News Items
Click on the year to read the news - 2007 2008
News from 2007
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
DEC 2007
DECEMBER FUNDRAISING
Fundraising was great fun - kindly supported by Keswick Motor Co., we raised a fantastic total in excess of £1500. Our Mascot (AKA John Sayer) met the children and we also sold 43 of our new searchdog puppy soft toys!
DECEMBER TRAINING was held around Honister Pass - in mixed conditions (snow and high winds on Saturday and blue skies on Sunday).
Good news for trainees Blisstic (John Sayer) and Vinny (Ian Higginbotham) who gained one assessment pass each and Bein (Roger Pickup) who gained two assessment passes. Graded dogs Dottie (Kaz Brush) and Mac (Elly Whiteford) pass their annual reassessment.
Sincere thanks as usual go to the bodies and landowners!
SEARCHDOG ROSIE BACK TO HER VERY BEST! Searchdog Rosie who recently returned to callout duties after a 15 month layoff with injury made a double find on 1st December - two seperate groups reported themselves lost on Scafell and were found by Rosie at Silvery Bield!!!!!
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NOV 2007
KATE HARRISON OF CASTERTON SCHOOL Kate Harrison from Casterton school was presented with a SARDA sweatshirt for all her recent fundraising efforts by Body Terry Blanchard. Kate and the rest of the girls, staff and parents held an annual fundraising walk in aid of SARDA Lakes - they were even joined by family pets!
KIRKBY STEPHEN TRAINING WEEKEND The weekend of Nov 17/18 saw us at kirkby Stephen in very cold weather for the monthly training session - we were even joined by visitors from San Diego Assistance Dogs and the Norwegian Searchdog Association. Saturday provided the graded dogs a chance to be flown and winched out of an RAF helicopter and then take part in a large scale search excersise, whilst the trainees all continued to make great progress. Congratulations to handler John Sayer and Blisstic who passed another assessment. Many thanks as usual to the bodies, landowners and of course the RAF!
Here handler Mike Hadwin shows off the latest in dog handbags!! Alternately, Searchdog Fly tries out his trusty helicopter harness....
EQUIPMENT DONATION BY FRAN THOMAS - Member of the public Fran Thomas contacted us asking whether she could purchase an item of equipment for a searchdog as a birthday present for her sister. Here is search dog Dottie modelling the winter fleece jacket purchased with Fran's donation!!
SEARCH DOG BO PASSED AWAY - We have received the sad news that Bo (a Border Collie/New Zeland Huntaway Cross aged 15) has died. Handler Ric Outhwaite retired Bo in 2006 following 10 years of service. Bo will of course be fondly remembered by us all Ric is already training his new pup Col.
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OCTOBER 2007
SPONSORED WALK BY CASTERTON SCHOOL 79 pupils, parents, staff and family pets were joined by SARDA Lakes representatives for the third annual sponsored walk. A great time was had by all and the photo shows us taking a break at about 1/3 of the way round the very scenic 10 mile route. A fantastic total of £1171 was raised and a big thanks is sent to the School - and in particular to member of staff Kathy Ellis for organising the day (and the refreshments at the half way point)
TRAINING WEEKEND AT BORROWDALE A fantastic training weekend was held in the Borrowdale and Newlands Valley areas on the 20/21 October. All of the Stage 2 trainees progressed - some had steep learning experiences! We saw two new puppies who look to be well on the way to commencing training and the graded dogs were able to work on the Sunday. As usual a big thanks go to the dogs bodies and the Landowners.
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SEPT 2007
SARDA LAKES INTREPID BODIES AT KALA PATTAR - Bodies Annette Watt and Kath Dyer along with Assessor Nelson Clarke flew out to take part in a trek to Everest Base Camp via Kala Pattar. Led by Kathy Grindrod the team had a fabulous time and even wore their SARDA T shirts with pride!!
Here's a taster of their trek - but for more photos have alook here
SEARCHDOG ROSIE BACK TO OPERATIONAL DUTIES AFTER 14MONTH INJURY- Following a final assessment in the Loweswater area on 18th Sept - handler Steve Walter and searchdog Rosie from Wasdale MRT were welcomed back onto the call out list after a year's absence due to injury.
