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This October, we were lucky enough to be able to attend the Hearing Dogs Awards 2011 - a night celebrating some of the life-changing and truly inspiring hearing dog partnerships from right across the UK. The event was attended by a host of celebrities including Marc Abraham, Tim Vincent, Esther Rantzen, Meg Matthews, David Bellamy and Strictly Come Dancing’s Anton du Beke and Erin Boag. It was an emotional night with accolades such as Heroic Hearing Dog of the Year being unveiled at the black-tie event. This year’s Royal Canin Life-changing Hearing Dog of the Year, judged by The One Show’s Matt Baker, went to Foggy and his recipient Simon Moore from Norwich. Foggy and Simon were presented their award by Tim Vincent, along with Jean Lin Pelatan, Managing Director of Royal Canin UK. Hearing dog Sam and his 12 year old recipient Lauren Brooks from Lincolnshire were lucky enough to be double winners on the night. Not only did they receive the Specsavers Hearing Centres Team/Dual-purpose Hearing Dog of the Year award, but they also managed to win a year’s supply of Royal Canin food for Sam in the prize draw. We are proud to sponsor the Hearing Dogs Awards, now in its 9th year. Well done to all the winners. To find out more and watch the finalists’ inspirational stories, head to www.hearingdogs.org.uk/winners2011 Photo: Foggy and Simon receive the Royal Canin Life-changing Hearing Dog of the Year award from Tim Vincent and Royal Canin’s Jean Lin Pelatan.

Small dogs are taking over the world! A whopping 40 per cent of the global dog population is a small dog, weighing less than 10kg at adulthood, and UK Kennel Club puppy registration figures show this trend increasing. Part of this trend includes the fact that small dogs are getting smaller – those weighing up to just 4kg as adults, like the Papillon, are increasingly popular. Little dogs make great companions – portable, easy to live with, and they tend to live 16 years or more. But these factors also mean they have special nutritional needs, which is where Royal Canin’s new X-SMALL and additions to the MINI range come in. Royal Canin X-SMALL offers Junior, Adult, Mature +8 and Ageing +12 diets, each one specially formulated to meet lifestage requirements as well as the specific nutritional needs of these very little dogs. All small dogs are prone to dental problems, because they tend to have lots of teeth in their miniature jaws, so the Royal Canin range features an ultra-palatable and very small kibble to encourage crunching and therefore better oral hygiene. Small dogs also tend to have more sedentary lifestyles, so their digestive and urinary tract health needs support – Royal Canin provides this with ultra-digestible proteins and psyllium for better transit and stool quality, and prebiotics for balanced intestinal flora. Because small dogs can live twice as long as bigger ones, providing the right nutrition as they get older plays a huge role in a healthy life. Ageing actually takes place in two stages, starting at eight years old and speeding up from 12 years onwards. Although it’s almost unnoticeable unless you look very closely, ageing starts at around eight years old, with some grey hairs, possible weight gain, a slightly increased need to sleep and less activity. Mobility can also decline, and dental disease occur. After 12 years the ageing process accelerates – your senior citizen dog will slow down more, lose coat quality, perhaps gain weight and be more reluctant to move around, and cardiac, dental and renal risks all increase. To help support your dog through the ageing process, Mature +8 and Ageing +12 are available in Royal Canin’s X-SMALL and MINI ranges. Both contain antioxidants for their cellular support role, and, because renal function can decrease with age, Ageing +12 has an adapted phosphorus content. Appetites become more finicky with age, so the kibbles are specially created to be ultra-tasty and easy to rehydrate with warm water, which not only increases the aroma and thus the dog-appeal, but also makes them easier to eat if dental or gum pain is making your dog more fussy.

Meet eight-week-old Jazz, who we think is just delightful. Little puppy Jazz has an exciting and important future as she is one of the latest recruits to become a hearing dog for the charity Hearing Dogs for Deaf People. At the moment, Jazz is living with one of the Charity's volunteer puppy socialisers as she starts the first phase of her training, which is all about socialisation. Just like any puppy in a new home, she is learning all about life in the big wide world – developing her house-training, obedience and social skills as well as getting used to going out and about. Jazz will remain with her puppy socialiser until she reaches around 12-14 months old, when she will be ready to start her soundwork training at one of the Charity's two national Training Centres. Once she is fully trained and has passed her assessments she will be partnered with a deaf person, providing a life-changing level of independence, confidence and security by alerting her recipient to important sounds and danger signals. We are very pleased to be sponsoring Jazz’s training and supporting such a great charity. We’ll keep you up to date with all her activities throughout her development. To find out more about Hearing Dogs for Deaf People and how you can help them train Hearing Dogs to provide independence, confidence and security to deaf people, check out http://www.hearingdogs.org.uk/