Meet the organisation saving pets across the Isle of Wight.
TrackAdog is an Isle of Wight voluntary group that trains dogs to follow the scent of missing pets to reunite them with their owners.
The organisation first launched in 2019, but some of its members have been involved in lost dog recovery since 2013, working closely with Lost Pets IOW.
“We started as five members doing scent work,” said trustee, dog trainer and dog handler, Jane Cameron, 63.
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“One of our members was part of a group called Charlie’s Angels, and they searched for a lost lurcher called Charlie that went missing on the Island.
“It was a big story at the time, and it all grew from that.”
In 2019, TrackAdog had around ten volunteers, and that number has now grown to 42.
The team is made up of coordinators who are homebased, ground searchers, dog handlers and buddies.
The latter accompany a dog handler and their dog, carrying equipment, managing radio communication and talking to members of the public.
“We always go out in pairs,” said Jane.
As well as their work with dogs, they also carry out ground searches without their pets and have two drone operators who double up as coordinators.
The TrackAdog team train their pet dogs themselves.
Within the group are four dog trainers and a veterinary nurse, and all members are familiar with canine first aid.
They run scent work classes and train three times a week – the trainers themselves learning from some of the top trainers in the world.
“The dogs start with their basic training, then they have two levels they have to complete before they’re operational,” said Jane.
“It takes between 18-month and two years to train them.
“We would never put a dog out unless they were fully trained.”
So far, the team have seven fully qualified search dogs – Alfie, Buzz, Duchess, Elvis, Fraser, Freya and Merlin – and 19 dogs in training.
The team carry out around 36 searches a year on average and there have been plenty of success stories.
Most recently, the team found Rose, a 15-year-old Shiba Inu who went missing while on holiday on the Isle of Wight.
She has since been reunited with her grateful owner.
The team also helped find four raccoons who escaped from Amazon World last year.
They used the raccoons’ bedding as a scent item for their dogs, managed to find where they were hiding, and reported back to Amazon World so that traps could be set.
Coonhound, Elvis, was truly in his element during this operation. It was a task he was born to carry out.
The TrackAdog team also helped find a lost owl at Robin Hill Country Park using a thermal scope and a chance encounter with Jane and her fully trained, now retired dog Barney, in Newchurch, led to a tortoise called Mavis being found.
The team are always looking for more volunteers and donations.
“All the money we raise from donations goes toward equipment and training,” said Jane.
“At the minute, we really need our radios updated, and we’re looking at an emergency evacuation harness as well.”
Live feed cameras are also very high on the group’s wish list.
For TrackAdog, sightings are key to finding lost dogs.
It helps to have a starting point and enables owners to be in the right area to secure their pets.
TrackAdog offers support and advice on how to approach a missing dog, and what not to do.
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