About as

Beginnings

Our story started in 2013, when I chose this puppy from the six brothers. Since she was three months Demi is part of my life, a family member and a working dog at the same time. She is my child, sister, my best friend, the better in me. She is a Swiss White Shepherd, registered by a wonderful breeder,  Kata Magyar .
Since she was a puppy I knew that she would be more than a "simple" family dog.
By the time she got all her vaccinations and could leave the flat she’d known all the basic commands, she’d learnt already everything, that was taught to adult dogs.
She was very hyperactive as well, so l knew, she needed to move on, so we started to look for a good school for her. We visited several schools, until we found the best for us and started a dog nursery school. She did not go there for a long time as she was almost immediately transferred into dog school, because she was well-behaved, and she did know all the basic command words. She was four or five months of age that time.
During the school period we learnt very much about what it means to be a working dog. That is why I will always be grateful for our teachers and the school itself!
At the age of one and a half years she did a successful BH Exam.
After the exam we had to find new challenges.

Demi as a tracking dog

In nurseary school it already appeared to her instructors and me as well that she is extremely interested in smells, so it was very difficoult for her to learn that sometimes she had to lift her nose up from the ground. 
As first we had to learn the professional obedience work tracking was not a task yet.

I had not dealt with the idea of tracking until once on a long walk in the woods and fields it got dark and we headed home. When we got home I realized, that my cell phone was missing. There was nothing to do, we had to go back into the dark night hoping that we could still find it. However, there was not much hope as we were walking in tall grass, but I thought it is worth the trying and asked Demi to find my phone. Neither the cell phone nor the search command was known at this time, but I thought we could not lose anything, if we tried. Demi went back on the exact route where we walked and she stopped at once. Considering that she did not even know how to signal I did not know why she stopped but at the bottom of the huge grass where she stopped there was my cell phone! So that was the moment I knew we needed to take this more seriously.
I tried to find out where and how we could learn to trace but since there is no separate school for that I started to train her myself.
I am not interested in IPO tracking, because in my opinion, that is rather a trained task while in live tracking situation this training might not be possible to apply. I am much more interested in live tracking.
So this is why I stayed alone with my own training methods and based on this I continued to train my dog.
It was very successful, because when we did the BH exam, she was able to find the track of foreign people.
After the work exam I still could not find any search and rescue teams to join, but I found a trainer who started to deal with us. However still not training for tracking but rather showing us the rescue dog world. Demi was two years old at that time.

Demi as a Search and rescue dog

In Hungary the Search and rescue dog work consists of three areas : rubble search, area search, and tracking.

Unfortunately only few people are involved in the tracking work as from the three phases this is the most difficult one so most instructors would rather choose area and rubble search.

Considering that we did not want to try the area work (as in my opinion it can hurt the tracking job) we started the rubble search.

At the moment we have the international IPO-RH-T-A level International Exam rubble search, where in the obedient work part we have proved twice with excellent results. Our last Exam was so successful, that we managed to get 2nd place in the international competition!

Thanks to her tracking work we are also involved in live tracking.
 

Demi as an experimental dog

Due to a coincidence we also dropped into the research program of ELTE Ethology University.
Demi helped us through a huge number of the experiments but we are the most proud of participiating in the touch screen test when she learnt the use of the computer in a few minutes and in a short time she became addicted to it. It was extremely interesting to see, that just like children (and of course adults), Demi became also addicted to computer instantly. Besides, she was the first dog to complete the whole test, and even the University had to upgrade the software so that we can test her knowledge on higher and higher levels. Thus the experiment leader has obtained a lot of new and valuable information and a lot of experience as well.

We also took part in the FMRI test, where we could prove that my hyperactive, ever-moving, task-oriented dog is able to lie down for a long time and stay still so that a test can be successful. The FMRI study uses a hemodynamic response process to determine where the activity in the brain occurs as a result of different experiences. Thus it is possible to map which areas of the brain are active in certain situations. This experiment also has many opportunities to map what is happening in the dogs' minds. I would also like to find the answer – whenever there is a chance for it –  to what Demi is thinking of when she is watching her favorite series on TV. Because she loves watching TV and watching her favorites from start to finish and she surely shows real emotions like she sometimes gets excited, sometimes laughs, and sometimes she watches the events very attentively. It would be very interesting to investigate what is happening in her head. I hope that this experiment will find the answer to this question even in the more distant future.

We also carried out the ELTE sleep tests, which was surprisingly very successful for me as well. The task is apparently not difficult, because she just have to sleep! However, if we look at a place to sleep at an ELTE, where Demi can handle tasks, and on the head with electrodes that should not be moved and sleep time is 3 full hours (not including the insertion and removal of electrodes) , then it's not all that simple. :) And it's not Demi's sleep that's so characteristic! The test had to be attended three times. Of course, all three times before we slept, I did a full-day training for her to have all the sleep time, and all three times (for the first time also, which was a whole exception), Demi produced a lot of deep sleep patterns, which made the experimenters a lot of valuable information reported.

We also got among the members of the ELTE’s Mind Champions’ Club, where Demi’s picture is out on the Best Merits Wall. 
In addition to the above we attended the Exhibition of Sciences at the Varkert Bazar, where Demi could present the principle of operation of the touch screen test, which attracted the visitors very much. I'm also very proud, that she bore the lot of caress for four full hours and she enjoyed the limelight and of course she performed the tasks with enthusiasm.

And is a very great honour for as, that we have been invited guests to the Ethology Conference in 2017 and in 2018 also! We are having been listening to very interesting presentations, and we could also get a diploma for our work as members of the ElmEBajnok Club in 2017,  and in 2018 was made a video, main character of Demi's work,  which was rewarded with great applause by the audience! More pictures and videos about conferences can be found in the Media appearance menu.

Demi as a a corps finder

Due to an unlucky accident I realized that Demi was gifted in this aspect too.

During one of our walks I saw Demi suddenly switch on and started working. By then I knew that she was working but I did not know what she could feel. So I followed her. She went without stopping straight up to a house went into the house, up to the third floor, out on the corridor, and stopped at an apartment, then looked at me meaningfully, signaling that something was there and I needed to do something. At that time, I did not know what that was, but what should I have done? I could not have rang the doorbell, that somehow my dog got here! So I was puzzled. The dog did not want to leave, but then and there I did not know what could had been inside.
Later we went back, asked the neighbors, and it turned out that unfortunately a man died there in that apartment.

Since then I know that Demi is also gifted in finding corpses.

After this instance we found more dead bodies likewise (mainly old people who died at home).
 

Demi, as search dog for missing animals

During learning tracking we continuously tried to find new challenges, so we tried to train her not only in human track, but also in tracking animals.
The biggest challenge for tracking missing animal is that during tracking I can not always check whether the dog is working properly because the missing animal is rarely found locally and can not ask him/her to be so nice and walk around a particular area or direction.
But this attempt was also very successful, because we were able to prove in many cases in live situations. So I can be 100% sure of my dog's nose.
The idea of this website came with the number of successful trackings. We searched and found many cats and dogs and the owners themselves came up with the idea, that I could make a website, because although our phone number is passed on after every search it could be better, if we could be available to the general public. That's why this site was created and we hope, that Demi's talent could be shown in greater publicity.

You can find our media and other public appearances here: Media

She gives me everything a dog can give but she means a lot more to me. She is a real treasure and she deserves that more and more people know her and her work!

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