German Shepherd Search and Rescue Dog Association has
participated for the last 3 years. The Carson Pirie Scott store in the Streets
of Woodfield shopping center has allowed us to bring in the dogs and interact
with the customers as they come in to shop. The dogs love it and thanks to
Carson’s GSSARDA has been able to fund our insurance so we can train.

Future Community Days

The next Community Days is in April 27th and 28th. If you
are interested in receiving a coupon for a $5 donation, please feel free to
contact us at technacon1986@sbcglobal.net or come visit us at Carson’s from noon
until 2 PM  on Saturdays from March 17
through April 21st.

Evaluation 2011

On November 19th the testing started. Originally the
evaluations were to be in September but getting outside evaluators turned into
a serious problem and delayed testing for two months. The original test was to
be to Search and Rescue Dogs US (SARDUS) standards, however, when it became
clear evaluators were not going to be available, the switch was made to
American Rescue Dog Association  (ARDA)
standards. Dogs and handlers were tested on trail hasties, dense brush, open
field and night searches.

Eventually, Tom Couch of N.C. C.E.R.T. and Sherri Gallagher
performed the evaluations with Tom acting as lead evaluator since Sherri was a
member of GSSARDA.

Both handlers had already passed the field navigation
testing in the Spring but the evaluators were not about to let them off that
easily. Throughout the problems they had to demonstrate to the evaluators their
location on the topographical map. Both did an excellent job.

The Set Up

A forest preserve in Lake County was used for the testing as
well as private property for the night test. While both handlers had searched
in the area before, subjects were placed in a section that had not been used
for training due to coyote activity.

The team owes a big thanks to Troop 198 out of St. Andrews
in Mundelein for providing subjects the dogs had never met. The scouts arrived
at sunrise and were placed by the evaluators an hour before the first dog and
handler. They stayed in place for the next 6 hours in 40 degree temps, a cold wind
and overcast skies.

Order of Testing

Koda

Both successfully found the trail hasty subjects. Dogs and
handlers were not given a break but directed to immediately begin the sector
searching starting with dense brush. Both dogs crashed merrily through thorns
and brambles to locate the next set of subjects.

Having finished the daytime testing, everyone took a break
for supper, although Bill and Shane didn’t seem to eat much. As darkness fell,
cloud cover took over and the threat of rain became spats of drops. Evaluators
placed subjects for the night problems and both dogs did an excellent job of
finding the subject and alerting. The last dog and handler finished just as a
downpour began.

Results

It was a very long day. Congratulations to Bill and Koda and
Shane and Rosie operational wilderness search and rescue dogs.

Rosie alerts

Susan rewards Gryphon

Susan and No Nonsense Gryphon had a busy year racking up his
Begleitenhund title, his IRO Rubble A title, and his NIMS  Type 1 USAR certification through IPWDA.

First the Begleitenhund

Gryphon, handled by a nervous Susan earned his Begleitenhund title on June 17, 2011 at the mid-Ohio Schutzhund Club. Weather conditions were not ideal – it was pouring rain. Past experience had not been kind to Susan. The last time She had handled a dog for the BH, was several years earlier at a different club, with her young Doberman. That had been her first schutzhund trial and her dog was on the long down. The working canine ran to her dog, bothering it and tried to chase it off the field. After that experience Susan was not comfortable but knew the team requirements and gamely took the field with her German Shepherd partner. No Nonsense Gryphon, ignored his handler’s jitters and turned in a splendid performance under judge Frank
Phillips, demonstrating he had been well named.

Gryphon waits for the next command

Second IRO Rubble A

Two months later, on August 20, 2011, Susan and Gryphon travelled to Virginia. While the weather was dry, the temperatures soared to 95 degrees. Once again Gryphon proved his endurance and abilities earning the title IRO Rubble A under judge Resi Geritson.

Third NIMS Type 1 USAR

Finally on October 11, 2011 Susan and Gryphon got perfect weather to test. The International Police Work Dog Association(IPWDA) tested dogs and handlers to the National Incident Management System (NIMS) Type 1 Urban Search And Rescue (USAR) standard in Indiana. Gryphon demonstrated all the hard work and consistent training Susan had given him was justified and walked away with his Type 1 certification.

We can’t wait to see what these two will do in 2012.

The requirements:

The obedience was a modified Begleitenhund routine combine
with a four scenario protection routine. Judging criteria had the same
expectations as schutzhund – control, energy, intensity, precision, grips.

