Search dog dies a few weeks after first rescue

Bramble died on her sixth birthday with her handler Andrew Jenkins by her side

A mountain rescue team has announced the death of its search dog just 10 weeks after her first call-out on a major search.

Bramble was a six-year-old English Shepherd dog trained by the Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team.

She was diagnosed with acute leukaemia and died on her sixth birthday, with her handler Andrew Jenkins by her side.

Team leader Iain Nixon said: "Bramble was a fantastic search dog and we are all incredibly sad that she has died so suddenly."

He added she was a "true community dog, with her name chosen from over 200 suggestions made by the public".

It can take two years to train a mountain rescue dog

On 22 May, Bramble found a missing person during her first operational call-out, involving 16 different search and rescue teams.

Operational search dogs take up to two years to train and might only find two or three people in their working life.

Helping others was a family affair as her sister Dottie is an operational search dog with Edale Mountain Rescue Team and her brother Stan is a therapy dog.

Her mum, Shola, and auntie Fern, are also both retired search dogs.

Between them, the family of search dogs have found eight missing people.

Bramble came from a long line of rescue dogs who between them have rescued eight people

"Search dogs are very much part of the team and our loss is felt by everyone," Mr Nixon said.

"On behalf of the team and especially her handler, Andrew, we'd like to offer our thanks to Ayres Veterinary Hospital in North Shields for doing all they could to help Bramble."