Henry and Pepper present the £6,000 cheque to Liz Pryer representing ChildLine

THE APDT decided to help a charity for the first time since it registered members in 1995, with a membership now of over 450, it was highly unlikely to find a dog-related charity or dog rescue society that would appeal to all the fundraiser. ChildLine, which receives no government funds, was chosen.

This is a charity that helps and listens to children in trouble throughout the country. The choice was a popular one and an amazing amount of £6,000 was raised by APDT members and their helpers.

It was up to the trainers to raises money in any way they could dream up during National Train Your dog Week, which started o n18th May and culminated with the John Fisher Workshop on the weekend on 25th/26th May in Windsor.

Cleaning

Squeaky Clean donated part of their car valeting charge at the annual workshop. The idea of cleaning inside cars containing dogs, hairs and mud held no fears for them. They even parked the car owner’s dogs inside a standby car while they got to work.

The auction of promises, a new venture at the workshop raised well over £900 for ChildLine, offering a wide variety of prizes from free places on courses to scuba diving!

The double page spread in the Autumn Newsletter showed members’ ingenuity. Raffles, dog walks, sponsored stays, talks, fun entertainments, good citizen testing, trick and clicker competitions, heelwork to music, agility games to name but a few.

Some members used local radio to spread the word and some appeared on TV. Members from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland made their contribution.

Pets at Home opened its doors in 70 of its stores to tempt the general public to part with their money for charity as well as raise the profile of the APDT. Members went into the stores offering advice to pet owners and demonstrating good behaviour and eye catching tricks with their dogs. Some husbands even donned animal suits to help to raise money!

Special commendations went to Patsy Parry, Briony Lazarides and Wendy Bell for raising enormous amounts.

The presentation was made by the chairman’s pet dogs, Henry and Pepper to Liz Pryor who represented ChildLine.

National Train Your Dog Week is to be held next year during the first week of June when the APDT hopes to make it even bigger and better.

There is plenty of time to plan events and send in the details to the administrative office, or e-mail apdt@btinternet.com

Further details about the APDT can be seen on the website www.apdt.co.uk or come and see us on the APDT stand at Crufts in hall 1.