Dogs’ Refuge Home Shenton Park celebrates 90 years of finding pups their forever home

One of WA’s oldest animal welfare organisations has been giving dogs a second chance of finding a home for 90 years.

Since 1935, the Dogs’ Refuge Home in Shenton Park has helped thousands of dogs find their forever home and to celebrate the anniversary a major $2.6 million redevelopment was undertaken.

The renovation included a 90-year history showcase centre, an agility yard, decompression kennels to provide calm, a meeting area for dogs to be introduced to potential cat siblings, and a puppy centre.

Dogs’ Refuge Home general manager Robyn Slater said the puppy centre was desperately needed.

In 2020-21, the refuge only received 200 puppies but in the latest financial year there was more than 700 puppies that came through the service.

The refuge also rehomed more dogs than ever before in 2024-25.

“This weekend, for example, we have four litters up for adoption but when I first started in 2021 we used to get one litter every other month,” Ms Slater said.

Ms Slater theorised this was due to demand for puppies not being as high as it was during the pandemic meaning backyard breeders now struggled to sell a whole litter.

“Demand is really high and we’ve got our team working as hard as possible to rehome dogs because we can only take in dogs if we have space,” she said.

“The dogs don’t deserve to be here in the first place so we might as well try and make it as nice as possible for them.”