Tess can take the lead for mountain rescues

Two-year-old Border collie Tess passed a gruelling three-day search-and-rescue assessment in the Peak District at the weekend.

Following that success, Tess has become an operational member of the team and will be responding to emergencies.

Dog handler Brian Allport said: “Tess is a fantastic dog skilled in searching for missing people.

“She is trained to detect the scent of a person and then follow that scent to its source.

“Once located, she will return to me, indicate by barking and lead me back to the lost person.

“Once we have the location of the missing person we can alert the rest of the team and get the person the help they need.”

Tess’ parents are both operational search-and-rescue dogs; dad Fly is with the Cockermouth team and mum Bess with the North of Tyne Mountain Rescue Team. Her brother, Blitz, has also joined the family trade and passed his assessment, which usually takes around two years of training, alongside his sister.

Team leader Iain Nixon said: “Dogs are an integral part of mountain rescue – in the period 2007 to 2014, they’ve found 132 missing people in England. They can search large areas of land much quicker than we humans can, especially at night when they can still use their noses and we can’t use our eyes.”