We are proud to announce that we are now members of the Associate Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare.

“The Associate Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare (APGAW) is an all-party group made up of MPs, Peers and associate animal welfare organisations or groups with a specific interest in this area. The aim of the Group is to promote and further the case of animal welfare by all means available to the Parliaments at Westminster and in Europe. APGAW seeks to influence the development and introduction of effective wide-ranging legislation to improve welfare and also acts as a discussion forum of politicians and welfare experts to looks at areas of concern.”

http://www.apgaw.org/

We are delighted to announce that we are now part of a registered company Limited by Guarantee (not for profit), For Our Dogs Limited.

We made this decision so we would have a formal legal structure for our group and also to provide transparency.

Although ‘not for profit’ companies are exempt from registering for data protection, we still comply with the data protection principles and are looking into voluntary registration.

A legal structure means in future if we wanted to obtain funding to have health-screening or education programmes that we are able to do so.

For Our Dogs Limited also encompasses our other work, which includes educating people to help them be responsible puppy buyers & anti puppy-farm consultation. We may undertake any other work we feel can help us contribute to improved health & welfare For Our Dogs.

Our shiny new website is now live! Huge thanks to our magic web designer who also created our temporary site to allow our research to get underway. We are getting close to 100 responses but we need 1000 (minimum) so please keep sharing our link and spreading the word.  In our share section you will find a poster you can print to put up in your vet surgery or dog park. You can also join us on twitter and facebook and help spread the word there.

Huge thanks to everyone who has responded to the questionnaire and given their feedback so far!

We’ve been delighted with the positive responses about our survey,  from vets, Boxer owners and other pedigree dog owners.  We got an extra surprise when we received a lovely email from Rosemary Smart (Chief Executive at The Kennel Club) expressing a genuine interest in our research.  We’ve also had some really helpful advice and information from Dr Tom Lewis at the Animal Health Trust.  It really gives us hope that collaboration between all these groups can bring the necessary changes to secure the future for healthier, happier pedigree dogs.