Angus goes nuts and Grandma is plastered

So, Dot fans how are you all then?

Me and Angus and Kaz have been busy again for the last couple of weeks since I last wrote.

Grandma had a fall on her patio and broke her arm really badly and has had to have an operation and a load of metal put in.  Me and Angus are being very careful now as she doesn't want to hurt herself anymore.

Kaz has been continuing the running in the mornings with us and sometimes she can even keep up with me and Angus (but only if we take pity on her and let her).  This morning we were running in Lowther Park and Angus was running flat out but was looking at me and forgot that Kaz was there and took her out completely! Kaz apparently needs to practice her hurdling technique.

Here we are enjoying the early morning smells just after Kaz picked herself up....

Yesterday we went over to Kirkby Stephen to see our friend Mara (and handler Kath).  We all went out on to the hills above the town and we also met up with Denise and Andy who were going to body for Mara.  Kaz was helping Kath teach Mara about going up and down hill on command.  I was there to show her how I do it - and Angus was there just be a pain as normal!

 

We got Kath and Mara to search this hill and had a body at the top and one at the bottom. Kath was puffing a bit when we finished though



 Here she is setting off

 And catching her breath. 

On Saturday me and Angus went to the team collection at Tebay Services and I was very helpful and got loads of fuss.  A nice lady bought me and Angus some dog treats which were yummy!
After that just as we got home we ended up being left there as Kaz got a team callout to a farm near Armathwaite for a lady who had broken her ankle on steep ground whilst looking for her cat - I don't know, why any human would risk their life for an evil cat!  Anyway the team gave her some entonox and helped the ambulance people carry her off - (she was still worrying about the cat though!)

On Thurdsay night Kaz's team had a curry night which we weren't invited to but apparently they had lots of fun and as you can see were very well behaved and didn't mess about at all.....not.

Oh and then on Wednesday Angus was a real idiot - he managed to eat a load of Macadamia nuts - what Kaz didn't know was that they are very toxic (more than normal) to us dogs and luckily just as she'd started out for her meeting in Manchester, she rang Clare the vet and asked her advice - Clare told her to take him to the vet in Penrith and get them to make him sick as he might have been very poorly if he'd ingested them.  Poor old Kaz was in a bit of a panic and took him straight down there.  They gave him some anaesthetic drops into his eye and then put some liquid in that forced him to be very sick very quickly.  He was then kept at the vets for the rest of the day - when he got home he was very quiet and not his usual bouncy self and Kaz now knows that she needs to be a bit careful about nuts in the future.

On Tuesday we went to Brandelhow in Keswick and Angus did a trail for Terry which was very good.  He set off down the path towards the lake from the road under Catbells - everyone else had gone down the path too - Terry was Angus's body and when Kaz and him got to the gate, instead of going through he took Kaz right down a tiny path to the lake shore where he then indicated left and went through another gate and round towards the jetty where the others were training.  Angus went past Laura and Jake playing in the water and took Kaz about 25ft away from all the others and he got really excited in a smell around a bench - (turns out Terry had been sat there for 20mins) - Kaz then worked him further out for the bench and suddenly he found the scent leading to a tree nearby and indicated on Terry by lying down next to him.  Kaz was really pleased.

Angus has also been doing well on the trailing - he went to the Haweswater weekend and did 2 trails.  The first one was for Will who walked up the Blea Water path and then went cross country over to the Small Water path and continued up to the lake.  Then he turned left and went up the hill about 100m and lay down.  Angus worked really hard all the way (which was bout 2.3km) and was very happy to find Will.  At the end of the day him and Kaz did a trail up onto the ridge going up to Rough Crag looking for Jim and found him - despite all the very deep bracken.  When they got home they were very tired - especially Angus.

Anyway Dot fans got to go as Kaz is cooking a meal for friends. 

Lots of sun, lots of rain and busy times

Since I blogged last it's been a bit mad - grandma fell over and broke her arm last week so has been in hospital - she is now at home and a bit fed up with a plaster on her had which means that opening the treat jar is a little bit awkward for her....Angus has been given strict instructions to not jump at her which he sometimes seems to forget.

