5 years after the start of the pilot service of dogs in the 13th Silesian Territorial Defence Brigade, the Training Centre of Specialist Search and Ratowinicze Groups K-9 in the Raciborska Kuźnia. It is there that navigators, planners and guides and their four-legged companies grind their skills. The Centre's activity is closely related to the needs of the Polish Armed Forces and the challenges posed by the modern battlefield.
The service of dogs and the K-9 Search-Rate Groups (GP-R K-9) in the Territorial defence Army was launched in 2019 in the form of piloting. This program was launched in the 13th Silesian OT Brigade (13ŚBOT). In April 2020, the first certified search and rescue dog in the Polish Army was admitted to the Silesian GP-R K-9. In 2021, the Group formally entered the "Silesian Thirteen" structure.
The task of the K-9 Specialised Training Centre in Raciborska Kuźnia, subordinate to the 13ŚBOT Command, is to train GP-R K-9 teams from all Territorial Defence Brigades. It is there that soldiers and their four-legged companies will pass courses and certifications. The aim of this action is to guarantee that the level of training of the Groups in Poland is the same and that soldiers, whose task is to save human life, frequently act full professionally.
Until now, dogs were trained and equipped, whose specialty was the search for missing persons in hard-to-access areas and rubble. A pioneering combat tracking training was started at the Center. It requires a completely different preparation of the dog, for example due to the working conditions of a soldier-four-footed soldier, which consists of a secretive and silent action.
Dog service in WOT was created to search for people, not to fight. Dogs are so prepared to find missing persons in various areas, including those hard to reach. They besides learn to find people trapped in rubble. Training for the "W" time has now begun. Dogs and soldiers learn to track their opponent's forces and decision in an enemy-controlled area.
- Kp. Monika Krasińska-Ligejka, Head of the Training Section of the peculiar Training Centre of the K-9 Search and Ratovnicze Groups in Kuźnia Raciborska.
Another combat tracking training at the Centre in Forge Raciborska is planned in the spring of 2025. By this time, the skills of dogs will be constantly developed, which in the future will let to make in the WOT reconnaissance groups with dogs and prepare a unified training program.
Lt Tomasz Dzierga
Press Officer of the 13th Silesian OT Brigade
K-9, or dog service
The word K9 is simply a word referring to combat dogs. This name is derived from the English word canine, or dogfish. In its first assumption, this word referred mainly to service dogs working in the ranks of the American police. It presently includes dogs utilized to work in widely understood uniformed services worldwide.
Their courage, their boundless loyalty to their guide, their fast ability to adapt to adverse conditions and, most importantly, their unique olfactory abilities are their tremendous assets. Keep in head that the dog's nose has an average of about 220 million odor receptors, while man has only about 5 million. It is this last predisposition of dogs that makes them utilized present for activities specified as reconnaissance, patrol, sentry, search and location or tracking. The ability to detect butyric acid, a component of human sweat, is between a million and a 100 million times better in a dog than the ability of man to detect it. The odor of butyric acid is an essential component of the fragrance portrait, which allows you to take a lead and search for a person.
Search and Rescue Groups in Poland
Search and rescue dogs service in our country mainly in the fire department. The essential component of the GP-R is the navigator, that is, the individual who during the action goes into the field along with the guide and dog. His occupation is to navigate, read maps, GPS data, control whether the full designated area has been searched. It is besides a very crucial task of the navigator to choice places that cannot be searched to prevent accidents. Apart from him, the group besides includes a dog guide. His attention is focused solely on him. He is liable for health, safety and behaviour of the four-legged during search and rescue operations. Planners are besides part of the Group – their task is to analyse the information collected and plan the search, including primarily the designation of search sites where the most likely missing individual is found. besides during “W” it is planners that are “brains” of the operation.
Four-legged soldiers at WOT
2019, June: 20 soldiers are trained at navigation courses in accordance with the requirements of the National Rescue and Firefighting System
2019, August: First exam on search and rescue group navigators K-9 WOT
2020, April: Adoption of the first certified search and rescue dog in the GP-R K-9 WOT
2021, July: Search and Rescue Group K-9 WOT enters the structure of the 13th Silesian OT Brigade
2022, I quarter: Training of soldiers from the 1st Podlaska and 7th Pomeranian OT Brigade related to support for search and rescue operations
2023, July: Signing by the Minister of National Defence the concept of creating a Specialised Training Centre of the K-9 Search and Ratowinicze Groups in Kuźnia Raciborska
2024: The Centre in Forge Raciborska begins its activity
Dr Marcin Baranowski
WOT Command Specialist
[based on: "Dogs in WOT Service - Search and Rescue Group K-9", Armed Forces Review, No 4/2024]
DWOT Press Team
