Martin Boner is from Co. Donegal. He joined SARDA Ireland in 1999, has two dogs Rocky, a Border Collie/Retriever cross and Carn, a Border Collie/Labrador cross. Here is his story.

I first encountered search dogs while attending a Mountain Rescue Exercise in Sligo, I was very impressed while watching the dog seemingly glide over the rough terrain of the mountainside with ease aswel as working in harmony with the handler.

It was while attending a search for a missing man for the Donegal Mountain Rescue Team that I decided that I would enquire about getting a dog trained up to become a search dog, on that particular search, a search dog from county Down was utilised with success as the person was found in water by the dog

I attended my first training weekend with SARDA (Ireland) in Sept ‘99, I decided to train a Collie cross dog that I had rescued in June ‘99, I was impressed with the set up of the organisation and was made very welcomed by the other members ,my dog was assessed for suitability and was accepted for training , I was also instructed on what training to do on my own with the dog until the next training weekend , After six months of training I decided to retire this particular dog from training. Subsequently I had him re-homed .

Feb 2000 I got my present dog CARN as a six week old pup , She is a Border Collie–Labrador cross bitch. Over the last two & half years she progressed very well and qualified as a novice search dog in 2005.

Martin and Cairn were attached to both the Donegal mountain rescue team and the local Coast guard unit,

Cairn recently retired from active service, A special thanks to her for her endeavours and efforf while involved in many searches over the past while.