Abandoned dog becomes rescue asset

[Daryl]

Abandoned dog becomes rescue asset retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8166760.stm

John Binns trained Jody to search for humans

She found herself left at a animal shelter, but now Jody the border collie has joined a mountain rescue team as a search dog.

Jody was handed in along with her two brothers to the Dogs Trust in Ballymena for re-homing by a County Antrim farmer in 2007.

Staff at the trust knew John Binns, a keen hillwalker and deputy team leader of the North West Mountain Rescue Team, had been looking for a new dog after his own had died three months earlier.

"The staff contacted me to say she may be suitable and I picked her up. I noticed she had a high prey-drive and I thought she may be suitable for training, so after a while I contacted Sarda (the Search and Rescue Dog Association)," he said.

That was in May last year and last weekend Jody qualified as a search and rescue dog and is now on call for missing person searches across the island of Ireland and the UK.

Mountains

To get her mountain rescue tag and search dog coat, the two-and-a-half-year-old bitch completed four successful searches over two days on the steep slopes of the Mourne Mountains in County Down, under the watchful eyes of two independent assessors from the National Search And Rescue Dog Association in England.

John trained the dog to search for humans using her highly sensitive nose and under his direction she can quickly cover an area, honing in on an injured person. When she finds one she is rewarded by being allowed to play with her favourite squeaky toy.

"She has the capability of covering large areas of ground in all conditions using her extremely sensitive nose to locate casualties, a task that would require a large number of people," John said.

John spends most of his time walking the wild places and said Jody fitted in perfectly with his lifestyle.

He paid tribute to the staff of the Dogs Trust who work to protect and re-home unwanted dogs.

"Without their dedication Jody may never have been given the chance to have a safe, fun-filled life whilst being able to help others," he said.

[Clare]

i hope he means play drive!