Mountain Rescue Dogs

Border collies are trained to take part in mountain rescues in the Lake District to locate people who go missing.

The dogs are part of the Rescue Dogs Association in the Lake District.

Border collies, Kess, Kidsty and Drizzi are part of a 15 strong team of rescue dogs are used to track missing people near the South Lakes area.

Les Telford, Pete Collins and his wife own Kess, Kidsty and Drizzi respectively. Normally, they can be called at any time to perform a search for climbers, lost walkers or those who attempt suicide and disorientated Alzheimer’s sufferers.

Mr Telford, 52, who works as a freelance translator during the day said, "The dogs learn through play. They would not do the job if they didn’t enjoy it. So it makes life difficult for us at times because it is serious work — often a matter of life and death.

"Often we don’t know whether the person we’re looking for is going to turn up in some pub on the other side of the county or whether we’re going to recover a body, yet you have to keep your dog excited because for them it’s playtime."

These dogs are specially trained to find people and give an alert when they find the missing person.

He added, "We were at a location working out our search route on the map to find a missing woman one night and the dogs were barking like mad.

"We thought they were being over-excitable because they knew we were about to start work, so we ignored them. But they were trying to tell us they had found her, before we had even set off. The woman was in a bad way but she survived."

Mr Collins, 38 said, "The time it takes a dog to find a body compared to a human team on their own can make all the difference to loved ones. Whatever the news, we would want to inform waiting family and friends as soon as possible.

"Also, for the sake of ourselves, we can be out in some pretty horrendous conditions so if the dogs can get the job done quicker it makes it safer for us."