Night and Day

These are a few photos taken whilst on a live search, We did a night search followed by a return search during the following day. This search was highly advertised in the area and on the television. At night we rely on the dogs who will be wearing strobe lights and bells and on good torches and personal lighting and High visibility tops.
During the day we still need to wear Hi vis and as you can see ours are actually load vests which enable us to carry quite a lot of equipment in all the pockets as well as keeping us seen and telling the public who we are. The dogs can get wet dirty and as you can see in this case covered in Burrs, meaning a brief stop to clear her and make her more comfortable.

Camping!

We are often called out to search for someone who may be in a tent,so today we put up a tent in the woods to get the dogs thinking about this. It was also quite interesting to notice how the dogs found the scent, which was not the same as someone who was not in a tent!
I did have to explain myself to an elderly couple who were out walking their dog though, as they were worried about walking past me in the tent.
When one of the Search dogs (Who shall remain nameless) found me, they leapt onto the tent, and subsequently me! So anyone who is thinking of going camping with one of our team members....make sure he leaves his dog behind!

Three in a row

On Friday we got called out, to the other side of the county, I was advised by my coordinator that it probably wasn't worth me making the two hour drive over there, so I stood down.
Saturday night we were put on Standby for an over the border search, sadly for me this search was to start on Sunday morning and I wasn't available two searches which I missed out on.
This morning at about 3:30 am we got a call out to assist over the border again in another area for a different search.
On arrival at the RV point I met up with Steve, Rich and Steve's dog Ace to become dog team 2. We logged in and were given our brief and a map of the area we were to search and we set off.
We were asked several times to account for who we were, one man being quite rude! We searched both parts of our area and returned to the RV to hand in the de-brief form. As Steve on our team had to then leave they split Rich and I up to make up two more dog teams, this time I was with June and Molly to search a different area completely as they had been given some new information.
June and I made our way to the area and ended up on a flooded boggy path which suddenly became a cow field full of rather young livestock!! They all looked with interest at us but fortunately none decided to come and have a closer look. Just as we got to the end of our search area control called up on the radio with a stand down.
We walked back trying to get as much mud off our boots as possible before getting into Junes car to drive back to the RVP to sign out and attempt to get home through the very chaotic rush hour traffic.

This search had a positive outcome.

NOTE: The dates have been changed on this post and I have not mentioned which areas or counties we were searching in, this is to protect the anonymity of the Misper's, this post it just to show what happens on any search in any area. THANK YOU 

The Wandering Misper

A Misper is a missing Person, and not, as my cousin thought "a song from the Mikado or a good name for a racehorse!" although I love his thinking.
At Saturdays training session it was warm, not brilliant sun, but with all the walking we do it made us all take our jackets off.
After hiding for a couple of the dogs I Tec'ed for Steve and his dog Cain before becoming the wandering misper.
Usually when we hide for a dog to search for us we remain static and often cover over with something camouflage, today however Steve W. asked me to shuffle up and down a path to see how Ace would react. The View Ranger map looks as if I am trying to colour the path in I went up and down so many times, when I heard Ace's harness bells I shuffled and put my head down, covertly watching what he would do without him making direct eye contact, he was startled and unsure to begin with but ran straight back to his handler and alerted as he is trained to do! Top marks Ace, even though you were not used to finding such a Misper.

On a separate note at least the girls at training managed a little uniqueness, Sharon, Anna and myself! As for the lads, other than Leo there was Steve B, Steve W, and Steve T! :-)

During the first video there is some laughing . . . .sorry but the search dog got under the camouflage sheet with me,