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Search Dogs and Me: One Man and his Life-Saving Dogs
One of the most moving and remarkable true stories you will ever read about the partnership between a man and his search and rescue dogs
288 pages, Paperback
First published September 16, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 29, 2024
Neil Powell trained the first mountain rescue dog in Ireland in the early 1970's, and in the book also goes on to train drowned victim recovery dogs and collapsed structure search dogs. The book is great in covering all three types of rescue work with some dramatic rescues and some sad finds.
For us yanks, we love a good book from the UK and the differences that come from another country. I am sure it is a great book to listen on audible to get the full benefit of the accent and language. Be aware that the language does include a lot of cuss words.
What I didn't know was that he was probably the first to develop the rebound method for a dog to tell it's owner they had a find. Before the dog would just go to the victim and bark under the handler would show up. But what if because of terrain and weather conditions you can't tell from the sound of the barking where the dog is?
'In another momentary lull, somewhere to the east of me, | heard Kim barking again. As fast as I could, I scrambled over the rough ground towards the sound. Gasping for breath I eventually found them and saw Kim standing beside the policeman who, although swathed in a bivvy bag, was clearly soaking wet and very angry. He shouted, ‘That stupid bloody dog of yours has been barking at me for nearly half an hour and you still couldn’t find me. You're both bloody useless! Useless!’
That is what got him thinking if there was a better way-
'Later, after a shower and some dinner, when I could think more rationally, one of those moments of inspiration that sometimes strike from the blue hit me. My belligerent colleague had quite unwittingly done me = and, as it later transpired, search dogs all over the world — a huge favour. I realised in shock it was not Kim and me that were useless; the problem lay with the method that we were using to indicate a find. What was the point of Kim barking at the casualty? Surely it would make far more sense to train him to come back to me and then bark. All I'd have to do would be to train him to take me back to wherever the casualty was. It seemed so simple and so obvious. I was ecstatic and decided t0 raise my new idea at the next training.
The best part of search dog books is when they make a find:
'He carried on going across the slope for about another hundred metres, then, suddenly, he stopped. He was looking at something on the ground. He looked back towards me, gave a bark and then began running down the slope.
‘Fuck me! That looks like a find, I shouted to Mick, who was much closer now.
Pepper arrived and started dancing and barking with excitement.'
From Mountain rescue he trained for more types of SAR training and was called to the site of a downed airliner that went down in Lockerbie. Here is a bit from when they first start work there:
'“Is there anything I can sort of let him practice on first?’
‘Look around you, Neil. See over there in the bushes. Do you see all that stuff? Well those are human remains. Start him off on that’
I had never seen anything like it. I couldn’t comprehend that what I was looking at had once been a human being. But this was no time to be shocked. I said, ‘Find him, Pep, and pointed in the general direction of the hedge nearby. He went straight over and smelled intensely at what was in front of him. I praised him enthusiastically and asked, ‘What have you got, Pep?’
What you find in a downed airliner site spread over the hills is not pleasant but does help bring closure.
You wish all rescues were successful, but unfortunately some are not:
'As for the missing walker, he was found seven weeks later in a gully on the east face of Carrauntoohil. It was thought that he had fallen during his descent, due to a bad choice of route, and died landed. Only his skeleton remained, the poor man.
While all mountain rescuers and search dog handlers know that, on occasion, they will fail to reach a casualty in time, it is still difficult to deal with an unsuccessful search when it happens. Questions abound. Were we searching in the wrong place at the time’ Could we have got there sooner? Was the weather that bad?'
The book also goes into training dogs to smell drowning victims that are underwater. I know it amazed me to think of it when I first heard about it. Hard for others to believe it is possible as well. While the book doesn't go into detail about how scent can travel downstream or in currents, it does give some good examples, and lessons on trusting the dog even when people say divers have already searched an area. Here is an example of one person after a body was recovered:
'Later, with the formalities over, the sergeant sought us out and said, ‘Look, lads, I have to hand it to you. I really didn’t believe it was possible and only for me seeing it with my own two eyes, no one could’ve convinced me. Who'd have thought it? A dog smelling someone under the water. My God almighty!’'
