Successful dogs and handlers from the Sarda England contingent

They say every dog has its day and a group of four-legged friends has been showing its mettle during assessments for search dogs and handlers.

Edale Mountain Rescue Team member John Coombs and his dog Flash were graded as mountain rescue dog level, his fourth animal to ‘qualify’ as a fully fledged search and rescue dog.

And six dogs and handlers from the Search and Rescue Dogs Association Wales and from the Isle of Man passed their assessments at various levels, and even had to contend with two callouts during a testing weekend.

Mr Coombs’s collie Flash follows in the pawprints of another collie Spider and German shepherds Bonnie and Biscuit.

He has been an operational dog handler since 1990. The Edale MRT and Sarda England member said: “You have to be physically fit and an experienced member of a mountain rescue team, before you start to train the dog.

“Then you find a suitable dog and commit a lot of time to training it. You need a sort of aptitude for the work and some staying power for the assessment and the searches.

“First I have to be a mountain rescue team member with all the training: first aid, navigation, ropework, and mountaineering, then you spend a couple of years training with your dog.”

He reckons he has found about 30 people – not all alive unfortunately, he added – along with two dogs and loads of lost property.

“It takes a lot of commitment and time to train a dog,” he said. “I couldn’t have done any of it without loads of support from my wife Auriol and my two kids Will and Lindsey. It’s similar to any mountain rescue team member but you have an extra family member as well.”

All his retired dogs stay with the family, he explained. “Biscuit will do less mountain work and more property search as she gets older. Search dogs get very well looked after.”

SARDA England trains and assesses handlers for all England’s mountain rescue teams, except in the Lake District, which has its own association.

The Sarda Wales group

Meanwhile, Sarda Wales member Helen Howe and her dog Cluanie also achieved full mountain search dog status.  Cazz Duce and her dog Tess were graded at full lowland level, while Rob Johnson and Skye achieved novice lowland search dog status, as did Rich Beech and his dog Scout, and Andy Dunn and Max, from the Isle of Man. Fellow Manxman Jim and his dog Star were graded as novice mountain searchers.

Rob Johnson said: “It was a great result for all concerned and a testimony to all of the hard work of the many people that put hours of their free time into helping train the dogs, bodying, catering at training weekends, organising equipment and kit, organising training weekends, fundraising and the many other jobs that have to go on behind the scenes.”

• Ms Howe and Cluanie were called out at 4am following their assessment to search for a missing walker on Cader Idris.

A body of a 48 year old man from the Southampton area was found this morning on a Cliff face on Cader Idris. North Wales Police said the body of a 48-year-old man from Southampton was found on the mountain at 9am. A spokesperson said it was thought the man fell while walking. He was airlifted to Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor but pronounced dead at the hospital.