The judges:

Frank Ethrige, a long-time handler under Mike Charatin; Rich
Kuatick, a retired police K9 handler and trainer; and Tommy Martin, multiple
schutzhund 3 club member, national competitor from the Greater Chicago
Schutzhund Club applied their time, talent and expertise as judges for the
event.

The result:

Liz and Gatlin took first place in the advanced obedience
and won the overall cup. They must return next year to defend their title.

The clean team before the race

What do you get when you put a search and rescue team
together with 3.08 miles of mud pits, cargo nets, flames and a bunch of other
obstacles? Lots of fun, funds and team building.

It all started when Liz asked about the 3 mile in 30 minute run handlers must do to qualify. She asked if she could do the Warrior Dash instead. Shane took one look at the website and made the same request. Not to be out done Bill, Amanda, Mike and Sherri all decided they were up for the challenge. That is when the idea came to run the Warrior Dash as a fund-raiser, much like a walk-a-thon. Team member went out asking for sponsors and the support was tremendous. Altogether, $562 was pledged, much of it paid in advance of the race.

Team members hurried to sign up. Unfortunately, the roster filled before Bill and Amanda could register. Still being team players they
helped with the fund-raising and on the day of the race arrived to hold wallets and cheer on the runners.

Shane swam the mud pit

The question remained; was possible for a team member to run the 5K distance and complete all the obstacles in 30 minutes. Shane, a 5K
veteran, volunteered to find out and took off from the start at a good clip. He had been psyched to conquer the mud pit and did some decorative shaving and dying of his hair so we could find him at the finish. It was the last obstacle and he dove in to swim it with a determined crawl stroke and finishing the race in 28 minutes.

Liz, Mike, and Brian had been training to run the distance but their previous experience had all been sprints. Sherri set out running at a 10 minute-mile speed so the others could get the feel for the pace. The team stayed together shouting encouragement to each other as they conquered the obstacles.

The not so clean runners

They jumped the flames together and even ended up on the Warrior Dash Facebook page, climbing out of the mud pit. They finished as a group in 41 minutes.

After the race the team was hosed down by friendly
firefighters with very cold water. After changing into dry clothes and shoes the members donated the shoes they ran in to be either given to people who needed shoes or recycled into playground mats,

and headed to the concession
stand. The food for the day was roasted turkey drumsticks.

Turkey drumsticks were the food for the day

It was a great team
building activity and everyone agreed to run it again next year.

GSSARDA members have been waiting on September for some time
now as we have multiple events and fundraisers taking place.  It is finally here, and the quickest way to
convey all this information is in a single post.

Join us on Facebook

GSSARDA has finally become a member of the Facebook
community with our own page!  It is
allowing us to provide you with many more updates on our activities and events,
and with plenty of media of our hard working and wonderful shepherds!  We are currently featuring a bio and pictures
of one of our search dogs a week so you can learn all about them.  Look forward to contests in the future as
well! ‘Like’ us on Facebook today!!!

http://www.facebook.com/GSSARDA

Warrior Dash

The Warrior Dash is coming up in less than a week, and our
members are already starting to sweat!
Not only is this going to be a great team building event, but it is a
fundraiser where you can hedge bets against our success and failure at the
course!  This is your last chance to get your
pledges in for our members.  For more
information on this event follow the link:

http://gssarda-il.org/featured/dash-for-cash-gssarda-to-run-the-warrior-dash.htm

Ruff N It

Come out and meet some of the GSSARDA dogs and team members
at this DuPage Forest Preserve event.  It
will be held at the Greene Valley Forest Preserve in Naperville on September 18^th,
2011. The event runs between 10am – 1pm

There will be multiple vendors and organizations present at
this event as well as multiple demonstrations from different groups.  The event is free and attendees are welcome
to bring their leashed pets!

We will have a few of our search and rescue dogs at this
event for small demonstrations.  For a
small donation you will even be able to get your picture taken in SAR gear with
a dog!

We will also be holding a raffle at our table during the
event.  We will have a basket full of
human spa goodies, and a basket for your doggie friends, as well as some
additional canine items.  Tickets for the
raffle will be for donations of:

$1 = 1 ticket

$5 = 6 tickets

$10 = 12 tickets

We will draw winners at 12:45pm – winners need not to be
present, we will contact you if you have won but are not present.

Team members and dogs will also be present at the Lake
Forest Open House on 9/18 as well.

