About Us

Dunrunnin Rehoming Kennels was founded by Karen Farley in September 2013, creating a new Brands Hatch Branch for the Greyhound Trust. Along with her team of volunteers, Karen has worked hard to improve the lives of retired racing greyhounds by matching them with the perfect home.

We are always ready for a cup of tea and a chat about our favourite dogs! Why not pop in and find out more about adopting a dog from us, or becoming a volunteer?

Some of the people you might meet on your visit are:

Karen is the kennel's hard-working founder. She has been working with and training dogs for over 30 years, and had competed in both dog obedience and dog agility classes. Karen’s dedication to the welfare and happiness of the hounds in her care is reflected in her hands-on approach to running the rehoming center. Her day starts at 5am, and she is the last to leave the kennels at the end of the day, once all of her ‘smurfs’ are nicely tucked up in bed!

Meet Geoff, our second in command at DunRunnin Kennels! Geoff has a lifetime of experience with Greyhounds, having spent many years as a Greyhound owner.

Now that Geoff is retired himself, he has time to give something back to this amazing breed, and volunteers at DunRunnin on Mondays and Tuesdays, when he runs the kennels for Karen, to give her a well deserved rest!

Geoff has an endless supply of funny Greyhound stories, and has lots of useful hints and tips to help settle Greyhounds in their new homes.

Meet Andrea, our Rehoming Support volunteer, pictured here with her five dogs (yes five!) Andrea started working with greyhounds about 14 years ago and took her first one home after just six weeks! Since then, Andrea and her family have had eight hounds in total, plus a lurcher, a Collie cross and a Labrador cross! As you can imagine, with this much practical experience, what Andrea doesn’t know about successfully rehoming hounds, really isn’t worth knowing! Andrea is a valuable asset to DunRunnin and is on hand to assist and support our adopters with cat and other breed training. Andrea attributes her love of the breed to the fact that they are such affectionate, sensitive and laid back dogs

Emily & Becca can be found at the kennels most weekends. Emily began volunteering when DunRunnin took in its first hounds, and has become known as the Kennel’s very own ‘Florence Nightingale’ due to her fondness for pampering our pooches, and rubbing lotion into any little bald patches or boo boos that she can find! Becca initially joined DunRunnin in order to complete the volunteer element of her Duke of Edinburgh Award, but loved it so much that she’s never left! Emily & Becca enjoy taking our hounds to local fairs and on organised dog walks, to help spread the word about this wonderful breed!

Having just recently moved to the area, Bev & Alex decided to try volunteering at DunRunnin as they love dogs, and thought it would be a great way to meet new friends in the local area. Luckily for us, Bev and Alex have enjoyed their time so much, that they’ve really become part of the furniture, and come to us twice a week, come rain or shine, to walk the hounds and help out at the kennels. They are also part of out stalwart home-checking team and in the time they have left are regulars at the local greyhound walks with some of our kennel hounds, as well as manning 'meet and greets' around the local area. And Alex thought he'd slow down in retirement!!!!

Sheila & Stella are another couple of characters from the DunRunnin family! There’s no mistaking Sheila with her fabulous pink hair and her amazing stories about her travels that she’s always disappearing on! (When Sheila’s not at the Kennels, she can be spotted driving around the Kent countryside with a giant white yeti sitting in the passenger seat of her car!) Stella is another one of our unsung heros – she doesn’t get to see the other volunteers much as she comes in the wee hours of the morning, three or four times a week to help Karen out with the very early morning shift before going off to start her day job – what a legend!

Our Greyhounds always look forward to their weekly visits from Dawn and Barbara as they know they’ll get spoilt rotten with home made dog biscuits and long leisurely strolls through the woods! Barbara has also been persuaded to adopt and foster - good on you Barbara 🙂

Jo started volunteering at DunRunnin in September 2013 and soon fell in love with this amazing breed and they fell in love with her too!
She loves nothing more than walking our hounds through the wonderful Kent Countryside that surrounds the Brands Hatch branch when she is in the UK.

"These greyhounds are more than a part of my life, they have taken a part of my heart, which I am more than happy to give. They are such wonderful dogs, everyday they make me smile and laugh, and I feel very privileged to work so closely with them and spend so much time with such beautiful, loving animals."

Lou is fast becoming an inherent part of our kennel life, who knows she may soon be the face of Dunrunnin 🙂

Sophie (shown here with Cash, who is clearly beating her in the selfie stakes) is best known for her ability to hear a kettle boiling at fifty paces. She began volunteering here in 2015 after hearing rumours about free cake and is now responsible for this website.

When she is not keeping the techie stuff up to date with Donna, or eating all Karen's biscuits, she sometimes walks a dog or two.

Donna started just bringing Becca to the kennels so that she could complete her Duke of Edinburgh award, but like all Dunrunnin volunteers she fell in love with greyhounds and now helps out when she can, keeping the website up to date and replying to emails, performing home checks or even filling in for one of the kennel hands.

Here she is pictured with Worf, who was posing beautifully until this was taken!

Kath & Gordon are now stalwarts at the kennels. Gordon can turn his hand to anything and not only makes the lovely 'Love Murphy' Martingale collars that we sell but also deals with our maintenance problems with a smile. Kath is the best superviser he's ever had 🙂 and is our go to lady for outside the box ideas and an honest opinion!! Both also walk on a regular basis, unfortunately for them they do get our more 'interesting' inmates to walk!! 🙂 They can also be called on at short notice for emergency vet/pickup trips - what would we do without you xx

Dave & Julie are another of our couples who have become indispensable at the kennels. Dave (despite his dour demeanour) takes on our maintenance jobs and after consideration always comes up with a solution 🙂 Julie makes us wonderful fleece coats to sell and happily repairs our damaged coats for our kennel greys 🙂 Julie walks for us too and Dave makes great cakes to keep us going! They have also been coerced into fostering for us and in the picture can be seen with our 'Fred the feet', who has ongoing health issues. We appreciate you guys - as does Fred xx

Bert is a big dog in a small body! Bert is now the resident small dog tester as he lives with Karen.  He is a very assured little fellow therefore this doesn't phase him at all.  We really think that he thinks he is a greyhound too!

Bert loves the fuss and attention that visitors give him, and is always more than happy to help them out with their biscuits and treats.

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