Farewell Fiona and Meg!

We have another goodbye to say this week in the Education Team. This time to the lovely Fiona R and her marvellous Meg, who have been our Education Team in the South East since August 2014. Fiona and Meg have done a fantastic job of educating the dog owners of tomorrow on the importance of being safe and sounds around hounds, and on what dogs need to stay healthy and happy, while Deirdre has been off on maternity leave.

The obligatory selfie!

This dynamic duo have met lots of fantastic people during their time at Dogs Trust, and we made sure to catch up with them before they finished up to find out what they enjoyed the most!

 
“I’ve made so many great memories over the last year. But my stand out memory is of Meg when she passed her assessment to bring her out in the schools, I was very excited on that day! I’ve had Meg since she was a puppy and I never dreamed that I’d have a chance to bring her to work with me every day.  I also  loved the excitement, enthusiasm and lovely welcome from the children when visiting their classrooms too!

It’s hard to pick one thing that I’ll miss the most! I’ll really miss EO team; I loved being a part of such an enthusiastic team! I’ll also miss my visits to the centre too for all the great events that took place over the last year too!”

 

“Meeting all the boys and girls in all the schools in the South East was the bests memorys! I couldn’t believes my luck when   Fiona brought me out for the first time! I gots soooooooo many rubs! I just I thoughts I must be the luckiest dog in Ireland! I also got to meet a Home and Away soap star too, lucky me, and luckys him too to meets me!

I miss all the attention I receive  froms all the boys and girls every day! I loved going out in the yellow Dogs Trust car, I’ll really miss my trips out in the car everys day!”

 

Fiona and Meg have promised to keep us up to date with their adventures, and we here in Dogs Trust wish them the very best of luck!

 

Fret not though South East, we have good news on the way in the next few weeks.... so stay tuned!



Goodbye Liadh.

Last week the Education Team had to say a fond farewell to our South West Education Officer, Liadh.

 

 

Liadh has been with Dogs Trust since 2010, visiting schools in the Cork, Kerry and Limerick areas. Initially accompanied by her lovely dog Molly, who retired last year, Liadh has spoken to hundreds of school children over the years, teaching them about being a Responsible Dog Owner, and about staying safe with dogs. Anyone who has been lucky enough to have had a visit from the lovely Liadh will agree with us that she has done an amazing job of passing on her passion for animal welfare to the next generation of dog owners.

 

 

Before she left, we asked Liadh what her favourite memory of her time with Dogs Trust was, and what she would miss the most:

“My favourite memory of my time with Dogs Trust is probably my very first visit to a school. It was South Hill National School in Limerick. I was so delighted to see how enthusiastic the children were and I remember thinking how great this was for them, and what a fab job it was going to be for me!

I think I will miss the Education Team the most. Floating ideas between us all, and the fun and enthusiasm of the team was something that I really enjoyed and will definitely miss.”

We hope you'll all join us in saying a big Thank You to Liadh for being such an amazing Education Officer over the last few years, and an even bigger GOOD LUCK on her new adventures!

 

 

There are lots of changes going on in the Education Team, including another goodbye, a welcome back, and a move....so keep an eye out on the blog in the next few weeks to find out all about them!

Doggy Detectives @ Dogs Trust is BACK!

Last year the Education Team ran their very first Doggy Detective event in Dogs Trust's rehoming centre in Finglas.  We had lots of pawsitively brilliant children attending, who took part in lots of activities including a tour of the centre.



Doggy Detectives turned out to be one of our most successful education events last year and so we've decided to run it again this year!

 

Click on the Poster for a bigger view!





The day includes a behind the scenes tour of the centre, a quiz, and an investigation activity to help design a dog toy! Of course there will be the usual goodies and competitions in store too.  We think it'll be a pawfect day out and we would love to see you all there!

Details:

When - 12pm - 2.00pm on Sunday 16th August

Where - Dogs Trust Rehoming Centre, Ashbourne Road, Finglas, Dublin 11. (Little tip, it's exit 5 off the M50)

Ages - 6 to 13 years old

Cost - €5 per family

 

Be sure to book your place today on the link below.

 

http://www.eventbrite.ie/e/doggy-detectives-tickets-17880273379

Supporters' Day 2015

This Tuesday Dogs Trust held it's annual Supporters' Day! The event was full of activities and stalls for all our canine and human friends to enjoy, coupled with a fantastic Superhero theme. Of course the Education Team were on hand with their very own Education Station.

 



The Education Team are ready to 'paw-ty!