And last but not least…

Vote for Gatlin

One of our SAR dogs in training – Gatlin – is in a contest
at a local TV station – WCIU!  If he wins
he receives a DVD of the entire filming session and is featured for another month
and on a list of Top Dogs!  Please help
us support our team member and vote for him every day throughout
September.  Share with your friends and
family so they can do the same!

http://www.wciu.com/udog.php?section=vote&assetID=10006454

We are collecting:

- Empty inkjet cartridges

- Empty laser cartridges

- Used cell phones

• Participating in our program helps protect the environment by keeping these recyclable items out of landfills and preserving our natural resources.
• All proceeds benefit the German Shepherd Search & Rescue Dog Association by funding training and search operations.
• Recycling takes 5 minutes or less and allows you to help at no extra cost.
• With your help we will be able to maintain highly trained and qualified volunteers and dogs to rescue lost persons.

How can you participate?

- Start saving your empty cartridges at home and return them to GSSARDA-IL member or a designated drop location (more coming soon – check back!)

- Spread the word to your family and friends to recycle too!

- Businesses can help too by getting a FREE affiliate account and sending in your recyclables to benefit GSSARDA-IL (contact us for more information)

Drop Box Locations:

Caribou Coffee

375 North Milwaukee

Vernon Hills, IL 60061

Or drop them off at one of the following events:

Ruff N It Day

September 18th 2011

10am – 1pm

Greene Valley Forest Preserve

Naperville, IL

Dont forget to also check out how to support us through the Warrior Dash fundraiser coming up on September 19th 2011

http://gssarda-il.org/featured/dash-for-cash-gssarda-to-run-the-warrior-dash.htm

How funds from recycling will be used:

It costs about $10,000 to transport, feed and house a team
for a week long search. Additionally the team must carry insurance to utilize
training locations. No one on the team receives a salary. All funds will be
applied to the cost of training, searches, and demonstrations to benefit the
community.

Any and all support is appreciated.

You’ve heard of walkathons, Walk For The Cure and other walking and running activities to support charity. The members of German Shepherd Search and Rescue Dog Association have decided to put in some extra effort and participate in the Upper Midwest Warrior Dash on September 17, 2011 to raise funds for the team.

The Warrior Dash is a 3 mile race through 12 hellish and muddy obstacles.   We will be running as a team to raise funds for training and pay the expense to search for lost persons.

How can you help?

You can sponsor any member of the team per obstacle they complete or a set donation.  After the race you will be contacted with the number of obstacle that were completed and to collect your donation.  All contributions are tax-deductible.

Suggested Sponsorship Levels:

BRONZE – $1/obstacle x 12 = $12

SILVER – $2/obstacle x 12 = $24

GOLD – $3/obstacle x = $36

Warrior Dash Obstacles

Would you rather sponsor all the team members for a single obstacle for $10?  Pick from the following obstacles the team members must accomplish to finish the race:

• Black Forest – Run through the unmarked woods
• Great Warrior Wall – Conquer the wooden barricade
• Tunnels of Fear – Burrow through black tunnels
• Hay Feaver – Hustle up and over giant straw bales
• Junkyard Jump – Stampede through the scrap yard
• Deadweight Drifter – Trudge through waist deep water, climbing over submerged logs
• Knee High Hell – Speed through hundreds of tires
• Cargo Climb – Maneuver over the cargo nets
• LumberJacked – Cross over and under the staggering logs
• Black out – Dive into darkness and escape the trenches
• Muddy Mayhem – Scramble beneath barbed wire as you near the finish line
• Warrior Roast – Leap over the warrior flames

Come join our team or cheer us on as we get soaked and filthy climbing over cargo nets, through muddy swamps, and under barbed wire! We are leaving the dogs home to keep them safe, the humans are crazy enough to sign up for this kind of physical abuse.

Team Members Entering the Warrior Dash

Feel free to sponsor any or all of the team members

Sherri – mid-50′s, female handler, engineering consultant

Shane – early 20′s, male handler, college student

Michael – late 20′s, male support member, IT tech

Liz – mid-20′s, female handler, IT tech consultant

Brian – early 30′s, male support member, IT tech

Bill – late 40′s, male handler, private air-craft consultant

Amanda – mid 20′s, female support member, Tae Kwando instructor

Christopher Ramirez – Early 30′s, US Army

How the Warrior Dash Funds Will Be Used

It costs about $10,000 to transport, feed and house a team for a week long search. Additionally the team must carry insurance to utilize training locations. No one on the team receives a salary. All funds will be applied to the cost of training, searches, and demonstrations to benefit the community.

Any and all support is appreciated.