The book also gets into using your search and rescue dog to help with disasters internationally. The dog tells you there is someone alive in the rubble, and brave people have to find a way to get in to check and rescue someone in time. Here is a bit from that part:
'This was one of the worst parts of being a search and rescue dog handler — the anxious wait. As always, I found myself asking, Is the bloke there at all? Is the dog right? Did I commit these lads to a highly dangerous situation for nothing? It was very stressful — almost like being in suspended animation. Time dragged on forever and the suspense grew.'
What is horrible about the UK is their six month quarantine requirement for dogs coming in or back to the country. I frankly would not do it. Here he is describing how it adversely affected his dog:
'Charco has never been the same since his two sessions in quarantine — even now, he still has serious issues about eating his food from a metal bowl. Every mealtime for him has become an ordeal taking twenty minutes or more for him to finish his food. He is panic stricken during the entire process, snatching mouthfuls of food then backing away from the dish, terrified. It is really sad to watch such a beautiful, noble dog behaving like this.'
There are times he doubts his dog and has to learn from it. Good advice, but as he makes no mention of false alerts in the book, I think does not give a more complete story. And if you are more interested in learning more about training, there is not so much of that in the book, But those are my only minor quibbles.
So, the book has lots of good aspects to the SAR dog story. If you are a fan, read all the books you can and include this one. This one is not my favorite of the type, but still a good book.
For us yanks, we love a good book from the UK and the differences that come from another country. I am sure it is a great book to listen on audible to get the full benefit of the accent and language. Be aware that the language does include a lot of cuss words.
What I didn't know was that he was probably the first to develop the rebound method for a dog to tell it's owner they had a find. Before the dog would just go to the victim and bark under the handler would show up. But what if because of terrain and weather conditions you can't tell from the sound of the barking where the dog is?
'In another momentary lull, somewhere to the east of me, | heard Kim barking again. As fast as I could, I scrambled over the rough ground towards the sound. Gasping for breath I eventually found them and saw Kim standing beside the policeman who, although swathed in a bivvy bag, was clearly soaking wet and very angry. He shouted, ‘That stupid bloody dog of yours has been barking at me for nearly half an hour and you still couldn’t find me. You're both bloody useless! Useless!’
That is what got him thinking if there was a better way-
'Later, after a shower and some dinner, when I could think more rationally, one of those moments of inspiration that sometimes strike from the blue hit me. My belligerent colleague had quite unwittingly done me = and, as it later transpired, search dogs all over the world — a huge favour. I realised in shock it was not Kim and me that were useless; the problem lay with the method that we were using to indicate a find. What was the point of Kim barking at the casualty? Surely it would make far more sense to train him to come back to me and then bark. All I'd have to do would be to train him to take me back to wherever the casualty was. It seemed so simple and so obvious. I was ecstatic and decided t0 raise my new idea at the next training.
The best part of search dog books is when they make a find:
'He carried on going across the slope for about another hundred metres, then, suddenly, he stopped. He was looking at something on the ground. He looked back towards me, gave a bark and then began running down the slope.
‘Fuck me! That looks like a find, I shouted to Mick, who was much closer now.
Pepper arrived and started dancing and barking with excitement.'
From Mountain rescue he trained for more types of SAR training and was called to the site of a downed airliner that went down in Lockerbie. Here is a bit from when they first start work there:
'“Is there anything I can sort of let him practice on first?’
‘Look around you, Neil. See over there in the bushes. Do you see all that stuff? Well those are human remains. Start him off on that’
I had never seen anything like it. I couldn’t comprehend that what I was looking at had once been a human being. But this was no time to be shocked. I said, ‘Find him, Pep, and pointed in the general direction of the hedge nearby. He went straight over and smelled intensely at what was in front of him. I praised him enthusiastically and asked, ‘What have you got, Pep?’
