A fun (and sad) weekend

This weekend we had a training seminar at Keswick MRT that Kaz ran -

me and the Dram and Angus dogs were made to wait outside while they listened to an informative presentation from handler Chris Francis on the realities of the weather and conditions we could face both as bodies and handlers on the February Scottish training week.  Then the humans split into teams of handlers/trainees and bodies to discuss some questions about training and behaviours – as you can see from the photo, handler Laura was clearly giving it some thought!!

 

 

Apparently they then got into the spirit of Christmas by taking part in the LDMRSDA Christmas Quiz – consisting of a number of interactive rounds - the teams were given questions on General Knowledge (They didn’t have much!); Dog Breeds from Around the World (Benny was clearly very good on this one); Dog anatomy (One team who will remain nameless managed to answer only 5 right!); a set of conundrums based on Mountain Ranges (top marks were achieved by many here) – then the key rounds left were a classic clip from the Generation Game where the teams were expected to remember everything they saw on the conveyor belt (including the cuddly toy).  It has to be said that marks for initiative should have gone to Dave Howarth for recording the sound!!

Body Penny was busy answering the mountain conundrum round ethically whilst Jacqui seemed to have resorted to cheating!

The final, most highly competitive rounds were the Casualty Care and Art Attack.  Casualty care is a familiar skill that all Mountain Rescue personnel are expected to perform and the 3 yearly exam usually has us all revising hard.  This round was slightly different in that the teams were expected to correctly bandage a dog’s paw – as you can see some dogs may be a bit luckier than others if they get injured!!

 

The final round was the ‘tie break’ round with teams having to create the best 3 d representation of a searchdog and handler with the resources provided – namely Play Doh….frankly Kaz says she's never seen so many people getting excited about plastecine since nursery school – the artistic standard was set high – as you can see from the fantastic efforts – some special mentions should go to Jan’s handler who sadly fell at the last hurdle and collapsed as the judging happened; Chris and Dary’s retro handler with classic Troll trousers; Elly’s multi-coloured dog (but which looked as if a major incident had just happened!) and Kath Dyer’s very tiny detailed dog…but overall the best model was clearly Laura and Deb’s stunning offering – even managing to fit in mountains in the background – the handler was even dressed in Cockermouth Blue!!!

 

 

 

 

 

The overall winners of the Quiz were Team Sarda England (!) – made up of Chris, Benny, Daryl, Penny, Roger and Jacqui – Kaz said well done to everyone who took part and many thanks to Keswick MRT for the use of the base.

In the afternoon the plan was for the Stage 1’s to train near Brandlehow whilst me and some of the other Stage 2’s and 4’s were going to be doing a night time footpath search exercise on Catbells.  The rain started and the wind howled and nothing was deterring the bodies going out into position (Daryl was one of them)  -- well, other than once they’d started going up the hill they couldn’t stay on their feet!  So sadly the evening’s entertainment was abandoned.

Today me (and Kaz) helped the stage 4s along with Dave Howarth in the Newlands Valley – although the day started cold and blustery, it soon deteriorated to heavy showers.  Everyone had a good day (Kath and Mara, Phil and Crag, Rob and Rona, Elly and Bracken and Martin and Isla).

Finally and probably most importantly it was the last formal weekend for former handler and assessor, Les Telford.  Les has been involved with us for 13 years, forming a highly successful partnership with Kess and spending many hours assisting others (including me and Kaz - well, mainly Kaz) to make the grade.  Known as the ‘well-spoken bloke’ Les has provided us with excellent impressions of the Monty Python team, as well as raising the general intellect!  Les was presented with a parting gift from the association by Kaz and Mick Guy – and he will be missed. 

Anyway - time to go now Dot fans........ see ya soon

Angus does a trail

I thought you'd like to see what sort of stuff Angus is up to these days - this was a trail set by kath Dyer from Kirkby Stephen Mountain Rescue in Appleby going from the rural area of the woods into the town centre - Kaz knew where to start but not where Kath went.  She laid the trail about 4 hours before Kaz started and walked around 700-750m.

I am pretty please with Angus - he's not doing so bad

http://vimeo.com/81258422

Poor Old Kaz has been ill and I havent had access to the laptop for ages.....

So Dot fans I'm really sorry I havent managed to write for ages but kaz has been ill and in hospital so I wasn't allowed five minutes to myself cos I've been supervising Daryl at home and bossing the Dram and Angus dogs about - as you can tell that's kept me pretty busy altogether!

Where to start?  Well Kaz and Daryl treated themselves to a present (although I can't really see what all the fuss was about) - they bought 2 sea kayaks so they could go paddling on the Lake near our house.

