A Valentine's walk for pooches and their owners raised more than £1,200 for a charity "struggling" with the number of abandoned dogs. 

Dog rescue charity All Dogs Matter hosted its annual Valentine's Walk on Hampstead Heath on Sunday (February 12) to raise money to support its work. 

Around a hundred dog lovers joined the charity at the Garden Gate pub, in South End Road, Hampstead, and headed to the Heath for a bracing walk.

Laura Hedges, deputy manager of the East Finchley charity, said it was a "great day".

She said: "They come dressed up in Valentine's attire with their dogs to help us raise money for our dog rescue.

"We had quite a lot of people who adopted dogs from us so a few people came from further afield, like Milton Keynes for example.

"It's nice to see dogs now happy in their homes."

Ham & High: Stafford bull terrier Rupert - 'a wonderful dog, so affectionate'Stafford bull terrier Rupert - 'a wonderful dog, so affectionate' (Image: All Dogs Matter)

Laura said Covid has had a huge impact on the number of people who have surrendered their pets. 

In 2022 the charity rehomed 349 dogs with new owners with many more still looking for homes.

"We are really struggling with the number of dogs coming in," Laura added.

"At the moment there's a real crisis in rescue, there are so many people surrendering their dogs right now.

"Lockdown had a huge impact. There were an extra two million pets bought in lockdown so that's more dogs in existence.

"When people were going back to work or they realised their dogs didn't fit their lifestyle then they start giving their dogs up to rescues.

"With that volume of dogs you're not able to help every single dog sadly.

"We're getting hundreds of calls from people who now need to rehome their dogs. The dogs are usually about two years old, which is perfect
timing for when people were in lockdown and decided getting a dog was a good idea."

She said often the dogs are under socialised, and have not had enough exercise.

Ham & High: Taffy was rescued from the meat trade in ChinaTaffy was rescued from the meat trade in China (Image: All Dogs Matter)

"Often these dogs are coming in with behavioural issues as well.

"It's a real issue and as a small rescue we need all the help we can get
to help as many of these dogs as we can." 

Alls Dogs Matter is looking for rescue dog adopters and people happy to sponsor a dog to keep the charity going.

"All donations goes towards helping them before going to their forever homes, so treated by our vets and staying in our kennels," added Laura.

Visit https://alldogsmatter.co.uk/ for more information or to make a donation.