Impact Report 2024

Our impact in 2024

For over 130 years we've been there for dogs when they need us most. Thanks to our supporters, we can continue that legacy today, creating a better world for dogs in very challenging times.

In 2024 we:

Found forever homes for thousands of dogs, including some of our most vulnerable residents.
Supported dog owners facing homelessness or domestic abuse, keeping people and pets together in challenging times.
Delivered expert training and advice to help pets and their owners build stronger bonds.
Helped thousands of children learn how to stay safe around dogs.
Advanced understanding of dog health and behaviour through ground-breaking research.
Made big strides forward in the global fight against rabies.
Built momentum for our capital campaign, Lead The Way, paving the path for an even brighter future.

Finding forever homes in 2024

These are challenging times and more people than ever before are turning to us in crisis. In 2024, 43,230 people asked us to take in their dog. Some of the most common reasons were:

We were able to help over 10,000 dogs last year, caring for them in our rehoming centres or with foster families, and finding forever homes all over the UK. Staff and volunteers at our centres worked tirelessly to get dogs back on their paws. For some dogs, especially our Underdogs (long-term residents), this meant additional support in our special rehabilitation units, or hydrotherapy and physiotherapy suites.

Helping dogs, and the people who love them.

For every dog we take into our care, there’s a human story. When someone has to give up a cherished pet, our staff provide comfort and reassurance without judgment. A gentleman who recently handed over his dogs shared:

“I had to give up my pups, Milo and Ben, for adoption. It was one of the hardest days of my life, but Dogs Trust were amazing. I went from hating myself to knowing I did the right thing. I know they will be loved and cared for, and it won’t be long before they find their forever home. Your staff have a very rare quality indeed. Thank you.”

A new start for Pops (now Moose)
When Collie Pops arrived at Kenilworth in 2023 as an RSPCA rescue, he was incredibly skittish. It took some time before we could take him for walks, and when we did it was obvious this was a new experience which overwhelmed him. He had no idea how to interact with other dogs or with people, so we took things slowly.

Within a few months he’d made progress. Rehab Trainer Lauren wanted to see how he would be in a home environment so took him to her house for a weekend. He settled well, did lots of snoozing and learnt how to relax and be a “normal” dog.

Around this time Pops was introduced to one of our amazing volunteers, Fran, who spends time with our more sensitive residents. They built a beautiful friendship and Fran would play with him for hours.

We started working on teaching Pops how to settle, relax and entertain himself whilst home alone. Here at the centre we have a “training house” set up, complete with a kitchen, garden and comfy sofas. We started introducing Pops to different enrichment, like snuffle mats and puzzle feeders to encourage him to focus on these rather than searching for people.

In March 2024 along came his forever family, who were experienced with Collies and not fazed by his needs.  They have worked incredibly hard with Pops (now called Moose) including using our Post Adoption Support to discuss things they were struggling with, such as his separation anxiety. They say:

“Moose’s stress levels are more or less gone. He walks off the lead and his recall is excellent. He has become a puppy again. Thank you to everyone at Kenilworth Dogs Trust.”

For over 130 years, we’ve been working tirelessly towards a better future for dogs and the people who love them.

But turbulence in government, the economy and public health has created the perfect storm. Over the last five years of instability, the nation’s dog population has grown by 30% to 13 million, and we simply don’t have the resources to help every dog that needs us.

That’s why we launched Lead The Way – a £30 million fundraising campaign to double the number of dogs we save over the next decade. By upgrading three of our oldest rehoming centres (in Merseyside, West Calder and Glasgow), expanding dog fostering, and investing in innovation and efficiency, we will transform dog welfare in the UK and lead the way to a brighter future for all dogs.

Lead The Way: Campaign progress and milestones

We have already secured over £6 million in gifts and pledges towards our target. We are so grateful to our Leadership Circle Pioneers, Patrons and Champions for helping us to reach this milestone, and we look forward to breaking ground for phase one works at our Merseyside and West Calder sites this year.

Watch our West Calder team discussing how the rebuild will transform dog welfare and their working environment in this short video:

See how the new West Calder Centre will look in this animated fly-through:

Help us Lead The Way to a safer and happier world for dogs

2025 will be the most important year to date for our Lead The Way campaign. We still urgently need support to close the funding gap for phase one of the centre rebuilds, launch our fostering programme expansion, and invest in innovative technologies to become as sustainable and efficient as possible.

