Heroic search and rescue dog Ember wins national competition
Yorkshire–based pet insurance provider The Insurance Emporium recently held a competition to find some of the UK’s most heroic pets. An amazing response saw emotional pet hero stories sent from all over the UK – however there could only be one winner.
Although it was hard to choose, staff at the Insurance Emporium voted for Jersey dog Ember, one of the Channel Islands’ first search and rescue dogs, who won herself a well-deserved year’s supply of dog food.
Ember’s owner, Carla, described how she first became involved with Lowland Rescue’s search and rescue work on Jersey and how Ember came into the picture.
She said, “I first went along to a Lowland Rescue training session to be the ‘missing person.’ When I saw just how much the dogs enjoyed using their noses to find people, I was hooked. I looked into the charity and their volunteers’ brilliant work, and decided I wanted to be part of that too.”
Carla continued, “Ember is a red-and-white Border Collie whom we have owned as a much-loved family pet since she was a pup in 2011. Ember is currently training to be a search and rescue dog, set to join Jersey’s team as a ground scenting dog.
Ember is learning to recognise and follow specific scents by sniffing a missing person’s clothes or keys, for example. She will then follow the scent to try to locate the person, ignoring distractions on the way. She is also learning to sit by them to signal that she has found them. Ember will also indicate when there is no scent trail, saving valuable time when trying to locate a missing person. She loves every minute of her training and returns with a huge doggy grin.”
The Insurance Emporium’s Chief Executive Officer Francis Martin said, “We are sure everyone will agree that Ember is a true pet hero and deserving winner of our competition. We received many wonderful and heart-warming entries, however it was Ember’s role in the Channel Islands’ first ever dog search and rescue team who stole our staff’s hearts.”
Find out more about Lowland Rescue here.
