From puppy to hero

Golden Retriever Ray of Light was born on 25 May 2011. For his owner Borut Modic, an experienced dog handler from our mem­ber or­ga­ni­sa­ti­on Društvo enota vodnikov reševalnih psov Ljubljana (EVRPL) in Slo­venia, it was clear at once that Ray of Light has the predisposition to be a search and rescue dog. 

Borut is a dog breeder himself and has there­fore the possibility to follow the de­vel­op­ment of his puppies attentively from the first day on. "You can see the dif­fer­ences very quickly", says Borut about the de­vel­op­ment of the puppies. The most im­por­tant charac­teristics of a search and rescue dog for him are curiosity, courage, endurance, level of activity and desire for food. 

Ray of Light brought all these char­ac­ter­is­tics with him. He saw food rewards as mo­ti­va­tion and played while his siblings were sleeping. Thanks to his adventurous spirit, he was always the first to fearlessly face all the obstacles Borut had built up for the lit­ter. And already as a puppy the male showed great loyalty to his humans.

With two to three play units a day, each lasting five minutes, Ray of Light's search and rescue dog training already started in the first weeks of his life. "This way the dog collects positive learning ex­peri­ences and in addition the instincts, which are used in the following training steps, are stimulated", says the dog handler about the training pro­cess. The positive ex­peri­ence is the most impor­tant thing for the young dog. Borut pursues the following principle in the train­ing of his dogs: Better no experience than a negative ex­peri­ence. 

The aim of the training is that searching be­comes a game. The first training units are therefore carried out in a playful man­ner. For motivation Borut uses dif­fer­ent means like food, toys or retrieving. This way the dog never knows what to ex­pect and the motiva­tion level remains con­stant­ly high. From the age of six months, the frequency of training units is reduced, but the level of difficulty is in­creased.

As an adult and trained search and res­cue dog, Ray of Light currently trains twice a week. In addition, intensive train­ing camps of two to five days take place throughout the year. On top, the search and rescue dog team has already com­pleted numerous Internatio­nal IRO Testing Events, team com­pe­ti­tions and Mission Readiness Tests (MRTs) in the fields of Area and Rubble Search. 

After an intensive two-year training, Ray of Light has become a trained search and res­cue dog in the disciplines Area, Ava­lanche and Rubble search since 31 May 2013. Since then the lifesaver on four paws has com­plet­­ed around 50 missions, many of them with a happy ending. "I never see the search for a missing person as the success of an individ­ual, but al­ways as a team effort", says Borut about the work as a member of the search and rescue dog unit EVRPL. "Nevertheless, it is an indescribable feeling when your own dog has found the missing or injured per­son. Great relief, contentment and an un­be­liev­able calmness set in - a true roller­coaster of emotions," adds the ex­peri­enced dog handler. Ray of Light gets his well-deserved reward after every search.

Search and rescue work is more than dog training, it's a lifestyle.

Borut Modic