About Us

Lakeland Trailhound Welfare

We are the only organisation in the country solely dedicated to rehoming trailhounds.

Lakeland Trailhound Welfare (LTW) became an unregistered UK charity with a formal trust deed in 2015. We have a small board of trustees to oversee the running and accountability of the charity. LTW has no paid staff and is run entirely by a team of volunteers who are passionate about trailhounds (also known as trailies).

The charity works very closely with members of the hound trailing community to help them to find excellent retirement homes for their hounds. We rehome any age of trailhound including youngsters who do not take to racing, as well as older retired hounds. Since 1997, LTW have rehomed well over 1500 hounds that have retired from trailing, usually around 50 hounds a year. As well as rehoming trailhounds, our volunteers promote trailhounds at dog shows and organise fundraising events throughout the year to help cover transport costs, kennelling and vet bills.

As well as privately rehoming hounds in carefully selected homes, we also work with a select set of trusted partner charities with reputable rehoming centres to rehome trailhounds. We have worked with these partner charities, such as Dogs Trust and WARS, for many years and trust them to also find great homes for the hounds. Just like LTW, these charities will ensure dogs are neutered, vaccinated, microchipped and wormed before rehoming them. We are very grateful to these partner charities that help find fantastic trailie homes all over the country.

Ways that you can help Lakeland Trailhound Welfare

Making a donation

We rely on donations from our community to continue our vital work rehoming hounds and are extremely grateful for every donation, no matter the size. If you are able to donate to LTW, thank you so much for your support and please use one of the below methods to make your donation (note that bank transfer is our preferred method):

• Donate via bank transfer (preferred donation method) using the below details

Account name: Lakeland Trailhound Welfare at Barclays Bank

Sort code: 20 66 97

Account number: 43450007

• Donate via cheque or postal orders: these should be made out to Lakeland Trailhound Welfare. Please email us at info@trailhoundwelfare.org.uk for the full postal address to send your donation to.
• Donate via Paypal to trailhoundwelfare@gmail.com

Fundraising for LTW

We are incredibly grateful to the members of our community who fundraise for our charity. If you are interested in some fundraising for LTW, we can send you free information packs to help with your event. All money raised goes directly to helping trailhounds into retirement homes. We are also always in need of raffle prizes or bric-a-brac for car boot sales. If you can help in any way with fundraising, please email us at info@trailhoundwelfare.org.uk.

Rehome your trailhound through LTW

Are you a member of the hound trailing community and would like to rehome your hound to a lovely new family? Please see our ‘Contact Us’ page and get in touch with one of our rehoming coordinators, Sue Lloyd or Barbara Leopold.

Rehoming a trailhound through LTW

Is there room in your family for a beloved trailhound ready for a new home? Please see our ‘Contact Us’ page and get in touch with one of our rehoming coordinators, Sue Lloyd or Barbara Leopold.

Promoting trailhounds as pets

Most people have never heard of a trailhound! We hope to change that by promoting them as pets. We have free information packs and small temporary display about trailhounds as pets that we could send to you in the post. Please do email us if you are able to support in this way.

History

In 1997, Peter Wilson started Lakeland Trailhound Trust from his home in Bewaldeth to promote trailhounds as pets and assist their owners to find homes for them when they retired from racing in the Lake District. With a very small team of helpers including Eileen Robinson, LTW went on to develop contacts throughout the country, including with reputable animal welfare charities. These charities have been imperative to our growth as they are able to take hounds in and rehome them to excellent homes on our behalf. We developed a website and began attending fundraising events to promote trailhounds as pets.

In 2007, Peter retired and the decision was made to change the name to Lakeland Trailhound Welfare. In March 2015, Eileen retired due to ill health. Both had a passion for rehoming trailhounds and will be sorely missed by all our community. LTW continues to operate with a team of unpaid, dedicated volunteers who help with all aspects of promoting and rehoming hounds. Check our Contact Us page to read more about our current team.

Peter Wilson

Peter set up the Trailhound Trust in 1997 and worked tirelessly, taking in hounds until he retired in 2007. He helped raise awareness that trailhounds make great pets by showing them all over the country, including at Crufts. The first such occasion was in 2002, where one of his hounds won PRO Dogs Pet of the Year. Later in 2005,  Mandy the trailhound was nominated for Hero of the Year award at Crufts after she raised the alarm when a fire broke out in the house. Additionally, Lady, who was a resident of the Trailhound Trust kennels for many years, won the Grand Final for bitches in the Companion Dog Club competition at London’s top Canine Event, Discover Dogs in 2006. As with many of Peter’s dogs, Lady had been a PAT dog for a number of years.

Eileen Robinson

Eileen started to help Peter with rehoming trailhounds in 1998. Her husband had racing hounds so Eileen was well known among the trailing community. She became the coordinator for rehoming and placing hounds in reputable welfare centres around the country. Eileen had an incredible empathy and understanding, and spent many hours a day on the telephone talking hounds! Eileen also became a Reiki healer and used her skills to help both animals and people.  She had intuition, determination and total passion for helping hounds to find fantastic retirement homes and inspired many others to become involved with rehoming. Having retired from LTW in January 2015, our good friend Eileen very sadly passed away on 25th February 2022. So many people have wonderful fond memories of her and the help she gave them with their hounds. We will always remember her warm, humorous and caring manner and for the hounds she found amazing homes for.