The National Search and Rescue Dog Association (NSARDA) is an umbrella organisation representing Search Dog Associations in the UK, Isle of Man and Eire. NSARDA holds the standards by which search dogs are trained and qualified. NSARDA currently trains and qualifies search dogs to find persons that:
- Are believed to be missing
- May have drowned
- May be in a collapsed building
- May be deceased
The Search and Rescue Dog Associations are located in Wales, England, Scotland, Isle of Man and Eire. Please click here to find out more about these Associations.
Each of the individual Search and Rescue Dog Associations is a voluntary, charitable organisation responsible for the training and deployment of search and rescue dogs to search for and find the thousands of vulnerable missing persons that get lost every year.
People go missing in all types of terrain including the mountains and moorlands as well as lowland rural and urban areas. In fact people go missing almost anywhere you can imagine.
NSARDA Search Dogs are used to search for the many different types of missing people such as hill walkers, climbers, the elderly and confused persons that may be suffering from Alzheimer’s and Dementia, those that are despondent, children, and sometimes victims of crime.
You will find NSARDA qualified dogs and handlers working with both Mountain Rescue and Lowland Rescue Teams or directly for the Police and other emergency services.
Stuart is the Chairman of NSARDA - The National Search and Rescue Dog Association. He has just qualified his second Hovawart Scout, here is his story so far.
Scout was acquired from Hovawart Breeders ‘Lowenheart’.
Being Kennel Club Registered his full official name is ‘Lowenheart Kinder Scout’.
His mum Abby is an operational air scenting (non specific) search dog with Mountain Rescue Search Dogs England, based in Yorkshire. As such search was in his blood.
He was selected for me by Mark & Becky-Leigh Harrison based on some key attributes displayed when he was a puppy.
I brought him in November 2018 and training started very quickly with play to determine his favourite toys and also to work out his favourite reward. He does like food my Scout and any food will do but gravy bones and peperami as his super special treat.
We signed up and went to outdoor obedience classes as soon as he’d had his jabs and we were able. He quickly got through his bronze and silver awards. There is also a significant requirement for other obedience in order to get accepted into a Member Association so we worked on all of those too e.g. 10 minute sit / stay.
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 your 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.
Scout is my second search dog. I originally qualified Sky, another Hovawart by the name of ‘Spicemill Atlantia Night Sky’. I got her in 2008, she qualified with me in 2010, retired in 2017 through injury at the age of 9 (somewhat unfortunately early) enjoyed retirement and passed away in the Summer of 2022. Sky was a wonderful search dog and I miss her a lot.