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