Hi all,
I'm Pete and i'm one of the members from Berkshire Search & Rescue Dogs, I become involved in dog training some 17 years ago training gundogs. Just over 4 years ago my Wife and I went to view a litter of Border Collie's in Germany, it took about 10 seconds for us to fall in love with Sox and we took her home with us. Being a big believer that every dog needs a job I looked into what work she would be best suited to, considering the options Search & Rescue work came out top.
After alot of research and sending of emails I came across the Berkshire Search & Rescue Dogs web page and through the internet gained the advice I had been after. 18 months down the line and we moved back to the UK and became full members of Berkshire. As usual it was the handler letting the dog down and Sox had to wait for her assessment whilst I took the relevant courses to qualify me. 2 months later and we took our Level 2 (Hasty) assessment and passed, 12 months later we qualified as Level 3 (Area).
Since then we have continued to train and are currently concentrating on Victim Recovery and hoping to be assessed by the end of the year.
In the future it is my aim to bring SAR dog groups in the UK closer and establish firm links between each other, which will help make UK Search & Rescue one of the world leaders in inter-organisation co-operation.
Pete.