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National Training Weekend - Glendalough Wicklow  - 19-21st September 2009

A very successful training weekend was held in lovely September weather. Many new people coming along to act as dogs bodies and SARDA Ireland extends special thanks to them.  Jacquie Hall and John Coombes were visiting from the UK and demonstrated a number of the training techniques used by SARDA England.  Two dogs passed their stock test on the Sunday afternoon.

National Training Weekend - Comeragh Mountains, Co. Waterford - 19-21st June 2009

A specially extended training weekend was held to coincide with a visit from Jacquie Hall, a dog agility trainer and dog behaviourist from the UK.  In addition to the usual search training for the dog teams, Jacquie gave individual instruction to members and a very interesting talk on the Saturday evening.  SARDA would like to thank Jacquie for her contribution since search dogs encounter a number of obstacles in their work and need to be confident in tackling these.

National Assessment Weekend - Comeragh Mountains, Co. Waterford 8th - 10th May 2009

Two new novice dog teams were qualified at the assessment weekend, Catherine Kelly with her dog Lily, and Dave Geoghegan with his dog Sheba.  At the same weekend Mick and Bono were reassessed to confirm their qualification and successfully passed their assessment.  Many people volunteered to act as missing people over the three days and SARDA would like to thank all of them for their time and effort.  Many thanks also go to the assessors, who travelled over from the UK, and to the local farmers who kindly allowed the assessment to take place on parts of mountain commonage that they use.

National Training Weekend - Wicklow - March 28th/29th 2009

The weather smiled on SARDA yet again, with sunshine and snow flurries on the Saturday and wall to wall sunshine on the Sunday.  11 people volunteered to act as dog's bodies over the weekend and their help made a huge difference to the success of the training, with 10 dog teams training over the weekend.  An obedience test was held for one potential trainee, which the dog passed successfully, and a stock test was arranged which was passed by four dogs.  There are three dog teams approved for assessment in May and two further dog teams were suggested for assessment in the autumn.  All in all, a very successful and encouraging weekend's training.

Members attend Course in Scotland, March 2009

Catherine Kelly and her trainee search dog Lily along with Jarlath Folan and his trainee Hugo attended a week of SARDA training held in the Cairngorms in Scotland.  The course was run by SARDA Lakes.
They arrived on Friday evening and training started Saturday morning early.  They were in search of snow as there had been a major thaw the previous week which hampered our avalanche training plans.  We did find a large snow field so got started on digging out some large snow holes and got the dogs familiar with them.  We got to do a week of  'normal' training which was probably more beneficial to us anyway.
One day we both did a line search which involves both handlers and dogs searching the same area.  It was interesting that even though Jarlath was upwind from Catherine her dog, Lily seemed to realise that he was not what we were searching for!!
The rest of the week involved early starts out on the mountain and plenty of late nights!!!
We both did a day assessment on the last day which included a crag search and a large area of mountain terrain.
They found the week very beneficial to both their dogs and to themselves.  The SARDA Lakes team could not have been more welcoming to them both and were great craic also !!!!

National Training Weekend - Comeragh Mountains, Co. Waterford 21st and 22nd February

A valuable training weekend was held in the Comeraghs in lovely dry weather - typical Ireland in the winter (in the summer it will rain!).  With the assistance of 10 people who volunteered to act as missing persons (dog's bodies) the training officer was able to set up two large areas for practice searches, and have smaller areas available for the younger less experienced dogs.  The dog teams showed excellent progress in locating the people and covering the area and the clement weather conditions made for an enjoyable weekend.  In the early part of Saturday there was a group on orienteering exercise and one young dog had a great time 'finding' many of the orienteers!  All good practice for the dogs.

Emergency Voluntary Services Information and Recruitment Exhibition Friday 6th and Saturday 7th February 2009
 
The event started at 3pm Friday, with Henry and Liz arriving at 11.00 to set up.  Just about the time the event was due to start officially, Liz's dog, Sceilg, managed to cut her paw badly indoors, on a smooth carpet!  This meant Liz had to rush to the vet and Denis very kindly stepped in at short notice to take over from Liz.  (Sceilg is very proud of her first injury in  the service of SARDA and would like to thank the people who provided bandages and first aid).

Around 17 different agencies attended the event and on the Friday Henry, Liz and Denis with Tammy, Liffey, Sceilg and Bonzo did a lot of walking around giving out info leaflets and chatting with people representing other voluntary services. On Saturday Denis and Trevor arrived around 11.00 where they met with the organizer Rose-Anne Kidney and agreed to do three demonstrations throughout the day. Rose-Anne went out of her way to announce the demos and make sure we had big crowds on each occasion - the weather was beautiful with crisp spring sunshine. Trevor and Holly did the search demos while Denis described over the microphone what SARDA's work achieves and how the dogs searched.  Both the public and the agencies showed great interest in the demos. SARDA would like to thank Daniel, Caroline, Emma and Inger who volunteered as bodies for us throughout the day.

The whole event was very well organized with many of the agencies doing a lot of demos, the weather was excellent and even though the crowds weren't huge, there were still a lot of people around. We would like to thank JP the caretaker who assisted in setting up the stand and made sure we had access to water for the dogs and that the handlers were fed!

It was also great to see that the Lord Mayor Mr Birmingham and Minister Kelleher made time to meet  Trevor and Denis on the Saturday for a chat and photos. He said that they would do everything in their power to promote SARDA services.  A lot of the agencies showed a lot of interest in working with Sarda in both active service and doing training along side us.  Further thanks go to good friend Sergeant Brian o Donovan and his colleague Superintendent Con Cadogan for going out of their way during the day to both help us and promote SARDA's services in a big way.

The event finished with closing speeches from Tony the head organizer, Superintendent Cadogan and Minister Kelleher, each praising the volunteers and especially Sarda.

It was an excellent event for all the agencies and did a lot to raise SARDA's profile with the other search agencies. 

We would like to congratulate Rose-Anne and Tony and their team for hosting such a good event.
 

SARDA Ireland's Assessors take part in UK Assessments January 2009

Helen Mcnamara and Don Murphy attended the recent search dog assessments of Sarda England, held in the Lake District of England, as assessors. We were representing SARDA Ireland at the invitation of the English association and, uniquely, assessors from all the SARDA associations were present. All SARDA associations invite external assessors to oversee these tests to provide impartial decisions as to whether the dog teams are up to standard. Over a wet and windy three days Don assessed dog teams for upgrade to full search dog status, with 3 finally attaining this.  Meanwhile, Helen, working in a different area, assessed dog teams for novice grade with most attaining this accreditation.  Each evening the assessors hold meetings to discuss their individual areas and then follow this with overall meetings where all dog teams are discussed with a ‘pass’ or ‘not up to the required grade’ being adjudicated for each area searched. Many people assisted by acting as ‘missing persons and hid for three days in appalling weather conditions with good humour and demeanour – their help and dedication is always very much appreciated. The majority of the dogs being assessed were collies and collie crosses with a few other breeds as well as one munsterlander

Street Collection in Cork

Once again SARDA held a street collection in Cork - this year on January 10th.  We'd like to thank everyone who supported us and hope that you enjoyed meeting the handlers and the dogs.  See you again next year!