Will you join us in building a brighter future for dogs? Your support will make an extraordinary impact on the lives of dogs and owners across the UK.

Please talk to us to find out how you can make a difference. Thank you.

Find out more about Lead The Way

Thanks to our supporters, we can be there for people and dogs when they need us most.

Freedom from domestic abuse

In the last year alone, over 2 million people experienced domestic abuse in the UK. A staggering 1 in 5 of us will face it in our lifetime.

Dogs Trust’s Freedom provides a free and confidential specialist fostering service for dogs owned by people experiencing domestic abuse. With limited pet friendly accommodation available and domestic abuse refuges not usually able to accept dogs, Freedom can provide a temporary home for their dog with a loving foster carer until they are safe, settled, and ready to have them back. Freedom helps to remove a barrier preventing people with pets from seeking refuge, so they aren’t forced to stay with perpetrators or leave their much-loved pets behind and at-risk. And Freedom helps to maintain the crucial bond between survivors and their pets which we know helps people as they recover and rebuild.

In 2024, we celebrated 20 years of Freedom and our team of volunteers provided confidential foster care to 557 dogs, enabling their families to find freedom from domestic abuse.

Hannah and Saffron’s story

Hannah experienced over 15 years of abuse from her partner before her dog came into our care. She says:

“My ex-partner was controlling, coercive and violent. I couldn’t take it anymore. I didn’t have time to pack anything, I just got what I could and took my dog.

I was so upset when Saffron went to Freedom and cried for days but I knew she would be cared for. Getting the photos and monthly updates really helped.

After several months I was able to get resettled. I was very nervous when Saffron and I were reunited but as soon as she saw me, she was licking me and her tail was wagging. She ran into the new house.

I’m getting adjusted to life again slowly, I have good and bad days, but it just really helps to have Saffron back. I wouldn’t have been able to do this without Dogs Trust. I just want to say a big thank you to the carers. It’s amazing that someone can do this for someone else.”

Helping people through homelessness

Over 300,000 people in the UK do not have anywhere they can call home – an increase of 14% in the last year alone. With the cost-of-living crisis and lack of affordable housing, more people than ever before are being pushed to the brink of homelessness.

For dog owners, the experience is even more challenging; over two-thirds are told that, to find housing – or even temporary accommodation – they must first give up their dog. Faced with this gut-wrenching choice, many are forced to sleep on the streets, or in unsafe accommodation, rather than part with their best friend.

Dogs Trust’s Together Through Homelessness is here to help, supporting people and pets to stay together. We do this by funding vet care, creating access to support and shelter, and bringing some much-needed festive cheer through our Christmas parcels.

In 2024, we provided 1,881 free vet treatments to 774 dogs whose owners are experiencing or at imminent risk of homelessness.

We endorsed 19 homelessness services to become dog-friendly and have been in consultation with a further 59 services.

We sent a record 2,610 Christmas parcels to 273 homelessness services across the UK; helping dog owners to feel less lonely and showing them that someone cares about them and their dog.

"I am very grateful to Dogs Trust for their kindness - it's good to know they are there for us."

2024 in numbers

10: the number of years our Customer Support Centre has been running

24: the number of sponsor dogs in our 21 rehoming centres

25: the birthday milestone Merseyside Rehoming Centre celebrated in 2024

16,200: dogs trained at Dog School last year

7,500 calls made by our Post Adoption Support team

£6.1 million: the amount gifted and pledged to our capital campaign

£5,050: how much it costs, on average, to run one of our centres for a day

Primary school progress

For 20 years we’ve been working in primary schools all over the UK. By teaching children the ‘ABCs of being a dog’s best friend’ we aim to encourage kind, compassionate attitudes and shape safe behaviours around dogs. In 2024 our team of Education and Community Officers reached over 547,000 children. Our busiest month was March when we delivered over 1,200 workshops to over 64,000 children. Our Learn with Dogs Trust website offers free teacher resources, and our dedicated parent/caregiver webpage offers advice and services that support dogs and children to live happily together.

Jennifer Terris, Community Education & Engagement Team Leader – Scotland, said:

“Our main aim is to achieve immediate and impactful changes to the way children behave around dogs. During follow-up visits, we were thrilled to find that so many of the children reached through our dog safety workshops were following the ‘Best Friend Promises’ they had made. Our vision is to ensure dogs and children live happily together and our school workshops are a key way of achieving that."

