Dogs Trust has been working for a better future for dogs and the people who love them since 1891, but sadly they don't always get the recognition they deserve.
The charity, that's sole purpose is to bring about the day when all dogs can enjoy a happy life, often receives criticism and a fierce backlash online, particularly for the application process required to find a suitable match.
To begin, I'm going to start with a little story if you'll indulge me. To set the scene the year is 2001, I'm eight years old and I spend the best part of my days "knocking on" for the dogs on my street. Sad some might say, but at least my mum thought it was cute?
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From as long as I can remember I've always loved animals, I spent my weekends at the local stables and my evenings after school walking dogs for the neighbours on my street. My dream career at the ripe old age of eight was to be a vet. I was certain that I would wind up working with animals in some format.
You may have gathered by now that in fact that is not what happened and I ventured down a very different path but it's safe to say when the opportunity to spend a day volunteering at Dogs Trust Leeds came about, I bit their hand off.
My expectation was that I would spend the entire day cuddling adorable dogs and going for leisurely walks with a fury companion, because that's surely what they do right? What I wasn't expecting was the sheer graft, physicality and emotional resilience required for the role.
I arrived at Dogs Trust Leeds at Woodlands Farm, York Street to be greeted by one of the team's Canine Carers, Kevin Johnson, who made me feel welcome from the get go. But there was no time to dilly-dally as the dedicated team needed to get started on their daily tasks.
First up was kennel cleaning, a vigorous process that is done twice a day and needs to be not only thorough, but also quick as there are 46 kennels to clean and each one needs to be up to scratch for when it's four-legged occupant returns from their walk.
The assumption of many, I presume, myself included before yesterday's experience, was that kennels were a sad place to be for dogs, and of course, as Kevin said, it's not certainly ideal, all dogs deserve to be in a loving home where they can roam freely.
But what quickly became apparent to me was how well looked after and comfortable these dogs are during their time at Dogs Trust Leeds, whether that be for two weeks or sadly, in some cases, two years.
There is underfloor heating, comfortable beds, freshly washed blankets and toys as well as classical music that is played into the kennels to keep the dogs calm throughout the day.
Next up is laundry, myself and Kevin took the soiled bedding to the laundry room, which was occupied by two of the regular volunteers, Jill and Jenny.
Jill explained to me how she had started visiting Dogs Trust Leeds when her daughter was young as she developed an irrational fear of dogs. The school's psychologist had suggested visiting a shelter where Jill's daughter could see the dogs but behind a phsyical barrier where she was safe in the knowledge they couldn't get close to her.
The family soon became regular visitors of the centre and eventually adopted a dog of their own, later becoming volunteers themselves. Now Jill is a part of the furniture and she comes whenever she has spare time to help out.
She explained: "I've been able to walk one of the dogs for the first time in a while today, simply because there hasn't been any green dogs available." A green dog, as Kevin explained to me, is one who is happy to be handled by any of the workers or volunteers.
However, many of the dogs have behavioural needs or might be nervous meeting new people, so these dogs are graded amber or red and can only be walked by specific handlers who are highly trained in managing the dogs' behaviours.
Kevin said: "For the volunteers they might not always get hands on experience with the dogs but they come and help out because they know that by taking the load off us, like doing things such as washing or admin, which are vital jobs for us, they are freeing up the trained staff to spend more time giving the dogs that one on one attention that they need."
After this it's time for the feeds, Kevin took me into the kitchen, which is organised to perfection with boards dotted around listing all of the dogs dietry requirements and toileting habits, so the staff know which dogs are fully toilet trained and need to go out first, others will go in the outdoor section of their kennel.
The staff then commence the mammoth task of feeding all of the dogs. After this the team start training with their dedicated dogs, whom all have their own tailored programme, designed to work on their specific behaviours to overcome any barriers or issues that might be preventing them from finding their forever home.
I then got the opportunity to meet some of the dogs, and one of the other canine carers, Amy. Myself, Kevin and Amy took one of the dogs, Mila, a beautiful 6-year-old staffy-cross out for her first walk of the day on one of the fields.
I was surprised by how nice the site is and how much outdoor space they have, which it's clear to see is fully utilised.
I was advised by Kevin and Amy not to acknowledge Mila at first as not to startle her but it wasn't long before this affectionate girl was comfortable enough with me to give her a cuddle and show off some of her tricks.
Mila has been at the centre for a little while now and has just been reserved so will soon be heading to her forever home. She needed a home where she will be able to have her own space to chill.
She needed to be the only pet while she continues to build on her doggy socialising skills, but she is fine with older children, who understand when she needs some alone time. Mila has a skin condition which requires ongoing medication but Dogs Trust will help with the ongoing cost of this.
I later got chatting to another worker, Charlotte, who is currently splitting her time between being a canine carer and an adoption advisor.
Charlotte shared an insight on the frustrations she often faces in her role. She explained how they can be inundated with responses about a dog and the team will spend hours going through each and every one of them. And then when they think they have finally found a match, the person doesn't pick up the phone or they have changed their mind and they are back to square one.
Charlotte said: "It's heart-breaking, we all have the same end goal in mind, as much as we love the dogs and we miss them when they do go, ultimately we all want to see them go to a happy home where they are going to be loved and cared for. It can be so frustrating when you think you are so close to finding them one and then it doesn't come off. It's emotionally tiring."
Adoption advisor, Charlotte, currently drives an hour a half to get to work each day where she spends her mornings, like all of the other staff, cleaning, feeding, walking and training the dogs. She then heads to the office where she will trawl the applications hoping and praying for suitable applicants.
In between this, the site is open each day between 12pm-4pm for visitors to come in and see some of the dogs and speak to an adoption associate like Charlotte, who will go through their personal circumstances and home life and try and find a match.
