DO YOU WANT MY BODY ?

Remember the song by Rod Stewart Do you want my body; well I have found somebody who wants mine at last!!

Lads and Lassies they want yours as well.   Who is it?    S.A.R.D.A. Wales!!

The Search and Rescue Dogs Association Wales.

Do you like dogs – do you mind being licked to death by puppy dogs?

Do you mind rolling around in the wet/snow/sheep sh** making silly noises?

Are you a little bit mad?

My kids and granddaughters think I am completely mad!

If this appeals to you, you would enjoy being a S.A.R.D.A. “Dogs Body”

S.A.R.D.A Wales need bodies for all their training weekends and for a week in February in Scotland.

You will need, depending on the season, full winter hill walking gear for training with the puppy dogs.  You will be running around most of the day and need to keep warm and dry. If you work with older puppy dogs, novice dogs and graded dogs you will need additional equipment. A sleeping bag, a bivvi bag, a sleeping roll mat, crampons and ice axe if you are going to go high in the snow and ice.

 When working with the young puppy dogs it is important that everything is a game and you have to be prepared to play tug, run around squealing and making silly noises playing tug in the mud/snow and anything else that is about! Puppies only have a small attention span so the games are fast and furious for a short time and then the pups need a rest.  For older puppies you may have to hide in one place for about a quarter of an hour to about half an hour.  Depending on the weather you may need a sleeping bag and a bivvi bag to keep you warm while you are lying about.

For novice dogs the time increases to about 2 – 3 hours and for graded dogs you can be in position for up to about 4 –5 hours –depending on the area you are working.

Sleeping bags and bivvi bags are a must here to keep you warm and dry and also to camouflage you so that the handler does not see you.  You will not fool the dogs but if the handler can see you they can cheat and guide the dogs into you! It is not necessary to buy any special gear until you are sure that you will like bodying – equipment can be loaned for the first time.  It is best to try a weekend to see if you are going to enjoy it.

In Scotland there is a weeks training and bodies have to body for at least two days and the rest of the time they can choose to either body or to have the days off to go walking or sight seeing.  There is a charge of about £120 per person but this includes accommodation, full breakfast, packed lunch, and evening meal.  There is a very good social side to the week with lectures each evening on different topics. These are purely optional.  There is a good pub on site, sauna and fitness room – full drying facilities.  Everyone has to do jankers for one evening meal and one breakfast – serving on table and washing up

You are only asked to do what you are happy and confident in doing.  If you do not like to go high in ice and snow – this is fine you will be put with the puppy dogs.  If you like to go high you will be working with the graded dogs in some spectacular scenery. 

I remember the first time I went to body for S.A.R.D.A. Wales in Scotland telling my colleague at work about the holiday I was taking. He said to me  “Let me get this right – you are paying to go and lie on a wet hillside waiting for a dog to find you – you are sad”. I am not sad, I am very happy I thoroughly enjoy the week in Scotland, the handlers are a fantastic group of people, work hard, play hard and most of them drink hard!!!

They always thank us for bodying and are really appreciative, for without us they would not be able to train their dogs.

 I am often asked, “What do you get out of it?” I get frozen, often wet, baked in the summer; get a wonderful tan on the bits, which have not been bitten by mossies or midges.  Seriously - what I do get is a feeling of great pride in the dogs.  When you have worked with baby dogs and watched them progress through to novice dogs and finally to fully graded dogs, I am so proud, because in a way they are my dogs too, I have helped them on their way.

 If you want to hear some wonderful tales, most of them true and some very funny stories come along and GIVE US YOUR BODY!!

Di Reynolds    Dogsbody  (S.A.R.D.A England)

Mike Randall's hide Scotland 2006

This was what was going on inside!!!!

     Reflections on being a dogsbody

It’s 7.30 pm on a Tuesday evening, the forecast is dreadful, but right now, its ok, feels damp in the air, but not too cold.

Where am I?  I’m lying under a rock in Cwm Dyli on Snowdon’s lower slopes.  Richard has sent me down to find my favourite rock – this one does just as well, and I’ve snuggled down, half wedged in a little tuck-in, so that if it does rain, I should be dry. 

 What am I doing?  I’m being a dogsbody… lying here out of sight, waiting for the first of about six dogs to come and find me, some of them say hello, but most are very serious, then they go back and tell their handler they’ve found something, and bring the handler back in!  Sounds like fun for the handler and dog, but what’s in it for me?

 It’s a strange thing, but how often do you lie, all alone, in some of the most beautiful, atmospheric places with nothing to do but look around you, to listen to the earth making noises – noises which those of us who don’t stop to listen never hear – the steady dripping of the water going through the moss, the strange machine noise … where on earth does that rhythmic noise come from …, to watch the clouds scudding across the sky, changing colour, and being aware of the changes in temperature, humidity, as this happens, to be aware of the changes in wind direction … to see the mountain changing colour over the other side of the cwm.   It’s a strange thing indeed.

 I spend a few minutes making myself comfortable, making sure the wind isn’t going into my clothes anywhere, that I’m not actually lying in a stream.  No bugs around as yet, but I can see a sheep’s jawbone under that rock there.  I can definitely hear the trickle, but check again, no, it’s not too close, maybe well under the clump of moss I have as my pillow.  Hood up, cosy … there’s that machine noise – a rhythmic sort of chug chug chug whirr … not my phone, maybe the pipeline which is probably about a kilometre away … strange. 

8.00 pm

Fly has been in to see me, gave me a lick on the nose before going back to Geraint; Flash has been in but didn’t tell Phil – Flash is a trainee dog, and is always very serious when he’s working – no eye contact at all, and usually stands on me.  Still warm enough, but my focus has come in to the texture of the rocks around me – that one has lines and dots like suture scars going down it.  Some flowers on the lichens as well, surprisingly few bugs still, and no midges at all.  Oops, Max has lost his ball, I’ll look for that after I finish.  Funny, as the air gets damper, the smell of damp gets more earthy.

8.30 pm

The wind is doing funny things here – some dogs only smell me after I’ve sat up briefly, if I’m lying down, they don’t get my scent.  Hey, a kiss from Netti’s dog Fen, Netti comes in with a potential handler and then I watch them go further down the cwm to find the next body.  It’s amazing watching the dogs work over a big area. Getting colder now, put my hat and gloves on and snuggle down under the rock, where I can still see the clouds.  Still no rain, but it looks imminent.  You can see the cloud base dropping over the other side of Nant Gwynant.  Here’s Moss, another serious dog until he brings Antony in then its playtime, a wrestle with the ball.  Only Richard and Celyn to go now, and I know they’ll be quick. Celyn finds me tucked in, and when he brings Richard back, out we go. I stretch my back and get my balance on the rocks, and go back to the path to meet the others.

OK I know, it’s a strange way to spend an evening, but in the midst of our busy lives, all rush and pressure, how therapeutic is this! 

See you there soon!!

Sian Williams, SARDA Wales Secretary