Dogs Trust Honours 2012: Celebrating Dogs!

This Monday was our Dogs Trust Honours awards, an annual celebration of the absolute wonder that is dogs. Categories including Dogged Devotion and Dog's Best Friend found very worthy finalists and winners, having been judged by our fabulous celebrity panel*, and Mirror readers and Dogs Trust supporters weighed in on the truly extraordinary tales that made up the nominees for Hero Service Dog and Hero Pet Dog.

The evening, held at the Honourable Artillery Company, was hosted by dog-loving Dragon Deborah Meaden, and saw the winning dogs, their families and a host of wonderful celebrity supporters come together.

Attendees and award presenters included Brix Smith Start, Funda Onal, Ben de Lisi, Kaye Adams, David van Day and Sue Moxley, Brian Murphy and Linda Regan, Marc Abraham, Dawn Porter, Kevin Sacre and Camilla Dallerup, Sarah-Jane Honeywell, Matthew Wright, Abi Titmuss, Meg Matthews, Lynette Peck Bateman and Nick Bateman.

Guests mingled over teacup cocktails and sweet treats and were willingly upstaged by their canine companions, from Gladys and Pixie the Smith Start pug superstars to ex-Dogs Trust Harefield Underdog star Sven Sacre. Lynette was delighted to be able to bring ex-Dogs Trust Canterbury sweetie Polar - we simply wouldn't be doing it right if we couldn't make it a dog-friendly event! The dogs got their very own butlers serving canine-conscious snacks.

Last but not least, we have to give a special mention to long-term supporter John Barrowman - that's our Digital Marketing Manager Jacqui grabbing a picture with while she was busy running around tweeting the event! Note Charlie having a good look at Homer, our logo dog... Former Dogs Trust Bridgend resident Charlie was himself a winner in the Media Mutt category.

Dogs Trust Bridgend is celebrating Charlie's win by listing lots of personal items and clothes kindly donated by Charlie's pet John on eBay in the second sale from the phenomenal donation made to our Cowbridge charity shop. Get bidding - there are swimming trunks in there!


And now, of course, the reason all these wonderful people came together: the winners!

Dogged Devotion in association with Live With... - dogs that provided extraordinary emotional or medical support to owners

Winner: Ajay

Ajay has been a constant source of companionship and support to the Brown-Griffin family through some incredibly tough times. Ajay originally came to live with them as Tony's (the mother) seizure alert dog and would warn her before she suffered an epileptic fit. Soon after Ajay joined the family they discovered they were expecting a child with a potentially fatal heart condition. Ajay was present during the birth and stayed in hospital with the family, even sleeping by newborn Mimi's cot; he also offered constant support during the little girl's heart reconstruction surgery. After the birth Tony suffered catastrophic bleeds in her eyes and was registered blind. Ajay quickly became her guide dog, without any special training, as well as still fulfilling his previous role. Ajay has now retired due to hip dysplasia but is casting a watchful over Tony's new working dog Hetty.





Dog's Best Friend in association with Dogs Today - a human who has gone the extra mile for dogs

Winner: Carlos Parreira

Carlos Parreira was nominated by his colleague at Little Dog Rescue. Carlos demonstrates a huge commitment to dog welfare and at only 15 years old has helped improve the quality of many dogs' lives. Carlos has been volunteering at the kennels for the past three years and has taken on caring for several elderly dogs. His commitment to the cause also saw him complete a bike ride from John O'Groats to Lands End for the rescue centre when he was 14. Carlos' dedication to animals is second to none and he gives up most of his spare time to help his four-legged friends.









Hero Dogs in association with  The Mirror  - rewarding spectacular acts of bravery or courageous feats


Winner, Pet Dog: Izzy

Izzy was nominated for saving the life of her diabetic owner's life, David Robinson, not once, but twice! On the first occasion she alerted David's wife Julie that something was wrong in the bathroom. After forcing her way into the room Julie found David unconscious on the floor, thankfully Izzy prevented an unimaginable situation and her instinct saved his life. The hairy hero then went onto show such dedication again when David had a hypoglycaemic attack in his sleep. Izzy is not a trained diabetic alert dog, she has quite simply become a little lifesaver with incredibly loyalty.









Winner, Service Dog: Aman

Aman is a police dog for the Suffolk Police and last year displayed true heroics when he was stabbed multiple times by an armed man. The stabbing happened after Aman had been sent into challenge the man in line with his training and whilst holding onto the assailant's arm he received repeated stab wounds to his body, causing serious blood loss. The man also stabbed Aman's handler during the ensuing struggle. Despite both having significant injuries they both continued to assist their colleagues in the eventual restraint and disarming of the subject. Both survived the attack and continue to work together.