They went out on the first afternoon they could and had a quick go - they seemed to enjoy it very much - even though it was really cold - as you can see Kaz looked a bit baltic!

The next day Kaz and Angus were at Smelt Mill for trailing training - it was very hard for them and they had to do all sorts of clever tests - they even had to take a scent from a boot print in some mud and trail to the person, and had to take a scent of a person from a coffee cup, car keys and a mobile phone - they were really good and worked really hard. I'm really impressed with the Angus dog - he is still only 21 months old and is looking like he will be a graded search dog in early 2014.

Here's Kaz getting the scent off the boot print and Angus trailing from it.

The day we all came back from Smelt Mill Kaz went out to Croatia to the international alpine rescue conference.  She went with John Leadbetter (the chair of the dogs) and Chris Francis (the callout co-ordintor).  they learnt lots of stuff about what the other countries all over the world are doing with their dogs and they also gave a presentation about the lakes dogs.

Here's a picture of Kaz with Mike Margeson the Vice Chairman of MREW and John Leadbetter the chair of the Lakes Search Dogs.

After that Kaz came home and I was really pleased to see her - unfortunately she wasnt feeling very well and ended up going to hospital with a bit of a cough and ended up staying in for over a week and was very ill - me and the others really missed her and we were very worried - we dont trust staying in at the vets coz that always involved needles and stuff!

She came home but was still quite ill so was lying about on the sofa for another couple of weeks........

When she was feeling better she started taking us out for daily walks and even went out paddling with Daryl again - I must admit i was feeling abit out of sorts coz i hadnt been on a callout for ages and was missing searching for people - which is my favourite game in the whole wide world.

Eventually Kaz was allowed back into normal things and me and her went to the last training weekend and she and I worked a big area of Honister Pass  - just to make sure that she was back to full fitness - I was brilliant and found both the casualties from a long way off - poor old Kaz had to find a way down to Anne on a very steep and slippery slope!

That week we had 3 dog callouts but every time we got in the car to get going it was stood down!

This last weekend we have been helping Kaz and Daryl put up the Christmas Tree - here it is - what do you think?  We even have a Scooby Doo on the top.

Kaz and Daryl both have new jobs - so I think they'll be very busy in the coming months.

Some dog news - sad news that searchdog Fly has retired after an illness and so has searchdog Moss.

Anyway - hopefully I can now start blogging again now Kaz allowed me back on the laptop again!!

Laters Dot Fans

Training Weekend News

Another training weekend has come and gone. So me and Kaz and Dram and Angus dogs went over to Coniston on Friday for the 3 day course. However, although Friday was quiet, it gave Kaz the opportunity to work with the trainees in an individual way with me supervising! At Stage 1, retired-handler Benny and Kaz spent the day with Phil and Crag (with me and Moudy supervising)

and a good level of progress was made with Crag learning how to leave the body and come back to Phil to tell him she'd found the body. 

 Benny and Brock his new trailing dog had a go at scent discrimination and Angus showed Brock how to do it properly - I had to remind Angus that 6 months ago he couldnt do it! 

 At the other training location Dave Howarth and his trainee Fern was under pre-assessment (being placed in to assessment sized areas under assessment conditions) and they worked really hard in their largest/longest area to date and made good headway in working out how to cover areas effectively. 

 All of the graded handlers (Andy, Roger, and Bill) worked on a large scale search area and enjoyed themselves. I got to have a play and found the bodies at the end of the day just to show Kaz I'm still brilliant. 

 On Saturday the Stage 1's worked with Benny and Ian and John, Martin and Phil had a great time and again Benny and Brock managed to do a little discrimination work. Handler Andy Peacock observed myself and Angus working a sucessful trail near the Coppermines and later on Angus carried out an urban trail through Coniston centre. 

 The graded handlers did some more work on rucksacks etc. 

 Dave and Fern had another day of learning curve - working for 3 hours in misty conditions whilst Roger followed them round. 

 On Saturday night Chris and Kaz gave talks on Scent Theory and searching areas.

On Sunday Dave had a rest (much deserved) and the Stage 1 handlers continued to hone their skills under Ian's watchful eye. 

 Graded handlers Nick, Chris, Christyne, and Andy went over to the North Cumbria Search Panel exercise held at Mallerstang and had a good day working alongside colleagues from Kendal, Kirkby Stephen, Penrith, Teasdale, Weardale, Cave Rescue and SARDA England. 

The only sad news is that Paul O'Mahoney has decided to withdraw from training.

Ohhh it's a bit windy then....