Saving millions of lives from rabies

Every year, millions of dogs’ and thousands of people’s lives are lost to rabies. We don't think it’s fair that communities in Asia and Africa are still bearing the brunt of this cruel disease. We can create a world without rabies. Without fear. Where no child risks a needless death. No family suffers a lost livelihood. No dogs are needlessly culled.

Now part of the Dogs Trust family, Mission Rabies has been tackling rabies in communities in Africa and Asia for over a decade, vaccinating 5 million dogs and educating 10 million children about rabies prevention in that time.

In 2024 we're very proud that in global rabies hotspots over 1.1 million dogs were vaccinated and almost 3.5 million people educated - including 2.4 million children. This includes:

In India: 446,731 dogs vaccinated, 642,865 children educated.
In Malawi: 151,050 dogs vaccinated, 1,385,195 children educated.
In Cambodia: 229,465 dogs vaccinated, 293,156 children educated.

Two years of our Behaviour Support Line

In 2024, we celebrated our Behaviour Support Line turning two. Providing much-needed free support services to dog owners, over 14,000 people have now benefitted from advice about their dog’s behaviour since the service was set up. Out of the 30,000 calls we’ve received so far:

More than 50% of callers speak to us about their dog’s reactivity towards other dogs or people
24% need advice about their dogs not enjoying being left alone
17% call us to help with their dog’s barking

Our Behaviour Support Line took 16,642 calls and helped 8,191 people with free advice in 2024, including 17-month-old Winnie’s owners who contacted us because of her reactivity to other dogs and separation anxiety. We put them in touch with our Community Clinical Animal Behaviour Team, and now the improvement to Winnie’s behaviour means she and her family can live together happily and safely.

Winnie's owner said:

“I feel so much happier and positive about Winnie, she is progressing well and the relationship between her and our family as well as our other dog is so, so much better”.

The Behaviour Support Line is open Monday to Saturday, 9.30am - 5pm for free advice and guidance and our dog experts are happy to help with any questions or concerns about dog training and behaviour.

1.6 million views of our pasta pups

Our most popular video on social media in 2024 was our 'pasta pups' choosing their new collars. With an incredible 1.6 million views across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X, and YouTube, the reel shows Jack Russell terrier crossbreed pasta pups: Fettuccine, Linguine, Rigatoni, and Tortellini selecting from a menu of coloured collars at our Harefield centre in West London. These pups have all found forever homes after being matched to their perfect people.

Learning through research

We learn so much from our research, and by sharing it, we can make the biggest possible impact for both dogs and people. In 2024, we found out more about the positive effects of dog ownership on people. Over 400,000 people took part in our National Dog Survey, and 98% of dog owners told us their dog makes them happy.
We also learned that:

96% agree that “Owning a dog is good for my mental health.”
89% say “My dog provides emotional support.”
89% report “Owning a dog makes me more active.”
99% see their dog as family.
89% call their dog a best friend.

Generation Pup - a ground-breaking study of the health, welfare and behaviour of dogs throughout their lives - has now recruited over 9,000 puppies. By collecting information about each puppy – their environment, family, health, behaviour and experiences – we are building up a picture of a whole generation of dogs.

In our Post Adoption Welfare Study (PAWS), a third of adopters reported lifestyle changes six months after adopting a dog, with 80% describing these changes as positive.

Looking ahead, we have exciting projects planned for 2025, where we hope to continue exploring the impact of our work on both people and dogs.

Our Chair: Welcome to Will Galgey

We are delighted to welcome Will Galgey as our new Chair of Trustees. Will joined our Board in 2023 and will bring huge value to the role of Chair. As Executive Managing Director for Kantar Marketplace, he brings a wealth of leadership and management experience, as well as a commitment to improving dog welfare. We are looking forward to working closely with Will and hope you will have the opportunity to meet him in person at one of our events in 2025.

None of this would be possible without our supporters' incredible generosity.

We hope you have enjoyed this report and welcome your feedback. Because we want everything we do to have a positive impact for dogs and for people, we are working hard to build impact measurement into all our work, so our supporters always know the difference they make. We look forward to sharing more progress in 2025.

Dogs Trust is a charity registered in England and Wales (1167663), and in Scotland (SC053144), and a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (09365971)

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