Mountain Rescue Search Dogs

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When a search is necessary, Keswick Mountain Rescue Team often calls on the services of Search Dogs to assist. These are specially trained, air-scenting dogs trained by the Lake District Mountain Rescue Search Dogs Association (SARDA Lakes). The dogs are trained over a period of two or more years, to indicate when they find someone, to return to the handler and indicate by barking, before returning to the casualty and continuing to bark to show the location. Where a casualty is unconscious or unresponsive, they may well be the only certain way of locating a casualty.

The handlers are themselves all members of Lakes Mountain Rescue Teams, and although attached to a “home” team, are available to assist other teams who need their services. The search dog teams are used to operating in darkness, and in bad weather – indeed, most dogs work better in windy, wet weather. The dog teams are rigorously assessed on a variety of terrain, and in a variety of weather conditions, before being placed on the Callout List.

Searches in our area often involve more than one team, as the Central Fells are the responsibility of Keswick, Langdale/Ambleside and Wasdale MRTs. Dogs are useful to cover areas which would require large resources in manpower, or which involve complex crags and boulder fields so areas such as Lambfoot Dub, the Glaramara ridge, or Seathwaite Fell can be covered with a good degree of certainty using a number of dogs. At the outset of a search, the handlers are paged, and asked to attend at various locations which experience has shown give a good chance of tracking the missing people down quickly. As the dog teams travel from all over the Lakes, dogs are deployed on an “as they arrive” basis.

Currently, the graded search dogs attached to Keswick MRT are: –

Search Dog Ginny aged 6, is a Border Collie who made the grade in March 2006 at the tender age of 22 months. Owned and trained by Mick Guy, she has proved a fast learner, grading in only 13 months from the beginning of training, compared with the average of 24 months. She also has the advantage of being lovable, which she exploits ruthlessly!

Search Dog Meg, graded in March 2011 by Elly Whiteford, has replaced her Search Dog Mac, who has gone to a well-earned retirement. Meg is a rescued 3 year old collie, who wasn’t suited to farm work, and Elly adopted her in the hope that she would be able to take on Mac’s role.

Last but potentially not least, the newest potential recruit is a Labrador called Beck, owned by Chris Francis, who is the Search Dogs Callout Co-ordinator. He has already trained two Labradors for Mountain Rescue work in the past, Tarn and Loch. Beck started her training in 2009, and will hopefully make the grade within the next 6 months.

Visit the website - http://www.sardalakes.org.uk/