26th February 2011

Today we had a visit from NSARDA Cantech (The National Search & Rescue Dog Association) who are Lowland Search & Rescue. Stuart Kenny talked about how they operate, also how they train their dogs. After he finished talking to the members & their families aboiut the operational side of his Voluntary Job, he then brought out his lovely dog Sky.

Sky is a German Hovawart and is not yet fully trained in search & rescue.

After putting out some pop-up tents in the Sand Arena, Stuart asked small goups of children to hide in them so that he could demonstrate how Sky would find them. Once she had located the 'missing children', she would then run back to her handler and bark to get his attention, then he would send her back and follow, thus affecting a rescue.

We would like to say a very big thank you to Stuart & Sky for coming to visit us & giving such a wonderfully informative talk & Demonstration in what can only be described as a torrential downpour of both rain & Hailstones. Despite this the children enjoyed the experience and we hope to have a return of NSARDA later in the year.

If you would like to know more about the work of NSARDA Cantech, please access their webpages at http://www.cantech.org.uk/