Norfolk search and rescue team looking for own missing dog Juno after she runs away in hi-vis jacket
Juno owner's Ian Danks has spending 55 hours looking for his missing rescue dog and is appealing for public help
A dog whose job is searching for missing persons has herself disappeared on a woodland training exercise.
Her own Norfolk Lowland Search and Rescue team is now on the hunt for Juno after she went missing on a run in the Waveney valley.
The German short-haired pointer was wearing a hi-vis yellow jacket when she disappeared while being put through her paces on exercise in the Waveney valley on the Norfolk-Suffolk border.
The lowland rescue dog, who is five years old, was working with the Norfolk Lowland Search and Rescue team in Fritton Wood, near St Olaves on the Norfolk Broads, when she vanished at 10am on Tuesday.
She ran in to an area full of reeds and never came back and there are fears she may have been taken.
A coordinated search operation is being planned for Boxing Day but Juno's owner Ian Danks is desperate to find her.
Speaking to ITV News Anglia, Mr Danks said he and his family had spent 55 hours searching for Juno, who has been involved a number of successful searching for missing people since qualifying as a rescue dog in February 2019.
He told the Eastern Daily Press newspaper that he has had just 90 minutes sleep since she went missing.
He said: "She's not just any dog, she's our family dog.
"I've got a young family and she's one of us. She's my best friend."
The search has so far involved rescue boats, a thermal imaging camera, aerial drones and teams from neighbouring search and rescue charities in Suffolk and Kent.
Norfolk Lowland Search and Rescue is a charity run by volunteers specially trained with their dogs to help police search for missing people.
Unlike the more famous mountain rescue teams, the Norfolk operation uses different specialised skills for searching in low-level terrain.
Anyone who may have spotted Juno is being urged to contact Norfolk Lowland Search and Rescue.