Hampshire Search & Rescue Dogs is a voluntary organisation providing nationally qualified search dog teams to support the emergency services when looking for vulnerable, missing people in Hampshire. Although we are based in Hampshire, the team also covers Wiltshire, Dorset and Surrey.

The dog handlers are volunteers that train their pet dogs for the searches, we have hasty dogs, which are dogs that search for people 25m off foot paths, and we have area dogs, which search for people off the path through particular areas, whether it will be a field or a dense woodland. I am raising funds towards equipment, such as outdoor clothing, gps trackers, vehicles, dog harnesses, medical kits and courses to improve our services, such as medical training.

I have been a member of the team for 2 years as a training support, my role is to assist the handlers in training their dogs, which involves me to hide in the woods for the dogs to find me and reward the dog through play once found, as well as any other assistance that the handler needs. I eventually want to become an operational support, which involves assisting the dog handler on live searches, by helping them navigate through the area, communicate with the rest of the team and provide medical assistance to the missing individual when found or anyone that need our assistance.

To raise funds I am having a 3 day hike along the Jurassic Coast from Lulworth to Poole from 26th to 28th of May.