Field practice
Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th January saw the two days of study and field practice which allowed a new group of conductors to qualify in this canine specialty. Organized by the Grosseto section of FIdC-UCT and hosted in the splendid setting of Tenuta della Selva (Monteroni d'Arbia), the lessons were held by the dog expert and Enci judge Serena Donnini, to whom we extend our most sincere thanks. We asked her to tell us about this experience and to summarize the main elements of this discipline. "The recovery of injured ungulates represents a fundamental service to the community, for all the ethical and health implications that are connected to it - Serena tells us - and the promotion and dissemination of this discipline, therefore, is a promotion of the correct wildlife management and, at the same time, of the ethics of the hunting action itself".
The needs of the territory
And she adds: “The figure of the retriever is a particular figure. His work is carried out after the shot, often alone, with his assistant, in searches that can be extremely demanding from both a technical and physical point of view. For this reason the number of pairs [dog and handler, ed.] in the territory is always limited, precisely because of the level of self-denial, dedication and preparation that this discipline requires. However – she continues – the training of new pairs represents the lifeblood for the maintenance of a recovery service that is able to satisfy the needs of the territory. Hanoverians, Bavarians and dachshunds were the breeds present in this course that has just concluded and which has laid the foundations for the training and growth of new pairs in the Tuscan territory. During these two days – concludes Serena – all the issues concerning the basic preparation of the handler were addressed, starting from the main notions on dog training up to reactions to the shot and intervention strategies”.
The recovery of injured animals
The provincial president of FIdC-UCT Grosseto Gaetano Zambrini is also very satisfied with the success of the initiative: "Knowing how to train and lead a tracking dog is certainly a central skill for the hunting world, which is increasingly called upon to also exercise a management function - Zambrini tells us - The recovery of a wounded animal, for example, is an indispensable operation both ethically and from a health point of view". But the positive assessment of the interest in this discipline goes beyond its purely technical contribution: "The hunting world urgently needs to renew itself - continues the president - not only anagraphically but also culturally and dog breeding, in all its forms, is a fundamental key to this process. Promoting activities that give centrality to the dog is an eloquent way to transmit the deepest values of hunting: those that will help us to make our passion live, even in the young people of tomorrow". As FIdC-UCT Toscana we can only share these words and appreciate the initiative of the Grosseto section. A special thanks goes again to Serena Donnini, to Enci and to Tenuta della Selva. (Federcaccia Toscana-UCT)
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