Blog Posts - Give a Dog a Home

Reunion walk set for 7th of April

7/3/2018

It's almost time again for our Reunion Dog Walk (and also an important and vital fundraiser) held twice a year with all the proceeds going to Give A Dog A Home UK:

Saturday 7 April 2018 at 1.30 pm. (Registration starting at 12.45 pm)
Seven Sisters Car Park, Cuckmere Haven, East Sussex BN25 4AD

We hope you can join us. We are looking forward to catching up with old friends and new!

FURTHER DETAILS
Entry £5 per dog
or can be done as a sponsored walk (email lynnegadah@gmail.com for form)

An opportunity to meet Give A Dog A Home UK volunteers and both fostered and adopted rescue dogs. We will have a stall table set up on the grass at the start of the walk with information, merchandise, tombola and raffle prizes.
REGISTRATION OPEN FROM 12:45 PM ON THE DAY.

We request dogs are kept on lead for the walk and that you of course pick up after your dog. There is a dog waste bin at the start of the walk (next to the gate which takes you onto the walk from the lower car park - it is situated on the edge of the adjoining field behind a hedge very close by!)

CAR PARKING & FACILITIES
There is an upper and lower Car Park (on LHS and RHS of the road respectively). Car parking is Pay & Display. There is both a Cafe and Toilets at the location.

BEACH WALK TRAIL DETAILS
It is a relatively easy, flat walk to the beach and back via the easy access trail (approx 1-1.5hrs at gentle pace). View at:
http://www.sevensisters.org.uk/content/page/779/SSCP_leaflet.pdf

HOW TO GET THERE
The Seven Sisters Country Park is situated at Exceat on the A259. The car park is Pay and Display. Trains leave London Victoria for Lewes, where you change for Seaford. From Seaford take the number 12, 12A or 13 bus.

Note: There will be a football match running at the Amex stadium near Brighton on this date. Therefore please leave with plenty of extra time and anticipate much traffic, or take the alternative coastal route (A259)

MORE INFORMATION
Go to www.sevensisters.org.uk/
All details will also be listed in an upcoming event on our Facebook page, please join the discussion boards for all the latest updates and indicate if you are ‘Going’.

Paisley - A Success Story!

18/2/2018

We were so delighted to receive this wonderful success story from Anna and Nick, who adopted Paisley in December 2015. Thank you for giving Paisley such a happy home!

"The transformation in Paisley, even over the first few months of having him, has been wonderful. From the first day at home, when he dropped his toy elephant in the living room and retreated back into his crate, we could see that he would be a very sweet and loving boy. We weren’t wrong! Just over two years later, it is amazing to think that the dog who confidently explores each new walking spot was once scared of walking out of the garden gate. He does take a little while to accept new people, and will probably always be wary of strangers who try to interact with him, but once someone is in his ‘gang’ they are always greeted with a frenzy of affection and excitement. Paisley loves curling up next to someone on the sofa, playing any type of game possible and leaping like a kangaroo on his walks. He has also proven to be very quick with his training (he has the Kennel Club Good Citizen award) and, apart from a weakness for stealing things from the bin, he is an obedient boy.

Paisley has been on holiday to the South Coast, where we learnt that he loves digging in the sand but doesn’t like waves that are bigger than a few inches! We also took him to Wales, where he demonstrated his stamina on five hour coastal walks, followed by running and chasing on the beaches.

Paisley has settled in to domestic life incredibly well. It is hard to imagine that he spent most of his first year in life as a stray and then living in a shelter. Despite his nervousness he has taken a lot in his stride and his resilience is quite impressive. He is a very sweet boy who creates a lot of laughter and joy and we are so pleased that we adopted him.

Thank you for letting us adopt Paisley!"

Happy Chinese New Year of the Brown Dog!!

