The charity was set up in 2020 by 5 founding Trustees and their search dogs. They were all either previous members of Mountain Rescue, Lowland Rescue or retired Police Dog handlers and trainers. This gave the charity a wealth of experience in both search techniques and dog training.
Cornwall Search Dogs was the first registered charity to provide dedicated mantrailing search dogs to the public to search for both missing dogs and missing people. We are honoured to see that our charity has inspired others to follow in our footsteps to provide this service around the world.
In 2020 Andrew was appointed our first board of Trustees Chair. Andrew is a former head of the Metropolitan Police Dog Training School. He was a member of both Berkshire and Buckinghamshire Search Dogs and has worked with trailing dogs since 2012. In 2017 he helped set up the organisation Mantrailing Scent Dogs. He is a qualified mantrailing dog handler with the British Mantrailing Academy and is also a qualified trailing handler and instructor with City and Guilds. He has worked on missing persons searches and found 2 missing dogs with his operational search dogs Ella and Pippa.
Having served as Chair, Andrew now continues to support the charity as our Patron.
Search Dog Maisy & Jenny
Jenny is a former Trustee, Search Manager and dog handler for various search and rescue teams including Berkshire Search Dogs, Surrey Search & Rescue and Cornwall Search & Rescue Team. She has worked with trailing dogs since 2005 and holds a Level 3 qualification with Mantrailing Scent Dogs. She has worked on both missing persons trails as well as helping to find 15 missing dogs with her operational search dogs Maisy and Indy. In 2023 Jenny was our appointed our second board of Trustees Chair.
Tracy is a retired mental health nurse and was a casualty carer for East Cornwall Search & Rescue Team. She has been trailing dogs since 2017. Tracy is a qualified Mantrailing Sports Trainer with the British Mantrailing Academy and holds a Level 3 qualification with Mantrailing Scent Dogs. Tracy and Holly have worked on both missing persons trails as well as attending an average of 15 call outs for missing dogs each year. Her second search dog Freda has started training in victim recovery with K9UK and is now also training to be a mantrailing search dog. Tracy runs Kernow Mantrailing, providing recreational mantrailing training.
Annie is a former member of Cornwall Search & Rescue Team. She has worked with trailing dogs since 2017. She is a Expert Mantrailing Instructor with the British Mantrailing Academy and holds a Level 4 Lead Trainer qualification with Mantrailing Scent Dogs. Annie has worked on both missing persons trails as well as helping to find missing dogs with her operational search dogs Lexi and Lyla. Annie runs Kernow Mantrailing, providing recreational mantrailing training.
John is a retired police dog handler with experience working with police dogs for general purpose, fire arms support, open area and building searches. He is a former first responder and driver for Cornwall Search & Rescue Team. He holds a Level 2 qualification with Mantrailing Scent Dogs and worked with his trailing dog Tegann from 2017 until they retired from the team in 2025, on both missing persons searches as well as helping to find missing dogs. Additionally, John established our drone division.
We are a registered charity with the Charity Commission. You can find all our annual reports, accounts, and official records by following the link here.