Samaritan Federation

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Franz Blatnik with his highly trained dogs: "Ella is like a child. Once I didn't take her with me and she didn't look at me for the whole day."

(Bild: Rettungshundestaffel Kärnten)

Franz Blatnik has been a dog handler for almost 30 years and has coordinated countless search missions. Now he is handing over the duties of commander and head of operations of the Carinthian Samaritans rescue dog squadron to his successor.

"Time doesn't stand still," says Franz Blatnik, who is handing over his duties as squadron commander, head of operations and regional rescue dog officer to Roland Tauchmann and his deputy Wolfgang Fugger at the turn of the year. However, he will remain active as chairman of the Villach Samaritans and a passionate dog handler.

"We've already had more than 500 requests for searches in Carinthia; I've been involved in almost all of them, but often as head of operations, for coordination. Among our dog handlers, 15 of them have the lifesaving medal," says Blatnik proudly. He had always worked with dogs and helped to search for people. In 2011, the Samaritan Association in Carinthia was looking for someone who could lead a team. "I was willing and a few others with me, so the Samaritans had an operational squadron virtually overnight," Blatnik recalls.

There have already been 45 missions this year
The Carinthian Samaritan Association now has 29 people in the dog squadron. "We've already had 45 deployments this year alone," says Blatnik, who knows how busy a dog handler's calendar is. "Everyone has a job, a family, has to train with the dog every weekend, but they also work during the week, and then there are the missions on top of that. Fortunately, we have some married couples and couples on the relay team, otherwise it would hardly be possible." There is no money for this, all dog handlers work on a voluntary basis.

If you have a dog like that, you do everything with it, including going on vacation, of course. I would never fly away without the dogs. They always come with me. Ella, for example, is like a child. Once, when I had to go away for a short time, I didn't take her with me and she didn't look at me for the whole day.

Franz Blatnik

It often results in success and gratitude. "Edith, my partner, was also a volunteer rescue dog handler and was once able to find a teenager with the dog. The girl had escaped and got stuck in a thorny bush in the forest. The dog located the girl."

If dogs and dog handlers find the missing person dead, help is provided by the internal crisis intervention team. 

Cooperation with care homes
"We are requested for all kinds of searches. We cooperate with care homes. For example, if a person with dementia runs away, we go out. We once found a pensioner on a narrow ledge on a building site," recalls Blatnik. The dog handlers and their animals were also involved in the search for the autistic man who had run out of his apartment in Villach after the death of his father. Unfortunately, the 22-year-old could only be found dead under a bridge over the river Drau at Christmas.

Blatnik already had several well-trained dogs: "The Doberman bitch Donna, the Doberman bitch Syra, the Magyar Vizsla bitch Bella and our whirlwind, the Segugio Ariegeogis bitch Marcella, have unfortunately already crossed the Rainbow Bridge into dog paradise, but will always remain in our hearts and remain unforgotten."

Don Dario and Ella
He now works with Don Dario von Tordaszigeti, who is a therapy companion dog (also allowed in kindergartens, schools and homes), a search dog (searches without a lead, i.e. alone) and a mantrailer (has a lead and the handler always close by), as well as with Ella von Tordaszigeti, who is in top form as a search dog. "She has just found 4 hidden people in 26,000 square meters in just six minutes during a test of her skills, which is a regular thing to do! She would have had 30 minutes."