Poppy the Dogs Trust Dog

Hello, my name is Poppy. I am five and a half years old, I am a Lurcher, and I am a dog with a job. That's not very unusual, you may think. After all, thousands of dogs get up every morning and go to work. Guide dogs, police dogs, sheepdogs, sniffer dogs - the list of canine careers goes on and on. But nobody has a job quite like mine! I work at the Headquarters of the UK's biggest dog welfare charity, Dogs Trust, in London, and my job is to campaign for the health and happiness of dogs everywhere. Most people who work at Dogs Trust are in fact people, which I agree is a bit odd, so they come to me when they want a real dog's opinion on things. Today I am busy having my photo taken for the cover of this book, but most of the work I do is much more important than just posing with my ears up. I've been on more walks and in more fundraising events for Dogs Trust than I can count. My owner Vicki is a Training and Behaviour Adviser at the charity, so I also regularly visit its 17 Rehoming Centres across the country. Can you believe the staff at those centres look after over 16,000 stray and abandoned dogs every single year?