It’S A DOGS LIFE
Bryn puts away his passport
Bryn the border collie has travelled the world to help
in disaster areas but now it’s time for him to put away
his passport and spend quality time at home.
Eleven year old Bryn, who has just returned from
working in Nepal following the devastating
earthquake, was trained for the UK’s international
search and rescue team (UKISAR) from a puppy.
He and his handler, Steve Buckley, are widely
recognised as one of the best dog and handler
team in the country.
Steve, a firefighter with Cheshire Fire and Rescue
Service and a member of the UK international
search and rescue team, explained how the
unique partnership came about: “I was in
India with UKISAR in 2001 following the Gujarat
earthquake. 12,300 people lost their lives. The UK
team had only one dog at that time but it was
there that I saw search dogs in action for the first
time.
“Where it could take our team two or three
hours to clear an area, despite all the technical
equipment and cameras, those dogs and
handlers could cover the ground so much
quicker. The dogs worked over a building straight
away to search out live casualties before moving
on to the next area. The speed at which they
worked clearly improved the chances of trapped
casualties.
“When we returned to the UK I put a case
together for Cheshire to have a search and
rescue dog and went to see the Chief Fire Officer
who was very receptive to the idea.”
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A lady from the West Midlands offered one of a
litter of pups to the Service. At that time Steve
was a complete novice in the dog handling
world so he took a knowledgeable colleague
with him to help choose the right pup for the
job.
“There are certain traits to look for,” said Steve.
“You need a dog with focus, you need a dog
with ball drive. Bryn had both in abundance
even at 10 weeks old. You’d throw the ball
out, he’d go and pick it up and drop it back at
your feet, which is half way there. His sister was
equally ‘qualified’ and I just couldn’t decide
which of the two to have so, in the end, I asked
my god daughter to choose and it was Bryn
who came home with us!”
Once he’d settled into his Mobberley home,
Bryn’s training began in earnest. “For Bryn,
a squeaky toy is his reward. We started the
learning process with three very simple steps.
First I had to encourage Bryn to be focused
on the squeaky toy and encourage him to
bark in order to get it, secondly I had to get
him to understand the link between the toy
and humans. This was achieved by getting
people to hide with the toy, mostly my children
and god children. Once he’d made the
connection it was just a case of introducing him
to a search area, the only thing on Bryn’s mind
was getting the toy as a reward.