 

 

The Education Station was packed with fun activities. There was a colouring competition where children had to create their own Superhero Dog. All the colourful entries were amazing with some impressive Superhero powers to match each dog too :). There were prizes galore and Dogs Trust wristbands for everyone that took part.

 

Next up was the ‘Who Wants Be a Responsible Dog Owner' quiz. The children answered questions about how to be a good owner and how to keep your dog happy and healthy!

Quiz time! 'Is that your final answer?'

 

The Education Team loved all the fun activities and stalls that were on offer for the day! Dawn and Fiona experimented with some face painting. Can you guess what animal they asked for :)?

                                               

 

 

They even had the chance to get a fun caricature drawn of the whole team! The Education Team thought the end result was just super!

                  



What a day :)! Thank you to everyone who came on the day and called over to the Education Station. We can't wait to see you all again next year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 



 

 

 

It's Pawty Time.....

Did you know that Dogs Trust are holding their open day next week, Tuesday 14th July? The Education Team are SUPER excited for the Superhero themed day!

 

 

Last year the Education Team had a great time at our Education Station, where the children learned all about Responsible Dog Ownership.  We had a quiz and a colouring competition where the children designed their own 'scoop-the-poop' bags.  There were prizes galore and everyone got a lovely green poo bag holder donated by the Green Dog Walkers Campaign.

 

Some highlights from last year!

 

This year we are determined to have EVEN MORE fun! We've got some superhero themed activities, lots of prizes for our competitions, and of course we will all be there to talk to the children about Responsible Dog Ownership. We can't wait!

 

So, if you're coming to the event, be sure to pop over to the Education station to say hello! If you haven't booked your spot yet, there are still some tickets left for the morning session (10am - 12 noon) so follow this link to snap one up!

 

 

See you all there!

 

Teddies from Caring Clare!

Back in April, our South Connaught and Clare Education Officer, Dawn, visited Holy Family Junior School in Ennis, Co. Clare. Over the course of a couple of days she spoke to all 12 of their classes, finding out lots about their dogs, and talking about what dogs need to be healthy and happy. Dawn had a fantastic visit, and was delighted when Ms Normoyle's class offered to organise a collection of soft toys in the school, so that she could bring them up to the centre for the dogs!

 

So last week Dawn headed back to Holy Family to collect the teddies, and was presented with 4 big black bags of them! In fact, the children had been so generous, and had done such a good job of collecting the teddies, that they took up all the space in Dawn's boot!

 

Teddies Galore!

 

The Education Team would like to say a HUGE Thank You to the staff and students at Holy Family Junior school for organising this collection, and for being so generous! An extra special Thank You goes to Ms Normoyle's class who took charge of the collection. You can see a photo of them helping load Dawn's boot on their website http://www.holyfamilyjuniorschool.com/ (photo 21 on the slideshow).



We are sure you will all agree with Dawn's dog Odie that HFJS did a terrific job donating their old and unwanted soft toys for the dogs in Dogs Trust.

Dogs Trust always welcomes donations such as these as they go a long way to keeping the very special dogs in our care healthy and happy. We also take in food donations, and always need enrichment foods used to treat our residents and to help with their training. The kinds of food that our dogs love are listed below.
 



If you would like to donate any of these items, they can be dropped off at our rehoming centre on the Ashbourne Road, Finglas, Dublin 11.

 

Many Thanks in advance!

Dogs Trust visits Cork Summer Show 2015

Another exciting week has just passed for the Dogs Trust education team and, two weeks in a row, we’re heading down to Cork to see what our Cork Education Officer has been up to there! And what a week it’s been! Not only has Liadh been spreading the Dogs Trust responsible dog ownership message in West Cork schools but she also got the chance to do the same at the Cork Summer Show on the 20^th and 21^st of June. This show is the oldest agricultural show in Ireland and it was an honour to be asked along by Paul and Josie Barry and the entire team who’d organised all the super pet dog shows that were run during the event. Liadh met about 250 dogs AND all their owners at the show and not only was everyone thrilled to see Dogs Trust taking part – they were doubly thrilled to hear that Dogs Trust will have it’s very own Cork venue in the not too distant future!! Although we have to find a venue first – so if you know of anywhere that might suit give us a ring! Exciting times ahead which means LOTS more blogs from the South and South West Munster region over the coming months.

 

Fun in the sun at the show :)!

But for now Liadh would like to congratulate all the wonderful dogs who took part in the shows over the two days in a range of nine categories from ‘best puppy’ to ‘the dog the judges would most like to take home’! And remember, every dog was a winner because, quite simply – every dog is!