Freckle the cocker spaniel ‘nose’ how to search

A volunteer with National Lottery-funded Search Dogs Buckinghamshire (SDB), John is the owner of a fully trained canine sleuth: Freckle, a 6-year-old working cocker spaniel.

As soon as Freckle is wearing a special harness fitted with bells to relay his position to John, the dog knows it’s time to begin a search.

John, who lives in Westcott, said, “He gets extremely impatient once the harness goes on. He’s raring to go.”

Freckle is currently a Level 2 search dog which means he is trained to search up to 30m either side of a 2km path to find one or more missing people. Since getting his Level 2 qualification in June last year, Freckle has started training as a Level 3, Area Dog, capable of searching 50 acres within 90 minutes.

All of SDB’s members are volunteers and most have full time jobs. The organisation is on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and so far this year have responded to 21 callouts.

Search dogs work with a handler and a support. The handler, who tends to be the dog’s owner, supervises the dog while the support makes sure neither the dog nor the handler put themselves in danger. John added, “The support will also take charge of communications and the navigation side of things. If you’re in the woods in the dark you need to know where you’re going.”

There are two approaches to using dogs to search for missing people. Trailing or ground scenting is when the animal is allowed to smell an article of clothing belonging to the missing person and uses the scent to trace them. Air scenting is when they use their extraordinary sense of smell – a dog’s nose is up to one million times more sensitive than a human’s – to locate anyone in the designated search area.

John first considered training Freckle as a search dog in 2018 when he visited a Search Dogs Buckinghamshire stand at a local fete. But before he could enrol his dog in training he had to become qualified himself. He is now a search technician, a role that requires training in disciplines such as radio skills and navigation as well as a basic fitness test.

John has responded to 17 incidents since Freckle has been qualified. So far, they have not found a missing person, but that isn’t unusual. John explained, “Some searches are called off before they start if the person is found; other times you might search the area you’re given and feel extremely certain there’s no one in the area.”

Asked what he gets from being an SDB volunteer John joked, “Scars, nettle rash and grazes! But seriously, it’s trying to do something good.”

John Seaman, the chair of SDB, said National Lottery funding plays a vital role in keeping the project operational. He said, “The support is fantastic and we use it to cover all aspects of our activities.”

25th July 2024