Busy couple of weeks

Kaz and me have been continuing to help Kath and Mara train.  They are doing really well now and we had a lovely Sunday



We came back and Daryl made a gingerbread house - here it is - me and the other dogs supervised it! We didnt get any though...... :-(

Well - what a couple of weeks it's been - me and Kaz have been on an epic callout the other night in really bad weather - there were two men on Scafell trying to navigate with a Wainwright book, but no map or compass or torch - now, I know that Mr Wainwright wrote some pretty fine books with lovely pictures but the better best is a good old OS map and compass really!

Anyway - it was a long old night - me, Daryl, Kaz and the Dram and Angus dogs had been up at Kirkstone pass all day meeting all our friends who support us and some members of the public as well.  I did a demo as well as all the others and even though the rain was awful, it was a great day and we met loads of new people who made a fuss of us.  We went home and were just about to settle down on the rug (well, me and the other two dogs - Kaz and Daryl were going to sit on the sofa!).  Just as Kaz had started reading her book, the phone rang and it was Mick telling her to not go to bed yet cos there was a search on Scafell for 2 missing men.  Kaz and me looked out the window and it was rubbish weather and we didnt really want to go anywhere - but we did.

We arrived at Keswick base and met up with Laura and Jake dog (and her navigator Rob) and our navigator Chesh.  Elly and Chris with Meggy and Beck were already out on the fell somewhere and so was Mick and my big sis Ginny - me and Kaz and Laura and Jake were told to search up Taylor Ghyll and onto Styhead. Now - during the day and when it's not too bad its an ok scramble - but to be honest at night it is pretty crap - we climed the rock up the right side of the ghyll which was a bit slippy.



We searched for an awful long time and I even found Kaz a hat and bought it for her.  Eventually we heard on the raido that the Wasdale Team found the men - here is a piccy that Wasdale took and it shows just how bad it was.

Me and Kaz got home at about 2.30 and she had to be in work for 7.30 so she was a bit tired.

Last night we went on the fell at Helton - ohhh Kaz got scared of the dark!!

Anyways - see you soon Dot fans and before I go have you heard that a sheep dog has just been sold for £8400 - frankly I dont get out of bed for less than £10k!

So many things to tell you about .........

So Kaz says I've got to give you all a big apology for not blogging for a while but there's loads going on that I haven't had time to get hold of Kaz's laptop or Daryl's iPad (managed to get my paws on the iPad today though!)

Anyway here we go .....

1st bit of brilliant news is about 2 trainee dogs who have just passed their last assessment and join me and the other search dogs on the callout list -and that is Ani (and her handler Bill from Kendal MRT) and Corrie (and her handler Andy from Patterdale MRT). Here they are - don't they look great!



The next bit of LDMRSDA news is that Chris Francis and his trainee Beck passed their last assessment last night, so they're on the callout list too!




There are 2 very sad bits of news though, that is that our Vice President Dave Riley has sadly died after an illness. Although me and Kaz didn't work on callous with Dave we were lucky enough to be trained and assessed by him. He had a great sense of humour and was very knowledgeable about dog training and he'll be really missed by us all.

The second bit of bad news is that Glen Hodges and his trainee Molly from Penrith MRT have decided to withdraw from training - Kaz is really sad as she was hoping they'd join me and her very soon

This last weekend me and Kaz and the new dog Angus and Daryl and the Dram dog have been training with the trailing dogs - they both did really well and I'm pretty proud of my little brothers they might even be as good as me soon!

Then last weekend we went to handler John Leadbetter's wedding to Clair our LDMRSDA Vet - it was great - all us dogs were allowed in the church.



Then we had a great walk up towards Loadpot Hill the other day - fantastic weather - it was brill and our doggy friends Darcy, Jack, Flint and Pip came along with aunty Serena and we had loads of fun.....



Finally we have had 2 callouts in the last week - the first wasnt really much as a couple of people got a bit lost in the dark between Howtown and Pooley Bridge - me and Kaz were on the way in the team Landrover when we had a call from Serena who lives near there to say she'd been up on the hill and brought them down.

Yesterday night we had a callout from the dogs and the Penrith Team to go to search for a missing man in Cargo (on the Solway flats).  He'd gone for a walk and didnt come back.  Me and Kaz, plus Elly/Meg, Nick/Sam, Ian/Kep, Mick/Ginny, Olly/Kitt and Laura/Jake met up and started searching the fields and the footpath by the Eden.  We were joined by the RAF helicopter, Coastguard and Inshore Lifeboat teams, but at 4am sadly the body of the man was found and we all went home for a sleep.



Now then I promise to blog better now as I'm not so busy at the moment!