Happy 1st Birthday Loughborough!

Happy 1^st birthday!

All this week we’re celebrating our 1^st birthday as we opened our doors to visitors on the 1^st June last year.  We’ve decorated the centre and have lots of fun competitions running so please pop down and see us!

We’ve also set ourselves a challenge – cycle 464 miles in 7 days!  This is the distance between our 2 furthest centres - West Calder in Scotland and Ilfracombe in Devon. So in our reception during our opening hours you’ll find us pedaling away on an exercise bike – we’ll definitely need your support to keep us going!

Throughout the week we’ll be sharing news and stories about life at the centre.  We’ll be highlighting dogs needing homes, telling you about the work of our invaluable volunteers plus giving sneaky behind the scenes views of the centre and staff roles.

Today we start with our vet suite…..

The veterinary suite at the Loughborough centre is always a hive of activity!  Vet Nurse Annie and Vet Nurse Assistant Kelly provide first class veterinary care with our 2 Veterinary Surgeons Emily and Gemma for all our dogs in the centre.

Each day 5-6 operations are performed; these are mainly neutering and dental work although on occasions other treatments such a lump removel are necessary.  Throughout the afternoon various check ups are conducted on dogs undergoing treatment plus health checks on newly arrived dogs or those waiting to go home.

Watch our short video to meet Emily, Gemma,  Annie and Kelly and see the vet suite or read on to hear more from Gemma about her role.

 

Gemma

My name is Gemma and I am one of the vets providing care for the dogs at the Loughborough rehoming centre. I started work with Dog's Trust in August 2012 as part of a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine programme in shelter animal medicine. This is a job that involves me doing clinical work at the Dogs Trust for half my time and for the other half, doing research to help animals in shelters with the at the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science at the University of Nottingham. I couldn't believe my luck when I was accepted for the post, as almost a year ago I had already made the decision to make a career change and had heard about the new rehoming centre whilst at a veterinary congress. Thinking that I would love to work within the organisation, I had already approached them to see if there could be any opportunities for me!  

Annie

Kelly

My role whilst I am at the centre is to provide the day to day veterinary care for all the dogs. This involves routine health checks when they arrive, providing preventative heathcare and treating any illnesses. Of-course we also neuter the dogs at the centre, and undertake other minor surgical procedures such as lump removals and dental work. Last week we performed our first ceasarian-section, and thankfully mum and all 6 pups are doing well. When I am not at the centre I am researching into the welfare of shelter dogs and cats. I am hoping to help develop an understanding of the factors that influence the success or otherwise of the adoption process so that more dogs can be placed into homes forever.

The best thing about my role is getting to know all the dogs! I look forward to meeting the new arrivals and really enjoy becoming familar with their individual personalities. Of-course they don't all like me as much as I like them, but it makes me very happy to see how many of them are quite excited to come into the vet suite when they attend for their final health check before adoption.

Birthday Donations:

If you would like to make a Birthday donation to Loughborough, they have a handy Wish list which you can see/buy from here: http://amzn.to/11a49mc

Dogs Trust Loughborough... a year on!

1^st May 2013 marks exactly one year since the full team started working at the centre in Wymeswold, Loughborough.  The building was finished and the time had come for everyone to come together and begin the induction into their career at Dogs Trust.

The day began with introductions to key personnel from Head Office before the Management Team were introduced.  The team were then allocated of uniform, handbooks and lockers before getting a guided tour of the centre by Paul who had designed the building.  The centre was now alive and already everyone was counting down the days till the barking started and the dogs arrived!

Sam

Receptionist Sam remembers this time fondly, “There’s nothing more nerve-wracking than starting a new job, but knowing that there were 30 other people starting with you helped turn the nerves into excitement! I can remember the first four weeks leading up to the first dogs arriving as if they were just last week, and I am very proud to say that I have been a part of the past year’s accomplishments that all of us at Loughborough have achieved! I look forward to us continuing our success in the years to come, and thank everyone who has visited us for all their support.”

Kelly

Kelly joined Dogs Trust Loughborough as an experienced Vet Nurse Assistant and says: “The 1^st few days were exciting but daunting as everyone was getting to know one another. But it wasn’t long before we all became a team, especially when the dogs arrived and the real work started. The thing that stands out most about our induction time was all the people from head office and different areas within dogs trust and how each and every one of them was genuinely passionate about the welfare of dogs and how to help and improve this in the future”.

