PAUL JOBBINS & JED
I began my Fire Service career
in 1991, and over the last 4 years I have been involved in Urban Search and
Rescue, which sparked my interest to be a dog handler in this field. At present
I am on Blue watch, in the West Midlands newly formed Technical Rescue Unit, and
our role is to respond to incidents that involve rope rescue, water rescue,
collapsed structures, major road traffic incidents and confined space rescues.
In March I was delighted to be given the responsibility of taking care and
training our latest addition to the unit, Jed. He was 12 weeks old when I
collected him from Bordertime kennels in Kent and after a month’s trial to see
if he would be suitable for the life he had ahead of him, he went to Leicester
for his assessment by Chris Pritchard who is the coordinator for the UK Fire &
Rescue Service USAR Dog team in the UK.
Jed is a very confident and
lively little fellow who soon settled into his new home and began to torment the
life out of my other dog Simba. His training is coming along nicely; he is very
responsive and quick to learn. He has been concentrating on obedience,
socialising with other dogs and lots of play to enhance his toy drive which is
the key to his progression.
He enjoys travelling and has
already been to Ballater in Scotland, and to West Kirby to train with the other
members of the dog group. The dog group arrange monthly venues at various parts
of the country, when we can all get together and put ourselves and the dogs
through their paces depending on what stage they are at. It also gives a chance
to get advice from each other if a handler is having a problem in a certain
area. The group have made me feel very welcome and although we are all situated
around the country we don’t feel isolated.
A big thank you must go to my
wife Bernie for all her support and time that she devotes in helping to keep Jed
on the right track, and also to my colleagues at work for assisting me with
Jed’s training.
Jed has a long way to go before he is ready for operational work; I will keep
you updated on his progress over the coming months.
