100 Days with 100 Dogs: Day 95 - Meet Max

Day 95 is upon us and this week is speeding by far too quickly towards the live event on Sunday. We've just announced that we'll conduct a Q&A session as part of the live stream and set up a thread for people to add questions:

https://fb.me/e/2vhI2e9wx

We hope to see as many of you on Sunday as possible. Today we meet another Max (which seems to be a popular name!) who's eager to find his new home. 

Max is approximately 3 years old. He's a very loving dog that loves to play but also enjoys a cuddle. He is very ball driven. He also enjoys being with people including children. So far he hasn't shown any issues with other dogs although He will make a perfect pet. 

He has been on vitamin B12 injections from the vets to help his metabolism and help him be able to digest his food properly. Since his treatment of B12 he really has shown significant improvement and is putting weight on all the time. He will make a family whole with his loving nature.

Max is currently located in South Lincolnshire and if you'd like to offer him a home then please get in touch via the Adoption Query form:

https://www.gsdwelfarefund.co.uk/adopting-a-german-shepherd/

Amazon Smile Shutting Down

Amazon has announced that they are closing their Smile program effective from February and this will be a blow to the donations we receive. The scheme used to generate a donation whenever a registered user purchases eligible products from the Amazon Smile store (essentially a duplicate of the main store). These donations were quite small as you can see from my statement and we hoped for more sign-ups but they were a free bonus that helped us pay for the ongoing costs of caring for the dogs. You can read Amazon's announcement here: 

https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/amazon-closing-amazonsmile-to-focus-its-philanthropic-giving-to-programs-with-greater-impact

Unfortunately, the new programmes do nothing for smaller charities for us. This is frustrating as we've received very little notice about this. We'll of course contact them to see if they are looking to continue helping in any way, but the way this has been handled doesn't offer much hope.

However, there are alternatives.

We've posted about easyfundraising and Give as You Live before and if enough of our supporters used them while shopping online they have the potential to transform how we can fund our operations without costing shoppers anything. They're supported by a huge range of retailers and the donations tend to be more generous than Amazon's so this could be better for all of us in the long term. They also run some excellent offers that not only can save you money, but raise more for us.

They're not perfect and you need to make sure that you use their websites and/or apps to ensure the donations are tracked. Retailers' apps don't always work properly so you need to use the websites for shopping - this isn't always convenient, especially for your big supermarket shops, but even if you use them for some shops or special deals every little bit soon adds up. For people who use browsers, you can install handy add-ons that will let you know if a retailer supports the scheme when you visit their web stores and ask you if you want to track a donation. If you are not sure what this means then shout out and I'll help if I can.

Finally, if you use my personal referral links then once you've raised £5 we receive an additional £5 donation free. I've also copied screenshots of my current statements for both schemes and as you can see takeaways, e-|Bay, Etsy and many other stores can earn donations. Together we can make the difference without costing anything extra - will you make the difference?

https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/support-a-good-cause/step-1/?char=45963&invite=8ik9ub&referral-campaign=s2s&cid=45963&name=Michael

https://www.giveasyoulive.com/refer/R9UoZA4yjntKlOrMZIfyog7ag0qzM9sKNA-3D-3D

Please share with friends, family and anyone who can sign up and help us continue our work. Thank You!

100 Days with 100 Dogs: Day 94 - Fond Forever Farewell to Max

Day 945 of the 100 Days with 100 Dogs series brings us another good day with the news that Max has left us for his forever home. We wish him and his new family all the best for the future.

We will be celebrating the 100th and final day with a live online event where we will talk about the current state of the GSD Welfare Fund and the upcoming meeting about the general state of UK dog rescue. This will be hosted live on Facebook and you can find out more and register your interest here:

https://fb.me/e/2ChlCK7Fc

We hope to see as many of you there as possible!

10 Days with 100 Dogs: Day 93 - Meet Carmen

For Day 93 of our journey through 100 Days with 100 Dogs we meet Carmen who's a recent arrival and so still being assessed but will hopefully be ready for her forever home soon. We're also busy preparing for the meeting about the state of dog rescue in the UK. Find out more on this here:

https://gsdwelfare.blogspot.com/2023/01/uk-dog-rescue-in-crisis-updated.html

Carmen is a 3 year old long haired female GSD. She found herself in our care after her previous carer's circumstances changed and they didn’t have time for her. She became reactive but this could have been caused by stress due to the changes. She has been a little sweetheart whilst in our care. Carmen has only been with us a couple of weeks so is still in her assessment period. Then we will be looking for a home for her. We have not tried her with other dogs yet. She has been good with the humans she has met so far.

She is currently located in South Lincolnshire and if you can offer Carmen or any of our  other dogs a loving home then please get in touch via our adoption query form:

https://www.gsdwelfarefund.co.uk/adopting-a-german-shepherd/

100 Days with 100 Dogs: Day 92 - Forever Home Farewell to Bruno

We have a lovely piece of happy news for Day 92 of our 100 Days with 100 Dogs series and that is Bruno is off to his forever home.

We'd like to thank his new pawents and wish them all the best for the future together!

We still have 90 dogs looking for their forever homes - can you provide one o them?

https://www.gsdwelfarefund.co.uk/dogslist/

UK Dog Rescue in Crisis (Updated)

Whilst preparing for the upcoming meeting in February at the Houses of Parliament I have updated my Rescue in Crisis document, This has included some new items that have been provided by various people in response to the first version. You can download this new version here:

http://www.gsdwelfarefund.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Hot-Topic-Rescue-in-Crisis-v2-2.pdf

If you have any comments or feedback then please post in the comments below or contact me directly.

On the 21st of February 2023, the All-Party Dog Advisory Welfare Group are holding a meeting at the Houses of Parliament concerning the state of dog rescue in the UK. It's being well attended with 100 representatives from dog rescues across the UK. There are still seats available so if you'd like to get involved get in touch with them.

https://apdawg.co.uk/feb-2023-meeting

100 Days with 100 Dogs: Day 91 - Meet Murphy

We've entered the final ten days of our 100 Days with 100 Dogs series and we're looking to put something special together for the 100th Day. For today though let's meet Murphy who's ready to find his forever home - can you help?

Meet Murphy

Murphy (or Fluffy Bum) is a 2.5 year old German Shepherd and is absolutely ready for his new home. He is a gentle calm boy who would love an armchair or sofa to chill on. He loves slow, sniffy walks and gives the most amazing snogs. He can be calm around ducks and even squirrels!

He does prefer a quieter environment and can happily amuse himself if you are busy, but he does like a good snuggle and tummy rub too.

He can walk past other dogs with a little distance and encouragement but can be socially awkward with male dogs in particular if they come in his face. He has been known to say hi to the female dogs at the kennels! He ignored other dogs in the veterinary clinic with a little encouragement too. He walks beautifully on harness and lead.

He would be best as an only pet as he's not comfortable generally with other dogs or cats. He's good with people but not so much with younger children. He's happier in a calm environment.

If you can offer Murphy a home then please contact us via our adoption query form:

https://www.gsdwelfarefund.co.uk/adopting-a-german-shepherd/