The Great Guide Dogs Virtual Dog Show

We love our dogs here at Guide Dogs and we want to give you the opportunity to show the nation your beloved dogs too with all their fun loveable quirks, tricks and general gorgeousness. So over the summer we’ll be running our first ever virtual dog show where all the winners are voted for by you! We’ve got a whole host of fun categories from waggiest tail to sleeping beauty, all listed as photo albums on our dedicated Facebook group. 

Step 1 – Join the Guide Dogs Great British Virtual Dog Show Facebook group - make sure you stay updated by checking the 'all posts' option in the group notification settings.

Step 2 – From the 5 June to the 20 July you'll find a photo album for each category on the Facebook group with links from the posts in the group. To enter your dog in a category simply click on the official Facebook donate button, make a donation of your choice and then submit your photo or video in the category. Make sure you tell us the name, breed and age of your dog/dogs.

Step 3 – Share your post as far and wide as you can and get your friends to ‘like’ your photo or video (and follow the group). This is really important as the entries with the most likes will go through to the semi-finals! Please remember to encourage them to make a donation to Guide Dogs using the Facebook donate button whilst they’re there!

Step 4 – Towards the end of July we will post a link on the group for the semi-finals where donation-based voting will take place. Please note that this link will only be posted by Guide Dogs and you should not click anywhere else.

Step 5 – Finally in August we’ll be holding the grand final for the Best in Show taken from all the category winners. Again this will all be voted on by you.

1. Waggiest tail – show off those waggy tails from tiny puppy wiggles to Great Dane waggles, ones that could tickle and ones that could sweep you off your feet! We want to see them all!

2. Doggy divas - calling all sub woofers to share their musical talents, posers who were born to be noticed or pooches who just love a pampering. Whether singing along, dancing or simply striking a pose for the pup-arazzi, one thing’s for sure, there are no hush puppies here! 

3. Top trick -  your dog's got talent so showcase your super dog skills and party tricks. Maybe they are fur-tastic at fly-ball, ace at agility or dynamic at doggy paddle, or perhaps you've used lockdown to teach them a new trick. Show us who’s top dog by sharing your dog’s best party tricks. 

4. Best friends - who is a dog's best friend? It could be their owner, family, best doggy friends or other furry family friends – the choice is theirs! 

5. Scruffiest lockdown dog – maybe you’ve discovered a new muddy walk during lockdown or your dog has really let themselves go with doggy salons being closed – we’d love to see your mucky pups! 

6. Golden oldie – just like wine, we like to think dogs improve with age so share your snaps of your more mature dogs or those that have passed on and you remember with great fondness.

7. Sleeping beauty – Let sleeping dogs lie, but make sure you get a photo or video of them snoozing like a baby… perhaps in their favourite place, with their treasured cuddly toy or just flopped down in a heap of exhaustion!

8. Pride Dogs for Guide Dogs – and as an extra category to celebrate Pride month, in the absence of any physical parades taking place this June, we are giving you the opportunity to take part in our own fabulous virtual Pride parade. So dig out the outfit you might have planned for your event and feel free accessorise your paw-some pals to compliment your look!* 

9. Bloopers - a chance for you to showcase some of your show reels that didn't quite go to plan! 

*Please note that Guide Dogs doesn’t condone the dressing up of dogs and we would recommend that any accessorising is based around collars/collar attachments, tags and leads and does not cause distress to the dog. 

The event will launch on the 5 June 2020 until the 20 July when entries close. This will be shortly followed by a semi-final for each category taking place on a dedicated website over a week followed by a final again over a week on a dedicated web page.

There is no fee to enter into a category but we would urge you to make a donation if you can through the Facebook Donate button on the posts within the Great British Virtual Dog Show Facebook group – please note that this is the only way to donate for show entrance so Guide Dogs will not post any other links until the semi-finals. Guide Dogs rely on donations to continue our life-changing work. Every pound raised makes a difference to people in the UK living with sight loss.

You must be aged 16 or over to enter – for full details see our Terms and Conditions.

As many as you like! You can have them as separate entries if you wish (we would urge you to donate per entry if you can) or enter them as a group on appropriate categories. The important thing is to make sure you and your canine companions are having fun whilst doing it!

You need to take responsibility and have permission to enter photographs or video of anyone else’s dogs.

