International Rescue Dog Organisation
| Founded | 1993 |
|---|---|
| Type | Non-governmental organization |
| Location |
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Members
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115 |
| Website | www.iro-dogs.org |
The International Rescue Dog Organisation (IRO), is a global umbrella organisation for national recue dog organisations with headquarter in Salzburg, Austria. The charitable organisation is supporting the cooperation in rescue dog work and is sending judges to international testing events for rescue dog teams, organises courses, trainings and competitions – such as the rescue dog world championship.
After the 1988 Armenia earthquake problems occurred with the coordination between rescue dog teams from various nations and the local authorities. This revitalised the idea for international exchange and the definition for standards for deployment and training of rescue dog teams and led to the foundation of IRO in 1993 at an international rescue dog symposium in Stockholm-Rosersberg.
Wolfgang Zörner, at that time chief of the Österreichische Rettungshundebrigade (ÖRHB), was elected president by the founding nations Germany, Sweden, Czech Republic, New Zealand, Austria, USA and United Kingdom and the office of the organisation was allocated in Austria. This was the beginning for a new international cooperation with a joint testing- and training standard. Already 1972 Richard Radakovic from Austria and William Syrotuc from the USA had founded the International Federation of Rescue Dog Associations (IFRA), which was forgotten soon.
IRO is organising international testing events in the disciplines rubble, avalanche, area, tracking and waterrescue. Judges, who are trained and sent out by the IRO, evaluate the performance of the participating rescue dog teams. The criteria are laid down in the international testing standards for rescue dogs which have been elaborated by IRO together with the Fédération Cynologique Internationale, which is the s an international federation of kennel clubs.
At tests at the level A and B hiding persons have to be found with the help of dogs. Rescue dog handlers that pass the Mission Readiness Test (MRT) are accepted on the list of mission-ready rescue dog teams. For this also knowledge about the structure of international deployments, hierarchies and guidelines, worksite marking and information management is necessary. For a dog the training to become a mission ready rescue dog takes up to two to three years. Between the age of two and ten years the rescue dog is eligible for deployment.
The majority of deployments is taking place in the home countries of the rescue dog teams: at avalanches, collapse of buildings or other accidents. Very often missing persons have to be found.
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Wikipedia