Hi everyone - how are you then? I'm fine - a bit damp at the moment and Kaz is not too pleased at the moment coz i've shaken myself all over her - I keep telling her it's coz I love her so much....aparently she doesn't think that's an excuse!  

Kaz did some training with me and the Angus dog - she worked him on the area behind the Kirkstone Pass Inn - honestly that's reserved for us proper dogs - still he they are at the start of an 800m trail looking for handler John Leadbetter - Angus did really well and only got a bit confused in the middle bit but he got there in the end!

Then on the Tuesday night I did a quick search for Mary and Terry whilst kaz was waiting for a trail to 'soak in' - I was dead quick and shot round the area and found both of the bodies and shook all over them! Then it was Angus's turn to find Deb - here he is trailing along the path and here's Deb (in her very fetching mosquito net!!). He was really good - I'm getting pretty proud of him.

We held the last training weekend at Haweswater which is near where we live (and which is mine and Kaz's favourite walk) -it was great fun meeting up with everyone - Kaz and Angus did some training - they did two trails and did very well - (you can see what they did here - the body's track is in Red and kaz and Angus's track is in Blue).

The graded dogs all did some fun training as well and I even got to play. Andy and Corrie, Roger and Ted, Elly and Meg, Bill and Ani and Christyne and Bute were there for the fun and looked for rucksacks and other stuff as well as people. On the Sunday Kaz arranged an exercise for the graded search dogs. This was to take them over the Old Corpse Road and to look for some missing people - Kaz also allowed trainee handler Dave howarth with his dog Fern to have a go as he is nearly ready for assessments. Everyone seemed to have a great time for about 4 hours and they found all the bodies. Handler Ollie Benson bought along a sheep to do some stock test training work with!! Some of the real sheep seemed to be a bit surprised to see him there.

In between running up and down the hill checking on the exercise, Kaz and Angus Dog and Daryl and Dram dog did some training too and were very good. The trainees all did really well up at Riggindale with Ian looking after them and keeping them in check. A couple of weeks ago Kaz had a problem with her van and she decided she'd have to need to buy a new one so we all got dragged around to chose a car for her. Me and Angus wanted her to get a supersize van with extra comfy seats for us, but Dram dog was advising (along with Daryl) and she got another white van which is a bit bigger than the old one. For the next couple of days Kaz had to borrow grandma and gradpa's car - which was fun for us coz we were all going down to Smelt Mill in Lancashire to attend the Trailing Course so Angus and Dram dogs could show us all how good they are now.....Kaz just managed to fit the cage in so we were all comfortable.

On the Friday we met up with all the others - Kathy and Tally from South Wales, Helen and Tor (Angus's half brother) from Dartmoor, Jamie and Diesel and Maria and Scarlett from East Anglia, Harold and Fletcher from South Wales, Callum and Dochus from Scotland and Dave and Brock from Scotland - Dave used to be a handler with us with his dog Moudy but he is training his german wire haired pointer to be a trailing doggie. Iain and tom the instructors took us over to the Lancashire Police Dog Section for the day where they showed us how they get their dogs (mainly Belgian Malinois) to track and stop burglars. 

Then we watched the trailing dogs do some boxes for telling different scents apart - Dram dog did good and so did Angus's half brother Tor! Brock was trying to cheat a bit but was getting the hang of it by the end of the day. Then it was Angus's turn to have a go - he did really well and didnt pull Kaz too quickly through the ditch! 

On Saturday we all worked near Smelt Mill at Beacon Fell and both Dram and Angus dogs did brilliantly. On Sunday they all worked in the grounds near Smelt Mill and here is Maria getting her briefing on where her and Scarlett are to work. 

On Sunday night when we got home we were all tired and Kaz joked that we'd end up having a callout - sure enough at 2.30am on Monday morning the pager went off. So me and Kaz jumped into grandpa and grandmas car and drove over to Mungrisdale to search with Elly and Meg up from the quarries towards the area round Skiddaw House looking for a missing mountain biker. We searched for about 3.5 hours and just as it was getting light we heard on the radio that the man had been found - sadly he had died. We walked back to the car and drove home feeling sad. When we got home, kaz went straight to work and i went straight to bed. 

Today we've been working with the trainees at Morland where we were testing them working through sheep - they all did very well - so Dave and Fern, John and Cuillin passed, and Rob and Rona nearly passed but just have to do a little more work. This weekend we'll all be going over to Coniston for a 3 day course which I am looking forward to. I'll let you know how it goes.

Training fun

On Monday night Kaz and Daryl went on another Callout to help a lady on Dufton who couldn't be reached by ambulance - I wasn't required so I stayed home to supervise the bad dogs!