17/2/2018

The start of a new Chinese Year of the Brown Earth Dog was a perfect opportunity to promote our own brown dog, Gabrielle, who is fostered in Kent.
Gabby has been waiting far too long for her forever home now and it really would make our year if we could find her a family. She is a sweet little dog with a big smile and a huge heart to match.
Gabby can be nervous of strangers, but once she gets to know you she is a super affectionate and loving dog. She is so keen to please and has a sharp mind, she shows great promise in training and her confidence is coming on in leaps and bounds. She will make such a joyful addition to her forever family.
Please share Gabby's video far and wide so we can find her the home she deserves!
If you are interested in adopting Gabby, please fill out an application form and we will be in touch.

Who's Walking for Claudiu? (not a GaDaH fundraiser)

16/1/2018

Who's Walking For Claudiu?

Sunday 21st January 2018
1pm-2:30pm

The Big Park, Peacehaven
BN10 8RH
(by the Gateway cafe)

£5 registration fee
Free parking

Claudiu, a driver who transports rescued dogs from Romania to their new homes, was involved in a horrific road accident just before Christmas.

Claudiu was always so amazing with the dogs, caring and dedicated beyond belief. Claudiu is highly-respected and well-liked by all of the dog rescue organisations that have worked with him over the years, including Give a Dog a Home.

The accident left Claudiu in a coma, fighting for his life. His liver was seriously damaged and his legs were both crushed. Unfortunately, his left leg could not be saved and has been amputated. His right leg has undergone several surgeries. Poor Claudiu will never be able to return to the job he loved so dearly.

Claudiu has a lovely wife and young children to support but there is no social benefit system in Romania and hospital treatment all has to be paid for too. Walks are being held all around the country to support Claudiu and his loving family, to thank this wonderful man who helped so many of our rescued dogs on their way to safety and happiness. He helped save so many desperate dogs' lives and now it's our turn to help him.

Please join the South-East fundraising walk on Sunday!

OTHER WAYS TO DONATE:
Donate through Facebook here

or send Paypal donations to: ciurea.mariadiana@gmail.com

or to donate via card transfer, click here

We are excited to announce the launch of our new sister charity: Spay It Forward.

1/1/2018

Today marks the start of a fresh new year and the exciting launch of our new sister charity: Spay It Forward

Here is an introduction from our Founder and Chairperson, Lynne Spencer:

Spay It Forward UK has grown, like a puppy embryo, out of Give a Dog a Home - UK - it has taken roughly the same time to develop and now, on New Years Day 2018, it is ready to be born!

Our aspiration is for this initiative to become the foundation of something much bigger and long lasting; we hope to build it into a Trust Fund which, as a charity, can continue to grow in both size and influence for many years to come.

Those of us who set up Give a Dog a Home 4.5 years ago realise that, whilst we care passionately about rescuing dogs from the suffering of being unwanted and homeless, we can save only a small proportion. The only way to leave a lasting legacy is to prevent that terrible life from happening at all. There have been great steps towards the eradication of the stray dog problem in a few northern European countries. However, within central Europe, where Spay It Forward will focus its efforts, there are various cultural and economic factors at play which mean that the problem has worsened in recent years (although not all to do with recession - as a backpacker in Greece in the 1970's, I saw many sad sights).

How will Spay It Forward work? We will fund raise directly through any acceptable means possible! In addition, to provide a bedrock, Give a Dog a Home - UK will donate a percentage of every adoption fee to Spay It Forward, which will have its own separate identity, financial governance, website and Facebook page. Funds raised will be disbursed carefully and directly to trusted vets for spay and neuter operations or where appropriate, as small grants to approved local rescues in the countries we work in to undertake sterilisation programmes, predominantly but not exclusively of street dogs. Initially we expect to work in Greece, Romania, Cyprus and Bulgaria.

We hope to add to the range of social media as appropriate in order to perform the next function of Spay It Forward: education of younger generations who will be the movers and shakers of dog rescue into the 21st century. To this end, one place on our future Trustee Board will be filled by a young person.

More will be written, of course, as we go through our journey. Please have a look at our website and Facebook page if you wish to join us on this important mission, tell us what you think. We love to interact, as only through this will we succeed in our joint aims of reducing the suffering of homeless and abandoned street and shelter dogs.

