One of Dogs Trust Shoreham’s most overlooked pooches has finally found their forever home after spending 653 days in their care.
Whilst rehoming was paused temporarily at the start of the coronavirus outbreak, rehoming centre staff were able to responsibly find their dogs the right homes through a virtual matching service – using video-based home checks and socially distanced appointments, either at the rehoming centres, or by taking the dogs out to adopters homes.
As demand for dogs has risen sharply since lockdown began, this has meant many adopters have considered dogs that would usually have been overlooked.
One of the long-term lodgers rehomed between March and July, was Boycee (pictured above) who spent almost two years waiting for his new home. But he has now landed on his paws with Alex Barata and Laura Hanton from Redhill.
Alex Barata, Boycee’s new owner, said: “When we enquired about Boycee and heard how long he’d been waiting for a home, it made it all the more special to be given the chance to adopt him. It’s still early days but Boycee has settled in well. You get so much out of adopting dogs like Boycee and whilst everyone says he has landed on his paws with us, we feel like the lucky ones to be able to give him a forever home.
“Boycee’s personality shines through because he is 9 years old but still acts like a puppy. He absolutely loves training, not because of the treats but because he just loves the structure of it. We go on long walks twice a day and we hire a four-acre fenced dog field once a week so he can run free. He comes on trips down to Brighton and Eastbourne with us. We have also been continuing the training the staff at Dogs Trust Shoreham did at the centre to socialise him more with other dogs.”
Since lockdown began Dogs Trust has seen unprecedented demand for its rescue hounds. From March 23rd – end of July, the charity had 43,365 calls enquiring to rehome a dog. This is a 42% increase on the same timeframe last year. In just one day, the charity had over 1,000 emails from people enquiring about three Dachshund puppies.
However, while lockdown has seen many of our longer-term dogs bidding Dogs Trust farewell and going home with their new families, there are still plenty of others still looking for their forever homes at Dogs Trust Shoreham, including Biggles, a friendly 18 month old lurcher with a real zest for life.
His exuberance can mean that he will sometimes forget his manners – making him enthusiastic when greeting people. However, he is a very smart chap who is doing excellent with his training, so has tonnes of potential to keep making progress.
Biggles in looking for dedicated owners who have lots of time to support him with his ongoing training.
Chris Barnard, Rehoming Centre Assistant Manager at Dogs Trust Shoreham, said: “Lockdown has been a challenging time for us all, but we are so happy to see Boycee finally finding their forever home during this time. We believe that a dog is for life, not just for lockdown so our team has done a fantastic job in matching dogs to the right families during this pandemic and we have no doubt Boycee will bring lots of joy into his new family’s lives now and for years to come.
“But the work doesn’t stop here – we still have lots of dogs who are looking for their new homes so, if you feel now really is the right time for you to be getting a dog, take a look at our website to find out more, and change the tale for more of our rescue hounds.”
Whilst Dogs Trust rehoming centres are not open for public browsing, since the start of lockdown new processes have been put in place to adopt a dog, which included a virtual matching service and socially distanced appointments to help keep everyone safe.
For more information visit www.dogstrust.org.uk/changethetale