So the big news since last time is that Kaz's great friend Elly and her dog Bracken and Dave and his dog Fern both finally got their green tags to say they are now an operational dog team - Kaz was very pleased for them both and so am I cos that means there are more of us search dogs to go out and look for people.

Here they are:-

 

We were all training in Coniston and me, Angus and Kaz went off up to Leverswater to help Roger train John Dunbavin and Cuillin and Kathy and Mara and Martin and Isla - they were all really good on the scree slopes and did very well.  Me and Kaz went off to find Terry later on in the day and then Kaz and Angus did a trail all the way round Leverswater for Terry.... and I made sure he got back safe -

 

 

 

Looking at the next pictures Angus started on the right hand side of the first picture where he was given the scent of the missing person (Terry) who had walked this way about 2 hours before hand.  He then had to decide which way to go (as there had been a lot of people up and down the path and also the baby dogs were working up the hill on the right).  Once he told Kaz which way to go they went round the back of the lake just above the shoreline and the path.  They had to go passed a family but Angus concentrated and carried on.

 Angus then worked to a path junction where lots of walkers had carried on (to the right of the picture below) and he indicated to Kaz that the missing person had carried on round.  Angus led Kaz above the path and over the small hillocks in the middle of the pic and then carried on round - even though John and Cuillin were working in the opposite direction.

 And as they came round the lake they dropped below the path and continued going to the left of the pic below dropping right down to the lake shore where Terry was hiding in a boulder.

 

Here's Ted supervising (don't tell him but he's a very handsome dog)

 

 

and here's Roger, Dave and Martin chilling out and me looking perfect

 

 

 

After the training weekend we had loads of sunshine which was great cos Kaz has been taking us out lots after work - we even got to swim with her in Blea Water one evening last week which was great fun and then we had our tea by the tarn until it got chilly and a bit midgy. This is Blea Water.

 

 



 And this is Angus on the way down from Small water a couple of nights later

Then it was training up at Whinlatter and Angus has been training hard - this time he had to select the right person from a line of people - which he was good at - and after that body Deb had made cake for us all for her birthday 

 

 

On the next day and Glenn from the rescue team did a session with Cumbria Fire and Rescue to show their apprentices all about Mountain Rescue.  They all seemed to enjoy themselves and they gave us lots of fuss.  It ended with a pretend search for a casualty and then they had to deal with the injury - they were very good although it took them a long time to find Glenn, so I showed them what I can do!

Kaz and me and Angus then spent a really nice day at something called PotFest in the park which was people who make sculptures and pots and things showing them to the public inside the big house and grounds at Hutton in the Forest.  We really enjoyed ourselves - and the gardens were lovely.

 

The following night just as Kaz got home we were going to go for a bit of a run, there was a callout for a possible missing man in the Mardale area - so she went down to meet the man's friend who had left him after he started saying he felt unwell.  Luckily Kaz found the man really quickly (I didn't even have to search as she could see him) and she treated him for dehydration before the rest of the team got there.  So afterwards me and Angus still got a run but just round the end of Mardale instead of up at Helton. 

Then there was another training session at Whinlatter and this time it was Rob's 40th birthday so guess what - more cake!  Kaz says she's been really enjoying training lately - I wonder why??

Angus has been continuing to train really hard every week as you can tell from this shot...

But for the last 3 days him and Kaz have been in Bowland for the trailing weekend - and I stayed at home to look after grandma and grandpa.  Kaz took the little caravan as well and so off they went.

Angus had to do 3 different trails in the country park, around an industrial estate and in the area round the Bowland Pennine Team base.  Apparently he did very well on all three and found the casualty each time!  Hopefully if he continues like this it wont be very long at all. But the best news is that Maria and Scarlet finished their assessments and have become a graded lowland Trailing Dog team.  Everyone else - Nick and Woody, Kathy and Tally, Jamie and Diesel, Doug and Jaffa, Benny and Brock, Tim and Damian all had a really good weekend.  Here is Angus finding Cliff the Mountain Rescue Bear

This was the view inside Kaz's caravan this morning - she was so cozy that she couldn't be bothered to get out of bed! Lazy girl

 

Anyway more news soon as Kaz wants to take us both out.............