All you ever wanted to know about German Shepherd Dog Rescue

GSDR is a registered organisation - both a charity and a company limited by guarantees. We produce yearly accounts so everyone can see where donated monies are used.

How did the rescue come about?

Jayne Shenstone founder of GSDR

It all began in the early 90's when the company I worked for relocated me to Scotland. I responded to an advert for fosterers for a rescue called Second Chances German Shepherd Rescue.
I took over the running of this rescue and within 2 years had turned it around and made it a a successful organisation rehoming more dogs than ever before with money in the bank so that we could help more needy dogs.

Driven by a desire to help even more of these wonderful dogs, I decided to form my own rescue which was essentially German Shepherd Rescue Scotland. German Shepherd Rescue UK was born in 2001 and at that time we did rehome mainly across Scotland. Within a very short space of time, we started to become a national name in GSD rescue and we grew rapidly.

It had always been my intention to move back to England and that happened towards the end of 2007. German Shepherd Dog rescue came into being in the summer of 2008 - the rest is history.

GSDR is now one of the biggest German Shepherd Rescues in the UK. It is run entirely by volunteers based all over the UK. We rely entirely on people who want to help GSD's in need. These volunteers give up their time to homecheck and assess dogs at their own expense.

Molly enjoying her bath!!

Why is GSDR a limited company

Like many small rescues, GSDR is a company limited by guarantees. We are a non proft making company.
We have no committees or anyone else interferring. We just have people that want to help this wonderful breed. Everyone at GSDR is an unpaid volunteer.

Are you a registered charity?

Yes, we became a registered charity in April 2011. We had to go this way simply because it will make it easier for us to raise more money to help the ever increasing number of dogs ending up in rescue.

Do you have your own kennels?

As yet we do not so we have to pay commercial boarding establishments to look after our dogs until they are rehomed. We try to find kennels that will give us preferential rates so that we can make our precious funds go further. Short of a lottery win, it is unlikely that we would have our own kennels in the foreseeable future.
We do however have a number of volunteers that have a spare kennel or two in their back gardens and are able to foster urgent dogs for the rescue. This works well as they tend to get more attention than if they were in commercial kennels.

Can anyone become involved as a volunteer?

We always need good volunteers but we do insist on checking out each applicant to assess their suitability. We are grateful for any help that people can give to the rescue.