New dog rescue centre with walks on doorstep

AN open day was held at the new Dogs Trust centre in Lewknor.

The facility, which replaced the old Blue Cross shelter last year, houses dogs available for rehoming.

Visitors were given a tour of the grounds and kennels as a way of raising the shelter’s profile in the local community.

Centre manager Karla Haines said: “We’re quite new here so want people to know we’re here and part of the community.

“We held an open evening for local businesses, animal-related businesses and parish councillors, which was quite popular, so we decided to open it up to the public too.

“We take in five kennels’ worth of dogs every four weeks from Northern Ireland.

“As an organisation, we have a commitment to help with the strays problem in Northern Ireland and the number of dogs that are abandoned there.

“Dogs come here from the streets, families, anywhere.

“We take them from people who, for whatever reason, such as financial or change of circumstances, can’t care for their dogs anymore.

“We also take in dogs from local authorities, which can be strays, surrenders or seized.

“The average stay for a dog in Dogs Trust homes is 43 days.”

Ms Haines, who has a degree in animal behaviour and welfare, said the Lewknor centre benefited from nearby land, streams and paths to walk the dogs in nature. She said: “We have also taken on a lot more long-term dogs, which have more requirements than a straightforward dog, because of how quiet it is here.

“Sometimes they can be a bit reactive to things but with the off-site walks, we have the benefit of reintroducing them to the real world.

“In some of our centres, it is a really controlled environment which is great but it means you don’t know how a dog is going to react to a horse or something like that.

“A lot of handovers for us are from very loving homes. People have just found themselves in unfortunate circumstances.

“The highlight for us is watching dogs walk out of the door. We sit in the office, watching the dog get in the car and be driven away and it’s a great feeling to know they’ve gone home.”

Clients come to the shelter from as far as Cornwall and Scotland for a dog.

Ms Haines said: “They want the right dog to fit in with their family and their lifestyle.

“We have had people who travelled 22 hours to come and see us and do that multiple times to get to know their dogs. There are some amazing people out there that adopt our dogs.”

The adoption fee is £250, which includes neutering and vaccinations. Ms Haines said: “They can tell us what they want from a dog but they don’t necessarily apply for a specific dog. We do the matching.

“We assess all our dogs and we go through everything with them. The people get everything.

“We can then make an informed decision as to whether it’s the right home for the dog.

“We’ll then do a virtual home visit so we get to see around where the dog’s going to live — some of our dogs can’t cope with open plan or can’t have low fencing or whatever.

“We will let the family speak to our training team who will talk them through all the management, the rehab that we’ve done, the ongoing training and any behavioural needs and, if they’re happy with all of that, then we will arrange the meets.

“Depending on the dog, there could be five meets while some might be happy with two before they’re able to go home.

“We’ve had so many dogs that have done amazing since they’ve gone out. We had two very nervous labradoodles, Viola and Primrose, and we told the prospective owners: ‘They’re probably not going to approach, just let them come to you’.

“And it must have just been meant to be because they walked to the compound and these dogs approached to lick them and
investigate.”

The shelter has set up a food bank initiative to help people struggling with the cost of keeping a dog.

Ms Haines said: “We know that the cost of living has been absolutely horrendous for people and we have had an increase in people needing to hand over their dogs because they can’t afford it.

“If all it takes to keep a dog in a home is a few bags of food, we’d love to help with that and stop people having to hand over their dogs.”

People can email the shelter and arrange a time to pick up the food, which comes from donations and redistributions across all the charity’s centres.

The former Blue Cross site closed during the coronavirus pandemic and was empty for two years until the Dogs Trust took over.

A cattery remains at the back which is unused but the kennels have been revamped with a veterinary facility, staff rooms and training rooms.

Ms Haines said: “We can bring the dogs in the office while we’re working to give them some downtime from the kennel so they can curl up on the sofa.

“The guys will move their laptop to their laps and sit on the sofa with the dogs or we can remove all the laptops and leave the dogs in there just to give them a bit of respite from the kennels, which is really nice.”

On Christmas Day, the dogs all received Christmas dinner and a present, most of which had been donated.

Ms Haines said: “It’s nice to see the dogs that come in really nervous or anxious become vibrant again.

“Lulu who, when she first got here, would sit in her house and hide from you. Now she uses me as a springboard. It’s really nice to see.”