Dogs Trust Honours: Follow the action online!

Tomorrow night is one of the biggest in the Dogs Trust calendar. It's the night we get to celebrate the wonderful contribution dogs make to our everyday lives, and reward some of them for it (and one or two of their human friends, too). Its...

The Dogs Trust Honours!

You might have seen the previous blogs about this, and you're about to see a lot more. We (and by that I mean me, Alex, and the Digital Manager Jacqui) will be at the venue from several hours beforehand to document its tranformation and blog, tweet, snap and film every bit of the event we can.

We'll be aiming to interview our celebrity guest presenters, meet the dogs, get the results out there and generally make you feel like you'll be there with us all evening long. Where can you follow?

1. Right here!
2. On our dedicated Honours Twitter feed and main Dogs Trust Twitter feed.
3. On Flickr (photos)
4. On YouTube (video)
5. On our social networking pages like Facebook.

Vote for The Sun's Hero Dog Award and be in with a chance of attending the Dogs Trust Honours!

The Sun's Hero Dog Award aims to reward our hard-working four-legged pals for their devotion to duty. Five amazing canines are up for the accolade this year for their fabulous feats of lifesaving, rescue and protection.

The winner will receive a medal - and of course treats! - from Lorraine Kelly at the Dogs Trust Honours. The big bash, held on 19th May at the Hurlingham Club in Fulham, is designed to recognise the contribution dogs of all kinds make to life in the UK. And you could be there!

Alongside the big vote, there is also a competition to win two tickets to the ceremony! The Sun's competition question?

"What is the name of the Obama family's new dog?"

Please contact The Sun via realife@the-sun.co.uk with your answer and details - don't contact us or comment with the answer here, as the competition is being run by The Sun.

To find out more about the nominees: read The Sun today, visit the paper's website, or follow the Dogs Trust Honours Twitter feed (you can also click to enlarge the photo above).

Even if you aren't the lucky winner of the tickets, you can follow all the goings on, gongs and celebrity attendees on the night as we'll be live tweeting from the event and getting video, photos and blog posts online as fast as our clicking fingers can manage it.

Voting ends Monday, so please pass this on to your dog-loving friends and family, and get clicking!

Three days left to show us your dog's star quality!

There are just three days left before the deadline for the Dogs Trust Honours Rex Factor Award - have you shown us the smart moves and clever tricks your dog can do?

If not, then get cracking. We've already shown you with our how-to video how simple it is to knock 40 seconds of funny footage together and submit it to us. We're not looking for a professional video - it's your dogs skills that are important, not yours (except as a trainer, of course!).

We look forward to seeing your videos ahead of the ceremony on May 19th. To check out some of the existing entrants, visit our special DoggySnaps Rex Factor kennel.

Does your dog have the Rex Factor? Show us - it's easy!

From time to time you'll have heard me mentioning the Dogs Trust Honours, awards that celebrate man's best friend. This year we have a video category - Rex Factor - that invites your dogs to take centre stage, showing off their jazziest moves and cleverest tricks.

Some people have said that they're nervous about entering because they don't have any professional equipment, so we made the video below to prove that you don't need any of that!




For the record, we used:

1 x Dogs Trust Web Editor with supremely dodgy video editing skills
1 x assistant camera person who shall remain nameless (oops!)
1 x Canine Gang Dog
1 x Flip video camera (but any other video recording equipment is fine)
Windows Movie Maker editing software which came with our computers (anything will do as long as it can chop it down to size)

See? There's nothing to it! All you need is 40 seconds of your dog being clever*, a free YouTube account and a few more seconds to give us your details and the embed code. You can check out some of the existing entries on our special DoggySnaps kennel.

The deadline is on the 15th of April, so please show us your efforts now and put us to (even more) shame!

*Videos containing dangerous stunts or dressed up dogs will not be accepted.

Video: Kate Humble & Charlie introduce the Dogs Trust Honours awards

TV Presenter Kate Humble cuddles up to cutie Charlie in Regent's Park to tell you all about how you can nominate your dog (or a special friend of dogs) for an award.



Visit the Dogs Trust Honours website to find out more and nominate a friend (four-legged or otherwise).

Dogs Trust Honours: Sponsors & prizes sought

Our annual Dogs Trust Honours will shortly be open for nominations. These are awards dedicated to the bravest, most devoted, smartest and most talented of our four-legged friends (and the odd human who has gone the extra mile to help dogs). I'll be blogging more about the categories and past winners when nominations open, but in the meantime I have a special request for anyone able to contribute to making this a very special evening.

We're looking for both sponsorship and 'money-can't-buy' auction prizes.

Sponsors need to be companies, and there is a range of ways to get involved, from principal to event, table, award or online sponsorship.* It's a fantastic opportunity to support a pet-positive event and help us celebrate the dogs and people that make us so determined to continue caring for thousands of dogs every year. As the UK's largest dog welfare charity, we can offer coverage in a variety of ways - online and off - with a potential audience of millions.

'Money-can't-buy' prizes for the charity auction on the night are also very welcome. Can you offer someone a truly unique experience that people would fall over themselves to bid for? We have been very lucky to receive generous gifts from celebrity supporters over the years and hope that this year will continue the trend. If you are someone who can help - or know someone who needs little persuasion - please get in touch!

If this has sparked your interest and you have a suggestion, please email me with details and / or questions and I'll be sure to get back to you asap. The Dogs Trust Honours will be held on May 19th.


*Normal Dogs Trust advertising rules do apply, however, so breeders, pet food manufacturers, pharmaceutical / vet services and pet insurers are not eligible.