The National Search And Rescue Dog Association

Our Fallen Hero Sky was a Search Dog with Member Association NSARDA Kent.

She was a Senior Qualified, Fully Operational, Non-Specific Air Scenting Search Dog.

Sky was acquired from Hovawart Breeders ‘Spicemill’.

Being Kennel Club Registered her full official name was ‘Spicemill Atlanta Night Sky’.

Her mum Venka was the very first operational air scenting (non specific) search dog in Kent. As such search was in her blood.

At this time the dog team was aspiring to be a member of NSARDA but they were integrated with Kent Search And Rescue from inception.

Jo was well on her way to becoming a qualified search dog handler with her first dog Bryn and I have to say I was rather jealous and desperate to be a dog handler too. I was a Dog Support but I was enthralled with how a handler and dog could work together to find missing people. I wanted a search dog, to qualify and become an operational search dog team from very early on in my search and rescue career.

Fortunately for me Venka had a litter on the 4th July 2009 and after quite a lot of begging and grovelling I was told I could have one of the puppies.

Sky was selected for me by James Dunn (Breeder and Handler of Venka) based on her drive and confidence. I Brought her home later in 2009 and training commenced in 2010.

We signed up and went to indoor obedience classes and pretty quickly achieved Bronze and Silver awards. We then passed all the obedience and acceptance requirements for the dog team and were both accepted into the training programme.

I had to find her favourite toy and it was rather challenging when it turned out that she was not driven by toys or balls but she would however do anything for a piece of cheese, just like her mum ! So for the rest of my search career with Sky I had to cut up and carry cheese with me as her special reward. Sometimes a very smelly experience when I left it in my jacket pocket for too long.

Sky later passed her stock test to show she had no aggression against wild stock such as sheep.

She learned the find sequence step by step and it took quite a while and after 2.5 years were ready for the rather demanding assessment, having completed 4 Mock Assessments. The final assessment involved 4 searches over 2 days, each lasting up to 2 hours and having to find anywhere from 3 to 5 bodies each time. 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 in 2012 we finally became operational and were deploying on missing person searches with Kent Search And Rescue.

12 Months later in 2013 we undertook another full assessment again to demonstrate we have formed a strong search relationship and improved as a team so that we gained ‘Senior’ status. Then in 2016 we regarded at another assessment when Sky was 7. I was hoping to regrade again in 2019 for the final time and see how far she could work until retirement but sadly that was not to be. When Sky was 9 not too long after getting trapped on a fence she jumped during a missing person search, she showed signs of weakness in her back legs. It was truly clear when she back out of my Landrover when she jumped in one day at training. Our team Vet had a look and suspected cruciate ligament issues. After X-Rays and Scans and several appointments the Vets determined that was the issue and it must have happened when she got trapped in the fence. In 2017 she had the major operation to fix her knee joint. This went well and after much a lengthy recovery she recovered well.

It initially took around 12 months to work out the problem properly and by then I had to make the decision to retire scout in 2017 as with her age she would likely not recover sufficiently to become operational again. So it was time to retire and rest her knees and paws. That was an incredibly emotional time but very much the right decision and so the days of being an operational dog handler came to an end.

Sky had a good retirement. Bryn left us some years earlier but she now had Brock in her life (my wife Jo’s second search dog) and in October 2018 Scout joined the family to try an become my second search dog. Unfortunately spinal issues came to haunt her a couple of years later and when it became too difficult for her to move about safely under her own steam we had to say goodbye to my ‘fluffy bear’. She went to sleep on the 20th June 2021.

She had an illustrious career involving over 150 searches and she was much loved by everyone on the dog team as well as the search team. She leaves us with wonderful memories and has since had to try and fill he paws. He’s not doing too bad bless him.