If your entry includes an image of an identifiable person, by submitting your entry you are confirming you have obtained their consent to post your photograph or video, or their guardian’s consent where the identifiable person is under 16.

We strongly urge participants to ensure their dog’s welfare at all times making sure they are willingly participating in any activity and not putting others at risk (humans or animals).

We do not recommend dressing dogs up, and instead advocate accessories such as collars, leads, dog tags, collar and lead attachments and dog coats (if suitable for the climate).

Also please try to take photographs in portrait orientation and videos in landscape if you can.

If you don’t have a dog, then you can still join in all the fun - we need you to be voting like there’s no tomorrow! Throughout the six weeks, take a good look at all the photos and videos in the Facebook group and vote with your thumbs – you can like as many photos or videos as you desire… we hope you’ll be spoilt for choice! Just don’t forget to click on the Facebook donate button to support Guide Dogs – your donation, no matter how small will make a big difference. 

We don’t… you decide! The initial qualifying rounds, held on Facebook, are all decided by number of likes (thumbs up) on the pictures or videos entered into the show with the top 5 liked going through to the semi-final for each category. So it’s really important that you share like there’s no tomorrow to get maximum votes from friends and family (but don’t worry others will vote based on the fabulousness of your entries!)

We are introducing up to two ‘golden tickets’ to the semi-finals for each category, selected by Guide Dogs and some of our celebrity supporters! We are aware that many of our amazing supporters have had some technical difficulties sharing their fabulous entries with friends and family, and have struggled as a result to gain ‘likes’ to take them through to the semi-finals. So, we have introduced golden tickets to give everyone a fair chance to win. This will not affect the top 5 liked entries – these will still go through to the semi-finals but this will give everyone else a chance to gain a place despite the challenges they’ve experienced. 

The semi-finals are held on a dedicated section of the Tiltify website (link will be posted on the Facebook group) and the public get to vote (at a £1 donation per vote) for their favourites for each category out of the top 5. The final will then take place for the public to judge the best in show from all of the category winners on the same website as the semi-finals with votes again costing £1 each.

Yes, this is open to all of the Guide Dogs Family including staff, volunteers, partners, family and friends. 

There’s a whole host of prizes for each category winner and a hamper of doggy delights for the Best in Show all kindly provided by our partners at Royal Canin… but the biggest prize of all is seeing your fabulous best canine friend being loved by the nation whilst helping support Guide Dogs. 

The top 3 for each of the categories from the semi-finals will win virtual rosettes on a certificate sent via Facebook.

Guide Dogs relies on donations to continue our life-changing work. Every pound raised makes a difference to people in the UK living with sight loss. The money you raise will help us provide life-changing services for thousands of people with a vision impairment. From covering the costs of our working guide dogs, including food, vets’ bills and ongoing training, to empowering young people with sight loss by teaching them independent living skills. We couldn’t do this vital work without our amazing supporters like you.

Donations for the initial qualifying rounds can only be made via Facebook Donate, please do not click on any other links that members of the public may try to post on here (we will regularly be checking the Facebook pages for any such activity to keep the pages as safe as possible for our supporters). For the semi-finals and final, the links to the webpages will only be posted by Guide Dogs and the instructions for donating and voting will be clear and concise with any other links posted by participants to be disregarded (and again we will remove).

Whilst the event is still live you can just edit or delete your entry. After 20 July please message us on Facebook to let us know which image/video you would like removing stating the details you posted on the page (age and name or dog) and the category you entered.

We will be sure to let you know by tagging you in a post or messaging you on Facebook!

You may be aware that sadly, Police have reported an increase in online fraud and scam activity. It seems that opportunistic criminals are exploiting the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) to carry out fraudulent activity and cybercrime. Guide Dogs takes this very seriously and has further enhanced the security of our systems, live events and email activity, following Government advice and guidelines and working with expert teams in key suppliers such as Facebook, YouTube and Tiltify. 

The safety and security of our service users, supporters, volunteers and staff is our absolutely priority. We therefore ask for your support in helping to combat this activity by carefully reading the joining instruction for our virtual events and ensuring you follow these guidelines. Our joining instructions will be clear and transparent, to help ensure entry is as easy and of course, as enjoyable as possible. If you should see anything that looks suspicious or falls outside of the instructions provided, please email guidedogs@guidedogs.org.uk.Thank you for your help and continued support. We really appreciate it.