This week we’re celebrating a really interesting customer – Rosie! Rosie came in with her two beautiful dogs, Fenrir and Luna, and we were delighted to learn that they were Search and Rescue dogs.
They were such a pleasure to have in the studio that we had to find out more about them! Check out her story, her very obedient dogs and ways to get involved with Search and Rescue dog training:
Hey Rosie – tell us all about your two dogs!
“Fenrir is a 19 month old Dutch Herder born here in Northern Ireland, he’s a Trailing Dog in training for SARDA IN (Search and Rescue Dog Association, Ireland North). Fenrir works by being given the scent of an article of clothing belonging to a missing person and uses his nose to follow the trail. We are hoping to get him qualified this year.”
Luna had a difficult start, but she has quickly become a confident little girl.
“Luna is a 1 year old Dutch Herder. She joined us from a rescue centre in England where she had a difficult start, but she has quickly become a confident little girl. Luna has just started her training to become a victim recovery dog for SARDA IN. Once qualified, she will be used to help find those missing persons we believe to already be deceased. She also competes in fun scent work competitions run in Northern Ireland.
As Northern Ireland’s only official dog search and rescue team, we can be requested by the PSNI to assist in searching for missing persons. We are all volunteers and all the dogs are pets first.”
I had so much fun… and it looks like the dogs did too!
How was your photoshoot?
“I had so much fun at the photo shoot – and it certainly looked like the dogs had a blast too! I was made to feel so at ease, even with two crazy dogs who were just desperate to get hold of their ball!”
How could people get involved with SARDA?
“Some ways to get involved with SARDA IN can be through donations made through the Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/sarda.irelandnorth
Or you can contact Neil Powell at contact@sardairelandnorth.co.uk about volunteering as a Dogs Body. Dogs Bodies are volunteers who come along to our training sessions each month and hide in locations around the Mourne Mountains for qualified and in-training dogs to find”
The Peter Thomas Photography website is peterthomasphotography.com
