From 26^th to 29^th September, 2022, the Association of Rescue Dog Handlers of Slovenia organized a rubble training for its members at Tritolwerk in Austria. From DVRPS, the following participated in the training: 

Vesna Žagar with Yaffa and Giny, Dušan Weber with Ares, Silvana Šneberger with Lola and Liza, Alenka Fritzel with Brina, Viktoria Orosz with Ninja, Andrej Indihar with Meli, Mojca Kučič with Kira, Miha Kavčič with Nala and Nataša Bregar with Ajka and Cubo.

We arrived in Tritolwerk already on Sunday evening. We were placed in containers equiped for living inside the Tritolwerk area.

The trainings took place for 4 days, at mornings and afternoons. In between, we had a break for lunch and a short rest. We were divided into two groups. One was led by Dušan Weber, and the other by Alois Balog.

Since Tritolwerk has many workplaces, we were able to process at least two workplaces every day, sometimes even more. The workplaces offered different options for hiding figurants (depth, height, darkness, dark tunnels and corridors, different obstacles and materials).

The training sessions were organized in such a way that they were adapted to each dog individually. Some had quite a bit of trouble moving on the smooth concrete slabs, others didn't. However, through training, we managed to get the dogs to get to know this smooth concrete slabs and in the end, moving around them did not pose any major problems.

The training was perfectly planned and executed. Ajka and Cubo got a lot from the training, they gained new experiences, especially moving on uncomfortable material and solving unknown situations independently. Even I, as a guide, am richer for many new experiences and new knowledge.

On Thursday morning we had our last training session. After lunch we drove back to Ljubljana.