Vivapets Blog

This is FANTASTIC! 

Help support a puppy through its training to help someone with disabilities for just £1 a week!

November 2009:  Canine Partners (Registered Charity No. 803680), who provide specially trained assistance dogs to people with disabilities, is encouraging those who like to give to charity to consider its Adopt a Puppy Campaign - as the ideal Christmas gift.  Costing only £1 a week, the scheme helps towards the cost of training a puppy to become a Canine Partner and change the life of a person with disabilities.

Supported by Purina PetCare, Adopt a Puppy is a demonstration of how giving a little can go such a long way.  Ideal as a gift or for yourself, those signing up to Adopt a Puppy will be kept updated on how their adopted puppy is progressing through the training programme.  You or your gift recipient will receive an introduction letter, personal adoption certificate, glossy photos and a soft toy puppy.

Purina first chose Canine Partners as their Corporate Charity in 2000.  The dog and human partnerships the charity enables revolutionise peoples’ lives – physically and psychologically – and demonstrate just how powerful a relationship with a pet can be. This is why Purina is proud to help facilitate this bond by providing all the food for puppies in training, to give them the best start in life, as well as helping to drive forward campaigns that raise awareness of the charity, such as Adopt a Puppy.

One such person benefiting from a Canine Partner is Rachel Benhamou (21) who has cerebral palsy.  'I love Chudleigh to pieces,' says Rachel. 'He's a little rascal, full of boundless energy, and he does wonders for me. People never believe all the things he can do like picking up things I drop and helping me to undress. I wouldn't be able to live my life as I can today without him.'

Isabel Campbell, Director of Fundraising and Marketing at Canine Partners comments, “Adopting a puppy is a great Christmas gift that lasts all year, as well as being a way to regularly give to charity.  We need to train more dogs to help over 300 people with disabilities who are on the waiting list for a Canine Partner.  For only £1 a week, you can help us to continue this work and give people with disabilities the independence they deserve.”

Mary Sharrock,  European External Relations Director for Purina says “Our partnership with  Canine Partners means that we work as one team to understand the charity's  needs and identify where we can best help the organisation to grow and  ultimately to create more canine partnerships in the UK.  This is a clear  example of the way that we do business at Purina.  We call it "Creating  Shared Value".  Our business activities not only benefit our employees  and shareholders, but also create value across society including pet owners,  their families and local communities.  We understand how powerful the  strong relationship and emotional bond that exists between a dog and owner can  be. We also know that when we see and hear from current recipients how we have  helped them to have a trained canine partner which has changed not only their  lives but also the lives of their families it makes all of our employees very  proud our relationship and want to do more.

For further information on Canine Partners, please call 08456 580480 or visit www.caninepartners.co.uk.

Celebrating 50 years as the charity’s patron, Her Majesty The Queen, spent the afternoon at Newmarket’s Animal Health Trust (AHT) on Thursday 29 October.

Doggy doors are a convenient solution for pet owners who are away for hours at a time or are too lazy to tend to their animals when they need to go outside.

But the problem with cutting a hole in your door and covering it with a rubber flap is that any petite burglar or curious animal could crawl their way into your home.

The Plexidor Pet Door is an interesting alternative. After installing the mini door, only pets with the compatible RFID chips attached to their collars can enter. The door opens when it detects a nearby chip, which the company assures is waterproof and shockproof.

We wonder how a dog with prior experience testing invisible shocker fences might react to someone attempting to outfit him or her with this collar device. (Yelp!)

But the product seems like a smart solution to a common flaw with doggy doors. Maybe the best part about it, though, is this line from the press release: "It is like having a personalized garage door and electronic opener specifically for your dogs."

There's just something hilarious about picturing a golden retriever waiting patiently while the door creaks its way open.

-- Mark Milian