Rosie underwent serious spinal surgery in July 2006 to remove pieces of bone from around her spinal cord and for a time it was touch and go that she would survive...so this is fantastic news and Steve is already looking forward to getting back to sleepless nights on cold fellsides!!
KENTMERE TRAINING WEEKEND - September's training took place near Hartrigg Farm, Kentmere in glorious sunny weather. See, it can shine on SARDA weekends!
A big thanks to all the bodies who were confronted by some seriously steep hills in places, especially Tom who recreated the “Naked Rambler on E4 grass” on Lingmell End on Sunday. Well, semi-naked rambler, then.. We must also mention Body Jo who travelled up from London for some R & R being trampled and slobbered over, mostly by dogs. There were short assessments on 6 of the graded dogs, all of whom were satisfactory or better, and all of the trainees put in a lot of work with mostly favourable results.
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AUG 2007
HAWESWATER TRAINING WEEKEND The weather certainly made life interesting on Saturday, but all the dogs managed to do some good work. The Stage 2 dogs got another insight to the wonders and otherwise of working areas. Everyone in this group made progress, (but for some it was more cerebral). As handler Olly Benson put it, “How do you encourage your dog to go DOWN the slope when you are teetering on the edge of a 20ft drop in a slippery scree field ?” (Answers on a postcard….) - Good news for handler John Leadbetter and Skye who were registered as trainees – a bit of a baptism by water!! The graded dogs had an entertaining Saturday falling off /sliding down things in Small Water.Many thanks to all the bodies who put up with some very unpleasant conditions throughout the weekend – you were splendid.
SARDA LAKES APPEAR ON BBC2 CHILDRENS TV Searchdog Dottie made an appearance on the CBBC programme 'Do Something Different' where children are challenged to do something a bit out of the ordinary in the school holidays. A young boy joined Coniston MRT for the week and as part of his experience Dottie worked alongside the team to locate a missing walker. Hopefully an extract of the programme will be available on the video page soon
GRADED DOGS UNDERTAKE A 'RUBBLE' EXERCISE - 6 dogs and handlers attended a building site in Carlisle to look at the skills needed when searching rubble etc. Here we see handler Elly Whiteford and searchdog Mac locating a body in a pipe
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JULY 2007
SARDA LAKES APPEAR ON WAINWRIGHT EPISODE - Searchdog Dottie made an appearance on the recent ITV Granada series on Wainwright showing what we do.....click here for the web version and then go to the icon for Wainwright Country - we are on episode 3 (in the 2nd half - you can fast forward to it)
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JUNE 2007
NEW PUP FOR JOY GRINDROD - Association stalwart Joy Grindrod has been threatening to get a new dog for sometime - here she is.... Einich at 6 weeks old! Joy's searchdog Anna died in 2004 aged 16, so Einich will hopefully be following in some very special pawprints.
SEARCHDOG YANA RETIRES After a number of years of service to SARDA Lakes and Langdale Ambleside MRT, hander Nick Fayers has decided to retire searchdog Yana. Nick has just taken delivery of a new pup Sam - so watch this space! Meanwhile Yana will be enjoying her well deserved rest
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MAY 2007
ANOTHER SUCESSFUL WEEKEND- The weekend of 12/13th May saw us training in and around the Langdale Valley and representatives from the Search Dog Association of Norway joined us to observe. The trainee dogs all continued to progress well, and on Sunday the graded dogs carried out an exercise in the Greenburn area which provided a considerable challenge in terms of terrain and size of area, but all missing persons were found and we got off the hill before the rain started! Here's a closeup of searchdog Ginny - this is what the body gets to see!
LONG SERVING DOGSBODY REACHES 70 YEARS YOUNG!
One of the stalwarts of the dogsbodies, Terry Blanchard celebrated his birthday in true SARDA fashion - by hanging about on the fellside in the rain! We did, however, celebrate in style after training and he was presented with a birthday cake by handler Elly Whiteford. Dogs, bodies and handlers alike all enjoyed a slice of cake!
Terry and his wife Mary have been bodying for SARDA Lakes for many years and are rightly proud of the dogs (and handlers) that they have helped to grade.
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APRIL 2007
NEW PUP FOR HANDLER NICK FAYERS - Meet Nick Fayers new puppy Sam - looking cute in the bluebells.....already looking forward to starting training in about 8 months time!!
