My Story

The Red Foundation was founded in 2017 when the Dachshund community came together to raise funds to rescue & spay an 18 month old female Dachshund named Red.

Our primary mission at The Red Foundation is to protect the health and well-being of every dog in our care, and this is very important to us. We are also advocates of the breed and take our role as social educators very seriously. After an adoption has taken place, we don’t simply walk away from them. We provide lifetime support to all of our adopters, and we stay in contact with them for the life of the dog. We invite them to join our closed adopters group on Facebook, to share their updates and pictures with the rest of The Red Foundation family.

Due to the popularity of Dachshunds which has unfortunately resulted in more dogs requiring new homes, and owners requiring advice, we are busier than ever. We provide free behaviour advice to help owners work on their dogs issues with the end goal that the dog remains in the home, and after lockdown we have found the amount of behaviour advice being provided has risen dramatically.

In recent years we have also been trusted by owners to take over care of their dogs with medical issues, when they can no longer afford treatment or are unable to provide the time required to dedicate to the dogs recovery. The most common medical issue with Dachshunds is IVDD which can cost around £10,000 for treament and rehab, but we have also funded treatment for some very rare and expensive conditions such as liver shunts, neurological issues and epilepsy.

It is no surprise that our biggest cost is medical bills - in 2021 we spent £133,500 on medical bills alone! Therefore the support and donations from the public is vital to enable us to continue our work.