Jasper and his dog Lady are one of the teams that took part in the Military Biathlon Championship in Woensdrecht on Thursday, a competition about an obstacle course for the dog and its owner. Combat stake: a medal for the dog handler and a bone for the dog.
With a dog school on the site, Woensdrecht Air Base is used to four-legged friends with character. On Thursday, they faced stiff competition from colleagues from other defense areas, not only from the Netherlands, but also from abroad.
“This is a unique interplay between the handler and his dog”, explains aide Vonk. “In terms of team building, everything comes together here.”
The teams have to overcome 26 obstacles over a course of eleven kilometers. That ranges from crawling and cycling with the dog to crawling through car tires and tunnels and swimming together.
“The water was especially heavy,” says Sandrijn, soldier at Leeuwarden Air Base. It is her first participation in the biathlon. She has only just started as a dog handler and wants to strengthen the bond with her dog through competitions like this. “It’s about knowing that he can rely on me and I can rely on him.”
Twan Hulsen of the Gilze-Rijen Air Base has been present every year. “This will be my 29th biathlon, and also the last because I will be retiring next year.” For him, the challenge lies in teamwork with his dog. He summarizes this succinctly as: ‘One team, one task’.
He was deployed several times with the dog team from Gilze-Rijen to Afghanistan and Mali. “We secured the compound with the dogs.” He was well aware on those broadcasts how much the dogs had picked up thanks to the biathlon, he says. “They were prepared for anything.”
Jasper, also from Gilze-Rijen Air Base, has not yet been deployed. “It’s a pity, because that’s what you do it anyway.” He has been teaming up with his dog Lady for five years. And although he thinks they now form a close team, Lady was unable to save him from a serious fall on Thursday.
Jasper can laugh about it. “We had to jump through a window, she went first but I got caught with one foot. So I went face first down.” That didn’t stop him from completing the course in an hour. He doesn’t know if it’s enough for the medal. “We’ll hear about that tonight.”
