Benny & Brock – our new Trailing Team

For a couple of years, Dave Benson (usually known as “Benny”) and his dog Brock have been ploughing a lonely furrow on the Trailing Dog course, where the dog follows an individual’s scent to locate the casualty or missing person. As we have no instructors in this discipline, Benny and Brock have been working with a variety of organisations including SARDA Wales and NSARDA. This kind of search dog is invaluable where there is no clear indication of which way a misper went after leaving a car or house. The course is long and complicated and requires great determination from both dog and handler. It gives us really great pleasure to announce the news that Dave Benson (aka Benny) and his Trainee Search Dog Brock  successfully passed their last Assessments. They were overseen by NSARDA Trailing Assessors  and have now officially earned the coveted title of Novice Trailing Search Dog.

After a great performance they will now be placed on the Official Call Out List and once ratified by the Committee become ‘Operational’.

It has been a long time in coming and Dave has put in a considerable amount of time and effort. He has attended several courses abroad as well as regular trips to Wales to learn the art of trailing and train Brock. He is a member of Patterdale MRT, and was presented with his green tag at Patterdale base during an Assessors meeting.

 This is our Association’s first Trailing Search Dog, and is a significant step in our ability to deploy Search Dogs within the Lake District Mountains, Fells and beyond to search for missing people.

We should also acknowledge all those bodies who have helped in laying trails, and assessors following Dave & Brock on their searches.