South West pup Ayla becomes region’s first accredited K9 tracker dog able to find missing persons

A cunning South West pup is now an accredited to find missing people — the first of her kind in the region. Bunbury cavoodle Ayla, aged 3, recently became the first South West dog to pass her operational callout test through K9 Trackers Perth — a free search and rescue organisation reconnecting families with their missing loved ones. Training together, Ayla and her handler Rebecca Banks have been working towards the milestone for two years. Passing her 10 assessments with “flying colours”, Ms Banks described her talented pooch as a “pocket rocket”. “She’s a really inquisitive and energetic dog,” she said. “We wanted to channel those attributes into something positive and she just absolutely loves tracking. “It’s also really important to contribute to the community, and one way that we can do that is to help families find their missing loved ones.” Ms Banks hopes to continue Ayla’s training, working towards her becoming accredited in searching for human remains. “Now Ayla is fully accredited in scent-specific tracking, she will now go on to cadaver and identifying human remains as the next step,” she said. “It’s a lot more specific. With human remains you have to have and identify something as close to that specific smell as possible. “It’s going be exciting for her. I think she’ll do really well.” K9 Trackers founder Sonya Bowditch said the group was thrilled to be able to help families in the region. “K9 Trackers are proud and honoured to have a team like Rebecca and Ayla supporting the South West region and the families of missing loved ones,” she said. “We know that the hard work and dedication that Rebecca and Ayla have put in will benefit the South West region and families.”