For the love of dogs

One of the great things about walking dogs from the local retired greyhound rehoming kennels is that you often get to meet, and chat with, people who are considering rehoming dogs.

I love this as it gives me a chance to enthuse about greyhounds to people who are more than willing to listen and that want to pick your brains. And it's great to support potential rehomers by giving them another perspective on the dogs in the kennels.

What's also interesting is to hear their experiences of other non-greyhound rehoming centres. The tales they've given me make me think that, in my totally biased opinion, our local kennels are brilliant.

There are usually 50-60 dogs in the kennels at any one time. This is a relatively small number and gives the kennel hands, and volunteer walkers, a chance to get to know the personality of many of the dogs. In turn this gives a real insight into the sorts of homes that each dog would be happy in.

What seems to be most appreciated by the potential rehomers is that they also get a chance to walk a number of dogs when they visit.

Brilliant because they can see how wonderful greyhounds are on the lead, how comical they are, and - yes, canny, canny, kennel hands, we know your game - fall hopelessly in love with at least one of the dogs.