Trust in the Dogs Trust, they won't let you down! (Dogs Trust)

Member Name: Kayteehee

Product:	Dogs Trust
Date:	18/06/09 (73 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantastic facilities and professional friendly service, lovely dogs

Disadvantages: Can't think of any except there are around 400 dogs on their waiting list at any one time!

Let me start by telling you a bit of background info about myself. I have never been a dog lover to be honest, this being due to when I was 13 I was doing my daily paper round job and was attacked by a huge Alsatian dog. I was bitten on the leg. I had to go to hospital and I still have the scars eight years later. I am however a keen animal lover.

I have never owned a dog and therefore not got to know one and trust one. My family however have been considering getting a dog for a couple of years but not found the right time. This January I was diagnosed with depression and severe anxiety and left university for a break, and moved back in with my parents. My doctor put me on meds and told me to make sure I went out for a walk everyday. My confidence wasn't exactly up so I found this quite difficult.

My parents were discussing getting a dog and once again I piped up how scary they were. However after thinking for a while, I decided that getting to know one and being able to walk it might be fantastic for my confidence, and my parents and I decided that rescuing a dog from a rescue centre would be the best option.

We went to a local kennels which was run by the council, it really was in a disgusting state and the dogs had no background information with them which wasn't really useful to us when we also have young children in the family in terms of safety.

We then went to the Dogs Trust Centre in Leeds. The foyer was large and clean, with plenty of seats for people to wait, there was a huge tub of 'doggie treats' you could take for free, and there were lots of photographs around telling you about the dogs that they had. We filled in a form telling the staff who was in our family, why we wanted a dog, and about our working hours (my parents work from home and we have a nice big garden so we fitted the bill well)

Through another door you are able to go and look at the dogs. All of them had clean indoor kennels with food, toys, beds and even armchairs. They had a walkway where you could see through the glass. The dogs had the freedom to run around and socialise with other dogs by leaving their kennel and going into a secure area. All of the dogs had a poster up letting people know what the dog was like, where he/she had come from, the age etc.

We did not see the 'strays' section as the Dogs Trust will not allow families with children to take home dogs from there, again for safety reasons.

We told the friendly staff what we would like: a medium sized dog, under five years of age, good with children, travels well and is fairly sociable, we didn't have a preference on the sex or breed.

We were shown Betsy, a lovely 3 1/2 year old 'mix of everything' dog. She had previously been with a family that had just had their 5th child, clearly 5 children and a dog was just too much to cope with! We were then allowed to take her into 'the training room' which had toys in and were allowed to interact with her for an hour to see how she got on with us. This was great and we decided we would love to adopt her.

During the next few days we visited Betsy twice, it is a requirement from the Dogs Trust to visit three times within a week to make sure the dog and you are right for each other. On both occasions we got to walk her around a huge field outside. All the staff were extremely friendly and remembered us each time we visited. They were all very professional and seemed like complete animal lovers (which is great, obviously!). They also came to do a 'home visit' to check our house was suitable and our garden was secure enough to home her. This lasted about ten minutes.

On the 'adoption day', we went to pick her up and were given a pre-adoption talk for about half an hour. They went through everything we needed to know about owning a dog and how to settle her in. We also recieved a goodie bag with dog food in, a collar and a lead (both Dogs Trust Branded), and some information leaflets.

Then the exciting bit! We could take her home. We paid the re-homing fee which was 75 pounds. This included: neutering her, microchipping her with our details, a full vet's health check, with all her vaccinations up to date and the goodiebag with the first basics we needed.

We took her home and she was an absolute gem. She has fitted into the family perfectly and we can't believe we have only had her for four months! She has given us all a new lease of life being able to walk her in the countryside nearby, and is a loyal and friendly companion :) The Dogs Trust also rang us twice during the week after we took her home to check everything was fine with her, if there had been any unusual behavior they would have put us through to their specialist to give us some advice.

The Dogs Trust really is a fantastic place to get a dog from. They are friendly, professional and re-assuring. They make sure that dogs go to the right families, they fantastic facilities for the dogs and for people visiting. I cannot recommend them enough.

However it is worth remembering their slogan 'A Dog is for life, not just for Christmas'. Make sure you have the time, money and energy, owning a dog is a huge commitment, though for us it has been so very rewarding :)

Summary: Recommended