The Canine Section officially welcomes our new 'up and comer' area search dog

The Canine Section are proud to announce Mette and her Belgian Shepherd, Freya passed their indication test on Sunday, 21st October.They are now in training to become an area search team.

Congratulations from all of us, we know you both worked so hard to get to where you are today. Persistence pays off!We look forward to seeing you both graded soon to help us on search call outs.

The WA SES Canine Unit Welcomes A New Graded Handler and Two Advanced Upgrades

 Newly Graded Area Search Team- Chris and Kelpie, Piper

 Leonie and Jemma, Glenn, Justin, Ian and Peter and Daisy

 Piper ready for a search!

 Border Collie, Jemma enjoys play time after a successful find.
Peter and Belgian Shepherd,  Daisy

 On Tuesday the 11th of September, after months of dedication and training, Chris and Piper were declared an operational area search and rescue team. Chris, Leonie and Peter took part in a number of assessments under the supervision of retired police dog handler Ian Spreckley, Justin Watts from the WA Police Unit and with the help of volunteers from Northshore SES.

Congratulations also to both Leonie and Jemma, Peter and Daisy who were also successful in passing their upgrade assessments and are now advanced area search and rescue teams.

The grading of Chris and Piper brings the number of on-call operational canine search and rescue teams to five, four of which are area search and one tracking search team. We hope this increase in the number of handlers on call, will enable us to support WAPOL and the SES with more and more searches and make a significant contribution to our community.

Thanks go to the assessors, Ian Spreckley, SES and Justin Watts, WAPOL. Also to our district manager Glen Hall who provided welfare on the day and most importantly thanks to the members of Northshore who ‘bodied’ for us. Congratulations again to Chris, Leonie and Peter for being rewarded for all your hard work and efforts.

Canine Search Wednesday 29th August

There was a search on Wednesday night and the Canine Section was deployed at the request of the WA Police to assist in finding an unwell lady who was missing from Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.

Two of the canine teams were myself (and Karma) and Leonie Briggs and Jemma. We started searching from approx. 8.30 until after midnight. We were joined by a couple of navigators from North Shore SES and searched nearby bushland in Kings Park. The Police helicopter was also out using infrared cameras to locate the missing person.

Albany Advertiser: 'Albany tracks backdrop for SES Canine training weekend'

Albany Advertiser Tuesday 7th August, 2012

Albany Training Weekend

4th and 5th August, 2012

The first weekend of August saw the Canine Section travel to Albany to join the Albany SES for a training weekend. Despite rain in the lead up to the weekend, Albany put on ideal weather conditions; sunshine and enough wind for the dogs to work with. The joining of units meant the Canine Section had the 'bodies' to hide in areas of plantation and bush for a variety of searches.

Under the direction of the Canine Section Training Coordinator, Ian Spreckley, members of the Albany SES (at times 2-6 at once) were placed in certain areas for the K9 teams (handlers and dogs) to find.

On Saturday training was conducted from early morning, through to the evening with short breaks for refreshments and meals. Sunday's training included some fun searches at a superb location that featured varying terrain, bush and also swampland.

All agreed highlights of the training weekend was the night training at a local golf course and also the meals that everyone looked forward to in between training exercises. Overall, it was a successful weekend and enjoyed by all involved.

Special thanks to Ian Spreckley, the Albany SES, Glenys Nottle, the WA SES Canine Section and other 'bodies' who gave up their weekend to volunteer. Also many thanks to Andrea who was our photographer and 'body' for the weekend.

Please see the link to the Albany Advertiser article written by Toyah Shakespeare.

Welcome to SES Dogs Western Australia

Welcome to SES Dogs Western Australia

Here is our new Blog site where all WA SES Canine Section members an post their comments, share photos and videos.

Please bear with us while we're working out teething problems. Any problems please let me know.
After our training weekend in Albany, I felt the need for a working blog site for all Canine Section members.

Happy blogging,
Steph