I have been involved in Search & Rescue in Hampshire for over 10 years. During this time I have trained and deployed alongside my nationally qualified Search Dog, Zak. We have attended hundreds of searches in that time and been involved in many successes.
With Zak reaching his 9th birthday on the 9th Feb I have had to come to the hard conclusion that if I am to continue to be involved I will have to train another search dog to take the pressure off of Zak in the coming years. So on the 12th February after careful selection and a lot of driving, Rusty came to live with us.
Having devoted a lot of time and much more money to this important past time over the last years I understand completely how much commitment it takes to train a dog to a high level. I spend a lot of time assisting other teams around the country with bringing on trainee search dogs and now it is time once again to concentrate on another dog to serve the people of Hampshire.
I have investigated all avenues over the past months to see how much it will cost to train and equip another dog and knowing what it has cost me over the past years I am looking to raise the money to assist with the ongoing costs to make this new chapter work.
Money raised will be spent on food, insurance, vet and equipment costs throughout the first 18 months of training. I have saved the money to buy Rusty and he will belong to me.
For those that donate I will run a Facebook group and Twitter page so that everyone can keep up to date with Rusty's training and be involved in making a new success story.