Another great weekend – particularly for some of the trainee
dogs and my little brother Angus dog.
Kaz was assessing at the Lakes training weekend which was being held in
Langdale – cos she was going to be busy standing around and also doing a bit of
work with Angus, I decided to stay at home with Daryl and help him with stuff
round the house. So this time I’m gonna
let Angus tell you what happened – this wont be a regular occurrence!!!
Hah that’s what you
think Dottie…anyway I have had loads of fun – first off I was allowed with Kaz
all on my own and I was allowed to watch some of the trainee mountain rescue
dogs working. We walked down a place called
Mickleden – blimey it was a long way and the paths were actually streams! When we got to the bottom we watched Dave and
Fern work an area which was really igh up and also go to see Elly and Bracken,
John and Cuillin, Kath and Mara, Phil and Crag, and Martin and Isla – blimey I
have had to start learning lots of new names…..so these type of dogs just rush
about over the hillside using their noses and look for the scent of any human
being – when they find the person they bark at them then run back to their
owners and bark to let them know – they were all really fast. We watched for a while then Kaz told me we
were going to do some work. 3 hours
before body Elaine had walked across the river, through the drumlins and then
up a big zigzag path by Greentongue Gill and then onto some crags. She then gave Kaz her hat which Kaz put in a
bag for me to smell. First of all I put a special harness and Kaz clips on a
very long line (about 30m) to my collar - then I lie down and Kaz opens the bag for me to
sniff and when I have done that she says ‘Find It’ – this means I have to tell
Kaz when I find a smell that matches that one.
I do this by comparing the scent she has given me to all those
interesting smells – when I think I can match it I then have to lie down. Once I lie down to tell Kaz I’ve found it she
then clips the line to my harness and says ‘Show Me’. This is my big opportunity and I get to
follow the scent of the body along – sometimes this is hard as the wind may
have blown the scent a long way away from the exact place the body walked-
especially when its been a few hours.
Anyway – the scent was easy to find and I started trailing over some
drumlins – at this time we suddenly had really bad hail and wind and it hurt my
eyes a bit but I kept taking Kaz along (She wasn’t too sure where the body
was). After a few hundred metres of
going steeply up I realised that the scent had crossed a gully which would be
too difficult for Kaz to cross so I took her to the edge of it – she let me off
my line and I crossed it and waited on the other side for about 5 mins for her
to get across further up. When she got
to me she made me refind the scent again to be sure I was right – so I laid
down and she clipped me back on my harness.
We went up into some crags – buy this time it was hard to stand up but I
pulled Kaz alog and eventually found body Elaine and lay next to her like I
should…..I was very happy and so were Kaz and Elaine – I got loads of sausage
and a ball to play with!
Today the other
trainees did the same thing again and me and Kaz did another trail from a
farmyard along a path that split and along Mickleden – again the weather was
rubbish but I did really well and found the body again. Kaz was dead pleased!!
The good news is that
Dave and Fern have now passed 2 assessments and the others all did really well.
Here’s a piccie of the
area today – I look a bit drowned!
Thanks Angus for the update – don’t get too comfortable with
that laptop!
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