What you find in a downed airliner site spread over the hills is not pleasant but does help bring closure.
You wish all rescues were successful, but unfortunately some are not:
'As for the missing walker, he was found seven weeks later in a gully on the east face of Carrauntoohil. It was thought that he had fallen during his descent, due to a bad choice of route, and died landed. Only his skeleton remained, the poor man.
While all mountain rescuers and search dog handlers know that, on occasion, they will fail to reach a casualty in time, it is still difficult to deal with an unsuccessful search when it happens. Questions abound. Were we searching in the wrong place at the time’ Could we have got there sooner? Was the weather that bad?'
The book also goes into training dogs to smell drowning victims that are underwater. I know it amazed me to think of it when I first heard about it. Hard for others to believe it is possible as well. While the book doesn't go into detail about how scent can travel downstream or in currents, it does give some good examples, and lessons on trusting the dog even when people say divers have already searched an area. Here is an example of one person after a body was recovered:
'Later, with the formalities over, the sergeant sought us out and said, ‘Look, lads, I have to hand it to you. I really didn’t believe it was possible and only for me seeing it with my own two eyes, no one could’ve convinced me. Who'd have thought it? A dog smelling someone under the water. My God almighty!’'
The book also gets into using your search and rescue dog to help with disasters internationally. The dog tells you there is someone alive in the rubble, and brave people have to find a way to get in to check and rescue someone in time. Here is a bit from that part:
'This was one of the worst parts of being a search and rescue dog handler — the anxious wait. As always, I found myself asking, Is the bloke there at all? Is the dog right? Did I commit these lads to a highly dangerous situation for nothing? It was very stressful — almost like being in suspended animation. Time dragged on forever and the suspense grew.'
What is horrible about the UK is their six month quarantine requirement for dogs coming in or back to the country. I frankly would not do it. Here he is describing how it adversely affected his dog:
'Charco has never been the same since his two sessions in quarantine — even now, he still has serious issues about eating his food from a metal bowl. Every mealtime for him has become an ordeal taking twenty minutes or more for him to finish his food. He is panic stricken during the entire process, snatching mouthfuls of food then backing away from the dish, terrified. It is really sad to watch such a beautiful, noble dog behaving like this.'
There are times he doubts his dog and has to learn from it. Good advice, but as he makes no mention of false alerts in the book, I think does not give a more complete story. And if you are more interested in learning more about training, there is not so much of that in the book, But those are my only minor quibbles.
So, the book has lots of good aspects to the SAR dog story. If you are a fan, read all the books you can and include this one. This one is not my favorite of the type, but still a good book.
August 1, 2014
A memoir of forty years of training and working with dogs, in sometimes tough or harrowing circumstances. Neil Powell was a teacher in a town in Ireland and enjoyed hillwalking so it was a natural progression for him to train his dogs to find lost climbers. However he had to be prepared to go out in any weather.
He then trained a German Shepherd which was not trusted around sheep, to search for a body under water. Nobody believed that dogs could pick up scent from a boat on a lake but time and again he and Cuisle proved police and local dive teams wrong.
Neil was called upon to bring a dog to Lockerbie after a plane crash but his dog was there not to find survivors but to search for body parts buried under loose soil and debris. The clever dog had to learn on the spot and the air was full of aviation fuel vapour and dust. Afterwards all the several dogs which worked that site came down with rare lung cancers.
Neil loved dogs and at times had six or even eight large animals together, he does not say how he fed them but it is possible that SARD which he was a member of helped with the cost. He got help from police, army, air forces and charities around the world as he worked earthquake sites in Turkey and Pakistan. However the dogs were not allowed to break the six month quarantine rule even though they had been vaccinated against rabies and had not met other animals.
The dogs Cracker and Dylan particularly received citations for duty and courage in rescuing people and Neil gave up a lot of family time to train and go at the drop of a hat. This is a book well worth reading though it is not always easy to read because of the subject matter, I would not recommend it for young people.
