Thoughts from the Ground

Rachel Wright

‘Hi, my name is Rachel Wright and I’m the Assistant Manager here at Dogs Trust Roden. When we saw the architectural plans and noticed that a Whelping Room was planned I thought the girls on the puppy block were going to have kittens! 

But seriously, a Whelping Room will be a great asset to Roden. Many of our Centres have a separate Puppy Block to reduce the risk of infection but the set up isn’t ideal for Mums’ and their newborn pups. A Whelping Room means that expectant Mums or new Mums can care for their puppies without disruption – which is what you need when you’ve just become a Mum. They’ll be no older puppies causing mischief and the room will be off bounds to the public. 

Once they are old enough to leave their Mums they will move to the Puppy Block next door where they will be rehomed from. The Whelping Room will be much larger than a conventional kennel to allow for the growth of the puppies and the size of the litter. 

We had a German Shepherd Dog bitch that recently gave birth to 10 puppies. As you can imagine it was quite a squeeze especially when the pups got a bit older so now we have the architect working to a GSD scale!’

Stephen Goward

‘My name’s Stephen Goward and I’ve been the Training & Behaviour Advisor (TBA) at Roden for many years. As a TBA you spend a lot of your day playing ‘doggy detective’ to four legged friends with behavioural issues. 

I’ve had some great results with dogs since working here and there’s nothing better than seeing a difficult dog become someone’s beloved pet. Dogs like Ben, a 5 year old Collie, who suffered extreme kennel stress resulting in him licking the walls of his kennel most of the day. 

He was fearful of people so it was slow progress not helped by the general noise of Centre life. Working with dogs like Ben is very hard as the kennel environment is working against us but with a dedicated building like the one that we’ll be getting the dogs will be away from the hustle and bustle of the Centre. 

The new training facility will also include an office so that training staff can keep a close eye on dogs like Ben. This should really help speed up the current training process and enable us to utilise the facilities for other dogs in need of special care. I’m pleased to say that Ben has now found a home where he enjoys chasing his doggy pals in the park and having his belly rubbed by his owner.’