Ella

Ella was very excited to joining Loughborough as their Supporter Relations Officer after being involved with the charity for a number of years.  She says: “1^st May 2012 was my dream day! After being a volunteer for a number of years at Dogs Trust Leeds I couldn’t wait to be working for Dogs Trust Loughborough.

Walking through the reception doors on the first day, I was nervous to meet the new team but at the same time I was filled with excitement to start my new role. Ever since that day I have never looked back!

The past year has gone so quickly, with some great stories to tell. Every day is different, one day you could be planning the first Summer Show, the next you could be filming the dogs playing in the snow. One of the big highlights was our first Xmas Fair, which raised a massive amount of money thanks to the amount of supporters we have gained in the area. We saw so many of our dogs coming back to say Merry Xmas and of course to come and see Santa Paws, they all looked so happy with their new forever families. My personal highlight was of course adopting my blue merle border collie Moss from the centre, who I would never be without”.

Claire moved from the Glasgow centre to be part of the Loughborough team and as the Assistant Manager Admin remembers those first few weeks “being super busy sorting kennel routines, ordering cleaning supplies, food bowls, beds and everything to make our first dogs comfortable when they arrived later that month. It was really exciting for the site to finally be ours, although I was worried I was going to get lost as it was like a maze at the start! It was great to meet all of the team and there was such a buzz about the place. The best moment during this time was when our first dogs arrived, at last the kennels were full of barking, excited and waggy-tailed canine residents, all looking for their new homes. This was what we were here to do!”

It's just a matter of weeks until the centre celebrates its first birthday and with a full of fun events and activities taking place, please do pop down and join in the fun.

• The fun starts on the 24^th May with a 'wear yellow and black non-uniform day'.

• On the 27^th staff and volunteers begin an 464 mile (distance between our Ifracombe and West Calder centres) cycle ride and will be peddling away every day on an exercise bike in the reception area. 
• A cake sale, plus fun competitions such as name the puppy, and win the giant dog, will be taking place at the centre over the weekend of the 1^st and 2^nd June. 
• On the 2^nd June why not join us at Rushcliffe Park for a sponsored dog walk!

For more information on taking part in the dog walk or non-uniform day please email Loughborough@dogstrust.org.uk

 Thank You!

Meet some more of the team....

Adrian

Caroline

Meg

Nico

Steph

Kirsty

Lauren

Sarah-Jane

Sam E

Zoe

Easter Egg-stravaganza at Dogs Trust Loughborough...

It was the Thursday before Easter and the bunny arrived early at Dogs Trust Loughborough. Of course chocolate is toxic to dogs but our staff definitely love it! We had an Easter egg treasure hunt so everyone was divided into teams and off they went following clues to find the eggs containing sweets. There was lots of laughing, running and scratching their heads at the clues. The final clue sent the teams back to reception where the members of the winning team were given a large chocolate egg each. They were all very competitive and the winning team finished in less than 30 minutes! Watch out for next year as its going to be tougher!

Good Friday was especially good as the cakes arrived! We had a cake stall in reception manned by our volunteers and the staff helped too by buying lots of the homemade cakes on their breaks. There were sponges, crispy cakes, lemon cakes and delicious cupcakes for the humans. Our doggy friends were not left out as they could choose from homemade bone biscuits made with peanut butter, dog chocolate or even some without gluten for those with delicate stomachs.
 

 

The volunteers also sold raffle tickets to win a hamper filled with chocolate bunnies and lambs, cakes and biscuits which was won by one of our adopters. She was very happy when she won and rushed straight down to collect her prize!

The canine carers were very excited as we had a special visit from one of the puppies who were included in our Opening last June. Redgrave (now called Ozzie) is a beautiful tan lurcher who loves to talk to everyone and bounce around full of fun. It’s a miracle he managed to sit still long enough to get this photograph as at one point he wanted to play with the camera. He socialised in reception talking to children and adults alike and basking in the attention and cuddles.



 

The egg-citement continues with our “Guess How Many” competition where there is a very tempting jar of chocolate eggs in reception and the customer who has the closest guess wins them all. The jar is sealed tightly to prevent any of the eggs ‘sneaking’ away until April 8th when the winner will be revealed. Good luck to everyone who entered.

So far we have raised over £325 from the Easter events, a huge thank you to our volunteers for making the cakes, selling them and tempting everyone to enter the competitions!