DOGS Trust is Ireland’s largest dog welfare charity. It first began in Ireland in 2005 with the Dogs Trust educational programme. In 2009 Dogs Trust opened their state of the art rehoming facility in north Co Dublin.

Since opening, over 8,000 dogs have been rehomed from Dogs Trust. Now over 60 members of staff from Dogs Trust help care, train and rehome hundreds of dogs every year, working closely with local authorities and with similar animal welfare charities.

The number of dogs housed at Dogs Trust varies on any given day, this is usually due to the number of puppies in the centre. Rehoming manager Maciej Trojanowicz said that there are between 150 and 200 dogs at the rehoming centre depending on the day.

He went on to explain how roughly between 90 and 100 of the dogs at Dogs Trust are older, adult dogs and the remainder are usually puppies.

Rehoming

Trojanowicz explained that the most important thing he does is to find a loving home for all of the dogs in Dogs Trust. Last year just under 1,000 dogs were successfully rehomed from Dogs Trust.

Every dog that enters Dogs Trust is put into isolation for two weeks. Trojanowicz said this is because Dogs Trust does not have any history, including veterinary and behavioural history, of each dog. Isolation helps to prevent the spread of disease and to keep all of the dogs as safe as possible.

Once each dog clears is finished being in isolation they are microchipped and vaccinated. After this they undergo a behavioural assessment, this determines whether they are ready for rehoming immediately or whether they require additional training before rehoming.

For any dogs that require additional training there is a full team of staff at Dogs Trust there to help and they are homed in a specific training wing of the facility. Once the team are happy that each dog is safe and prepared to be rehomed they are moved into the rehoming block where the public can view them.

Considerations

Deciding to get a dog is not something that should be done without serious consideration. Owning a dog is a big responsibility and Dogs Trust emphasised the need for all potential owners to have enough time and care to put into their dog.

Trojanowicz recommended that before anyone decides to get a dog they should read some books on basic dog training and get an idea of what’s involved.

Trojanowicz said that in order to rehome a dog from Dogs Trust you must have a small secure area for the dog. He explained how this area is particularly important in the first couple of weeks having rehomed the dog because they have no built up a relationship with their new owner yet and can be slightly unsettled.

He added that because dogs are very social animals they require a lot of care and attention from their owners.

When asked about what considerations potential owners should take into account before rehoming a dog Trojanowicz said that the first thing to think about would be what type of dog you are looking for and would fit in well with your lifestyle.

He went on to explain that considering a breed is normally what he would recommend, however, because a lot of the dogs at Dogs Trust are mixed breeds this doesn’t apply as much.

‘Dog friendly Ireland’

Last Friday Dogs Trust held their second Dog friendly Ireland Day. The day is part of a wider initiative to encourage more services and organisations around Ireland to become friendlier towards dogs and dog owners.

Over 750 business owners and individuals signed up to take part in the day and pledged to welcome dogs onto their premises.

The rental crisis was the focus of the day this year. Dogs Trust have experienced an increase in the number of people getting in contact with them over issues trying to find rental accommodation that is dog friendly.

In 2018, Dogs Trust received 75 emails from owners looking to give up their dogs due to the fact they could not find any properties willing to have dogs. These 75 accounted for 15% of all surrender requests over the course of the year.

Part of the ‘Dog Friendly Ireland Day’ campaign are the ‘Renting with Rover’ guidelines. These guidelines are aimed at tenants and landlords and Dogs Trust hope that encourage more landlords to accept dogs.