Dog Days?

Dog Days

So, it’s been a long tiring week, banging my head on the walls of my office in the city and looking out of the window at the building site across the road.  Sometimes the bureaucracy and daft processes just get you down and you see no logical reason for doing things the way you have to.  These are the Dog Days – a stagnant period with a dull lack of progress.

Then comes the weekend and a whole different style of Dog Days!  As our friend Emmer suggests in an earlier post, these are the Doggin’ Days (see Emmer’s post if this requires explanation).  The perfect antidote to the Dog Days at work…..

We have clarity on our purpose; to get dogs and handlers trained to the high standards required for providing a vital search and rescue service done entirely by volunteers.

We have a set of procedures and stages that are proven to work and allow us to monitor progress towards our purpose.

We have a great group of committed people all working to that common purpose.

We have the character and credibility to inspire trust in each other.

We take time to reflect and acknowledge there is always room for improvement.

So, it’s been a long tiring weekend, doing something useful in the country and looking around without windows at the spectacular scenery in Snowdonia.  Feeling uplifted because we’ve got some very useful work done and marked some significant progress.  Now back to those Dog Days… staring out of the window and looking forward to next time.

See you in November folks!

Tester from dogsbody Emmer....

Dear all,
Please excuse me while i have a go at this blogging malarkey... you'd think I'd be more ofay (not sure how you spell that, Barry says my spelling is terrible) spending all day on a computer but this is my first ever blog post! Hopefully the first of many, I hope to entertain you all with comical stories of the dogging world. Maybe I should explain that first, 'dogging' is the term we use for going training with the dogs... SARDAing doesn't quite have the same ring to it!
We had a great weekend just gone, I was bodying for the Lowland dogs on Saturday and little dogs on Sunday... Just realised how much lingo we use! So Lowland dogs, please correct me if I'm wrong anyone out there but as a body I see it is used for the lowland areas, i.e. urban searches, forest paths, open lowland area... and the little dogs are in there first stages of training - learning what the 'game' is about. So on Saturday I found myself at Dudley Park near Waunfawr in a variety of places, the most comical probably being half way up a tree. It's fantastic watching the dogs search for you up a tree as they can't see you they have this confused expression on their faces as they've found the source of the strongest scent but no-one is there, after a couple of times circling me, they went back to their handler and then all was revealed - you just gotta look up dogs!! Is quite hard playing ball up a tree though! Sunday was great fun we were about a mile up the Rhyd Ddu path up to Snowdon, running round and screaming like a loony with the little dogs. There was three dogs training; Scout, Guinness and Max - Max had come over from the Isle of Mann to train. All left, more excited, a bit further on in their training but tired than when they had started. I knew exactly how they felt on the tiredness front, 'twas a great weekend but you need a month to recover before the next one!!
So that was the first blog... testing, testing, one, two, three!
Body Emmer

SARDA Assessment Form - Categories (the alternative view)

Tidying up some paperwork recently, we found this alternative take on the Assessment form, written by a previous dog handler, quite a few years ago....

1. Initial search strategy:

1. Talks with God
2. Talks with Angels
3. Talks to himself and dog
4. Argues with dog
5. Loses argument with dog

 

2. Ranging:

1. Leaps mountains in a single bound
2. Leaps areas in a single bound
3. Will range as required
4. Runs in front of handler
5. Walks behind handler

 

3. Directional control and natural quartering:

1. Dog able to fly
2. Dog navigates by stars or map and compass
3. Will go anywhere handler indicates
4. Won't leave handlers side
5. Won't leave handlers vehicle

 

4. Quality of dog's find:

1. Is faster than a greyhound
2. Is as fast as a greyhound
3. Would you believe a slow greyhound
4. Doesn't recognise rabbits
5. Scared of rabbits

 

5. Reading of strike and find:

1. Gives casualties condition from dogs indication
2. Number and names of casualty from indication
3. Recognises and responds to dogs find
4. Ignores dogs indication
5. Punishes dog for barking frantically

 

6. Indication and willingness to take handler to body:

1. Stronger than a locomotive
2. As strong as a locomotive
3. Stronger than a Snowdon Mountain Railway locomotive
4. Almost as strong as a Hornby locomotive
5. Electrocutes itself when chewing Hornby sets

 

7. Coverage of Search Area:

1. Better than an Eagle
2. Better than a Hawk
3. As good as a Hawk
4. Worse than a Budgie
5. Chases Budgie around it's cage

 

8. General Reading of Dog's actions and Handlers Response:

1. Walks on water
2. Keeps head above water
3. Washes with water
4. Drinks water
5. Passes water in emergencies

 

9. Does Maintenance and Performance:

1. More powerful than a shire horse
2. As powerful as a horse
3. Almost as powerful as a horse
4. Chases horses
5. Chases own tail

 

Jim Davies

 

Former SARDA Wales dog handler Jim Davies qualified Max and Jack as Mountain Search dogs, before retiring Jack due to injury.

Fundraising Star

Josh with Search Dog Fly

Thanks to a fantastic effort by Josh Roberts who completed the Cader Idris mountain race and raised £140 for SARDA Wales. Josh and his family are great supporters of SARDA Wales as his aunt, Angela has also taken part in fundraising activities and his grandfather, Elfyn, regularly helps out with the training events and call outs. 

Just Giving Now Online

We have now set up a Just Giving web page so that anyone who would like to make a donation can do so quickly and easily online. You can choose any amount to suit you and can choose between one off donations or regular monthly donations. Have a look here: http://www.justgiving.com/sardawales