It is with great sadness that we have to announce the passing of much loved Mountain Open Area Search Dog Ben yesterday.

Our thoughts are very much with his handler Alex.

Ben had an unfortunate start to his life, being a trainee sheepdog that didn’t really much care about sheep meant he found himself in a dog rescue looking for a new home. Fortunately, he was found by Alex who rescued him and gave him a home and a purpose – exploring mountains and finding people.

Ben’s “can’t really be bothered” attitude to sheep suddenly becomes a great asset helping him through the sometimes tricky stock training and putting him on track to be a search dog. He had a fantastic work ethic and learnt the search game quickly, before working on training Alex to be a handler, saving his embarrassment on numerous occasions, and winning the admiration of many.

Ben was a great dog to hide for, he liked nothing more than playing and loved bodies as they just wanted to play with him, the more they played the more he loved them. He was a real character at training and if nobody would play fetch with him he would often take himself to one side pull up some grass, or a small plant and use it as his own toy, throwing it into the wind and chasing it repeatedly until it was his turn to do something!