Watercubs & Kivisilmän

working show-quality newfoundlands

  Photos: http://watercubs.kuvat.fi/kuvat/Events%20%20Tapahtumat/Bettinas%20New%20Zealand%20trip/

A trip to the other side of the world for water rescue work, Easter 2012 - written by Bettina Salmelin

Everything started when Bettina Salmelin got to know Fiona Robertson (Newflands). Fiona was planning a European tour and was interested in joining us for water rescue trainings. As it happened, the same weekend Fiona was planning to stay in Belgium, we had our annual swimming pool trainings (for trainers) and a lecture training seminar weekend (theory for handlers) held by Karel Mennes. Fiona was positively impressed about the trainings and decided to place an invitation for me to tome to New Zealand to hold some water rescue camps. New Zealand is made up of islands surrounded by sea, but yet water rescue is only starting to make baby steps ahead. It would be important for the trainer to be able to guide the trainings in the right direction so that hopefully somewhere in the not so distant future, there would be the possibility of incorporating lifeguard dogs on beaches.

The trip sounded absolutely fabulous and during the following winter holidays the flights were booked. I would be spending four weeks over Easter 2012 working at local farms (deer, bulls, cattle and horses) during the weeks to get credited for animal husbandry extra mural studies as a part of my veterinary degree. The weekends I would spend training dogs. I was to stay at Fiona's guest bedroom and the flight expenses would be covered by the entry fees. In total I held three one-day water rescue camps (trainings in the morning and afternoon, with a lecture at midday) and I was invited to hold a raw feeding seminar at a local raw feeding shop.

Bettina and some of the 1st day participants

The water rescue camp entries were limited to ten dogs to be able to allow individual attention to every dog. The camp was full the first and last day (sea), and half full the last (lake). The structures, working dog temperaments and swimming abilities were about the same as what you'd normally see in Europe. The biggest difference between NZ training and normal European training is that they mostly train in sea. The sea water is easier for the dogs as it gives a lot of buoyancy. I was very surprised at what a huge difference it really does make in the dogs. Dogs that are used to swimming in the sea were not as good swimmers in lake water as they tended to swim much lower and their swimming power was weaker. This made me think back to the proper Newfoundland conformational structure as Newfoundland is also surrounded by salty sea water. Could the modern Newfoundland structure be more traditional that what is commonly thought as their swimming techniques only improve with the aid from water buoyancy.

   
                            The participants practiced holding the dog still in water - and saving two people at the same time

The water rescue trainings were modifications on the basic saving people (and multiples), taking objects out and retrieving the boat. The most interesting (and suprisingly also well completed) exercises were a "call off" where you throw a toy, send your dog and call your dog back before he reaches it, and jumping from the boat and fetching a roat from the shore back to the boat. We also did a lot of variations and scenarios, for example tossing a life jacket, boat, drowner and an oar into the water and asking the participants to "solve" the scenario. This was a lot of fun, and seemed to be very productive at teaching the participants to think up of new exercises when they were asked to contruct similar scenarios for the others in the group. 
Hopefully they will all take this skill to their own trainings. 

Saving the drowner and retrieving the boat

The waterwork midday lectures covered basic training, new ILS K9 team lifesaving regulations and general notes on how to set up your own trainings. The local newspaper came to make a front-page coverage about the camps :-).

 
Take out - Learning how to lift the dog back into the boat.
 
In addition to the camps I had the opportunity to go and follow the Kiwi Newfoundland Club's trainings after the first two camps. They were planning on having a test day, but the instructors were so enthousiastic about the exercises we covered during the camps that they would rather continue and train those exercises. The cub secretary had even written down all the exercises in detail which we had covered during the camp (about 14-ish per day per group), and that's what they were training :-). I was extremely proud to have had such success with the trainings :-).


Kiwi Newfoundland trainings


I talked with the group and got to find out that the tests are much more relaxed than what they normally are in Europe. During the test day as long as the participant successfully completes the exercises in a set class, the judge will sign it off and the participant can move to the next class. It's not a question of counting points or seconds.

   
During the last day we did some fun exercises: a newf saving six people - and a lab pulling some leonbergs and newfs


In addition to all the waterwork I had the opportunity to go to three shows. The shows were outdoor drive-in shows, with approximately 500 entries per day, divided between four judges. There were between 3-5 newfs. During the same day there can be even two shows, which was surprising to hear. The classes were the ordinary ones apart from an additional "New Zealand bred" class, and no champion class. It does take six CACs to become a champion, but due to the small entry numbers, it is usually relatively easy. The biggest difference between NZ and Finnish (or European) shows is that best of sex class winners also competed in the group rings. For example the "best intermediate in group" and "best intermediate in show" were also chosen. The prizes were usually dog food or towels, very unlike the trophies we are used to. The winners received a long ribbon with the dogs' name and placing written on. 

During the non-working, non-training days I managed to get a few days of "touristy stuff". The trips included for example a trip to see the dolphins and the whales just out of Auckland city. It was amazing the see the animals in the wild, follow how during their feeding they push the fish to the surface and how the dolphins, whales and birds all work together. 

    
Auckland - Dolphins

Sealife working together: dolphins, whale and birds pushing the fish to the surface

I also travelled past the Lord of the Rings Hobbitton and all the way up Mount doom (Mount Ruapehy). 

 
Mount Ruapehu

I had the opportunity of traelling down the Coramandel coast and sticking my bare feet into the "hot water beadh" sand. There are still active volcanoes and hot springs in New Zealand: one of them went accross the beach. It was also amazing to just jump out of the car: get undressed and jump into almost a boiling hot river. 

 
Hot Water Beach   -  Coramandel coast

 
Coramandel coast

We also travelled to see old and still working gold mines. In one of the gold mines there were "glow worms": worms that have a glowing head and produce a silk-like netting to trap flies into. 

Glow worm

We also visited the Wai-O-Tapu and Orakei Korako volcanoareas: the colours were amazing!

  
Orakei Korako - Wai-O-Tapu

During the car trips I saw a lot of wild turkeys. After talking with the farmers I got to know that there is no turkey farming in New Zealand, only wild turkeys (and too many of them!).


Wild turkeys

All in all the trip was absolutely fabulous. I received another invitation to come back next year (and I hope to do so), with perhaps extending the trip to also visit the Australian water rescue dogs. Lets see how I'll have the time to do so as for example this upcoming summer is already planned full on water rescue camps in the US and hopefully also some of our own puppy news :-). Even though the four week trip was definitely worth it, at least by the end I did start missing our own, and working with them, my own dogs, in the water.

 
Black sand beach - The blue lagoon

 
  Scenery

Water Rescue Camps in New Zealand - recap written by Phill Moore & Lela newf 

(c) Salmelin