Dean McMann with Bonnie

A mountain rescue team has a new recruit after a successful trial in Wales.

Search dog Bonnie and her handler Dean McMann passed their test in the Brecon Beacons and have now joined active duty with the Cleveland Mountain Rescue Team with novice dog status.

During the assessment weekend, Bonnie and her owner had to search six areas in which ‘dogsbodies’ had placed themselves. These are volunteers who act as dummy casualties for the search exercise.

The dog and handler have to move through the area following a search strategy to locate all of the hiding dogsbodies. The dog has to follow the scent to the body and then return to its handler barking to indicate a find. Once this has been done the handler follows the dog to the body and is rewarded with a play with its favourite toy.

Training of a search dog can take anything between 18 months and three years.

Mr McCann and Bonnie successfully located all of their bodies with flying colours and can now go on to a Search and Rescue Dogs Association callout list to be used not just with their home team in Cleveland, but by any mountain rescue team in the country.

The team’s spokesman Graeme White said: “This is another vital asset to Cleveland MRT and gives our search managers another useful tool in the box when we are searching for missing people.

“Dean and Bonnie are now the second dog team for Cleveland MRT and make the dogs teams in the North East Search and Rescue Association up to nine, which is a massive tool for mountain rescue not only in the North-East but further afield.”

Bonnie and her handler will continue training towards an upgrade to full search dog team within the next two years.

Mr White said: “The process to becoming a graded handler is very hard and only 50 per cent of dogs and handlers that start make the grade to novice dog.”