WATCH: We visited Dogs Trust - one of the only places supporting abandoned pets in Glasgow

National Dog Day 2024 was last week, an opportunity to celebrate your beloved pets - relevant to many households in Glasgow as it has been named the most dog-friendly city in the UK with the highest number of owners per capita.

The holiday was founded in 2006 to bring awareness to animal abuse and shine a light on animal charities. With this in mind we travelled to the East End to visit Dogs Trust, a centre for rescuing and re homing pooches. In 2023 they found new families for 440 of their guests.

We spoke to Claire Herd who has worked for the charity since 2017. When asked what an average day looks like on site she said: “Coming in, taking care of the dogs and the kennels - cleaning the kennels, medicating where necessary, letting any dogs see the vets if and when they need too. It might be dealing with handover cases, dogs coming into our care and assessing them behaviourally as well. Also getting dogs adopted so if families come in and we say our final goodbyes.

“We take care of a range of dogs, we usually have about 60-70 dogs in our care at any one time. We work to rehabilitate them and re home them.”

Those looking to adopt a dog will be guided through a process whereby suitability is assessed by the team. “They can apply online, they can favourite up to three dogs they’re interested in, but we do a matching system. If you get a perfect match for one dog then we’ll say ‘this looks like the one for you it’s what you’re looking for’.”

An applicant’s work environment is a leading factor is compatibility, “if people work from home they might be more suited to a dog that wants more interaction around the house and isn’t happy being left alone too long.

“It depends dog to dog how long the adoption process is. Some dogs are quite worried by new people, especially if they’ve been here a while and aren’t as sure or confident with new people.

“We make sure the trust is built up before they go home because it wouldn’t be fair to send them home with someone they’re not fully confident with.”

Down to various social factors such as the cost of living crisis, there are currently more dogs coming in than are leaving the centre.

Dogs Trust do not have the ability to seize pets from people, this role is that of the SSPCA so the majority of dogs that come into their care are handed in. Claire said: “it might be because they’re struggling financially, they might be moving house, they might have changed work hours and the dog doesn’t like bring left alone. There’s so many reasons.”

The dogs handed in are assessed behaviourally and as long as “they can cope in kennels because it is quite a stressful environment, there’s a lot going on everyday, then we will take them in and start looking for a new home for them straight away.”

“2005 we opened. We’ve got Glasgow and West Calder in Scotland. Sometimes we do re home to places a bit further like Aberdeen. It’s not a problem at all as long as people are willing to come in several times to meet the dog. We have also re homed to England as well.”

If you want to volunteer with Dogs Trust, or even adopt a dog, you can do so by clicking here.