A MOUNTAIN rescue team has been busy training dogs for search and rescue missions.

The Lake District Mountain Rescue Searchdogs is a group of mountain rescue volunteers who train and assist the dogs in missions.

The training officer at Lake District Mountain Rescue Searchdogs, Elly Whiteford, spoke about the efforts that go into training the dogs, and what the job entails.

Speaking from the top of High Rigg while walking her dog, she said: "Training the dogs is an all-year-round job.

"We have recently completed avalanche training in the Cairngorms.

"The job is lovely, recently the weather has been okay in the mountains, which always makes it much easier.

"We do this training to make the dogs able to be on the call out list.

"The last training session with Lewis went really well, we have been out quite a lot recently."

On the actual practice of using the dogs' abilities to save people, she added: "The use of mobile phones and GPS location signals means we can get to people more quickly, and we have a proper location to search for."

On one of the most common reasons that provoke a search and rescue mission, Elly explained that as the temperatures have dropped to be colder, it is not possible to camp out in the mountains at night, and this is where they would go to seek people who are still there to bring them to refuge.

She added: "If people get cold, they can get confused."

The dogs are a useful tool for the mountain rescue volunteers as they can get over more steep and difficult terrain than people and can get into more hard-to-reach spaces, Elly explained.

The process of training a dog is no small feat, as Elly said it generally takes around two to three years to fully train a dog to be capable of a full search and rescue mission, but it can sometimes be longer than that.

The Lake District Mountain Rescue Searchdogs is, like most other mountain rescue teams, volunteer based and relies on charity funds, as Elly explained.