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Police dog locates missing mother, baby on first day of job

A police dog working his first shift tracked down a missing mother and baby who had not been seen in days.

Max, a 2-year-old German shepherd mix working with the Dyfed-Powys Police, covered a significant distance to find the missing mother and child during his first day on the job Aug. 1, officials said.

Well done Max 🐾 👏 👏 👏 https://bit.ly/3icxV5g

Posted by Heddlu Dyfed Powys Police on Wednesday, August 5, 2020

"Max remained focused throughout the long search and he proved invaluable when he reacted to the call for help which resulted in us locating them," his handler Peter Lloyd said.

The woman and child had been missing for two days.

“Thanks to excellent work between teams, the woman’s car was quickly found on a mountain road,” Inspector Jonathan Rees-Jones said in a statement. “Although this gave officers a location to search from, there was still a vast area to cover given the amount of time she had been missing.”

After an hour and a half open-area search, Max found the missing mother waving for help near a steep ravine. She and the baby were helped out and taken to a hospital for evaluation. Additional units, including a helicopter and search expert also assisted.

Max joined the force in February as a general purpose dog used primarily for tracking and locating. It was Max and Lloyd’s first shift together since completing training.

“I was really pleased that during our first operational deployment as a dog team, myself and Max were able to safely locate the missing mother and baby,” Lloyd said.