Dinner4Good: Come Dine With Me for Charity?

Recently Jacqui and I met Bryan Sergeant, an enthusiastic whirlwind of energy behind new fundraising service Dinner4Good. We were so impressed, we pretty much signed Dogs Trust up on the spot.

The idea behind Dinner4Good is that you have a dinner party (or tea party, barbeque or any other type of foodie hosted occasion) and instead of bringing a bottle or gift, guests make a donation to a charity of the host's choice. Dinner4Good's website does all the donation handling, Gift Aid - which means an extra 28p per £1 to the charity if you're a UK taxpayer - and even the invitations. All you need to do is throw a great party.

Here are some ideas we've been bouncing around the office for making your event go with a bang:

• Come Dine With Me: In these credit-crunchy times, more people are cooking at home and inviting friends over anyway. Why not take it a step further and mimic popular competitive dining TV show Come Dine With Me, making it into a competition? Instead of marking friends out of 10, you could give them a donation of £1 for every point, competing to earn the most for your chosen charities.

• Themes: Themes could be anything from clothes, to decor to foods from around the world. If you're organising a Dogs Trust themed party, get creative with cheap and cheerful decorations. We used (new and unused!) dog bowls for nibbles at our Dogs Trust Honours reception to great effect. Or if you have a bone-shaped cookie cutter, you could make some excellent shaped finger foods.
  
  Another option could be to have the do for your canine friends too - have a picnic in the park with your walking group and bring along a few extra homemade treats for the four-legged members of the group. The extra effort has got to be worth a few extra pennies in donations...
  
  
• Monthly challenges: If the first party is a roaring success, why not turn it into a regular event with the host chosing a new charity every month? It's cheaper than going out, just as much fun and you can know that while you're enjoying yourselves you're helping animals - or people - all over the world.
  

So why not hold a Dinner4Good party for Dogs Trust? You can have a fab time with your friends in the knowledge that just £2.50 donated by your guests can feed one of the dogs in our care for a week.

If you do host a party, let us know how it goes! We'd love photos and blog posts to inspire others with.

Dog of the Week: Buster @ West Calder

Introducing... Buster!

There are so many deserving dogs of the week, that blog editor Alex had to ask our Twitter followers which one she should choose! @jrJuliejr chose me because her kids 'love my smile' and she enjoyed visiting me recently! Thanks, Julie.

Age: 10

Breed: Large Crossbreed

Likes and Dislikes: I'm a friendly, eager fellow who is a great favourite with walkers and volunteers who reward me with the biscuits I love! I'm housetrained and not destructive, but I do get a little anxious being left for long, so I'd need some work on that once I was securely settled in.

My favourite thing is getting off the lead to play football or dog tug-of-war! Don't be fooled by my age - there's plenty of life and enthusiasm in this slightly-older dog yet.

I'm fine with kids, but not cats. I'm sociable and happy to share my kennel with both male and female dogs.

Needs: I was well cared for in my last home, but developed a very strong bond with my owner to the point that I have a few anxieties and nervous behaviours. My carers say my new owner needs to be experienced and confident to help me get along and gently work on my fears without accidentally reinforcing them.

Contact: Call Dogs Trust West Calder on 01506 873459 or look online for more of my friends who need homes.

Canine Carer: My life as a dog in kennels!

If any 19-year-old told you they'd be spending the weekend hanging out in their house with friends, you probably wouldn't find it unusual. Unless of course that 'house' is a Dogs Trust kennel and their mates have four legs each...

Big-hearted canine carer Tom spends his days providing dedicated care to the residents of Dogs Trust Salisbury's kennels, but from the 18th to the 20th of July he'll be living like one of his charges!

He's appealing for sponsors to dig deep and support him as he spends 48 hours living the kennel life. To make the experience as authentic as possible, he'll sleep in an extra-large dog bed and eat only chicken and rice, similar to dogs on a speical diet. Though there'll be a few dog toys to keep him occupied, he won't be allowed his mobile phone or iPod.

Tom explains:

"I've always loved dogs, so I was very excited to start working at Dogs Trust last November. Since then, I've gained a greater appreciation of what stray and abandoned dogs experience while they're waiting for a new home. I came up with this idea to draw people's attention to what they go through and also to raise funds for the dogs in our care."

To sponsor Tom, just drop by his JustGiving page: http://www.justgiving.com/tomcliftonmoore/. He's set a target of £1,000, so please do feel free to post the appeal on your blog, Facebook page, Twitter feed or anywhere else you'd like.

I for one love this unusual idea, and hope Tom smashes his target as well as encouraging people to rehome a dog.

Good luck, Tom!

