Dogsbodying Brecon Beacons

[Dan00001]

Dogsbodying for SARDA (Search and Rescue Dogs Association) 2 weeks ago, My first time bodying in this exact location. It's very steep (photos never do justice to the steepness of hills) and rocky so they do not place bodies in this area unless they are a member of mountain rescue team. How it works is, someone will tell you to go and find a flat and comfortable spot to get into position around near that fallen tree/rock/patch of bracken etc. up there on that hill. 50% of the time the spot is neither flat nor comfortable . So I'm walking up this pretty steep and rocky hill and I know from experience what to expect, that on a hill like this I'm probably in for an uncomfortable few hours just trying to not slide down the hill in or on my bivi! So contemplating my lifes choices as I walk up this hill, I get to the location I've been told to go to to find a couple of sheep sitting in what I can only describe as the best, most comfortable spot I've ever bodied at. So after evicting the sheep from my new home for the morning, I got set up, called in on the radio that I was in position and thoroughly enjoyed the next few hours, in fact I was gutted to have to come back down off the hill, I would've happily spent the rest of my day there.

After being found by the last dog and handler, I then joined them on the remainder of the search to gain some experience as a dog handlers assistant. Dog handlers have a heck of a lot going on on searches so they have an assistant with them to support them and to take on navigation duties. It was also an opportunity to gain some more experience on steep ground.

A search is like a game for the search dogs, so after they've made a find, it's very important to treat them and give them a lots of attention ad appraisal, so we always spend 5 minutes playing with the dog and their favourite toy. This is also something that is done on real searches after a find has been made and may be another job of the assistant if for example the dog handler is a medical technician, which they usually are, and has to perform casualty care.

Also note my binoculars which someone kindly gave to me, they're an old pair of 10x50 and work ok.

Some photos.. Hope you enjoy.

 

[Falstaff]

Envious of you being able to do that, but know that it's done in sun, snow and rain all year round, so not always so nice. Is it just training/practising the dogs or do the handlers also not know your location?

 

[Dan00001]

Envious of you being able to do that, but know that it's done in sun, snow and rain all year round, so not always so nice. Is it just training/practising the dogs or do the handlers also not know your location?

I've been sat on the side of a hill for 6 hours in persistent rain. that's my sort of type-2 fun . Yep It certainly is training for both dog and handler. Just like on an actual search, the handler is given his/her search area but they aren't given the exact location of the bodies.

 

[Falstaff]

If you can plot up with dry/weatherproof kit then there's a sort of perverse pleasure in it. Getting in a bivvy bag or under a minimal tarp and watching the weather, nothing like it. Not so easy or pleasurable if on the move.
Do they also train for confused or disorientated wandering around, or those who have left someone to get help and got lost or headed in the wrong direction? Or is that the same as looking for a body?

 

[Dan00001]

If you can plot up with dry/weatherproof kit then there's a sort of perverse pleasure in it. Getting in a bivvy bag or under a minimal tarp and watching the weather, nothing like it. Not so easy or pleasurable if on the move.
Do they also train for confused or disorientated wandering around, or those who have left someone to get help and got lost or headed in the wrong direction? Or is that the same as looking for a body?

Yes, nothing quite like it, there's always a certain level of discomfort that you have to just suck up, it's a great test of kit and also a great test of ones resolve which I like.

All of the dogsbodying I have done has been static. Some of the hardest searches are those with dementia, they can be in such a confused state that they will literally go anywhere, they'll wade through thick brambles and everything.

If on a real search and a dog and handler is available, you would generally want them in first before others drop their scent everywhere because we use air scenting dogs which focus on the scent of any human vs scent trailing (I think that's the correct name) dogs which will search for a very specific scent which you would give them from say an item of the missing persons clothing. But there is a lot of search theory on searching for missing people and I find it very interesting. So far I've had a couple of theory lessons and I think 3 live search exercises, one which was a simulated train crash where we had people wandering around acting confused, people with simulated broken legs etc. I've also been on my first real call-out which was a search after multiple police reports of a person screaming for help. We didn't find anything. I'm still in training until I have my assessments later on in the year so I'm not on the main call-out list but they might call us out for basic searches to give us some experience or if they can't get the numbers from the main team, hence why I've only been on one call-out so far. It's all very interesting and involves a lot of 'purposeful wandering'. There's actually been substantial data collected on searching for missing people. There's an interesting pdf you should be able to find with a google search called Lost Person Behaviour- The Science of Search and Rescue by Robert Koester.

 

[Falstaff]

Wheee! Down the rabbit hole , thanks!- just seen a review of this. Really nice, easy, usable and readable layout of scenario's. Also saw there are test exercises to practice and learn on. I can see he's done some later work on Incident Command etc, and has travelled a lot. But all very expensive to buy! (But specialist work like this should never be cheap).

The original book came out in 2008 and I haven't seen any updates ? I'm wondering if technology & public attitude and practices changed things much, e.g. GPS, reliance on phones/media, use of search drones development & personal location kit etc etc.

I'm sure S&R will be totally up to date, but irrespective of that, this is clearly still a leading S&R text book. Thanks for the lead, .

 

[Dan00001]

Wheee! Down the rabbit hole , thanks!- just seen a review of this. Really nice, easy, usable and readable layout of scenario's. Also saw there are test exercises to practice and learn on. I can see he's done some later work on Incident Command etc, and has travelled a lot. But all very expensive to buy! (But specialist work like this should never be cheap).

The original book came out in 2008 and I haven't seen any updates ? I'm wondering if technology & public attitude and practices changed things much, e.g. GPS, reliance on phones/media, use of search drones development & personal location kit etc etc.

I'm sure S&R will be totally up to date, but irrespective of that, this is clearly still a leading S&R text book. Thanks for the lead, .

Yeah, I so want that book but it's expensive, I think I saw one going for like £150. Good question and I guess you could argue that peoples attitudes and practices change and you could also argue that human psychology doesn't really change, or very slowly. I think with GPS, it should result in fewer call-outs to lost walkers, although the majority of our call-outs are actually to injured or sick walkers/bikers etc. rather than those who are lost and I think the main thing that affects the number of call-outs is popularity of the outdoors, the majority of our call-outs are to the high footfall areas rather than areas that are challenging in terms of terrain/navigation. Phones are great, allowing people to call for help quickly. Drones are an extremely new development, we have a drone in the team, there is very little data on the use of drones in terms of SAR. We had a search exercise a couple of weeks ago and had the drone out and it proved to be an excellent asset, it spotted Joe, our dummy casualty, who was placed down near a river bed, before we did, and then the drone team directed the nearest search party to the casualty via radio. The negatives with a drone are things like weather, they can't be flown in high winds, and legally you need to have visual contact with the drone at all times so can't be flown in fog etc.