WBR & Switzerland Dog Handler Training Course

Wow, what a great experience! My adventure started out at 4:30am picking up Andy & Zeke from Park City Ski Patrol, they were going to be my travel partners. Our plans were to fly to Zurich and take a train up to the town of Andermatt where the dog school was set for training. Zeke was great and had no problems traveling by air or ground, we arrived late Friday afternoon with everything set up for us, we were not allowed to go to our room until we had a hot meal prepared for us. This was just the first of many great meals to come over the next week.  

Later that night we had a short meeting with the Swiss instructor's, what a bunch of great guys they made us feel very welcome even when I could not understand Swiss-German. Marcel Meier was our contact for this trip and went out of his way to make sure we understood everything and really took great care of us. Thank you Marcel!

If you have ever been exposed to the 4 phase Swiss method you know it works, it's a slow process and very detailed  every step along the way. The big change for me was the sausage, yep sausage in the hole as reward for all the dogs. I must say that all the dogs were very excited to get in the hole! 

I learned so much from this exchange, the focus was on dogs and searching with dogs but we attended a classroom discussion every night after dinner. Again my Swiss-German is not great so a little was lost in translation, we both attended a C. P. R. class and a Hypothermia class with Rega (Swiss Air Rescue) and did a simulated avalanche recovery of a hypothermic patient after finding him with a probe line. We also did a review and field testing of shoveling technics for faster recovery one afternoon.

It was a privilege to attend this class with the Swiss dog handlers, our last night was a special one. A very special meal was prepared for us and diplomas were given out to the certifying handlers - more food & drink-  and I was also presented with a diploma of attendance and a big bag of sausage so I could return home and teach my dog (Mick) the right way of searching. After this we all joined in a song, "Lawinenhundefuhrerlied" = Avalanche Dog Lead, again my Swiss-German is not great but the chorus goes like this:

"Such forward my faithful friend, fulfill your duty as your nose deep in the snow. I always trust you in the white death always on the track at day or night or if the sky bright blue, the avalanche rages and cracks"

After a few more "cheers" the dinner winded down and we all said our good-byes and back to the United States of America we headed.

Tracy Christensen - Watch Backcountry Rescue / Sundance Ski Patrol