June 2026. Ostrów Wielkopolski. On one training ground, JWK and GROM operators will stand alongside a former United States Army scout, masters of the Dutch KNPV school, and elite French Ring decoys. Thirty-three instructors. Nine nations. One event that pushes the boundary of what you can do with your dog.
This is not another training weekend. It is an international defense platform — and a place where you learn from people who have lived by practice their whole lives, not theory.
Polish core: veterans from the battlefield
Robert „Lopez" Kopyto — former operator of the Military Commando Unit (JWK), handler of the first JWK combat dog. Seven combat missions, two Afghan rotations with his dog. Graduate of two levels of the Dutch NePoPo® method — at the source, with the Bellon family and Hans Verbruggen.
Mariusz Urbaniak (JW GROM) — first Pole to receive International SOF Medic of the Year. Knight's Cross of the Order of the Military Cross. Has trained operators on four continents. Initiator of the „Bezpieczna Gmina" programme and conference speaker.
Łukasz „Majki" Majkut — former operator of the Special Operations Department, Military Gendarmerie Special Unit (OS ŻW). Three-time Military Gendarmerie champion in explosives detection (2018, 2021, 2023). Two missions in Afghanistan.
Paweł „Domel" Domański — winner of the „Buzdygan" award from „Polska Zbrojna" for K9 solutions in the Polish Armed Forces. Former combat-dog handler in special forces.
Dawid „Colin" Piotrowski — active soldier of the Polish Armed Forces, fifteen years of service, combat shooting instructor, detection-dog handler. Piotr Maksym — works daily with Polish Special Forces dogs as a French Ring NIV II decoy.
Szymon Jackiewicz — retired officer of the Border Guard special unit, operator with combat experience with a dog. Co-creator of the Polish-Lithuanian training „Obrona Przesmyku Suwalskiego".
American league
Pete Schnurrer (USA) — former United States Army scout, Iraq veteran. Founder of Valhall K9 International — a company whose dogs serve the U.S. Department of War, Homeland Security, Border Patrol, and SWAT units. CPDT-KA certified; German §11 and §7 Tierschutzgesetz authorisations for training dogs on live explosives. This is the man whose dogs are saving American soldiers' lives right now.
Legendary Western school: KNPV, IGP, French Ring
Emiel Kessels (Netherlands) — over thirty years of training, KNPV graduate. His dogs serve police, military, and SWAT units worldwide. Training with Kessels is your entry into the top league.
Ruben Smet (Belgium) — twenty years in IGP and KNPV, cooperation with Belgian state police and military structures. A decoy whose dynamics you have to see live.
Denis Sidarowicz — IGP FCI decoy, experience on Belarusian and Russian rings, training projects in Las Vegas.
Neighbours with operational experience
Jozef Hramec (Slovakia) — thirty-three years in cynology. Four-time participant in IPO-R world championships, with a best result of third place. Over four hundred search operations. Four SAR missions with dogs in disaster zones — twice Turkey, Taiwan, Iran. Prepared fifteen dogs for American SWAT K9 units.
Lád'a Srnec (Czechia) — dog handler with the Police of the Czech Republic, formerly airborne and special forces soldier. Over forty years with working dogs. Tom Bol (Czechia) — since 2015 preparing dogs for police in Seattle. Radek Koza (Czechia) — unconventional decoy from the Czech service-dog community.
Csaba Csicsay (Slovakia) — thirty years in Slovak Police prevention, represented his country in Washington. Marian Ninčák (Slovakia) — dog handler with the intervention unit of the Municipal Police in Košice, thirty years of experience.
Attila „Patás" Kis (Hungary) — twenty-five years in the Hungarian Prison Service, specialisation: defensive line work. Peti Kolerics (Hungary) — decoy with thirty years of international experience. Balázs Pfeiffer (Hungary) — Sopronkőhida prison school, winner of Protection Dog Race Hungary.
Deividas Truska (Lithuania) — soldier in the Lithuanian Armed Forces since 2001, co-organiser of the „Suwałki Pass Defense" training.
Combat medicine: TCCC and K9 TCCC
A wounded person in real action — it is not minutes. It is seconds. Medical modules are led by instructors with real hours in assault companies:
Piotr Koza — rescuer with the assault company of the 6th Airborne Battalion, certified NAEMT TCCC instructor. Rafał „Szrama" Rassek — first Pole to complete the legendary Combat Trauma Medic course („hell week") at Wilderness & Safety Medical Consultants. Filip „Fifi" White — combat medic with combat experience in an ongoing conflict, NAEMT instructor.
Marta Mazur teaches K9 TCCC according to international Guidelines — haemorrhage control, tension pneumothorax decompression, intraosseous access, evacuation. Everything that decides whether your dog comes back from the mission.
SAR, tracking, behaviour, veterinary care
Dorota Poklękowska — European vice-champion in Obedience and WUSV world vice-champion, coordinator of the SAR dog section at OSP Witomino. Krystian Chim — retired Police officer, mantrailing expert, twenty-five years of practice. Kasia Banz — behaviourist and European champion in Pro Toss & Fetch.
Paulina Czuchra-Olek — pre-veterinary first aid in road accidents. Maciej Siwek — president of WOPR Ostrów Wielkopolski, twenty-five years in water rescue.
A conference that sets the standard
Piotr Peksa — former commander of a specialist counter-terrorism cell, UN and EULEX veteran, FBI Academy Quantico graduate. Vice-president of the Association of Polish Explosive Ordnance Specialists. Lecturer on CBRNE studies at Poznań University of Technology, where he conducts research on FPV drone threats.
Prof. Mirosław Kuświk — former lieutenant colonel of the Prison Service, S.W.A.T. Baton Rouge 1993, Masada 2006. 10th Dan Jiu-Jitsu. Gold Cross of Merit from the President of Poland.
Krzysztof Papadis — president of the Polish Defensive Shooting Association, Universal Defence expert, member of the security team of the Voivodeship Social Dialogue Council.
What you get in 48 hours
Access to thirty-three people you will never meet together in one place again. Practical modules with world-class decoys — so close you see every move and every decision. A conference with veterans who speak about what actually works in the field, not what sounds good in a lecture hall.
A network of contacts that lasts for years. A standard you measure when you return home.
This is not an event for everyone. It is an event for those who want to know more, work better, and refuse to settle for average.
13–14 June 2026. Ostrów Wielkopolski.
Places are limited — the faculty works individually with every participant, and crowds are not part of the plan. If you hesitate, you stay home.
Registration: tickets.pactak9.org
CERBERUS K9 2026 — International Defense Platform