FUNDRAISING - AMBLESIDE SARDA Lakes has benefited to the tune of £700 following the Ambleside Folk Festival. for us. Particular thanks must go to Mick Mead who organised the event, the musicians who travelled from far and wide to give up their time to play; as well as the following venues - the Unicorn Pub for allowing droves of dogs and collectors to be on their premises, the Novel Cafe for hosting the Childrens event and the Rugby Club for hosting the evening Concert. Some fantastic music and great fun all weekend!
TRAINING WEEKEND- The April training weekend saw foggy conditions on both days - this was the view from the carpark at the Kirkstone Pass!! Despite the weather though, good progress by all trainees was made and three new recruits passed their formal registration test - see trainee page for more information - click here For more photos of the weekend - click here
FUNDRAISING - KESWICK- Our Easter collection took place in Keswick on Sunday 8th April - we raised £1170.21 Many thanks to the public who donated to us and also a thank you to the Keswick Motor Co for allowing us to use their forecourt.
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MARCH 07
ELLY WHITEFORD AND MAC MAKE THE GRADE - Elly Whiteford and her border collie Mac (Keswick MRT) received their 'tag' after their final assessment in Coombe Ghyll. Mac who was abandoned on a beach as a puppy performed brilliantly and the team are now looking forward to their first callout. For more information on the graded dog teams click here
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FEBRUARY 07
SARDA LAKES DOGS ATTEND FATAL RAIL CRASH - 4 dogs and their handlers responded to the recent fatal train crash at Greyrigg, Cumbria where a Virgin Pendolino en-route from London to Scotland de-railed at night. The dog teams were tasked with searching for any passengers who may have left the train. The dogs worked for approx 4.5 hours. For more information on callouts click here
NEW SEARCHDOG FOR COCKERMOUTH TEAM - Handler Mike Hadwin and his dog Fly were awarded the green tag this weekend following a successful final assessment in Patterdale. Fly was originally being trained by another handler who was diagnosed with a terminal illness and Mike took over. It was a poignant moment when Patrick Raftery's daughter presented Mike with the tag. Fly is Mike's second graded search dog. For more information on the dog teams click here
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JANUARY 07
1ST GRADED DOG FOR PENRITH TEAM IN 10 YEARS - Kaz Brush and her 2 year old border collie Dottie achieved graded dog team status after a final 3 days assessment in atrocious weather in the Newlands Valley area. Dottie is Kaz's first graded searchdog (although she had previously tried to train her labrador) and the first graded searchdog to work with the Penrith Team for over 10 years. For more information on the graded dog teams click here - Dottie and Kaz are pictured here with Dottie's half sisters searchdogs Ginny and Kidsty.
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NOV 2007
KATE HARRISON OF CASTERTON SCHOOL Kate Harrison from Casterton school was presented with a SARDA sweatshirt for all her recent fundraising efforts by Body Terry Blanchard. Kate and the rest of the girls, staff and parents held an annual fundraising walk in aid of SARDA Lakes - they were even joined by family pets!
KIRKBY STEPHEN TRAINING WEEKEND The weekend of Nov 17/18 saw us at kirkby Stephen in very cold weather for the monthly training session - we were even joined by visitors from San Diego Assistance Dogs and the Norwegian Searchdog Association. Saturday provided the graded dogs a chance to be flown and winched out of an RAF helicopter and then take part in a large scale search excersise, whilst the trainees all continued to make great progress. Congratulations to handler John Sayer and Blisstic who passed another assessment. Many thanks as usual to the bodies, landowners and of course the RAF!
Here handler Mike Hadwin shows off the latest in dog handbags!! Alternately, Searchdog Fly tries out his trusty helicopter harness....
EQUIPMENT DONATION BY FRAN THOMAS - Member of the public Fran Thomas contacted us asking whether she could purchase an item of equipment for a searchdog as a birthday present for her sister. Here is search dog Dottie modelling the winter fleece jacket purchased with Fran's donation!!
SEARCH DOG BO PASSED AWAY - We have received the sad news that Bo (a Border Collie/New Zeland Huntaway Cross aged 15) has died. Handler Ric Outhwaite retired Bo in 2006 following 10 years of service. Bo will of course be fondly remembered by us all Ric is already training his new pup Col.
