Brindle and Black

We all need to have a life out of work time to retain some form of sanity - no arguments there i hear you say??
Well my sanity comes in the form of 4 legs and a tail ( or multiples there of !). I am fortunate to have some very special K9's that i share my life with - Bryn and Tama and anyone who has frequented the CB premises, will have been enthusiastically greeted by these 2.
The bond i share with these 2 is a very unique one due to the fact we operate as a K9 Urban Search and Rescue team. As a fully certified and operational team we are part of the NZ USAR Search Dog Association and deployed by the NZUSAR Taskforce in the event of an emergency.
Bryn is trained to find live human scent in disaster situations such as earthquake collapses and other natural disaster senarios and to watch the boy in action on a rubble pile or building search is a sight to behold. My young dog Tama - the apprentice - has yet to be inducted into the training programme but is showing alot of promise, so hopefully he will follow in the ways of the master !
Our weekends are taken up with training and we are often flying down to Christchurch for workshops and assessments - Bryn is a seasoned flyer and is a hit in the airports with a constant stream of people wanting to have a pat or photo with him - great PR for highlighting the SDA and what we do. Thankfully i have a very understanding wife that puts up with my other life - she jokes about the fact she is a 'USAR widow' and her place in the dog's pecking order! but without her i couldn't do what i do.

Through this blog, i would like to invite you to follow our journey and encourage anyone interested in learning more about what we do, to make contact. If you are keen to find out more check out www.usardogs.org.nz and 'Northern USAR K9 subjects' page on FB.