Canine carer Kevin added: "We get a lot of stick online for being too 'strict' and they're often from people who have come in and applied for a particular dog, based on a picture or what they have seen online but they don't meet that dog's needs.
"For example some dogs can't be homed with young children, some don't do well with other dogs so need their own garden, some can't be left alone. What people tend to forget is we know these dogs like the back of our hands because we spend day in day out caring for them.
"Their behaviours are consistently assesed by trained professionals, we have seen the consequences of them being put in a situation that isn't right for them. We occasionally have dogs that go to a home and come back to us and ultimatley this can undo all of the progress we have made with them and we have to start again.
"While it is rare, it does happen and this is the reason our adoption process is so thorough, it's because we want to avoid this at all costs. At Dogs Trust we say a Dogs Trust dog is a Dogs Trust Dog for life, we would never turn them away and we will always take them back but ultimately that isn't what we want.
"Our aim is to find these dogs the perfect home that meets all of their needs so this doesn't happen. And as well we have a duty of care, if we know a dog has a history of negative behaviour towards a child, we're not going to put that dog in a home with children, even if 'your child is used to dogs.'
"So where a person may have been turned down for one particular dog that wasn't the right fit for them, what they don't tell you is there was maybe 10 rescue dogs waiting for a home that would have been, but they weren't interested in those ones."
I later chatted to another of the adoption advisors, Lindsey, who showed me the sheer amount of applications they have to get through. She was working on filing potential candidates for a new litter of puppies that were soon to be ready for their forever homes after being found stray last week.
Asked about the emotional side of the job Lindsey said: "Some days are harder than others, it's an emotional rollercoaster and like everyone some days you have days where you cope with it fine and other days you see something particularly horrible and it just breaks you."
As I was chatting to Lindsey I met the very loveable Valerie, a gorgeous bulldog cross who was recently found as a stray. Valerie loves people and so was happily pottering around the office and the reception lapping up as much attention as possible.
Valerie had been reserved and is waiting to go to her forever home later this week, if she hadn't been I think I may have had a bulldog shaped lump in my bag on the way out because she was adorable!
After this I went on to try out some training where I met Bailey, a five-year-old cross breed who is still looking for his forever home. He's a very fun and active boy, who I was able to try out some agility training with. Bailey needs an active family who will enjoy doing lots of fun things with him as he loves to learn.
He will need to be the only pet in his home and although his giddy personality will be too much for young children, he’ll be fine with confident teenagers. He loves to play off-lead so he'll need a secure garden for this.
When I first entered the kennels one of the first dogs I saw was Dexter, a 6-year-old pug-cross, who was bouncing so high I could see him over the barriers. Kevin explained to me the barriers can make him nervous but he is absolutley brilliant when you see him out and about.
So it was a real treat to see him in action later in the day as he enjoyed some search and find training with his handler, Mandy, where he performed perfectly. Dexter arrived with a few training needs so he is looking for adopters who will continue the great work he has done so far.
It was really nice to see first hand how the time, patience and dedication from the experienced handlers can make such a huge difference to a fun-loving, but possibly misunderstood, little guy like Dexter.
I later met, Emma, the assistant manager at Leeds Dogs Trust, accompanying her in her office was Luna, quite possibly the tiniest and cutest pug I've ever seen. Anne had Luna in her office and she has been looking after her at home over the past few days as there wasn't space for her in the centre.
Anne told me of the "constant juggle" to find space for the ever-growing amount of dogs in need of help. She said: "It's a constant juggle, we had a call last week with a poorly mum and three puppies, we didn't have the space for them but we took them anyway. We got them here and within minutes the kennel was full of bloody poo.
"They went straight to the vets, sadly we lost one and it's cost around £10,000 for the medical care the other two needed. We had to have a juggle around but we sorted it, the demand is higher than the facilities we have available. We end up with some in offices, some in reception and sometimes we end up taking them home with us, but we make it work."
I went home from my day as a volunteer shattered, with my back in bits and my step count higher than it's ever been before, but mostly, I went home with a newfound respect for what these people do day in day out to care and provide for these animals.
It's physically exhausting, as Kevin said "you'll never beat a canine carers step count!", it's stressful and it's emotional, Kevin told me: "It's heart-breaking having to watch an owner handing their dog over in floods of tears because they simply have no other choice, but what's more heart-breaking is the look on the dogs face as they walk away."
It's nothing short of a military operation caring for the amount of dogs that they do from the cleaning schedule to the feeding times and the training schedules but it's also a family and it's a home for those dogs who are waiting to find theirs.
And it's the people that give up their time and their hearts to these dogs that make it feel that way, even as a passing visitor. These people are going way beyond the schedule, they're taking the dogs home for the weekend for some extra attention, they're working with them in their offices because they prefer to be around people, they're taking time away from their endless to do lists to sit and cuddle them and give them the love they deserve.
Some of them are volunteers giving up an hour of their day where they can to walk a dog, some are spending all their free time folding laundry. Some are highly skilled dog trainers working tirelessly to put right the wrongs these dogs have faced, some work in admin trawling through the many applications desperate to find suitable adopters, some have cleaned more kennels than they've had hot dinners.
But from speaking with all of them I have found the one thing they all have in common is that each and every one of them have the very best interest of the dogs at heart, they are incredibly hard-working and passionate about what they do.
The Dog's Trust website reads, "we believe all dogs deserve to live life to the full" and after an eye-opening day spent observing what these people do on a daily basis, it's clear to see that the dogs are doing just that.
Details and enquiries about the pets currently living at Dogs Trust Leeds can be found by visiting their website, here.
