“Thanks to excellent work between teams, the woman’s car was quickly found on a mountain road,” he said in a news release Wednesday. “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.”
The search party included a mountain rescue team, a police helicopter and additional ground units that fanned out over the rough terrain.
Rees-Jones said the rookie dog’s capabilities “really came into play” during the search.
The new team reached her first. She waved them down from where she was trapped between a steep ravine and the mountainside, police said.
“They were safe, but cold, and appeared to have been in the area for a significant amount of time,” Rees-Jones said.
Lloyd said it was Max’s reaction to the woman’s call that helped them locate the pair.
“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,” he said. “Max remained focused throughout the long search and he proved invaluable.”