Canterbury has Harry Potter fever with their own 'red head' Weasley family!

To celebrate the release of the final installment of the much-loved Harry Potter films, our team at Canterbury have named seven ginger pureblood boxer puppies after the Weasley family characters.

Like the Weasley family characters, all of these bouncy boxers are purebloods/breeds who would do anything for their friends. They are all special in their own way and will certainly bring a bit of magic to the families who have rehomed them.

Featured in the group photo (from left to right) Canine Carers: Ashleigh Green, Harriet Cardwell, Ruth Howard, Samantha Davis

• Four year old Bill is like his character counterpart is a bit of a ladies’ man and has lots of female canine companions at the rehoming centre! He attracts only the most beautiful of hairy hounds!
• Three year old Percy like his namesake in the film has an independent streak and knows his own mind.
• Charlie is five years old and like his dragon expert counterpart, is a very wise dog. He’s very intelligent, a group leader and the other boxers in the gang look up to him as he’s excellent at showing the others the doggy ropes, especially the younger ones!
• Fred and George are both four months old, and just like the Harry Potter characters are two mischievous puppies with hearts of gold. They’re always finding trouble, but with the best intentions and are quite a handful!
• Ginny the three month old puppy is also the youngest in the litter and is a fast learner; she’ll be a high achiever when she grows up – again, just like her counterpart!
• Five year old Ron, like JK’s character, is fiercely loyal and will be your best friend for life.

The three puppies came from the same litter and it’s likely that the adult dogs are also all related – cousins and brothers and sister etc. All of the dogs have now found loving, active family homes with owners who will be spending lots of time training and working with the boxers. Their new families will certainly be rewarded for their hard work as these dogs will make loving and loyal canine companions!

If you’re interested in finding out more about other dogs currently in the care of our centre, please call 01227 792 505 or visit the Canterbury rehoming centre.

Why we're on Twitter: A second dog is rehomed!

You might remember that we all delightedly jumped for joy when a dog ended up finding a new forever home thanks to a post on Twitter. It was an extremely exciting moment, which proved to us that this being online malarkey can make a very real contribution to the day-to-day work our dedicated centre staff do.

All we could do after that was keep working hard building relationships, and hope that the magic would happen again. And thanks to some conversation going on around us, it has!

One of the great things about Twitter is the way that messages can go around the whole site through "retweeting" - someone copying what you've written and passing it on. This generates a whole world of conversation you might not even be aware of at the time, and is very valuable when you're trying to get a message out to the world! One of our lovely followers, @jamieriddell, has recently been retweeting a lot of our links to dogs needing homes, and thanks to his kind assistance another member, @robin1966, was prompted to visit his local Dogs Trust Rehoming Centre.

Within days, Dogs Trust Merseyside had matched him up with Yogi, a beautiful Boxer. He's now proudly telling the world about his lovely new addition!

We can't thank Robin enough for giving a dog a second chance, and we're very grateful for Jamie's assistance too.

People have asked us why we spend time having conversations with people online instead of just firing out rehoming updates. But we're actually interested in what our supporters have to say, and furthermore wouldn't expect anyone to pass on a message unless we engaged with them as well. We'll carry on building our community slowly, getting to know the people who want to get to know us and listening to what they have to say. So talk to us here, on Twitter, or at any of the other places you can find us; we like being spoken to!

Photo: Yogi at home, from Robin1966's Flickr stream.

Video: Teaching a deaf dog new tricks - Daphne @ Dogs Trust Snetterton

Training a bouncy Boxer puppy is always going to be quite a hands-on experience, but the fantastic team at Dogs Trust Snetterton had a new challenge to face when it came to Daphne. Born deaf, the 10-month-old pup has been taught to recognise hand signals instead of the traditional audio cues. Here's the girl herself in action:



[Video credit: Norwich Evening News 24]

It makes their job a little easier that Daphne's very friendly and shows a real aptitude for learning. She's mastering the basics - "sit" and "down" - and would need to find a family willing to continue the process of training and socialisation. She came to Dogs Trust because she could not get along with a fellow dog in the home she was in, so she'd prefer to be the star attraction in any family and cats are not on her list of favourite things.

If you have a calm, adult household, lots of time to devote to a pup and think you can help Daphne learn and grown in confidence, give Dogs Trust Snetterton a call on (01953) 498 377 .

Dogs Trust Glasgow Fun Day - Sunday July 27th 2008

Lynn Knox's beloved Boxer Zimmi shows her deafness is no obstacle to fun at the 2007 event

The weather might be indecisive but the summer season is far from over for Dogs Trust. The annual Glasgow open day and Fun Dog Show is ready to entertain you on Sunday the 27th.

Activities will include:

Have a Go Agility: get in the ring and test your dog's fitness (and yours!)
Dog Dash: which is the fastest dog in Glasgow?
My Dog's Got Talent: Smarter than Kate and Gin?

...and much more. There'll also be a free PDSA doggy health check, games, charity stalls, pet care advice, arts and crafts, face painting and (you've guessed it) even more than that.

The fun kicks off at 12pm with the Long Stay Dog Parade, which gives the long-term Rehoming Centre residents a chance to show off their loving pet credentials to potential new owners. Doors close at 3:30pm, and entrance is free to the event, which takes place off-site at Tollcross Park, 254B Wellshot Road, Glasgow.