Last night me and Kaz went to Whinlatter.  Dram and Daryl didn't come coz Dram had a poorly tummy. 

Angus did a search from the cars for Mary the pretend missing person who'd wandered off up a track an hour ago.

He found her really quickly but then I showed him what us proper dogs can do and went off to find Jim and Glen while Kaz flogged up the steep ground

Kaz thought the views were pretty good...

Busy times

So it's been pretty busy really round here - and I cant beleive that it's been 2 weeks since I last posted something! Me and Kaz and Daryl (oh and the Angus and Dram dogs) went down to Dartmoor to go and do some of that trailing training for those two good for nothing puppy dogs! 

 It was a great weekend and we all got loads to do - even me. On the Friday I didnt do much but I did supervise Kaz and Angus and Daryl and Dram dog who were learning how to search for the start of their trails. 

They both did pretty good really and found their bodies - although Kaz found out that wearing gloves is a good idea as Angus managed to pull the line so hard it burnt her hand! We also watched Jamie and Diesel from Anglia work a trail which was really brilliant - they are definitely going to pass their exams soon. 

On the Satuday we went to Wood House an old stately home which allowed the mountain air scenting dogs an opportunity to search inside for missing people - I did too and it was great fun. I went in the front door and Kaz put her finger on the wall which I had to follow closely and eventually as we went into one of the big lounges, I realised that there was a smell of a person near a window behind soime curtains. Boy, did I make sure I barked loudly! Then we carried on a cleared the rest of the house. On the way out I smelt another persons smell coming from a cupboard and a cat flap - Kaz was dead pleased when I barked to say she was there. 

 Kaz and Angus then went onto do a search where Kaz didnt know where the body was. This time Kaz was given a hat belonging to the pretend missing person (Kate) and she was told that Kate had last been seen about an hour ago in the garden. Kaz gave Angus the smell of the hat and he shot off from the garden onto a track leading out of the grounds. He went in to the undergrowth next to the track and told Kaz that Kate had walked past there - to tell Kaz that Angus lays down. Kaz then clipped him onto his long line and told him to find her and he started pulling her up the track following the vegetation at the side. He even ignored a lady walking down the road towards him. Suddenly he took Kaz left at the end of the track - she was really surprised to see someone who wasnt Kate sitting there and she thought Angus had done it wrong, but he only sniffed at the first person and carried on another 20 ft and there was Kate who Angus greeted with a big lick and lay down. Kaz was dead pleased and so was I (but dont tell him that!) 

Dram and Daryl also did a trail in the area and were dead good too....so all in all very pleased. Here we all are - yes we all managed to pose outside the stately home (you should have seen all the handlers panicking that we would all have a big fight!) 

 

Then the next day we played in Helen's farm and watched Jamie and Diesel do another fantastic search! 

This last 2 weeks me and Kaz have been manic. Last weekend Kaz was being trained on blue light driving by Daryl. (She said it was fun but it isn't always brilliant to be taught by your boyfriend). Here's Mike practicing 

Kaz and I then have been on a load of callouts the first was in Grizedale forest looking for a missing man. I worked with searchdog Beck and her handler Chris - it was dead spooky, we didn't find him though. Then we searched for a missing man in Wetheral over a couple of days. Her I am managing the search strategy!

Luckily the man turned up. 

That day Kaz and I were on the way to a search in Scotland when there was a crash on the M6.  Kaz stopped to help an injured person and once shed done that continued to Hawick but before we got there the missing person was found.

I was getting a bit tired, but the next day we got called to look for a missing person near Keswick again we got stood down before getting there. That night we had 2 callouts over at Haweswater and we started looking g for them but they both turned up! The following night we drove down to Preston to help searchdogs Floss and Finn looking for a missing lady. We searched the woods and fields for about 4 hours - she turned up the next day which was good. 

So we finished the week a bit tired really!

On Sunday Kaz and Angus did a training session - they did  really excellent trail from Whinlatter visitor centre across the main road to Revellin. I was so impressed with him - here is a pic of where he started the search!  

It was very busy with lots of cars people and dogs!

Anyway I will blog soon. Take care Dot fans!

Having Fun in the Sun....

Blimey - it's been hot hasn't it?  A lot of people are walking in the hills and getting ill - so as ususal the mountain rescue teams have been pretty busy - especially Wasdale and Langdale - my friends searchdogs Rosie, Ollie and Pippi on Wasdale team have been helping out whenever they can and so has searchdog Ted over at Langdale.  Remember if you go on the hills and it's hot you need to drink at least 1.5litres of water to make up for all the sweating - if you dont you could get headaches and be sick - and dont forget your dogs - we need water too!! Kaz always carries about a litre for us and she tops it up from streams - she has even taught us all a command called 'drink drink' which means we need to take some water up from puddles or streams.

