Yesterday me and Kaz went out to help the Duddon and Furness team with a search exercise. We worked in a line with search dog Sam and his handler Nick and we had loads of fun. We were looking for 4 people who had been missing all night after going out to take some photos. We started in some woods after we'd been dropped off by the landrover and went along a path for quite a way. Then we got out onto the open fell and me and Sam worked in a big zigzag up the side of a place called Harter fell. It was very snowy and icy and Kaz and Nick had to take care on the rocks and craggy bits - me and Sam had a great time - when Kaz and Nick werent looking we both took it in turns rolling around in the snow! HeHe.
After about 4 hours of searching we had to go to another hill called Green Crag - on the way to it me and Sam found 2 of the missing people and their dog. Kaz and Nick did all the first aid and then the rest of the Duddon Team turned up to help out and we continued on to try and find the rest of the missing people.
After another couple of hours we heard that the other 2 were found so we made our way off the hill - both me and Sam were pretty tired as we'd only had about 15mins rest all day. Here's the piccie of our route round.
Helping out our friends
This last weekend saw me and the Dram dog and Kaz going to Newlands Valley to help out with the assessments for all our friends at SARDA England. We drove up to Newlands Valley and we met up with the other assessors Ellie, Brian, Kev and Richard from North Wales.
All us dogs got to run round loads which was fun, but the poor handlers under assessment probably werent really having that much of a good time whilst they waited for us to sort out the areas.
It's interesting that all of the England dogs are just like me - really keen to get going and find the bodies....
It was a good day - and the sun even shone!
Kaz thinks that she took some good photos - Searchdog Ginny and Mist turned up at lunchtime so we played with them. what do you think?
Well done to all the dogs and handlers who passed their tests!
On Sunday we took the Dram dog to Keswick to do some of his trailing training with Iain and trailing Dog Mij and Steve and his trainee Boris (great name huh!). The Dram dog did really well and is getting better each time - yes it pains me to say it!
Heres Boris going back to tell his handler he found the start of the trail
Great news for Bute and Christyne
It was a really good news weekend for the trainees of LDMRSDA - first of all Christyne and her dog Bute graded after passing their final assessment - Bute is a pretty and clever short haired border collie and has been training for nearly 2 years and she is Christynes second searchdog.
Then some of the other trainees have passed their first couple of assessments so well done to Ian Higginbotham with Keppie and Glen Hodges and Molly from my MR Team!!!!
Kaz and me had a really nice girly day today whilst Daryl and the Dram dog have been playing on the hill - the Dram dog says he found a ball so had a great time rushing around with that.
Hooray
A windy start to the year
Happy New Year Dot fans and I hope you are all ok. Firstly can I say sorry for not blogging - this was because some humans called BT (although that's not what Kaz called them) couldnt get the Internet connection to work for a long while.
The new year has got off to a busy start already - last night Kaz and I were just going off to bed when the Callout Co-ordinator Chris phoned and asked Kaz if we could help look for a missing man in the Patterdale area.
Me and Kaz started getting ready and Daryl offered to navigate - which meant that the Dram dog had to stay in the kitchen (believe me, as it turns out, he was the lucky one!). Anyway we drove down to Patterdale - not as easy as it sounds because the wind was really bad and there were trees and debris all over the road.
Me and Kaz and Daryl teamed up with Andy P (whos training Corry) and we went up to Seldom Seen and Glencoyne. The wind and rain were really bad - Andy fell in the bog, Kaz got knocked over by the wind a couple of times and there was a scary moment when I got bowled over for about 50 feet (I was a bit dizzy). As you can see from the photo we took a couple of rest stops behind walls for a bit of shelter! We worked until nearly 4.30am but didnt find anything and it was getting a bit bad on the hill so the Patterdale team decided to stop and restart the search at 1st light - Kaz cant go today as she is working and I'm getting a rest