Media Mutt - dogs in the public eye

Winner: Charlie (see above!)

Take a look at our Facebook album of the event to see more of the wonderful winners and celebrity guests - I particularly love those Meaden / Barrowman smooches!

Want to read more? (Of course you do!)

Check out our Hero Dog sponsors the Mirror and their wonderful account of the night. Lynette Peck Bateman has also already posted her simply lovely post (pun intended!) on her Lovely's Vintage blog, and you can see Marc 'the vet' Abraham's Facebook album of snaps from the night here.

Update: More blogtastic fabulousness from Lynette here, and John Barrowman's website has a lovely celebration of Charlie's win too!


* The judging panel:

Head Judge - Clarissa Baldwin, OBE (Chief Executive, Dogs Trust)
Deborah Meaden
Paul and Jackie Ross
Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford
Ben de Lisi
Dawn Porter
Richard Caring

Happy birthday dear Harefield, happy birthday to you!

Happy birthday, Dogs Trust Harefield! Sky Sunrise presenters Eamonn Holmes, Jacquie Beltrao and Charlotte Hawkins popped down to Dogs Trust West London (Harefield) to wish the Rehoming Centre a happy 5th birthday. They dished a special doggy birthday cake to the lucky canine residents of the Rehoming Centre (which you can see the gorgeous puppies Pastrami and Serrano demolishing in the photo above). Eamonn says:

“It’s a joy to be at Dogs Trust West London celebrating their 5th birthday. Since it opened the team here have found homes for 5,000 dogs which is a wonderful achievement.”

The Sky team were joined by Jacquie’s Westie/ Bichon cross, Maddie who was the first dog ever rehomed from the Harefield based centre when in opened in 2006. Eamonn, Jacqui, Charlotte and Maddie also met Serrano and her brother Pastrami. Serrano is the 5000th dog to be rehomed by the Dogs Trust West London team and she will go to her new family this weekend. Jacquie Beltrao comments:

“I’ve been so lucky having Maddie in my life for the past five years – we’re inseparable! The staff here did such a wonderful job matching us up and it’s really impressive hearing how many other dogs have found happy homes thanks to their hard work.”

Dogs Trust West London manager, Richard Moore, says:

“The support we’ve received from the local community over the past five years has been incredibly heart-warming. It’s been a pleasure to match so many lovely dogs with fabulous families. One that particularly sticks in my mind was helping Blue Peter presenter Helen Skelton choose her dog Barney. It was vital to find a dog that would be happy on the set of the show as well as make a great pet for her. It worked out perfectly. We’re all looking forward to the next five years and finding forever homes for even more marvellous mutts!”

Thanks to Klassy Canine Bakery for donating the doggy-safe birthday cake and special treats. http://www.klassycaninebakery.co.uk/ / 01884 255584

Jo-Emma Larvin runs the Flora London Marathon for Dogs Trust!

Model Jo-Emma Larvin, also known as partner of boxing star Joe Calzaghe, has strapped on her trainers and chosen to donate the proceeds of her upcoming marathon run to Dogs Trust!

Here she is at one of our centres meeting one of the dogs the funds raised will be helping (more photos can be seen on the Dogs Trust Flickr stream):



You can visit Jo-Emma's fundraising page at JustGiving to lend your support and sponsorship. In the meantime, Jo-Emma will also be sending us the occasional blog post to mark her progress, so you can read about her efforts in her own words. Here's the first:

Well my training is certainly coming on. I've done up to a 16 mile run!! I can't believe I did it. In fact I can't believe I'm doing the marathon full stop! I've gone from only managing 2 miles in january to this, so I think I can pat myself on the back :-)

My legs feel do feel a bit like lead, but I do some stretching and I always eat straight away then I'm ok.

After meeting all the other runners when I did the half marathon at Silverstone and picking their brains for tips I've devised my own training plan. I'm doing a big run on the weekends and 2 little ones (6/7 miles) in the week.

I still take my lovely Sonny on loads of walks too. I actually think it's all the walking I've done with him over the 4 years I've had him that has given me a certain amount of stamina. Even days I don't feel like walking he looks at me with those eyes and I get going. Dogs are certainly great for fitness!!

I'm eating pretty much the same just adding more carbs to my meals. That part's easy for me as I love bread and potatoes etc I love eating big plates of mash and gravy.Yum! I keep getting the Lucozade sports drinks as well as I know thats what they give you at the marathon. I'm getting used to them now. Feel yuck today because had a late night and sooooo dont want to run today. I'm gonna have a gorgeous breakfast of 2 slices of brown toast, 1 with peanut butter, 1 with honey and banana mashed over both of em. Then I'll take Sonny for a walk and get ready for my run!

Good luck, Jo-Emma! Keep us posted.