From difficult dog to lifesaver

Together with his handler Kruno Stipetić, the Belgian shep­herd Draco forms a suc­cess­ful search and rescue dog team. Dur­ing their vol­un­teer missions, they have al­ready saved numerous lives together with the col­leagues of the IRO member or­ga­ni­sa­ti­on Hrvatska gorska služba spašavanja (HGSS). 

During the early years of his life, no one would have thought that Draco would de­vel­op into such an enthusiastic and tal­ent­ed search and rescue dog. He came to Kruno when he was just under one year old. At first, he was aggressive, even to­wards Kruno, and experts advised the dog handler to have the dog put down. But Kruno firmly believed in Draco and did not want to give him up.

Kruno's persistence, patience and em­pa­thy in training Draco paid off. At the age of two and a half, Draco passed the suit­abil­ity test with flying colours and thus laid the foun­da­tion for his training as a search and res­cue dog. Companions of the two could not believe that it was one and the same dog. The initial scepticism gave way to ad­mi­ra­tion. 

In the meantime, Draco and Kruno have become an invaluable part of HGSS. Their intense relationship and mutual trust make them a harmonious team that acts confi­dently when searching for missing persons in case of emergency - whether after build­ing collapses or avalanches.

Knowing that they have saved some­one's life is the greatest reward of their in­ten­sive training.  

Suitability test
This preliminary test is taken at the be­gin­­ning of the training as a search and rescue dog and should provide in­for­ma­tion as to wheth­er the dog or the team is suitable for the education. A re­li­ably de­vel­oped social behaviour towards other dogs and people is required. The dog is confronted with dif­fer­ent situations and must not show any fear­ful or even ag­gres­sive behaviour.