Mij best rescue dog Britain who has saved 14 lives

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The real life Lassie: How Mij went from a tiny bundle of fluff to the best rescue dog Britain who has saved 14 lives

Mij led more than 200 search and rescue missions during her career
The collie helped develop a pioneering scent detection technique
But after seven years saving lives the 10-year-old collie is retiring

Britain's top rescue dog has finally hung up her lead after a career that saw her save more lives than any other dog and develop a pioneering scent detection technique.

Mij led more than 200 search and rescue missions during her career and rescued 14 people who police had been searching for.

She was so successful she was dubbed Britain's real-life Lassie, after the fictional dog from Eric Knight's 1940 novel Lassie Come-Home.



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During Mij's seven-year career she became known as the most dependable dog in Britain and was called upon by police and search teams across the country, helping to save people from Scotland to Cornwall.

One of her greatest moments came during the search for an elderly woman who had been missing from her home for more than 24 hours.

Despite a 100-strong team's best efforts there was no trace of her and Mij was called in.

After sniffing an item of her clothing Mij traced her final steps and within minutes had located the woman and helped to save her life after she'd fallen into wild bushes that completely surrounded her from eyesight.

Owner Iain Nicholson, from Preston, Lancashire, said: 'It was truly one of her greatest moments and helped her to become known up and down the country.

'The woman Mij saved would never have been found but thanks to her she was rushed to hospital and made a full recovery.
'Mij is courageous and her technique allows her to pinpoint the exact person's scent even if she were surrounded by hundreds of others.

'Police used to ring me up and ask if Mij could come and help search for someone in the Lake District, Cornwall, Scotland and so on - we've been all over the country in her time.'

The ten-year-old Collie suffered health problems as a puppy that hindered her stamina as a youngster, meaning she was unable to follow traditional training techniques for open area search dogs.