Search & Rescue Dogs

by **tony & spud** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 3:50 pm

Hi all,

I'm Tony Brown , living in West London and a member of Berkshire Search & Rescue Dogs since October 2007.

I spent just under 6 years in the Police Service ; although not on the Dog Section I was involved in the training of GP Dogs from time to time and my last in that job 2 years were spent on a Tactical Firearms Team.

I now work as a mobile Surveillance Officer as well as playing Drums in two busy bands!

I have only been involved in SAR since October 2007 but some years ago I trained and competed with a Golden Retriever in Agility and Field Trials.

I now have a 2 year old Lab/Springer X called 'Spud' ; he came from Ireland ( hence the name! ) as a rescue dog, with him came a huge amount of emotional baggage as a result of what must have been quite an abusive first year [angry]

We joined Berkshire SAR Dogs in October last year, and he took to the training with a passion!
After a lot of intensive training, patience and help from the team we qualified as Level 2 Airscenting after 7 months.
We are now hoping to be ready for a Level 3 Assessment in November.

It has been wonderful to see the dramatic change in a dog that was too afraid to even leave the car at his first training session, and highlights how much can be achieved when they are given back their confidence and self-esteem [smile]