Oddie to the rescue!
Laura and her Border Collie have spent 2,000 hours searching for missing people
While most of us are warm and cosy in front of the fire on a dark winter’s night, there are volunteers out with their best friend searching for lost and vulnerable members of society.
Laura Williams from Oving in Buckinghamshire and her Border Collie cross Australian Shepherd, Oddie joined Search Dogs Buckinghamshire – one of the UK’s largest search dog teams in England for lowland rescue – five years ago. They discovered a whole new dimension to their relationship as a result of the training and shared experiences.
Search Dogs Buckinghamshire was established 10 years ago and has around 30 operational human team members and 10 qualified dogs – with over 20 more in training.
All members are volunteers, most of them holding down full-time jobs, and they work their own pet dogs.
Search Dogs assists Thames Valley Police and neighbouring teams in the search and safe recovery of missing vulnerable adults and children.
Handlers and dogs receive intensive, constant training throughout the year and are assessed by the Association of Lowland Search & Rescue – the governing body for all lowland teams throughout the UK.
In order to be fully operational, volunteers have to undergo specific training in search techniques, river bank searching, navigation and radio communication, missing person behaviour and human and canine first aid.
Dogs are trained to detect any human scent, and this involves weekly training sessions over two years.
If the dog and handler are successful in completing all their stages, their mock assessments and pass their national assessment, they graduate from a Level 1 training dog and qualify as a Level 2 operational dog.
“We are most commonly called out to search for missing children and for those with mental health problems, particularly those who are at risk of self-harm – or for the elderly and those living with conditions such as dementia,” Laura explains.
“I joined the team in 2013, and started training Oddie when he was rehomed to me in 2014. He was keen to work and passed his assessment to become operational in 2016.
“In my five years in the team so far I have donated nearly 2,000 hours and attended 64 incidents, in addition to too many training sessions to count!” Laura recounts.
“When Oddie finds a person he will run back to me and jump up at me to alert me that he has made a find.
“Then he will shuttle back and forth between the person and me until I reach them.”
Laura adds, “I have always loved collies and knew that I would need to provide work for Oddie to be able to give him a fulfilling life.
“A long time ago, somebody I knew went missing and I felt compelled to do something positive to help other people who find themselves in that situation.”
I felt compelled to do something positive to help others in that situation