As well as providing a temporary home to thousands of dogs every year, for the last three weeks Dogs Trust Basildon has welcomed a new resident to its rehoming centre; Channel 5’s new hit TV show, Live: Lost Dogs with Clare Balding.
For the last three weeks, the training barn at Dogs Trust Basildon has been completely transformed into a TV studio for the show, complete with red sofa, autocue, lights and cameras, and the carpark of the Nevendon Road rehoming centre has been filled with outside broadcast trucks.
Presented live by award-winning broadcaster, writer and dog lover Clare Balding, this warm-hearted series has celebrated the love we have for our dogs, with viewers encouraged to contact the programme to report sightings of dogs who have gone missing and help us track them down in a bid to reunite them with their owners.
The show has featuring missing dogs from around the country and has been on the hunt for the owners of some of the stray dogs that have come into the care of Dogs Trust teams around the country. This includes Lilly, a Belgium Malinois who arrived at Dogs Trust Basildon seven weeks ago as an unclaimed stray. She is now looking for a new family to welcome her into their home.
Over the last three weeks, Clare has also been joined by a number of guests in the Dogs Trust “studio” including Dr James Greenwood, resident vet of BBC’s Morning Live, and BBC radio presenter, Scott Mills.
Talking about the experience, Kelly McMaster, Rehoming Centre Manager at Dogs Trust Basildon, said: “As a rehoming centre caring for thousands of dogs every year, we’re used to the unexpected here at Dogs Trust Basildon! But playing host to a live TV show has been a completely new and unique experience for us.
“It’s been incredible to see our training barn transformed into a TV set, and to see behind the scenes of a TV show like this.
“We hope that some of the dogs featured on the programme go on to be reunited with their owners, and that the unclaimed stray dogs in our care, including the lovely Lilly, go on to find their new, forever families.”
If you missed the series, you can catch up on all three episodes of Live: Lost Dogs with Clare Balding on My5. To find out more about some of the dogs being cared for by Dogs Trust Basildon, visit Dogstrust.org.uk.
