The best of the best came to train in the Los Angeles area -- this week's America's finest search and rescue dogs perfected their skills and proved who were the top dogs during the Metacam® IRONDOG training mission (April 10-15, 2005). Created by the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation (http://www.searchdogfoundation.org/), this annual event gives canine search teams across the nation the opportunity to challenge their skills as well as give the general public an opportunity to witness first hand the preparation and training of a highly trained search dog.
The winners of Metacam® IRONDOG Competition were named Friday, April 15, 2005. The winning team consisted of Randy Gross and his golden retriever Dusty from the Sacramento Metro Fire Department, Bud Sousa and his golden retriever Kane, who serve the Oakland Fire Department and John Dean from the Phoenix Fire Department and his canine partner, Reo, a chocolate Labrador.
After four (4) days of intensive training in real-life scenarios that were scored, the team, nicknamed the "Bloodhounds", entered the final day of competition with a score of 29,320 points. After competing in a series of timed skills and agility events, the team's canines secured the win. The Metacam® IRONDOG's skills events included a Time Obstacle Course, Bulls Eye Recall and Stop, Direction Control, Retrieve Relay and the Long Crawl.
Teams from the local the fire departments of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles City, Ventura County, Santa Paula, Kern, Montebello and Santa Barbara as well as Northern California, Florida, Arizona and Mexico competed in this year's Metacam® IRONDOG.
ABOUT NATIONAL DISASTER SEARCH DOG FOUNDATION
National Disaster Search Dog Foundation is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to rescue dogs and partner them with firefighters to become the most highly trained canine search teams in the nation. The Foundation is responsible for training over 40% of all of the Advanced FEMA canine search teams in the United States and provided 33% of the teams deployed on September 11, 2001 to the World Trade Center. Website: http://www.searchdogfoundation.org/ or call 1-888-4K9-HERO.
SOURCE: National Disaster Search Dog Foundation
CONTACT: Margaret Logreira of National Disaster Search Dog Foundation,
Cell: +1-917-941-8527 or Office: +1-212-358-1589,
Web site: http://www.searchdogfoundation.org/
