Canine students Ginny and Maali close in rescue ‘dog-rees’
Monday, 6 October 2025
Meet Maali and Ginny – two canine assets getting set to be deployed when people go missing on the Isle of Wight.
These new WightSAR Search Dog Team trainees are continuing their progress towards their final assessment. With the support of Wightlink for their mainland training sessions, Maali and Ginny, together with their dedicated handlers, train frequently, both on and off the Island.
The dutiful dogs are working towards their final intensive three-day assessment and when they qualify, they will join the WightSAR operational team, assisting in live searches for high-risk missing persons across the Isle of Wight.
Maali is an air-scenting ‘sprocker’ spaniel, able to detect human scent from as far away as 500 metres, effectively covering the work of up to 20 human searchers. This skill makes Maali exceptionally well-suited for searching extensive areas of terrain, including woodland.
Labrador Ginny is a scent-specific trailing dog, trained to follow the unique scent of a missing person, typically obtained from clothing or a personal item. She is able to follow this scent from a missing person’s last known location while disregarding other scents along the route.
Their handlers are search technicians Jasmine Light and Catherine Fitton and together, they provide WightSAR with greater operational strength and flexibility. But it’s not an easy path to qualification. Search dogs need two to three years of continuous, focused training and they receive expert guidance from the Trainer and National Assessor from the National Search and Rescue Dog Association (NSARDA).
The training involves frequent trips to the Island for the NSARDA trainer to monitor and advise on their progress, as well as training weekends on the mainland, joining other dog teams—both qualified and in training—to gain broader experience. During a recent NSARDA training weekend based on the Island in June, the teams were joined by a local Police Search Advisor.
As training intensifies, the dogs are exposed to increasingly complex and varied environments and missing-person scenarios.
They are also beginning to integrate with the WightSAR team to ensure seamless collaboration during live incidents. In October, Maali, Ginny and their handlers will attend the national training weekend in North Wales.
Dean Terrett BEM , WightSAR chairman and founder, said: “This vital search dog training project, reliant on frequent mainland travel and specialised expertise, would not have been possible without Wightlink’s generous and ongoing support, for which we are profoundly grateful.
“Their ongoing sponsorship has been instrumental in developing our search dog team and that will ultimately save lives.”
Sam Woodman, Wightlink partnerships marketing manager said: “We recognise what vital work WightSAR does, often bringing happy conclusions to stressful situations so we’re very happy to support their training programme and it’s great to see Maali and Ginny doing so well.”
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