Assessment Success !

Congratulations to :-
Ellie Sherwin with Pepper, Alan Hill with Sonny and  John O'Doherty with Nutt
for passing their Assessments held in the Lake district on 17-19th January.

They will now join the call out list to help save lives.

                       Trophy Pet Foods

New for 2008 is sponsorship by Trophy Pet foods. Trophy have kindly offered to sponsor the Association's dog handlers with food for their dogs.

October Assessment Success !

A great boost to the SARDA England dog call out list was made on the weekend of the 19th October with four SARDA England dogs making the grade at the South Wales assessment.  Two handlers, Dave Humphrey and Alex Lyons now have two dogs on the call out list !

Sunday the 17th saw SARDA attending the Buxton Emergency Fun Day.  During the day, Leigh Ashton made a presentation to Alex Muller.  Leigh had seen a picture of search dog Holly taken by Simon Mycroft of Sheffield.  She was so impressed with the work carried out by SARDA and Holly that she had drawn a picture of Holly from the picture and had it framed with the SARDA and Buxton team badges and presented it to Alex at the event

SARDA England has been awarded a grant of £4998 from AWARDS FOR ALL to fund a laptop projector and equipment for bodies:

- Waterproof bivvy bags
- Fleece bags
- Karrimats
- Rucksack covers

 The grant is very welcome since the last purchase of body equipment was about five years ago and is now ready for replacement. 

SARDA England at Crufts

SARDA England Search Dogs and their handlers were present once again this year at  Crufts 2006, supprting our sponsor Purina on the Purina Pro Plan stand as part of the Purina Pro Plan Protection Team .  Click one of the links below to see the SARDA England Crufts Pages

Sunday 12th February    -  Bill Batson and Fern were called at 19:00 hrs to search for a husband and wife who had become lost descending Inglebrough in very poor visibility and called in their predicament on their mobile. Bill, Fern a member of the CRO located them cold but otherwise well, above steep ground at the head of Crummackdale. They were  escorted a waiting CRO land rover and taken back to their car at Horton in Ribblesdale. All this and it was Bills birthday today too!!!
 

We are pleased to announce a new partnership between SARDA England and Ruffwear, with each graded dog being issued with a collapsible bowl, lead, collar and one of the new Lab Coat 2 jackets.

Bernie had bodied for SARDA England for many years, and was a long serving member of Dartmoor Rescue Group, and St. Johns Ambulance.

A dog find with a difference for John Coombs and Biscuit!

On Tuesday 6^th September, Mr and Mrs Smith, local dairy and sheep farmers lost Ruby, their red setter whilst out walking in the Bleaklow area of the Peak District.  In an aim to find Ruby, Mr Smith, Peak Park rangers and the local gamekeeper all searched the area several times to search without success.  Trevor Lawton, Edale Mountain Rescue Team Leader, and also  part time Peak Park Ranger, asked for Mountain Rescue Search dogs (SARDA)  to assist in trying to find Ruby as by this time her owners were getting very concerned over her wellbeing after being lost for so long.  At dawn on Sunday, 4 SARDA dog handlers from Peak District Mountain Rescue Teams started a search of the Grinah stones area – one of the most remote parts of Bleaklow.  As the search continued,  handler John Coombs with his search dog Biscuit were searching the Grinah Grain area of Bleaklow SK134961 when Biscuit located Ruby lying in the heather and brought her handler John to the rescue ! Handler John Coombs commented “Ruby was in good condition despite having been on the fell for five nights, but eagerly ate the food that I had taken along in case Biscuit and myself found her.  Ruby was certainly pleased to see us both “  After a short time John was able to walk Ruby to where they were all picked up by the Edale Mountain Rescue Team Land Landover, and after a short drive, Ruby was quickly reunited with her owners in the Woodbine Café, in Hope Village.

John and Biscuit (Left) with Mrs Smith and Ruby

Wednesday 28th September 16:00hrs
Dave Humphries and Storm were tasked to search farmland and a large wooded area for a missing person. Whilst searching the wood, Storm went into dense woodland about 20m off the track. After barking  from the casualty he returned to Dave and indicated indicated a fine, then led Dave to about 5 feet from the casualty, who was wrapped in black bin liners and almost fully hidden. The casualty was hypothermic and had taken an overdose. DRG extracted the casualty, and after evacuation to the nearest road was and handed over to the Ambulance Service

August's training course was held at Sourton in Dartmoor, with SARDA England camping at the Bundu Camp Site.  Many thanks to Fran, Malc Lynne and Rob for their hospitality over the three days the course ran.

Fortunately for the campers, the weather held for the duration of the course, and conditions for training were very good

There were a couple of presentations at the festivities during the Saturday evening BBQ.

(Front - Adrian, Helen, Di)
(Back - Alex, Pete,  Cameron, Dave, Ed, Alex)

Rod is SARDA's land clearance and accommodation officer, and spends a great deal of his time organising SARDA  courses, and travelling around the continent in his camper with wife Caz, who also bodies for the dogs.  Both are keen 'letterboxers' and so are in there element in Dartmoor !

Bernie, a member of DRG Plymouth team, has bodied locally for the Dartmoor SARDA dogs for a great number of years, as well as coming on National courses. 

Stuart bodies for SARDA England and many sister associations.  He's a keen bird watcher, and is renowned for his log book of search dogs that have found him whist he's been bodying over the years.

In recognition of their many years of service in support of SARDA England, Long Service awards were presented to (l to r) Rod Kelly, Bernie Probert and Stuart Saddington by SARDA England Chairman David Warden (right).

A surprise donation came from Lynne, one of the Dartmoor dogsbodies who had run a marathon in aid of SARDA England as her nominated Charity.  Lynne managed to far exceed her target of £250, and presented David with a cheque for £700. 

and finally, after many years of service, two of SARDA England dogs SAM and Holly retired.

Pictured right are SAM with handler David Warden, and Holly with handler Alex Muller.

David is training another search dog Nell (right, below)
,

...  and Holly has decided to retire her handler, Alex, at the same time as herself, but both will be playing an active role in the training of other search dogs within the organisation.  We wish all well in their retirement.

The Easter weekend brought a flurry of activity with SARDA England Search Dogs being called into the Lake District to help with a multi day search for a vulnerable missing person on Friday and also searching in the Yorkshire Dales for a missing person.  More details can be found at the link below :
 

SARDA England Search Dogs and their handlers were present at this years Crufts on the Purina Pro Plan stand as part of the Purina Pro Plan Protection Team . 

Click one of the links below to see the SARDA England Crufts Pages
      

As expected in the Lake District, the weather was as variable as ever and the handlers negotiated the hillsides through rain, sleet, snow and occasionally sunshine over the weekend in the quest to find the volunteer 'dogsbodies' hiding in the assessment areas.

Thanks must go to all who attended and helped over the four days of the assessment, and especially the dogsbodies and organisers.