Assistance Dog Charity Smashes World Record on TV

he charity Dogs for the Disabled is celebrating a new world record after a team of clients and their dogs took part in a TV challenge that is being broadcast this Sunday (May 10th) at 8pm.

Viewers of the Sky One programme “World Record Smashed” will see assistance dogs Vesta and Henry go head to head to set a new record for the greatest number of items to be taken off a washing line and placed in a basket in one minute.

Black Labrador Vesta, who is partnered with Dan Smith of Warwick, had the highest total of 8 – which broke the world record by three items. Henry, who is partnered with Andy Lee, also beat the previous record.

Programme makers Outline Productions invited Dogs for the Disabled to take part in the challenge – which was filmed in early April – so a team of clients got to work training their assistance dogs for the record breaking attempt.

Dan and Andy were joined by Sue Harvey with Max and Byron Harvey with Isis and they all had to train their dogs to retrieve a towel off a washing line and place it in a basket. Prior to this the dogs had only been trained to retrieve items straight back to their handler, but part of the task was to place each towel in a basket, so it was a new challenge for all involved.

Thanks to the hard work of the four clients and their dogs, assisted by the technical team at Dogs for the Disabled, assistance dogs Vesta and Henry took part in the challenge at Pinewood Studios and broke the world record.

Presenters Steve Jones and Connie Huq congratulated all members of the team on their achievement and presented Vesta with a golden bone and Dan with a special medal.

At the end of the night, Dogs for the Disabled’s client service manager, Duncan Edwards, summed up the celebrations: “We are very proud of our team who have trained hard over the past four weeks to complete this challenge. The rules and regulations set by the Guinness Book of Records Team are very exacting, so each client who trained for the challenge had to put in a lot of hard work – they really have been brilliant. We know that our assistance dogs can give a disabled person the opportunity to experience new challenges, but what the team has accomplished here is very exciting for all concerned and the charity.”

Sue Harvey, one of the team members added: “We are very proud to be part of the winning team. We are so pleased for Dogs for the Disabled that we have won the challenge and hope this remains with the charity for many years to come. The best thing for us is that now Max can empty the washing machine and place items in the basket, and also pick up the dinner bowls and put them away. We are very proud of Isis who is almost nine years old now. We are very proud to be recipients of two wonderful assistance dogs from Dogs for the Disabled.”

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Tags:  Animal Charities