Official water rescue dogs: Capri and Vera !

Capri

Capri

New member
Capri and Vera performed as always in the water Wednesday night and obtained the 1st star Water Rescue Dog Team diploma with myself, a diploma recognized by the Vlaamse Reddingscentrale (i.e. Belgian Lifesaving Federation). This allows myself to work officially with Capri and Vera on the Belgian beaches as a dog-human lifeguard team. They were dogs 5th and 6th to ever gain this privilege :).
 
Cascadians

Cascadians

New member
Congrats! It must have seemed easy after all you have done in Italy. Post the pictures!

BTW Orka is now swimming daily, very strong, crossing the cold fast wide Clackamas River near its Willamette confluence many times per session. We had to stop swimming the sloughs because they are out of water; it got very hot here, still is, and has not rained for a long time.

I kept telling Orka he'd better live up to his roots the fussy tantruming boy. Now he LOVES to swim. I will now tell him his mom & grandma have yet another water award :)
 
Capri

Capri

New member
Thank you for the support! We are extremely proud of both of them :). No photos from that evening though as it was getting dark already when we finished (Capri and Vera did their diplomas after the normal trainings in the evening). I am very glad that Orka (and also the other puppies :) ) are as water-oriented as these two; this is what newfs are meant to be doing :).


The situations that we had to solve were ‘new’, meaning that myself and the dog were behind the corner while it was set up. The time started from when we walked onto the shore and started the analysis: what equipment could we use, where were the victims, how were they hurt (conscious, unconscious, dead) and what were the potential dangers in the water and on-land (underwater ropes of the markers, boat’s engine etc). This took approximately 30 seconds before starting the rescue action.

Capri had a motorboat (engine on), with one adult (only injured) and one unconscious child on-board. Vera had one unconscious adult (breathing) and one unconscious child (not breathing) in the water.

Both the dogs worked perfectly, calmly, attentively and reliably :).

Capri’s situation:
1. Get the boat driver to trust me (=rescuer), so that he has the courage to turn the engine off while I swim towards the boat (dog follows behind)
2. Getting information of the victims from the boat driver (number of victims and what kind of trouble they are having)
3. Get into the boat :D
4. Pull the motor up
5. Give the rope to the dog (pulls to shore)
6. Keep the boat driver talking/alert (so that I notice if he loses consciousness), while performing CPR to the child (open airways, 30 compressions, 2 breathings)
7. Coming to shore: making a new analysis of the boat driver (whilst helping him out of the boat), carrying the child to a safe place on shore and continuing with CPR
8. At this point the boat driver is OK and can send him to call for help (911, how many patients, location and coming back after call)
9. Continuing with CPR (dog calmly waiting on shore)
-It was important for Capri to wait for the action (before I was ready to give the rope), after which she must obey from first command and continue independently while I was doing other things. She must stay calmly on land after the exercise.

Vera’s situation :
1. Decide who to save first : unconscious child (not breathing) or unconscious adult (breathing). The child was closer to shore than the adult.
2. I sent Vera to the child and swam to the adult myself.
3. Vera took the child’s hand and swam to me, while I was supporting and pulling the adult victim towards the shore.
4. When Vera got to me, I was to take her harness and let Vera continue to shore.
5. Transporting the two unconscious victims to a safe place on shore away from the water.
6. Start CPR on the child (as the adult was unconscious, but the airways were open and was breathing well).
7. Vera continued with the alarm-bark as there was no-one else on shore to help/no phones etc.
8. 1 min CPR after which run to the surfclub for help, after which continue with the child’s CPR
-It was important for Vera to obey the first command (as we were swimming to different victims), come to me after taking hold of the child and continue the alarm-bark on land after the water rescue.

A photo of Capri (2 victims) and Vera (myself and 1 victim) this summer :
 
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Cascadians

Cascadians

New member
I noticed on some other photos you sometimes have another gizmo on your Newfs besides the Ruffwear PFD -- it looks like big colored rings?

What are they called, how and when do you use them, where do you buy them, do you recommend them?

The decisions you have to make so fast and have your Newfs respond are amazing! Intelligent working dogs! Those descriptions, wowsers! So much for you to be proud of, bravo.

How did you teach an alarm bark? Orka has the "Speak!" command down perfectly (1st command he learned LOL) but how to alarm a continuous bark?

Are you going to work on a Belgian beach as a dog-human lifeguard?

Extremely interesting what you are doing. Here there are multiple drownings daily because it is hot and the rivers are swarming with ppl. One place near our house has several lifeguards and still ppl are drowning right in front of them. High Rocks is the location. Often ppl drown without any noise movement or splashing to alert others.

Where we are training now many have drowned. Last night a man who has lived near there for over 30 years told me a Newf Club used to use the location for water rescue training. You cannot believe how many ppl take one look at Orka and because of Lewis & Clark & Seaman say, Oh, a water rescue dog, he needs to stay here. So I think there would be big demand here for your type of skills.

Every evening while we're out there I expect a body or two to come toward or past us on the current. Orka is busy rescuing his bumper and other dogs and ignoring ppl but he'll get the idea soon.
 
Cascadians

Cascadians

New member
With all the different types of water rescue training you've had, and all the practical experience, what do you think is the best way for a Newf to rescue a struggling swimmer on the fly with no equipment?

Newf taking hand, swimmer grabbing tail or swimmer grabbing hips? Or something else?
 
Capri

Capri

New member
Thank you everyone! We are extremely proud of the girls :)!


We use our waterwork harnesses always. We only use the Ruffwear floatable harnesses when we’re at events or at longer waterwork camps, so that we can do a little bit more than what the dogs would otherwise be able to do. The harnesses are essentially non-floatable harnesses with two floatable rings, one on either side. We get them from a local horse-equipment-tailor and yes, I definitely do recommend getting waterwork harnesses, as the actual flotation-aid (Ruffwear) is only rarely needed.

Alarm bark is basically your speak-word. Just expect him to bark for a longer period of time before you praise/reward and he’ll learn to continue until you tell him to stop.

No, I will not be going to the Belgian beaches to work as a dog-human lifeguard at the moment, as I live in the UK and visit Belgium only during my vacations (and then I am always plenty busy with everything!!). BUT I will continue with prevention work with the dogs while I am in the UK and will continue taking the dogs to events to demonstrate their skills to the public and to rescue organizations.

I would never ever send the dogs alone to a struggling swimmer (apart from trainings) as you never know what they’ll do. But in theory, the best way would be for the swimmer to take the fur on the withers.
 
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