Meet the team

Breed:- Human

DOB:- January - a long time ago

Sex:- Female

Favourite food:- Pasta

Lives for:- Dogs

Detects:- A good working dog

Rachael has been involved with dog training for the past 9 years. Starting off in the agility world, she really discovered a passion for dogs and the special partnership between canines and humans. 

This teamwork was transferred over to the detection world once she started her career.

Rachael is an experienced handler and trainer in a multitude of disciplines, including Conservation, Explosives, Tobacco and cash. 

She has a true affection for dogs and her work, and a firm believer in positive training and there is always more than one way to train! 

Rachael ensures that her dogs are rigorously tested before deployment and throughout their career. She does not take any shortcuts when producing an operational search dog. So, the client can be assured and have confidence that the dog teams are fully efficient and robust.

Breed:- Human

DOB:- December 1985

Sex:- Male

Favourite food:- Pizza

Lives for:- A decent tune

Detects:- Nothing, pretty useless compared to a dog

Aran has been working with animals since 2010. After gaining a bachelors degree in animal sciences he got a job as a kennel manager at a local rescue centre. It was there that his love of dogs grew. 

He then moved in to the detection dog world, firstly as a kennel supervisor, before training and working his way up as a handler and trainer in multiple disciplines. (Explosives, conservation, drugs, tobacco and cash)

During this time he was head of conservation and truly helped to push and prove the use of dogs in detecting wildlife, creating the best practice techniques and methodologies. 

Aran now assists Rachael at Paws for Conservation, and is always striving for quality training and rigorous testing of dogs before they are worked operationally.

Breed:- English Springer Spaniel 

DOB:- April 2013

Sex:- Male

Favourite food:- Raw trachea

Lives for:- The ball

Detects:- Bat and bird carcass

Max is an enthusiastic and typically over zealous Springer. He is an accomplished agility dog and is currently at grade 6, one grade away from the top grade in the Kennel Club agility levels. His enthusiasm unfortunately means that he also likes to run as fast as he can, which he interprets as, it's quicker to run through the jumps instead of actually jumping over, so our Crufts Championship dreams may never happen! 

He has taken to detection work well, but seems to be misinformed that everything has to be done at 100mph!

His nose is phenomenal though and he has a fantastic work ethic.

Max is top of the leader board within the team for the most bat carcass finds. Despite his incredible nose, Max is most famous for his goggles (Rex specs) He wears them to avoid injuries to his overly large eyes! And he can suffer from hayfever.

Breed:- English Springer Spaniel

DOB:- August 2014

Sex:- Female

Favorite food:- Anything

Lives for:- The ball

Detects:- Bat and bird carcass

Willow is our failed foster dog, having come to us at 11 months old due to her high energy levels. Her previous family could not cope, she had rarely been outdoors and she was petrified of everything, particularly people. 

After lots of careful exposure and training she is now a well rounded detection dog who loves people and lives life to the full.

Willow has years of experience in the detection world. She had previously been trained to be a tobacco detection dog and she was very successful within this role. Her biggest single find was of 1.75 million illegal cigarettes in a self storage unit. Overall, she has found well in excess of 2 million illegal cigarettes. 

Although Willow loves tobacco searches, she isn't well adapted to working in small shops... 'bull in china shop' comes to mind! So for this reason it was decided to retire her from tobacco and train her in conservation instead, where she is now flourishing. 

Breed:- Working Cocker Spaniel 

DOB:- November 2019

Sex:- Male

Favorite food:- Cat poo

Lives for:- Food... or socks!

Detects:- Bat and bird carcass

Stig is the youngest- and naughtiest - member of the team.

His hobbies include stealing absolutely everything and anything he shouldn't have, having no awareness of personal space and terrorising everyone and everything.

Despite all of that, Stig is an exceptionally smart dog who has taken to scent work amazingly well.

His first year of operational work he performed at 100% efficiency, and successfully located bird carcasses on wind farms, his second year he is now confidently locating bat carcass of various species on live sites

He has a great pace when searching, has bundles of enthusiasm and is extremely thorough. 

Stig will commence training of a new target species in 2021. 

Breed:- Spaniel x Collie

DOB:- July 2019

Sex:- Female

Favorite food:- Sardines

Lives for:- The Ball

Detects:- Bat and bird carcass &

                in training for secret project

Nala is the newest member of the team.

She is a rescue dog who joined us in autumn 2020. A live wire with no recall, and always wanting to be busy. She clearly needed a job to do. We started her on a neutral scent not long after she arrived, and she did not disappoint.

I am truly excited about her future as a conservation dog, her pace, drive and work ethic are just perfect. 

Nala is now a fully trained Bat and bird carcass dog and is deployed onto wind farms to gain vital experience, she has so far proved to be 100% efficient.

Nala is also working on a secret project, Her participation in this research project, if successful will pave the way for new and effective search methods in a bid to save this particular elusive species.