Mountain Rescue Search Dogs

About Us - Headquarters - Vehicles - Equipment - Team Members - Search Dogs

When a search is necessary, Keswick team often call on the services of Search Dogs to assist. These are specially trained, air-scenting dogs trained by the Search and Rescue Dog Association (SARDA Lakes). The dogs are trained over a period of two 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, three graded search dogs are attached to Keswick MRT – Search Dog Mist, an 8 year old Border Collie/Terrier cross who has three finds to her credit (picture above), Search Dog Ginny aged 3, a Border Collie who made the grade in March 2006 (Ginny being a long-term replacement for Mist) and another Border Collie, Search Dog Mac aged 5 years (pictured at the top of the page), who made the grade in March 2007.

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