TOP
OCTOBER 2007
SPONSORED WALK BY CASTERTON SCHOOL 79 pupils, parents, staff and family pets were joined by SARDA Lakes representatives for the third annual sponsored walk. A great time was had by all and the photo shows us taking a break at about 1/3 of the way round the very scenic 10 mile route. A fantastic total of £1171 was raised and a big thanks is sent to the School - and in particular to member of staff Kathy Ellis for organising the day (and the refreshments at the half way point)
TRAINING WEEKEND AT BORROWDALE A fantastic training weekend was held in the Borrowdale and Newlands Valley areas on the 20/21 October. All of the Stage 2 trainees progressed - some had steep learning experiences! We saw two new puppies who look to be well on the way to commencing training and the graded dogs were able to work on the Sunday. As usual a big thanks go to the dogs bodies and the Landowners.
TOP
SEPT 2007
SARDA LAKES INTREPID BODIES AT KALA PATTAR - Bodies Annette Watt and Kath Dyer along with Assessor Nelson Clarke flew out to take part in a trek to Everest Base Camp via Kala Pattar. Led by Kathy Grindrod the team had a fabulous time and even wore their SARDA T shirts with pride!!
Here's a taster of their trek - but for more photos have alook here
SEARCHDOG ROSIE BACK TO OPERATIONAL DUTIES AFTER 14MONTH INJURY- Following a final assessment in the Loweswater area on 18th Sept - handler Steve Walter and searchdog Rosie from Wasdale MRT were welcomed back onto the call out list after a year's absence due to injury.
Rosie underwent serious spinal surgery in July 2006 to remove pieces of bone from around her spinal cord and for a time it was touch and go that she would survive...so this is fantastic news and Steve is already looking forward to getting back to sleepless nights on cold fellsides!!
KENTMERE TRAINING WEEKEND - September's training took place near Hartrigg Farm, Kentmere in glorious sunny weather. See, it can shine on SARDA weekends!
A big thanks to all the bodies who were confronted by some seriously steep hills in places, especially Tom who recreated the “Naked Rambler on E4 grass” on Lingmell End on Sunday. Well, semi-naked rambler, then.. We must also mention Body Jo who travelled up from London for some R & R being trampled and slobbered over, mostly by dogs. There were short assessments on 6 of the graded dogs, all of whom were satisfactory or better, and all of the trainees put in a lot of work with mostly favourable results.
TOP
AUG 2007
HAWESWATER TRAINING WEEKEND The weather certainly made life interesting on Saturday, but all the dogs managed to do some good work. The Stage 2 dogs got another insight to the wonders and otherwise of working areas. Everyone in this group made progress, (but for some it was more cerebral). As handler Olly Benson put it, “How do you encourage your dog to go DOWN the slope when you are teetering on the edge of a 20ft drop in a slippery scree field ?” (Answers on a postcard….) - Good news for handler John Leadbetter and Skye who were registered as trainees – a bit of a baptism by water!! The graded dogs had an entertaining Saturday falling off /sliding down things in Small Water.Many thanks to all the bodies who put up with some very unpleasant conditions throughout the weekend – you were splendid.
SARDA LAKES APPEAR ON BBC2 CHILDRENS TV Searchdog Dottie made an appearance on the CBBC programme 'Do Something Different' where children are challenged to do something a bit out of the ordinary in the school holidays. A young boy joined Coniston MRT for the week and as part of his experience Dottie worked alongside the team to locate a missing walker. Hopefully an extract of the programme will be available on the video page soon
GRADED DOGS UNDERTAKE A 'RUBBLE' EXERCISE - 6 dogs and handlers attended a building site in Carlisle to look at the skills needed when searching rubble etc. Here we see handler Elly Whiteford and searchdog Mac locating a body in a pipe
TOP
JULY 2007
SARDA LAKES APPEAR ON WAINWRIGHT EPISODE - Searchdog Dottie made an appearance on the recent ITV Granada series on Wainwright showing what we do.....click here for the web version and then go to the icon for Wainwright Country - we are on episode 3 (in the 2nd half - you can fast forward to it)
TOP
JUNE 2007
NEW PUP FOR JOY GRINDROD - Association stalwart Joy Grindrod has been threatening to get a new dog for sometime - here she is.... Einich at 6 weeks old! Joy's searchdog Anna died in 2004 aged 16, so Einich will hopefully be following in some very special pawprints.
