Doggin' in the dark!

Had a great last minute training session with Cazz and Tess last night in Parc Menai... there's some open woodland at the back of the industrial estate which proved perfect. Cazz and Tess have their full lowland assessment coming up in March, fingers crossed.. so having moved back recently to North Wales it's good to get out training with the two of them again. I've lived with Cazz and Tess a couple of times in different shared houses, so have worked with them right from the beginning of their training - Cazz was the one who brought me along to SARDA Wales 3.5 years ago, time flies when you're having fun!
So anyway, we went and did three different searches, tis completely different working at night.. obviously it doesn't change 'the game' but as a handler you have to be more aware I guess of what ground you have covered, where your dog is, the strange looks you get from late night dog walkers! Cazz said it helps with your confidence, which I can imagine... both in terms of you and your dog as a team and in yourself.
I brought my friend along who is visiting for a few days, Henne, she had always heard me talk about my doggin' days but think she really enjoyed seeing Cazz and Tess work and being a body herself... in fact there was even mention of trying to find people in the Cotswold's to train with!! Afterwards we went to pizza and pint, always a good end to an adventurous evening!

Body Emmer

Happy dayze!

A fantastic weekend just gone! 

It was our November assessment weekend, we had four dogs up for assessment:

1. Simon and Poppy, lowland novice

2. Sally and Spin, full mountain

3. Jim and Star, novice mountain

4. Helen and Cluanie, novice mountain

As a team it has been decided that for successful grading a dog and handler team are required to pass 4 out of 5 areas over the weekend. We have a long weekend from Thursday night until Sunday afternoon - allowing 2 areas a day, with the joker card played on a Sunday if needed. It was a tense but happy weekend with working and playing hard throughout.... weather held out fantastically as did the handlers nerves, all passed which is fantastic. Of course there were moments of worry and each handler had something that tested them - however, if it was easy everyone would do it right?! 

The weekend for me started on Thursday night meeting everyone that could make it at pizza and a pint in Llanberis - highly recommended! We tracked from there over to the centre in Caethro, lit a fire, opened a few beers and caught up with everyone's news from the past month. The next day was a bright an early start, bacon and egg butties at 7am, briefing at 8am and then on to our areas for the days training. My first day was spent at cwm ffynnon... I had a great craggy hiding spot in the centre of an area set up for Jim and Helen, the views were fab and I was nicely hidden... not that you can hide from your smell... both dogs found me, as a body you are very relieved! Second day, I was bodying for Simon's final area in afon Nant, near Nant Peris - I was a little jaded so a lowland area with little hill walking was much appreciated! After Simon successfully completed his final area, Rob asked if i'd do some little dog training with himself and Sky with Roly kindly looking on with advice and tales of old! Sky did some great 'C' searches and with a little running I'd started to wake up! We headed from there over to cwn dyli to watch Sally's final area of her full mountain grading... I have to say for someone with a nasty flu bug, you couldn't tell from a distance watching... where strength was lacking determination took over and it was fantastic to watch a dog and handler at the top of their game. I've bodied for Spin since she was a pup and to see her make the top grade was probably a highlight of the weekend... 8's and 9's across the board - the team did well! Can you believe that after all that excitement I actually went to bed at 20:00 hours and didn't stir till 07:00 the next day... 11 hours sleep and full of beans I was ready to go again. Third and final day was spent in cwm dyli left, bodying for Jim's final area... question Beech asked 'you feeling fit today?' my answer '11 hours sleep - you bet ya!' Ok, maybe i didn't think that quite through... I tracked from the view point to the top of the pipeline, I think i'd only just recovered by the time Jim got to me... he of course was fine and seemed to skip on higher once he left me... you don't realise how fit these guys are! Given the choice of backtracking back to the viewpoint and up heartbreak hill, i decided to carry on from my spot over to Pen y pass and go the road way back down - which was much fun and love a little solo walking mission! Once back at the view point I was delighted to hear both Jim and Helen had passed their areas and thus we had a full house of success over the weekend! We went back to the centre at Caethro for tea and medals... even better it was RAF and Sue's birthday so cake was involved too! Everyone left tired but happy... I think that was one of my favourite weekends to date!

Cwm dyli after Jim and Helen passed their novice mountain assessment with all bodies and assessors

SARDA is a family that I am proud and happy to be a part of... especially at times like these!

Until next month, body Emmer signing out!

Snow on the mountains

I took Skye for a walk up the Miners Track on Snowdon this morning and took these photos of the snow on Snowdon. It all looks very pretty and is perhaps a promise of winter to come? With more snow forecast tomorrow night axes and crampons might well need to be on the gear list for the mountains this weekend!

Posted by Rob Johnson.