A Highland mountain rescue team is training a new pup to take over from its search dog, who will be “hanging up her harness” soon.
Tara, who works with Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team, has been out on about 80 rescues on Ben Nevis and the surrounding mountains, including a number of avalanches.
And the eight-year-old border collie is still going strong, but her handler, Tom Gilchrist, has started training 11-week-old Meagaidh as her replacement.
Mr Gilchrist, who is a volunteer with the team, said Tara had “definitely proved herself” and would carry on working for another year or two.
He said: “I wouldn’t say she’s slowing down exactly.
“She’s still very lively for her age, but she gets a bit stiff and its starting to take her longer to recover.”
And the team recently bought two all terrain vehicles, which enable them to get her out to search areas more quickly so she can help to save more lives.
Tara also proved her skills in last year’s Sport Relief Top Dog competition.
She was a member of a three-dog team that made it through to the final in which her team was placed second.
And Mr Gilchrist has high hopes for Meagaidh, named after the Creag Meagaidh range.
He said: “I chose her because she has good parents. They are a good size, nice natured and obviously smart.
“I’ve already started training her using a tuggie toy and its her favourite game ever.”
He added that it was very important for search dogs to be well socialised, with both people and other dogs.
Mr Gilchrist said there were two levels of search dog and, if Meagaidh turned out to be a good dog for the job, he would be able to train her to the first level in a year.
“However, I would rather wait two years until she’s fully trained and then it would probably be another two years before she could do avalanches.
“A search dog is trained to indicate when they get to a person but, for an avalanche, they have to be able to indicate on the surface scent, which takes further training,” said the dog handler.
And he pointed out that it costs about £3,500 to train a search dog.