They managed it! Who would have dared put their money on the FCI European Section's 2012 Show in Bucharest being such a resounding success? Victim of a smear campaign on the social networks (what power, what strength, often positive but at times also very harmful), the Asociatia Chinologica Romana (AchR) was able to keep a cool head, rising to the challenge and attracting more than 6,000 dogs to the Romanian capital. The AChR was able to leverage the smear campaign against it to promote the show, and the least we can say is that it was very successful in doing so. Congratulations to the whole Romanian team, brilliantly led by Mr C. Stefanescu and Mr P. Muntean.

Unfortunately, three of the canine world’s top personalities have recently left us and the FCI would like to pay tribute to them here...

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Yves De Clercq
FCI Executive Director
FCI World Team Championship for Rescue Dogs - 23-26 August 2012, Žatec (CZ)

This was the third time the biannual FCI World Team Championship for Rescue Dogs was held, with 23 teams from nine countries - Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Romania and Slovenia - gathering for the competition in Žatec (CZ) on 23.-26 August 2012. The Championship covered the following disciplines: tracking, area search, rubble search and for the first time “universal search”. The tracking, area search and rubble search teams were confronted with a search task in their respective discipline, along with a joint obedience and dexterity test. The “universal” teams by contrast were faced with all three search tasks at the same level of performance, as well as the obedience and dexterity tests.

© Detlef Kühn
Defending champion Italy

The FCI Rescue Dog Commission headed by its president, Frans Jansen (NL), provided an international judging panel full of well-known names. Jose Buggenhout (BE) - tracking, Volker Marx (DE) - area search, Vilem Babicka (CZ) - rubble search, Kenji Honda (JP) and Sirpa Pellikka (FI) - obedience and dexterity. Detlef Kühn (DE) acted as supervisor, overseeing the whole event.
© Detlef Kühn
FCI Rescue Dog Commission President Frans Jansen in conversation with supervisor Detlef Kühn
The event was organised by the SZBK under the leadership of Helena Šabatová. She was supported by many helping hands and a large number of sponsors, doing all she could to ensure a well-organised FCI Team World Championship. The one big problem was the stadium. Up to the day before the event, the Interior Ministry had promised that the stadium would be available. But shortly before the opening ceremony consent was withdrawn, meaning that the organising committee was faced with the major task of renting a football pitch at short notice, thereby ensuring the Championship could take place. This change of venue meant that there were not nearly as many spectators as expected, which was very unfortunate given the high level of performance offered by the teams. The area for the search tasks was prepared in accordance with the regulations.
© Detlef Kühn
Members of the FCI Rescue Dog Commission at the award ceremony
Participants were confronted with extreme weather conditions, ranging from sultry heat to heavy showers and strong gusts of wind.
Tracking took place on a 30 x 30 metre overgrown field, in which a marker had first to be found. Once this starting point had been found, the track took the dogs through several different types of land difficult to cope with, with eight objects needing to be found. At the end of the ca. 3-km course, the person sought needed to be tracked down and marked by the tracking dog. The Czech team, led by Miroslav Šimek and with Miloslav Čeněk, Ludmila Mašatová and Alice Zelinková as its members, ended up clear winners of the tracking championship, with Germany coming in second and France third.
© Detlef Kühn
Helena Šabatová, in charge of organising the event, thanks the judges
© Detlef Kühn
The Japanese team receiving its instructions for the rubble search
 Turning to the area search, the teams were given the task of finding three missing people inside a 50,000 m2 overgrown hilly area. This competition was won by the Slovenian team of Gregor Žigon, Davorin Bastjančič, Igor Leban and Jerneja Ternovec, with Germany again taking second place and Italy coming in third.
The rubble search discipline saw teams having to search a 5,000 m2 area of buildings and tunnels, looking for three missing people who were either buried under up to two metres of rubble or were hidden in high places.
The surprise winner was the Finnish team led by Majka Borgström with the rescue dog teams Nina Pulli, Hannu Saami and Sam Widlund. Second place went to the Czech Republic and third to Slovenia.

© Detlef Kühn
Finland wins the FCI Rubble Search World Championship
© Detlef Kühn
Finland wins the FCI Rubble Search World Championship

The challenges facing teams competing in the “universal” discipline, in which all rescue dog teams need to be trained in all three tracking disciplines, were best mastered by the German team led by Denny Stübling. His team, consisting of Cornelia Höfler, Renate Eberts and Dr Isabella Kühn, were clear winners of the first FCI “Universal” Team Championship title, ending up way in front of the Czech Republic.

© Detlef Kühn
FCI Rescue Dog Commission president Frans Jansen awards the German “universal” team the Challenge Cup for the best team in the top trial level.
© Detlef Kühn
The FCI World Championship title for “universal” teams goes to Germany

Detlef Kühn
Superviseur