The National Search And Rescue Dog Association

Brock is a Search Dog with Member Association NSARDA Kent.

He is a Initial Qualified, Fully Operational, Non-Specific Air Scenting Search Dog.

Brock was acquired from Woodpecker Farm.

I got Brock from my good friends Dick & Claire, who have their own small holding, I was able to expose him to Sheep, Chickens and Horses and very quickly established he was not interested. This was great as our dogs also have to be stock tested so I knew at an early stage this would not be a problem.

He was accepted into training before he was 1 and off we went. Unfortunately this was late 2019 and very shortly Covid hit in the March of 2020 and training was impacted. Training did continue in a different manner but it continued nonetheless.

He learned the find sequence and then we set about the long road to building stamina and the ability to be able to take on a rather demanding assessment, which involves 4 searches (minimum) over 2 days, each lasting up to 2 hours and having to find anywhere from 1 to 5 bodies on average. You do not know where you are going to search and how many people have been placed out of sight in your search area or search route. You are given a map, work out how you are going to search you area with your Dog Support / Navigator then off you go and tell the Assessors who follow you everywhere when you completed your search. You cannot miss anyone in order to pass and there is much more that is looked at and scored besides.

So on the final weekend of March 2023, Scout and I went through the assessment process and we were extremely pleased to pass.

As of April 2023 we are now an operational search team deploying to searches with Kent Search & Rescue.

In 12 Months we have to retake the full assessment process again to demonstrate we have gelled further and improved as a team so that we can gain ‘Senior’ status. Currently we are ‘Initial’ Status. Thereafter we will have to successfully re-assess every 3 years.

Brock is my second search dog. I originally qualified a Welsh Border Collie by the name of ‘Bryn’. I got him in 2007, he qualified with me in 2010, retired in 2016 when he passed unexpectedly at the age of 9. Bryn was a cracking search dog and I miss him a lot.