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Show Night missions. Usually these have less chances of success because darkness considerably lowers the chances of a proper evaluation of the avalanche. The same applies to missions under foggy conditions, which make for even more difficulties. However, they cannot be avoided under some circumstances. However, care should be taken in the case of relief crews, for example, they they are dispatched in such a way as to arrive at the avalanche in daylight. Proper illumination is most important for night missions. If no floodlights are available, the night crews have to be equipped with large numbers of torches and headlamps. Immediately upon arrival, torches are installed at the edges of the avalanche in order to provide the necessary lighting. The dog leaders must be equipped with headlamps under all circumstances so they can observe their dogs over a large area. The night avalanche mission, as such, proceeds along the same lines as a day mission. Observations have shown that the dogs search even more calmly and more intensively than they do in the daytime. The sulphurous fumes of the torches do not seem to have a harmful effect on their ability to pick up scents. 3. THE SCIENCE OF MISSIONS IN RELATION TO THE DOG. General teaching principle. The operation of the mission depends on the close interaction between the trained understanding of the leader and the trained nose of the dog. 1. Example: If I take the best avalanche dog in the world and start him on a search in the city of Innsbruck for a person buried in an avalanche below the Hafelekars, the success of the search will be negligible. The reason is that the dimensions of the search area are too vast for the dog. 2. Example: If I am able to determine a search area measuring 50x50 M on an avalanche on the slopes of the Hafelekars on the basis of my trained understanding of avalanches, then we can complete a successful search in a matter of minutes. - 62 - |
