Belfast Dog Photographer with K9 Search & Rescue NI
Giving back as a volunteer photographer, Northern Ireland
Who are K9 Search & Rescue NI?
What is K9 Search & Rescue NI’s mission?
What are the K9 Search & Rescue NI’s objectives?
The team behind K9 Search & Rescue NI
How you can support K9 Search & Rescue NI
Who are K9 Search & Rescue NI?
K9 Search & Rescue NI is a not-for-profit K9 Search & Rescue Team based in Northern Ireland. They utilise qualified NASDU level 3 air scenting Search Dogs & Victim Recover Dogs to search for vulnerable missing people throughout Ireland.
What is K9 Search & Rescue NI’s mission?
“Our mission is to provide and promote Search and Rescue canines and handlers as a resource to UK Coastguard, Police, and the community in the event of an emergency and to advocate public safety.”
What are K9 Search & Rescue NI’s objectives?
to develop & train a professional team of canine handlers
to develop search dog teams who meet & super local & national certification standards
to develop & present training programs in canine search & rescue
to train all handlers & field personnel to be effect searchers for urban & costal locations
for all personnel to be first aid trained to minimum Rec 3, rescue 3 Swiftwater & Flood first responder & complete ASIST course within their first year of membership.
The team behind K9 Search & Rescue NI
K9 Search & Rescue NI was founded in 2017 by Ryan & his search dog, Max. When they first started out it was just Ryan & his dog and they were known as Search Dog Max. I first met Ryan & Max in 2018. Ryan was very passionate about his volunteer work & talked about his desire to grow the team. Skip forward a couple of years & Ryan now leads a team of 15 human volunteers & 9 search & rescue dogs.
The volunteers come from a variety of backgrounds & each bring something unique to the team. They have a wealth of experience & skill level is impressive. Each team member is required to pass a national certification (NASDU) before participating in search missions. I had the pleasure pf catching up with the team in 2020 as a group of volunteers qualified & where awarded with their NASDU certificates.
The 9 search dogs fall into two categories. Max heads up the air-scent live-find team who specialise in locating any human in a specific area. Unlike what we see in the movies, Max & his team don’t use the scent of a specific human but search an area for any human. There are currently 3 qualified live-find dogs; Max, Luna & Delta. Chase & Baxter are currently working through the final stages of their training & will hopefully qualify later this year. The remaining 4 dogs are Cadaver dogs which are trained to scent for the gases emitted from a decomposing body.
K9 Search & Rescue NI are tastable 24/7 365 days a year.
How can you support K9 Search & Rescue NI?
The team at K9 Search & Rescue NI are all volunteers. All the canine handlers are volunteers working with their own dogs & the handlers are responsible for paying for all their dog related expenses from food, veterinary care, travel & equipment.
Unlike other rescue organisations, K9 Search & Rescue NI does not receive government funding & they do not have a large charitable backing. They require the support of our local community, the same community that they are committed to serve.
It goes without saving that their specialist training & equipment are expensive & that they have a number of running costs. K9 Search & Rescue receives support from a number of local businesses who have donated everything from money, to life saving equipment, to providing tyres for their vehicles.
If you would like to help K9 Search & Rescue they have a fundraising page K9 Search & Rescue NI
If you are a business or community group & would like to sponsor the team get in touch with Ryan & his team. They love getting out & meeting the community & are keen to educate people on what they do, how they do it & why they give their time to such an important cause.
K9 Search & Rescue need our support so that in our time of need they are able to support us.
K9 Search & Rescue training exercise with Irish Coastguard & RNLI.
I love catching up with Ryan & his team at K9 Search & Rescue NI. I have had the pleasure of photographing the growing team on a number of different training exercises. It’s a privilege to support the team through my photography. If my photos can get one person to stop schooling on their newsfeed, to pause and take notice then that makes it all worthwhile.