The Dogs Trust Retweet Challenge: Using Twitter to track a message and raise funds

The Dogs Trust Retweet Twitter Challenge aims to find out how far a tweet can travel in 72 hours by asking people to RT our simple message as well as raise funds for the thousands of dogs in our care.

When you make your donation place your username followed by the user name of the person you received the tweet from. e.g

@jacquidarlow RT from @dogstrust

Once you’ve completed the donation RT to your followers and don’t forget the #RTDT hashtag so we can follow the message around the Twittersphere.

The Tweet is

RT: If you donate to http://bit.ly/2sVXfe tell us there your @name and whose RT you saw. Top ten RTer’s win prizes. #RTDT

JustGiving’s minimum donation is £2, but we’ve hidden donation amounts on the page as this is about tthe number of @name mentions and a group total, not individual amounts.

Once the ball gets properly rolling, we’ll keep a leader board of the Top Ten most successful Retweeters – that’s whose RTs bring people to the donation page rather than how many times they do it! - right here on our blog and have a prize in store for all ten! That’s why we need to know who you heard about the challenge from.

If you're on Twitter, we'd really appreciate it if you get tweeting with this message, and if you're able to add a small donation to the pot then that would be brilliant too.

Thanks to those who have already shown their support and to all those who are interested in doing so.

Introducing eWag: the eZine for dog lovers!

Regular supporters of Dogs Trust should be familiar with our three yearly issues of Wag! magazine, a supporter newsletter keeping you updated with where your pennies are going and the different types of dog welfare work we do.

The brains behind Wag! has taken the idea and brought it to life in a bright new eZine. eWag is a sister publication to Wag!, providing another shot of news between issues and packed with all those lovely web things you can't put into a paper magazine like videos and links.

Take the World's Cutest Video* below. These are puppies being given exercise, stimulation and a big helping of fun at our West London Rehoming Centre.



Head to eWag for more fun, cute, informative and offbeat doggy content. We're keen to hear what you think!

*In our opinion.

Personalised Dogs Trust mugs help raise funds and brighten tea time!

If there's one thing - at home or in the office - guaranteed to make you feel possessive, it's a mug! YOUR mug says something about you, and is often a gift or holiday keepsake. Mine is a "tea... coffee" mug that was a birthday pressie from fellow Dogs Trust bods, and Jacqui's is a Scooby Doo mug that was an Easter gift from her fiancee. We both get very narky when other people 'borrow' them! We can't be the only ones...

Now there's a way to show your support for Dogs Trust, help us raise funds but also keep that personal element, thanks to a new partnership with The Mugshot Company.

Each £7.50 mug features a picture and optional text of your choice, plus a Dogs Trust logo. 25% of this will go straight towards helping dogs in our care and the price includes postage and packing (slightly more for RoI, please check the website).

To choose your mug and support dogs across the UK, just follow this link to the Mugshot Company website (it has to be this page, or the donations won't come to us!). And remember, it's Fathers Day coming up on the 21st, so it might be just the thing to keep dads happy!

Edinburgh Film Festival gets new doggy star: Tippy from Dogs Trust West Calder!

When Tippy the German Shepherd Cross went home with filmmaker Matt Hulse and his girlfriend Lucy Brown, no-one realised she'd be a star of the Edinburgh International Film Festival before long!

Tippy and her new owners star together in Follow the Master, a debut feature from Matt which sees them following the 100-mile South Downs Way to pay homage to his grandfather, who died last year.

Matt explains:

“Originally we had planned on doing the road trip purely as a pilgrimage in honour of my grandpa, but I took some filming equipment along and Follow the Master was born!

Tippy was a natural in front of the camera and we always knew she had a definite star quality.”

Susan Tonner, Dogs Trust West Calder rehoming centre manager, adds:

“In the last 15 years we’ve had all sorts of dogs pass through the doors of our centre, but I think Tippy is the first to make it on to the big screen!”

The film’s world premiere takes place at the Edinburgh International Film Festival at 7.30pm on 20th June. To book tickets please visit the website.

Dogs Trust West Calder cares for 60 dogs at any one time. If you are interested in rehoming a dog please call the centre on 01506 873 459.

[Image Credit: Ailsa McWhinnie]

The Finsbury Bark: Breaking records for Disney's Bolt

I'd love to have been in the room when Wired PR were discussing ways to mark the release of Disney / Pixar's doggy flick Bolt on DVD. The Finsbury Bark turned out to be an intriguing idea: trying to break the Guinness World Record for the loudest bark!

