I joined Lowland Search and Rescue in 2017 , whilst winding down work, ready to take retirement. Following completion of the training required to be a search technician (search techniques, first aid, navigation and communications), I became operational in 2018. and attended many callouts, which could occur any time of the day or night, helping the team to find vulnerable missing persons.
During that time, I had seen that SAR used dogs as another asset on a search to find people and was wondering whether I could teach my dogs to do this. This desire to use a dog to find a vulnerable missing person was reinforced by a neighbour with dementia who went missing during a bitterly cold spell.
I joined the Essex SAR K9 unit, and after a couple of years and many hours of training (in all weathers, giving up weekends and attending assessments), I successfully trained my two dogs to become operational and to be used on callouts if needed. I am now passing my experience of using search dogs, and helping to train other members of the K9 unit.