We are lucky to live in a country where we are not faced on a daily basis with the sight of starving street dogs. Together, let's help others not so fortunate - and Spay It Forward!

www.spayitforward.org.uk

Happy New Year from all of us at Give a Dog a Home!

31/12/2017

🥂Happy New Year from all of us at Give a Dog a Home!
2017 has been a fantastic year with much to be proud of. This year, we saved hundreds of dogs from death row, had two very well-attended and joyful reunion walks, fundraisers and awareness campaigns and initiated a new spay-and-neuter charity ( Spay It Forward ).
Best of all, 111 lucky dogs (+ 3 cats!) found the loving homes they always deserved. <3
Most of the dogs we've homed this year have been squeezed into this celebratory video, we hope you enjoy watching it. None of this could have been possible without the help of our wonderful supporters, friends, volunteers, fosterers and adopters. We cannot thank you all enough!
Here's to 2018 and all it will bring! 🐾

Merry Christmas!

24/12/2017

Happy Christmas to all!

Some of our dogs currently in foster homes have been worrying that 'Santa Claws' may forget about them this Christmas. so we thought we'd put together a little festive feature just for them - hope you enjoy it (link below). Surely Santa couldn't possibly forget such happy faces and wagging tails?

Merry Christmas, we hope you all have a wonderful time. Whether you are spending your first Christmas with your adopted dog, or your second, third (or maybe even fourth!), we would like to thank you for giving these dogs the loving homes they always deserved.

Love from the Give a Dog a Home team - and our foster dogs too!
xxx

Tess and Toby's foster fun

19/12/2017

Here are a few words from one of our volunteer fosterers, Tess, about her experience of fostering:

When I saw a photo of a brown and tan dog cowering in a Romanian Public Shelter, with an appeal from Give a Dog a Home for a foster home, it did not take me long to decide to put my name forward.
That picture was of Toby. I was asked by Give a Dog a Home if I would like to name him which was a lovely gesture, and the name we chose just seemed to suit him.
When Toby arrived, he was very underweight and frightened. It took two of us to coax him out of his travel crate and into the house.
However, he is already coming out of his shell and is content, happy and extremely loving.
He is good with our three dogs but particularly fond of young Pipkin (pictured with Toby). They snuggle up and play together, run round the garden and back in again.
Pipkin is delighted to have a willing playmate as my other two dogs don’t often play with him!

Toby is already housetrained and we are now teaching him to walk on a lead. He patiently stands still while I put on harness and collar and two leads to ensure he doesn’t slip out.
We are enjoying watching his confidence grow with every day – I know he is going to be a loving and loyal member of a lucky family!

Please do consider fostering – not only does it literally save a dog’s life, it is without doubt one of the most rewarding things I have ever done.
Yes, I will have to say goodbye to Toby before too long but in the knowledge that he is going to have a great new life, in a safe and loving home.

If you would like some information on fostering, or would like to know more about any of our dogs, please get in touch

December 15th, 2017

15/12/2017

Lots of you will remember Wonky from Greece, who was saved in the nick of time, found lying on the side of the road. The vet had never seen so many broken bones and his prognosis was poor.
But Wonky's love of life was too strong to give up and he started to run before he could walk!
Give a Dog a Home brought him over to a foster home in the UK and searched for a perfect forever home - only the best for this little man! Wonky stole his adopter Anita's heart and they are a match made in heaven, read her story below.
Wonky has stolen hearts at his local training club too, The Dog and Handler Training Club, and we are delighted to announce that they will be fundraising for Give a Dog a Home with their Christmas party tomorrow.
Please take part if you're local, it will be a friendly day of fun for dogs and all the family, with food and gifts on offer, a raffle and activities for all. The Dog and Handler Training Club are a fantastic group and will be very happy to see you and your dogs there. More details can be found at:
https://www.facebook.com/events/2038651703084668/

Our New Resources Page

11/12/2017

Check out our brand new Resources page for lots of advice on all things 'dog'!