Your dog can be a world record holder!

(Along with 627 other dogs, that is!)

Leslie Gold is the Supporter Relations Officer at our centre in Salisbury. The team often do fantastic events that are a little bit out of the ordinary and their latest twist for the upcoming Open Day is no different! Here, Leslie explains about how your dog could be a record breaker:

"On Sunday 7th August, Dogs Trust Salisbury is holding a Guinness World Record attempt, trying to break the record for the World’s Largest Simultaneous Dog Stay – and you and your dogs are invited to take part!

The ‘Super Stay’ as we’re calling it, will be part of Dogs Trust Salisbury’s Open Day & Fun Dog Show, held at our centre in Newton Tony, eight miles north of Salisbury in Wiltshire (near Stonehenge). People and dogs come from far and wide every year to attend the dog show, and this year the Guinness World Record attempt is sure to make it the best year ever!

Dogs do NOT need to be obedience champions to take part; in fact, most dogs will be able to do this. Dogs will go into the ring with their owner, and will need to sit or lie down for two minutes. Owners can bribe their dogs with treats, speak to them, use hand signals – the only thing owners can’t do is touch their dog or force them to stay – because of course the dogs have to want to stay.

Even if a dog does move from his stay, they won’t let the side down. They’ll simply be subtracted from the total number of dogs taking part – and hopefully we’ll have enough successful stays to hit the magic number: To break the world record we need at least 628 dogs to stay for two minutes.

So come along on Sunday 7th August and be part of a Guinness World Record attempt while also having a great time raising money for a good cause in the process. Special thanks go to Animal Friends Insurance, for kindly sponsoring this very fun and hopefully record-breaking event!

The Open Day runs from 11am to 4pm, in the field opposite the centre in Newton Tony, Salisbury, Wilts, SP4 0HW. Admission to the event is just £1.50 per adult, with kids and OAPs entering for free. The Super Stay will take place at 1pm, and it’s free to enter.

For more information, please ring Dogs Trust on 01980 629634 or visit the website.

Rules of the Super Stay:
• All entrants must register on the day, and will receive a numbered runner’s tag which must be visible throughout the Super Stay attempt. This is theirs to keep.
• Dogs must sit or lie down in an alert position for two minutes, from the official start time.
• Dogs may switch from sitting to lying or lying to sitting, but cannot move from their location.
• Owners can talk to their dogs, use hand signals, and give treats to their dogs, but cannot touch their dogs or in any way force them to stay.
• Any dog who breaks his stay during the two-minute attempt will be noted by a supervisor but must NOT leave the ring, as this will distract the other participating dogs."

To find out more information, please come and join our Facebook page.

The Making of Dogcilla

Remember our exciting news from last month? Well, the UK’s largest nodding dog, “Dogcilla” has been perched beside the A40 in West London for a few weeks now and we hope some of you have seen her in all her glory!

Dogcilla was created to draw attention to our rehoming centres in a cost-effective way so that we can find more homes for our dogs. And it seems to be working fantastically well. Yay!

For a bit of fun, Dogcilla’s creators filmed the whole process. And here’s the rather entertaining result...

World's Largest Scooby Snack: Making of and presentation

When the record-breaking Scooby Snack was very kindly donated to the eager hounds at Dogs Trust Harefield, some of the Dogs Trust team was on hand to document the day with photos. This is just one photo from the day, with the rest to be found on the Dogs Trust Flickr feed.

[If you're reading this in the UK before 4:30pm on 16th of October 2009, don't forget to enter the Scooby-Doo goodie bag competition! Read the previous blog post for more.]

There are also some great videos about the making of the amazing cookie to be found online. The Canine Cookie Company, who made the whopping 16.5 stone biscuit for Warner Bros, clearly relished the challenge:

Making of the World's Largest Dog Biscuit - full version from Cow on Vimeo.

Record breaking Scooby Snack donated to Dogs Trust plus Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins competition!!

You couldn’t call it half-baked. The world’s largest dog biscuit has been created to celebrate the release of Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins on DVD and the new Scooby-Doo playset and has been kindly donated to Dogs Trust for all their canine residents to enjoy .

Prepared by the Canine Cookie Company for Warner Bros, the record-breaking, monster snack measures a staggering 11ft by 4ft making this treat 2,332 times the size of an average dog biscuit. Manoeuvring the giant treat is no small feat either: weighing in at a whopping 105kg (16.5 stone), it needs several burly men to carry and beats the previous record-holder by 33kg.

Video of the making of the giant cookie plus pictures from the Dogs Trust presentation will follow on the blog later today.

• The World’s largest Scooby snack has been officially awarded the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest dog biscuit granted on Thursday 8th October 2009.
• The giant Scooby Snack took a team of 5 people to make: 2 bakers, one assistant and two chefs & 7 people to lift and transport it.
• Ingredients included: 51kg plain flour, 21kg vegetable oil, 21kg agave and 140 eggs. The baking process took a day and included 1hr to prepare – grease and lay silicone paper in a baking tray, mix all the ingredients. The mix was poured into the mould and rolled out using standard rolling pins. It was then put into the oven and baked for 4 hours at 160 degrees centigrade. The biscuit was left to cool and then iced.

Now Dogs Trust supporters have the chance to win two Scooby-Doo goodie bags, including a copy of Scooby-Do! The Mystery Begins.

Unleashed in the UK on October 12, this latest, full-length live action movie tells the never-before-seen story of how the Mystery Inc. gang came together and reveals the trials and tribulations of their very first action-packed adventure - all using the latest CGI technology.

To mark the release of the most hotly anticipated DVD of the year, Dogs Trust has teamed up with Warner Home Video to offer 4 lucky readers the chance to win a copy of Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins on DVD. To be one of the first to get your hands on the awesome prequel to the first two blockbuster movies featuring Scooby-Doo! and the gang, all you need to do is answer the following question:

Q: What is Scooby-Doo’s favourite food?

A: Doggy Drops

B: Scooby Snacks

C: Beastie Bites

To enter, email editor@doggysnaps.com with the answer and your name and address (you will not be added to any mailing lists). Please don't post the answer here - we won't publish it or include it in our draw.

The deadline is today - 16th October 2009 - at 4:30pm*. Good luck!

*UK only entrants this time, please!

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!