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Dogs Trust is an animal welfare charity set up to protect the wellbeing of dogs. The charity was founded in 1891 and is famous for the slogan ‘a dog is for life, not just for Christmas’. It now employs 700 staff and has 17 rehoming centres across the UK. Its head office is based in London.

The charity invests in campaigns to reduce the number of stray, unwanted and abandoned dogs by promoting neutering and microchipping, and invests in education programmes to reach the dog owners of tomorrow.

Jo Howard is the charity’s publication mana­ger. She has been in her role for five years and is responsible for Wag!, a 24pp magazine which looks at the issues surrounding dog welfare. It is mailed to more than 600,000 addresses across Europe.

Dogs Trust uses Red Mist, a Sussex-based print broker to handle its printed material and Howard says she is happy with the high quality of the work.

She adds: “It’s great to work with someone you can trust and rely on and who understands our briefs. We have had no complaints so far.”

In addition to the quarterly magazine, Dogs Trust also mails six ‘warm’ appeals each year. These are aimed at creating awareness of the charity and persuading the public to sponsor an unwanted dog. Howard declined to comment on the firm’s print spend.

Recently, Dogs Trust has focused on environ­mental matters by producing a carbon-neutral marketing campaign. The charity also insists on using FSC-accredited paper where possible.

Howard says: “Environmental issues are important to Dogs Trust and we are always look to consider the environment in our brief to Red Mist. This is not easy to achieve, especially being a charity, where every penny counts.”