Strength lies in calmness

The Bloodhound Norka is a gentle, friendly, and persistent dog, but she is also some­what stubborn. Marta Gutowska, a search and res­cue dog handler and trainer at the Polish search and rescue dog organisation STORAT, respects her four-legged friend's oc­ca­sion­al wilfulness. The two share a spe­cial re­la­tion­ship.

"Norka came to me when she was a ten-week-old puppy. She was a gift from my daugh­ter Anna," Marta says joyfully. She has been train­ing search and rescue dogs in vari­ous disciplines since 1974, from Ava­lanche Search to Rubble Search to Area Search. With Norka, she ventured into new territory - Mantrailing. In this form of nose work, the dogs learn to pick up the scent of a missing person and find him or her using a specific scent carrier (e.g., t-shirt, glove).

When Norka was three months old, Marta started the first training attempts in a play­ful way. The experienced trainer was aware that in training a Bloodhound she could not rely solely on her previous knowl­edge. "I have worked with dogs of different breeds and pre­pared them for the mission. How­ever, the learning behaviour of a Blood­hound can­not be compared to that of a Golden Retriever or German Shep­herd. It is crucial to develop a certain sensitivity for your dog's needs and will­ing­ness to per­form," explains Marta.

Bloodhounds have a particular ability to solve problems and a strong will to search and find. At the same time, they have a cer­tain aver­sion to obedience and get bored easily. With Norka, it's not much dif­fer­ent. "It took me a whole year to teach her how to retrieve. But I can also see that Norka is really trying hard," says Marta. In 2021, the two managed to be­come the first and so far, only search and res­cue dog team to pass the IRO In­ter­na­ti­on­al Man­trail­ing Test at the second highest level A (MT-A) with a good score of 240 points (of which 88 out of 100 points were for obedi­ence). "We are all very proud of our Norka," Marta says happily about the great achieve­ment. The next goal for the pair is to successfully complete a level B test, which is considered a prerequisite for the mis­sion-readiness test.

Responsible and qualified mantrailing train­ing requires time, patience and em­pa­thy. Norka and Marta try to train at least twice a week. They always set themselves new chal­lenges and work on scent trails of dif­fer­ent lengths or ages. The trails run through forests, parks, residential areas or even crowded ur­ban areas. Once Norka has picked up the scent, she takes up the chase determinedly and does not allow herself to be distracted by anything.

Norka loves to relax from the mentally de­manding work by playing with other dogs. She enjoys roaming through for­ests or dash­ing across wide fields. Despite her in­de­pen­dent character, she can be recalled by Marta at any time. "I trained the recall with her very early on and so I can let her off the leash with­out any problems," Marta explains. When there are no other dogs around to play with, Norka also likes to swim and retrieve toys from the water. And she is very fond of cud­dly toys.

We look forward to following them through their further training.

Marta Gutowska is the co-founder of the Polish search and rescue dog or­ga­ni­sa­ti­on STORAT, a long-standing member or­ga­ni­sa­ti­on of the IRO. In her work as a vol­un­teer search and rescue dog handler, she has taken part in around 300 na­ti­o­nal res­cue operations. She passes on her pro­found knowledge as a trainer.