I went with Kaz the other day to see handler Mick Guy and my big sis searchdog Ginny.  While we were there it was great to see our friend and ex Lakes dogsbody Dave Lewis - it was his birthday and he'd come up for a week to see everyone. Here's me and Dave having a great time playing

and here's one of me and my sis Ginny and Dave's dog Merlin in Mick's garden...

Kaz and Daryl have been working with Angus and Dram dogs on their trailing thingy - they both seem to be doing really well and Kaz thinks that they may even start taking their exams at the end of the year or early next year.

I went with Angus and Dram on Saturady morning to Red Screes to do some training - it was really nice.  Phil and his trainee dog Crag were there and they did really well - she is very quick and barks loudly which is great - here's Crag

We also saw Roger and Ted, Andy and Corrie, Ian and Keppi and John with Isla and Skye...here's a coouple of pics of Roger and Ted and Andy and Corrie...

I got to have a go and searched up the crags and found Jane on a very steep slope which was a bit tricky for Kaz to come down. After Jane had played with me, I went across the big boulder field and suddently realised that there was someone below me, so I shot down the slope and found body Steve and lay next to him panting (cos it was really hot).....after a couple of seconds tho, I remembered that I was suposed to let Kaz know, so I barked 3 times and ran back to her and barked just the once.  Then I went to Karen and barked a lot a her and got a great big fuss.  It was really nice to play with the bodies - sometimes I wish it was just me and Kaz again and I didnt have brothers cos then I'd get her all to myself!  But I suppose it's a good idea she's got Angus and Dram, cos I wont always be here to look after her.

On Saturday, just as we were all about to get our tea, Kaz and Daryl got a callout with their team to help someone on the Lakeland 100 race - he had got into difficulties about 70 miles in and was dehydrated and exhausted somewhere near Haweswater.  It was sunny when they left but as soon as they got going, Kaz said that the heavens opened up and they got drenched - the man was taken to hospital via the air ambulance.  This is the team back at the vehicles getting a quick cuppa and biscuit before going home.

On Thursday this week we are all going down to Dartmoor to do some training with the lovely people from SARDA England - Kaz and Daryl will be concentrating on training Angus and Dram, but I'm hoping I'll be getting some fun too!!  I'll let you know how it all goes.



A lovely holiday and a nice training weekend

Well - it's been a couple of weeks since I last blogged, mainly cos we've been on holiday and Kaz and Daryl didn't have a phone signal (shame!).

So - what's my news then?  We've all been on our holidays to some place called the Applecross Peninsula up in Scotland (sort of opposite Skye).

We set off and it took 7 hours driving to get there - but Kaz and Daryl stopped loads so we could get out and have a leg stretch.

We stayed in a beautiful cottage which was all round and very nice inside with great views and a fab garden where all of us dogs could run around lots :-)

We saw some seals and otters and had lots of fun running on the hills and on the beaches - hooray.  Kaz and Daryl even did a bit of training with us all which we liked.

Here are a couple of pics of Daryl on the hillside

 

 

When we got back from our holiday the weather started warming up a bit and that was nice cos Kaz and Daryl wanted to have a bar-be-que in the garden.  It was a nice night apart from the nosy cows in the field!  All of us dogs enjoyed it cos we got a few treats.  Kaz said it was typical that Daryl wouldn't allow her to do any cooking.

 

 

Then at the end of last week, Daryl and Kaz were helping do a 2 day training session for the Fire Service Apprentices.  I went too as I was showing them what searchdogs can do - the 1st day was doing some classroom stuff learning about map reading and then we went out and did some practical exercises - that was when I showed them how good searchdogs are.  I got loads of fuss from all of them - it was great.

 

 



Then this weekend the searchdogs were all training over at Coniston - it was very hot but all the dogs did really well - at stage 1 Phil and Crag, Martin and Isla, Mike and Mij and John and Cuillin did lots of little runs to ensure that they didn't get too hot and bothered.  The stage 4 (graded dogs) Chris and Beck, Elly and Meg, Nick and Sam, Andy and Corrie, Mick and Ginny and Laura and Jake did some training in Levers water - literally - they all ended up going for a swim!  Kaz and Daryl were training with the Dram and Angus dogs doing trailing stuff - blimey they both must've been training when I've been asleep - they were really good.

On Saturday night we had a BBQ which was fun, and on Sunday we all did the same again.

We are all just chilling out tonight after all the exertions!