MONTHS of training paid off for top dog Chi - the energetic mongrel who has won the hearts of Bolton's emergency rescuers.

The scruffy hound is being hailed a canine hero after helping Bolton Mountain Rescue team track down a missing man on the Bolton moors.

On his first real life-saving mission, Chi carried out the work of 20 rescuers as his 10-month training proved a resounding success.

Chi joined 16 members of Bolton Mountain Rescue on a search of Rivington moors yesterday morning after calls for help from ambulance paramedics.

Ambulance crews sparked a full-scale search party, including the services of Chi and his handler Dave Marsh, after receiving a distress call from a man wandering on the hills around Bolton.

The man was found and carried a mile by stretcher to waiting paramedics and later taken to hospital.

It is understood he was suffering from hypothermia and had injuries to his wrists.

Paramedics, who were waiting next to the Winter Hill transmitter, treated him as he was transferred to hospital three-and-a-half hours after the emergency call was first taken.

Garry Rhodes, Mountain Rescue team leader, said: "We had a very wide area to cover but we found him with the help of Chi, a new search dog who has only just qualified.

"We were very pleased with the way he responded to his first real call out."

Proud handler Dave, of The Haulgh, Bolton said: "It was his first professional mission.

"He handled himself very well and did everything that he has been taught.

"It's very different in real life to the training. To me, its no longer a game anymore. I am there to save someone's life.

"But to Chi, it is still all a game. He actually thinks he is looking for a squeaky toy. He doesn't realise that a man's life is at stake.

"But at the end of the day that is how he has been trained."

As reported in the BEN on Wednesday, volunteer Dave and Chi completed the £3,000 gruelling training schedule in record time.

Dave added: "We chose the name Chi because my wife does t'ai chi, which is about energy.

"He certainly showed his boundless energy at 6.30am in the morning yesterday. He was brilliant!"

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