Our new puppy is hopefully going to be trained as a search and rescue dog. We have been a member of our local NSARDA team for 2 1/2 years now, our older dog is not sutible for SAR as he can not be bothered and has no play drive and has too many health issues. We had been toying with the idea of getting a second dog for about a year, but it took our friend from down the road who has 2 labs of her own to get us kick started. It happend very quick in getting puzzle, as we found the advert for her on Wednesday, then we picked her up on friday, the same week, it was a bit of a rushed decision but that is all part of the fun getting a new dog. On average it takes about 18 months to 2 years to train a SAR dog, some longer other quicker it all depends on the dog and handler.
Re: Search and Rescue Good for you, will be very interested to hear about your experiences and all about the training! Dont think we've had a SAR dog on here before...
Re: Search and Rescue That will be brilliant......there was a SAR dog on The Secret Lives of Dogs...very clever,will be very interested to hear about your experiences...
Re: Search and Rescue I'm also looking forward to your training updates. ;D The brother of my little springer Caddie was a SAR dog, tragically he died of a twisted gut a few months ago. He was such a talented dog and hugely enjoyed his work. Good luck with you pup.
Re: Search and Rescue That's very sad Heidrun, poor little chap and obviously a huge loss to SAR :'( H x
Re: Search and Rescue Well her first real training session is on the 14th september, so a little while to go. She has already got her training coat and her reward toy, so we are all set to go. For her it is just a big game of hide and seek, that is all it is, she will work all through the night just to get her toy, in all weathers day or night, going to be fun for me as well being her handler
Re: Search and Rescue Gosh are you nervous or excited?its going to be be really great to hear how you both get on x
Re: Search and Rescue [quote author=Dexter link=topic=2359.msg22880#msg22880 date=1377600751] Gosh are you nervous or excited?its going to be be really great to hear how you both get on x [/quote] i am quite exited, it is easy helping other people train there own dogs for SAR but different when you train your own, as you know what to do so it does make it easier but it is great to see other people's dogs get qualified, but very special when your own dog gets qualified. The team has had quit bad luck recently, lots of handlers and dogs have been down, so we are quite short on numbers at the moment. 1 shepherd had a twisted gut a couple of weeks ago so he is off work for a while, 2 other shepherds have got bad hips, another dog is off as he has started having fits for no reason, 1 collie is on light work after he had surgery on his cruticate ligament, 1 handler is off as she has just given birth, another handler is off because he had his appendix removed, another handler is also off as he torn his calf muscle whilst training not long ago (for about the 3rd time), quite a few dogs are also retiring this year as well, so we are quite short at the moment. i think at the moment there are only 3 dogs on the call out list, which compared to about 10 is quite low
Re: Search and Rescue Well things did not really go to plan, last weekend so we skipped SAR training, but next training (28th september) she wil be going and will be doing her first run outs and gollyes ;D
Re: Search and Rescue This would be such a wonderful thing to do with a dog, I think....do keep us updated!
Re: Search and Rescue Annabelle, or anyone else who knows, could you tell us a bit about how people can get involved in SAR, it is something I don't know anything about Pippa
Re: Search and Rescue This is the team that i am a member of and puzzle is starting training with http://www.nsarda-anglia.co.uk/index.html This is the main NSARDA website http://www.nsarda.co.uk/
Re: Search and Rescue Lots to read, thank you Thought I might add something about it to the Labrador Activities page on the main site.
Re: Search and Rescue Labradors are very commonly used for SAR, we have had 6 on our team, 2 are still operational, sadly one has passed away but the other three are now retired, but were the first dogs in eat anglia to start SAR work. There are now 3 new puppies on the team, there is puzzle, there is also a golden lab pup, and a Fenlander puppy (springer spaniel x weirema( dont know where the name cam from, it is what the 'breeder' called them))
Re: Search and Rescue Springer spaniel x Weimaraner, my goodness, that sounds like a bag load of trouble!
Re: Search and Rescue [quote author=Karen link=topic=2359.msg26446#msg26446 date=1379535881] Springer spaniel x Weimaraner, my goodness, that sounds like a bag load of trouble! [/quote] Yep, it would not be my first choice of dogs
