Teesdale & Weardale Search & Rescue Team welcomed three
new canine members to the Team this week. Misty owned by Des Toward from Cotherstone
near Barnard Castle, Holly owned by Paul Fell from Blaydon and Bracken owned by
Lee Ferry from Stanley became graded search dogs following an intensive assessment
last weekend in the Lake District. In order to train a search dog
the handlers who are all Teesdale & Weardale Team members and therefore volunteers
and the dogs join SARDA (Search and Rescue Dog Association). This is a national
body which sets very high standards for its dogs and handlers to reach before
they are allowed to search alongside mountain rescue teams. The
three dogs, all around two years old have been in training with their handlers
for between 12 and 18 months. This training begins with basic obedience followed
by games of hide and seek. During this time all of the dogs undergo a stock
test to ensure they would not be interested in sheep or other farm animals
while out searching. The hide and seek games develop into finding a person and
then returning to the handler to indicate their success. This builds up from a
30 second game to a 1-2 hour search in all weather and at any time of the day
or night. The difference between mountain rescue search dogs and other search
dogs is that mountain dogs search for a human air scent where other dogs tend
to track an individuals scent along the ground. Des Toward has been
involved with SARDA for many years and Misty is his third graded dog. Everyone
thinks that it would be easy to train another dog but Misty has probably been
my biggest challenge, every dog is different. These are the first dogs Paul and
Lee have trained and they have done tremendously well to get their dogs up to
this standard in such a short length of time. My main advantage is that I know
how to search with a dog where they have had to learn this skill from scratch
Lee Ferry said The assessment last weekend at Derwent Water in the
Lake District was one of the most difficult and stressful things I have done in
my life. We did six assessments over 3 days each lasting up to 1 ½ hours.
Non of us slept well on the nights between the assessments. Paul
Fell, echoing the sentiments of all three handlers, was keen to emphasise the
help they had been given. While we are out training with the dogs our families
are the ones that suffer. Without their support these dogs would not be available
to search for missing people. We also owe a great deal of thanks the people known
as bodies who come out and lie hidden on a wet moor for hours on end
in order for our dogs to find them during training exercises. It cant be
much fun but they keep coming back for more. Dave Bartles-Smith
Teesdale & Weardale Team Leader said They have all shown tremendous
dedication to get to this standard. To put it in perspective we only had 4 graded
search dogs available from Teams to cover the North East from the Scottish border
to Yorkshire. Due to the efforts of Des, Lee and Paul and their dogs the Teesdale
Team now has 50% of the search dogs available in the region. Search dogs have
proved their worth on numerous occasions over the years and often found missing
persons not only on the fells but in the semi urban areas surrounding our towns
and villages. They will be a great asset not only to our Team but to all the rescue
teams in the North East and beyond. There are some photos below. Open
full sized image Des with Misty, Lee with Bracken and Paul with Holly Open
full sized image Lee with Bracken Open
full sized image Lee with Bracken
Open full sized image Des with Misty, Paul with Holly and Lee with Bracken Des
with Misty Paul
with Holly Lee with
Bracken Other Press Releases from TWSMRT
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