He then trained a German Shepherd which was not trusted around sheep, to search for a body under water. Nobody believed that dogs could pick up scent from a boat on a lake but time and again he and Cuisle proved police and local dive teams wrong.
Neil was called upon to bring a dog to Lockerbie after a plane crash but his dog was there not to find survivors but to search for body parts buried under loose soil and debris. The clever dog had to learn on the spot and the air was full of aviation fuel vapour and dust. Afterwards all the several dogs which worked that site came down with rare lung cancers.
Neil loved dogs and at times had six or even eight large animals together, he does not say how he fed them but it is possible that SARD which he was a member of helped with the cost. He got help from police, army, air forces and charities around the world as he worked earthquake sites in Turkey and Pakistan. However the dogs were not allowed to break the six month quarantine rule even though they had been vaccinated against rabies and had not met other animals.
The dogs Cracker and Dylan particularly received citations for duty and courage in rescuing people and Neil gave up a lot of family time to train and go at the drop of a hat. This is a book well worth reading though it is not always easy to read because of the subject matter, I would not recommend it for young people.
July 30, 2018
A fascinating look into the life and training of rescue dogs and the humans leading the way. Some of the stories are horrific, some sad and others have a little humor, a good mixture overall. I learned a lot about handlers and their relationship with the dogs, if you don't trust your dog, there is a reason, the dog is not cut out for the job. I have read other books on the subject but this by far is the best well-rounded book. I highly recommend it to animals loves and anyone wanting to read books about life-saving heroes.
August 30, 2025
This was a standout among my search dog books! The author is very modest about his accomplishments, but the truth is that he was quite a pioneer in many areas, including the “refined” used in mountain rescue. He was a teacher by profession but clearly his passion in life was working with search dogs, in a second “career” that spanned decades. We meet all of his dogs through the book, from his first dog, a rescue German shepherd, through his last dogs (maybe last dogs? I don’t actually know whether he’s still alive or not), who he trained to detect DVDs for detection of child porn among other things. I fell in love with each of his dogs, and you will too the way he writes about them. The most heartbreaking part of the book? It’s not the tragic loss of life in the various disaster areas he worked. No, it’s the 6-month quarantine that his beloved dogs had to endure on return from their lifesaving searches in foreign countries. I wouldn’t have been able to do that to my dogs, never. Let the people die if the quarantine requirement can’t be waived. This was a great book that I didn’t want to end.
August 18, 2024
I found this very enjoyable at the time of reading but not super memorable afterwards. Thus I can't give you much helpful information about it, nor can I recommend it especially. Sorry. it was probably so engrossing that I rushed through without it making a deep impression on my mind. I'm going to read it over again and report back.
Okay, I'm back. It was actually very good, lively and full of detail and lots and lots of dogs. The only thing I hated was the way that the authorities never learned to trust his dogs' ability to cadaver scent under water. Time and again they'd locate the body, only to be sent home. Weeks or months later, it would eventually be discovered....right where they said it was.
I recommend it completely.
Okay, I'm back. It was actually very good, lively and full of detail and lots and lots of dogs. The only thing I hated was the way that the authorities never learned to trust his dogs' ability to cadaver scent under water. Time and again they'd locate the body, only to be sent home. Weeks or months later, it would eventually be discovered....right where they said it was.
I recommend it completely.
January 22, 2024
Fantastic story telling from a man who has experienced some very interesting ways of life. Great insight into search and rescue. I thoroughly enjoyed it
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 30, 2020
Neil is a great storyteller. He does a brilliant job of conveying the adventure and humanity of K9 search and rescue.
February 24, 2025
Loved this book. Very easy to read. Great story teller. I laughed and cried! What a lovely man and amazing dogs
July 24, 2012
Amazing what search dogs can do - I had no idea that dogs can detect people under water! A little sad at times as the dogs are brought into situations where disaster has struck or someone has been missing for sometimes.
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