SEARCHDOG YANA RETIRES After a number of years of service to SARDA Lakes and Langdale Ambleside MRT, hander Nick Fayers has decided to retire searchdog Yana. Nick has just taken delivery of a new pup Sam - so watch this space! Meanwhile Yana will be enjoying her well deserved rest
TOP
MAY 2007
ANOTHER SUCESSFUL WEEKEND- The weekend of 12/13th May saw us training in and around the Langdale Valley and representatives from the Search Dog Association of Norway joined us to observe. The trainee dogs all continued to progress well, and on Sunday the graded dogs carried out an exercise in the Greenburn area which provided a considerable challenge in terms of terrain and size of area, but all missing persons were found and we got off the hill before the rain started! Here's a closeup of searchdog Ginny - this is what the body gets to see!
LONG SERVING DOGSBODY REACHES 70 YEARS YOUNG!
One of the stalwarts of the dogsbodies, Terry Blanchard celebrated his birthday in true SARDA fashion - by hanging about on the fellside in the rain! We did, however, celebrate in style after training and he was presented with a birthday cake by handler Elly Whiteford. Dogs, bodies and handlers alike all enjoyed a slice of cake!
Terry and his wife Mary have been bodying for SARDA Lakes for many years and are rightly proud of the dogs (and handlers) that they have helped to grade.
TOP
APRIL 2007
NEW PUP FOR HANDLER NICK FAYERS - Meet Nick Fayers new puppy Sam - looking cute in the bluebells.....already looking forward to starting training in about 8 months time!!
FUNDRAISING - AMBLESIDE SARDA Lakes has benefited to the tune of £700 following the Ambleside Folk Festival. for us. Particular thanks must go to Mick Mead who organised the event, the musicians who travelled from far and wide to give up their time to play; as well as the following venues - the Unicorn Pub for allowing droves of dogs and collectors to be on their premises, the Novel Cafe for hosting the Childrens event and the Rugby Club for hosting the evening Concert. Some fantastic music and great fun all weekend!
TRAINING WEEKEND- The April training weekend saw foggy conditions on both days - this was the view from the carpark at the Kirkstone Pass!! Despite the weather though, good progress by all trainees was made and three new recruits passed their formal registration test - see trainee page for more information - click here For more photos of the weekend - click here
FUNDRAISING - KESWICK- Our Easter collection took place in Keswick on Sunday 8th April - we raised £1170.21 Many thanks to the public who donated to us and also a thank you to the Keswick Motor Co for allowing us to use their forecourt.
TOP
MARCH 07
ELLY WHITEFORD AND MAC MAKE THE GRADE - Elly Whiteford and her border collie Mac (Keswick MRT) received their 'tag' after their final assessment in Coombe Ghyll. Mac who was abandoned on a beach as a puppy performed brilliantly and the team are now looking forward to their first callout. For more information on the graded dog teams click here
TOP
FEBRUARY 07
SARDA LAKES DOGS ATTEND FATAL RAIL CRASH - 4 dogs and their handlers responded to the recent fatal train crash at Greyrigg, Cumbria where a Virgin Pendolino en-route from London to Scotland de-railed at night. The dog teams were tasked with searching for any passengers who may have left the train. The dogs worked for approx 4.5 hours. For more information on callouts click here
NEW SEARCHDOG FOR COCKERMOUTH TEAM - Handler Mike Hadwin and his dog Fly were awarded the green tag this weekend following a successful final assessment in Patterdale. Fly was originally being trained by another handler who was diagnosed with a terminal illness and Mike took over. It was a poignant moment when Patrick Raftery's daughter presented Mike with the tag. Fly is Mike's second graded search dog. For more information on the dog teams click here
TOP
JANUARY 07
1ST GRADED DOG FOR PENRITH TEAM IN 10 YEARS - Kaz Brush and her 2 year old border collie Dottie achieved graded dog team status after a final 3 days assessment in atrocious weather in the Newlands Valley area. Dottie is Kaz's first graded searchdog (although she had previously tried to train her labrador) and the first graded searchdog to work with the Penrith Team for over 10 years. For more information on the graded dog teams click here - Dottie and Kaz are pictured here with Dottie's half sisters searchdogs Ginny and Kidsty.
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