Dogs Trust in Ireland - Our History

Dogs Trust arrived in Ireland in 2005 and is Ireland’s largest dog welfare charity.

We began our work by launching our hugely successful nationwide Education programme. We now employ an Education & Community Team of 6 who deliver free workshops to primary schools, secondary schools and in the local community. These workshops educate people on safe behaviour around dogs and responsible dog ownership. To date, the team have delivered over 19,900 workshops, reaching 600,000 people. Dogs Trust believe that by educating the public we can make a positive impact on the lives of dogs across the country, by teaching people how to better understand their dog’s needs and how to behave safely and responsibly around dogs. The programme also offers free resources covering a variety of topics on our website www.LearnWithDogsTrust.ie.  

We then launched our nationwide Subsidised Neutering scheme, enabling people in receipt of means tested Social Welfare payments to have their dogs neutered and microchipped at a reduced cost. Since the start of the campaign, over 125,000 dogs have been neutered through this scheme.

Building work began on our state-of-the-art rehoming centre in 2008 and we opened our doors in November 2009. We rescue dogs from a variety of sources; working closely with local authority pounds and like-minded animal welfare charities across the country. We have rehomed over 21,000 dogs and puppies to their Forever Homes and we now employ upwards of 80 members of staff along with a fantastic team of volunteers.

In 2014, we opened our purpose-built Puppy Wing, which was built as an extension to our existing centre. This new ‘maternity ward’ allows us to rescue an additional 500 puppies each year, along with their mothers.

The new wing also features three low-stress kennels for dogs who are overwhelmed in the kennelling environment.

We have hundreds of puppies and dogs of all shapes, sizes, colours and breeds in our care, looking for their special someone. All puppies and dogs in our rehoming centre are neutered (or if not already neutered at the time of adoption, they will go home with a €90 voucher to be redeemed against the cost of neutering at a local veterinary practice), microchipped, fully vaccinated and have their temperament assessed before going to their Forever Home. Dogs Trust also offers a lifetime of training and behavioural support for all dogs and puppies rehomed from our centre. Dogs Trust does not receive any Government funding towards our life saving work, so none of this would be possible without the continued commitment and generosity of our donors and supporters. We simply could not continue our efforts without them.

We won’t rest until we make Ireland a safe and happy place for dogs, so we never have to let any dog down. Through our national responsible dog ownership campaigns and education programs, we’re here for all dogs and the people who love them.