Happy dogs make us smile and win cool prizes!

Whilst we’ve been busy filming here, there and everywhere around Australia over the past few weeks for Series 3 of Pooches at Play, we’ve had plenty of fun pictures of happy dogs and heart warming stories coming in on social media to keep us smiling and laughing on our travels.

We’ve seen and heard why your pooches deserved to win the Barbour Land Rover accessories pack in the #ULRLandRoverStyle competition we ran with our friends at ULR Jaguar Land Rover, whilst our most recent #HIFHappyPooch competition ousted some very convincing ‘treat’ faces from our Pooches at Play followers.

It’s so wonderful to see how many dog owners love their pooches and take the time to enter our competitions in the hope of winning a prize to help spoil their furry friend in the way they deserve.

If it was up to me, I’d have an endless supply of prize for all of you entrants!   However, the tough decisions in life have to be made, so picking an overall winner has to be done.

In the #ULRLandRoverStyle competition, it was the “talking” Zeke who won the luxurious coat, collar and lead accessories pack.  Little Zeke is a Poodle x Pomeranian, and has been training as a companion/assistance dog for his owner Deborah and was in desperate need of some spoiling. You can find his winning entry and even a thank you video from Zeke himself on our Facebook page.

Hot on the heels and paws of this competition was the #HIFHappyPooch Instagram comp.   This one clearly showed how our pooches know exactly how to win us over in their endeavours of getting a treat as we asked our followers to send in their pooch’s best ‘treat’ face.  There sure were some happy dogs pleading for a treat with their eyes, grins and other cheeky pleas.

As a dog trainer I often have the hard job of telling owners that a lot of their dog’s “problem” behaviour is a result of the owner rather than the dog, as they give in to, or even reinforce, their dog’s “naughty” antics.

Even I am guilty of this at times with Darcy  and can totally understand how easy it is to surrender to their wishes, especially when they pull out all the stops.

Take our #HIFHappyPooch Winning pictures on Instagram from @the_cheeky_staffys (main picture) who won the Furbo Treat Dispensing camera, and our runner ups  @hugo_the_newfie;  @tallulah_vegas; @hanathetoypoodle;  @schnauzer_colin and @misspie77.     You can check out all of the pictures of these happy dogs on our Instagram competition page.

Once again, thank you to everyone who entered. Be sure that we do look and read through all entries we receive in our competitions and it makes me so happy to see how loved your dogs are.

I’m really excited that it is now less than a month away before our third series hits your screens on Channel TEN and do hope that you will support our show and our sponsors by tuning in or setting your recorder to Saturday’s at 3:00pm.   We of course have another exciting competition to launch with this Series.

My tip to you is to start training your pooch (or any other pet) to do some tricks or just capture them ‘singing’, ‘talking’ or anything that can be used to enter our ‘Smart Pets’ competition.

There will be more details soon I promise, so keep checking in here for our latest news!!

Lara and Darcy x

About the Author: Lara Shannon is co-Host of Pooches at Play and has completed a Certificate III in Dog Behaviour & Training with the National Dog Trainers Federation. Lara also runs her own dog training, minding and walking business in Melbourne’s Bayside area.