Read all about Plymouth’s very own Search Dog here

We’ve done it! Yes we successfully completed the January assessment and Sunny is a now a fully Operational search Dog. So he is now a very special dog, one of only 32 graded dogs in the country.

This completes 18 months of hard, and I have to say the most rewarding training I have ever done and Sunny appears to have enjoyed it all as well. It all started in July 2006 when I applied to SARDA, with my colleague’s support, to train to become a dog handler. Up until this time Sunny had had little training and I think the obedience work became a bit of a shock. He had to learn to walk to heel, on and off the lead, sit, lie, wait and come back to me on demand. He also had to stay for 10 minutes, in sight and out of sight and speak. The hardest part for him was the interrupted recall, to stop and lie down while running back to me. In fact he still isn’t very good at this. He was also stock tested and in November, in the Peak District, he completed his obedience test and become a SARDA registered trainee puppy.

The next stage was for him to learn how to search. A volunteer, a dogsbody, would hide a short distance away and they would give Sunny a treat when he found and barked at them. When he mastered this he had to learn to come back to me, bark at me and then lead me in to the body before he collected his treat. As he became more confident the greater the search distance became and he had to learn to keep running between us right up until I reached the body. In June 2007 he passed his Indication test by locating 3 bodies well hidden in a wood in the Brecon Beacons.

This promoted us to Stage II of our training and what a shock. See that gulley on the left, yes, the top of that hill, yes, that rocky outcrop over there, the near one or the far one, the far one, yes. Well that and all the land down to the road is your search area. What! Well think about it and let me know how you intend to search it.

So from finding the body within a few minutes we gradually increased the search time. At this stage I had a good idea where the bodies were hidden and could therefore guide Sunny to within striking range. To move up into stage III we had to search a half hour search area without knowing where the bodies were. In November, again in the Peak District, we did it. This started what was like a roller coaster ride. In December, in the Helvellyn region of the Lake District, we passed pre-assessment. This involved searching 4 search areas in absolutely atrocious weather conditions. Later that month I received an official invite to attend the January Course. I didn’t realise I was part of this equation, and your dog will be assessed for Operational Search Dog. So it was more last minute training with me trying to encourage Sunny to search for more than 1.5 hours without losing concentration. Me watching Sunny like a hawk trying to read his movements, that sudden turn or the lift of his nose to scent the air, but it’s now obvious for when he thinks there is somebody in the area its game on as he changes up a gear or two. He also returns to me in a much more positive way when he finds, very useful when he has been out of sight for a while.

January arrived. Well I’m so proud of him. We had to search another five areas on the hardest terrain we have worked in again with awful wet Lake District weather. I’ve never been so cold and wet in fact almost numb, but Sunny loved it, even as the streams turned into rivers. He was one of only 3 dogs, out of 9, who graded on that occasion.

My thanks must go to all who have helped me, to those in SARDA, DRG and my wife Jacqui for letting me disappear on training weekends and on most Sundays. My special thanks must however go to Nicki, Alex and Matt - Search dog handlers with Tavistock section. Without their help and guidance we couldn’t have done it. They pushed us and I think on some occasions held us back to make sure we had mastered everything at that level of training before being put forward for testing. I am sure that the extra training, to perfect each stage before going on, has paid dividends. Now we await our first Call out and it’s our turn to share those late night searches. Can I do the summer stint?

Alan and Search Dog Sunny