Lola the rescuer

Man’s Best Friend is indeed a friend in need. My dog Lola travels around the globe to rescue people who are trapped in mishaps, disasters and natural calamities. Lola came to me when she was just nine months old. Born in Tarragona province of Reus City in Spain, she was a gift from a friend named Jose Luis Garcia Vicente. Training of Lola started when she came to my country Argentina… training took two years… long and hard… but the effort is always worth it when the goal is to rescue people. Yes Lola is a rescue dog!

Strong bond…
Consistency in work and having a strong bond with his rescue dog are the qualities that a handler should display. We learn to read body language of our dog… just looking at her, we can determine if the dog has access to the smell of the victim, if she is tired, and determining other behaviour.
Special spirit…
The intensity in the working dog totally changes when you have the least indication of a possible victim. Lola is trained to find people alive and dead. Her signals change; for example, when a person is alive, she is trained to bark, so that the person who is covered by debris will give a signal. When she finds a corpse, she is taught to scratch.
It is very easy to know if a victim is buried in the debris of a collapsed building, but it is very difficult to know where specifically he is buried since extraction equipment has to penetrate the structure to reach the victim.
The exercise…
When Lola was in training, she underwent more rigorous physical activities like running, walking, jumping, obstacles to skill, etc. Currently, she has a maintenance activity to stay agile.
The disasters handled…
So far, Lola has worked in six search and rescue missions: Argentina landslide (2009), Haiti earthquake (2010), Chile earthquake and tsunami (2010), Guatemala landslide and hurricane (2010), New Zealand earthquake (2011) and Turkey earthquake (2011). Of all works performed, missions in Haiti was the most demanding, where after 12 days of work, nine live people and eight bodies were recovered.
Leisure moments…
Lola has helped us save many lives. In our spare time, we like to swim and rest at home on the couch with the family… not everything in life is just work… there are also moments of play and rest.
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