Held with the advice of RSPCA professionals and with assurances from the organisers that they want to promote responsible dog ownership, The Finsbury Bark takes place on Monday 15th June and anyone's invited. Click to enlarge the flyer below to see details of registration (I believe there's a fluffy toy in it for you!) and find out more about the event.

Good luck breaking the record, folks. At least in the park you won't have to worry about being noisy neighbours!

Dashing dachshunds in London raise money for Dogs Trust

Guest blogger Lisa Ronchetti of Dachshunds in London writes about their latest fundraising event...

A sunny Sunday afternoon spent strolling through St James’ Park and the last thing you would expect to see amongst a carpet of deck chairs, picnics and sun bathers is a collection of racing dogs and I’m not talking about greyhounds...

Bank holiday weekend the bandstand of St James’ Park in Central London became the meeting point and racing ground for London’s dachshund Spring Fest and race hosted by the dachshunds in London club.

This pack of dachshund and dachshund owners meet and socialise their dogs regularly. After much sniffing about and friendly chit chat about the latest misadventures of their elongated friends, the club proudly lines up its miniature mutts for the moment everyone’s been waiting for, the race.

Following in the footsteps (or should I say paw steps) of our weiner cousins , dachshunds in London has been racing for charity for two years and believe me those little furry stumps and stretched out bodies can give you a run for your money!

As they prepare to race from one end of the bandstand circle to the other, without the aid of lanes that is, one friend holds the dog in place at the start line and the other uses a mixture of high pitched noises, whistles and hand gestures some even using a favourite toy to entice the dog to make the finishing line as quickly as possible.

3,2,1 and off they go...as they dash from one end to the other the odd dog ignores the hysterical calls of its owner and manages to whizz off into the opposite direction almost as if it had been distracted by a giant squirrel traversing the green. It is a comical sight and it happens every time, for those not familiar with dachshunds , they tend to have the attention span of a goldfish at the best of times.

On the other end of the bandstand sits an empty and disappointed pair of arms and the spectating crowd is left in a fit of giggling claps as the owner reluctantly collects the distracted pooch who never made the finishing line. Better luck next time.

Thanks to everyone this year’s races went down a storm with double figures attending the event entering. There are no bitter losers here just a happy crowd of dog lovers united in aid of one cause and one cause only to have fun and raise some money.

We hope our events continue to help unfortunate dogs and we hope that our races will only get bigger and better in the future.

Dachshunds in London and dachshunds forum members raced to raise money for Dogs Trust. For more information on how to join the club visit dachshundsinlondon.co.uk

Own a Churchill TV dog and help Dogs Trust!

Oh yes - It is now possible for you to own your very own Churchill - the famous dog from the TV ads.

The soft, cuddly version of Churchill speaks the famous ‘Oh yes' when squeezed, and is available direct from www.churchill.com/dogshop. For every sale generated through the website, Churchill Insurance will donate £1.99 to Dogs Trust!

In sickness and in health: three cheers for insurance!

This past week has been spent lying on a sofa. Sounds great, until you factor in the fever, lethargy, dizziness and other symptoms that have kept me away from my desk and this blog. Enforced rest is never as much fun as the real thing, and I still haven't made it into the office but I feel I must blog or I will burst. It's a serious condition, known as socialmediaitis.

Medicine is very much on my mind, as you might expect. As well as my own illness, which has seen me through several doctor visits, two rounds of blood tests and an ultrasound and is still a bit of a mystery, I've been worried about our cats. One of them started coughing when he over-exerted himself (read: went mental over a piece of string). So over the weekend we also had a vet visit to contend with.

It turns out little Casper has feline asthma, which is not serious in his case and can be easily managed and monitored. The visit to confirm this was so short that our vet didn't even charge us for it! But if he had, then Casper is fully insured. For that matter, so am I, so as well as a tendency to sleep all day at the moment, we have that in common...

I can't tell you how much peace of mind Casper's insurance gave me when his symptoms first appeared. Of course, it can't stop you being very worried over the health of your pet; he's a member of the family and my husband and I were both very tense and concerned - what if it was his heart? What if he had a terrible infection? The insurance can't make that go away. But it did console me that whatever he needed we wouldn't feel our hands were tied by the cost of treating it. Yes, you find a way to pay it anyway, but especially in these unstable times it really helps not to have to think about where it's going to come from.

I know I sound like an advertisement, but this really is coming from the heart. Dogs Trust has an arrangement with PetPlan, a huge insurer here in the UK, which means all dogs rehomed from us come with six weeks of free insurance from them. You need to decide which company is best for you and there are frequent debates about the different options out there on DoggySnaps, among other places.

With little Casper and I both on the mend, I should be back to blogging regularly (and more cheerfully) soon. In the meantime, I hope you've all been well!