Puppies rescued in Co Antrim named after top golfers playing in The Open

ITV News

15-07-2025

Meet puppy Rory McIlroy.He is searching for a loving new home, just like his brothers.Abandoned near a river, the litter of malnourished pups were found dumped in a bag in Broughshane last month.Thankfully, one of the six Collie cross pups broke free and was found wandering, which alerted a dog walker to the plight of the siblings - and in stepped the Dogs Trust.One pup has already found his forever home, now the other five, including Rory, are on the lookout for theirs.Sarah Park, of Dogs Trust Ballymena, said: "We found these pups at the end of June. So we were sort of forward-thinking saying, 'Oh, we can get some really good strong names'. "So they were all boys and we named them after some of the golfers at the Open."We have Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Shane Lowry, Tom McKibbin and Padraig Harrington. So adopters may not have to keep those names, but we thought we would give them a really good strong name that's destined for success."They are typical puppies. We call them little baby dinosaurs. At this stage, they are going through all the fun stages where they are learning, socializing, and they're learning how to be brave and a bit more outgoing and also this is a really good age for them to start learning a bit of basic training."So for Rory, Shane, Justin, Padraig and Tom what's the ideal forever home?Sarah explained: "Basically, with puppies, we sort of say that if people are home a lot all the time because puppies need a lot of attention, they need four feeds a day, and a puppy that is left to its own devices tends to be a bit of a rascal. "So ideally, someone who's home runs a lot of the time to help with house training to help with socialization, and to be able to put in the basic training to help turn them into nice, well-rounded adult dogs."These pups, a bit like their namesakes, have got their eyes on the prize.It comes as puppies are needed for ground-breaking research in Northern Ireland.Residents here, who have recently bought or adopted a puppy are being asked to sign up to the first ever study to follow dogs of all breeds throughout their lives to help us understand contributing factors to dogs' health and behaviour.Generation Pup, operated by Dogs Trust, has almost reached the milestone of recruiting 10,000 puppies and is on the hunt for the final few hundred pooches under 16 weeks to join the project.By collecting information about puppies such as their environment, family, health, behaviour and experiences, the charity can build a picture of a whole generation of dogs across the UK and the Republic of Ireland. This means that researchers can investigate whether aspects such as environment, social interaction, diet, exercise or daily routine may be important in the development of a range of health and behaviour conditions which impact on the welfare of our dogs.