Do you have some pretty basic, boring, or outdated dog parks near you?
The Beneful brand Dream Dog Park Contest is for dog owners who love taking their dog to a dog park. The prize? A $500,000 dog park renovation to a dog park in your area with the person submitting the winning idea receiving $10,000 cash and a year supply of Beneful dog food!
I just found out about the contest, but it began August 6th and runs through September 17th. It is split into two rounds, the first is general entry and the second round is a selection of the best entries from the first round.
To enter:
1. Complete the online entry form found here.
2. Write an essay of up to 250 words (in English) answering: “If you had $500,000 to create a ‘Dream Dog Park’ where you and your best buddy can play together, what would you do?”
3. Submit a photo that must include both you and your dog, showing how life is better when you are together. This can include multiple dogs if you own more than one, but not any other person’s dog, any other type of animal, or any identifiable people even in the background. It must be a single photo not a collage or combination of any kind. The photo can be color or black and white, but must be no greater than 3MB in size in file types .GIF, .JPG, or .PNG. This must be your dog, and they must be alive at the time of entry.
4. Give a title or theme to your entry. There is a 50 character limit, and it must be an overall description of what your Dream Dog Park is about.
Of course, your entry must be original but it must also be safe for dogs and feasible to build. Themes (like pirates, zombies, dog show etc.) are encouraged but you cannot use brand logos or copy righted material.
Round 1 judgeing will be based on originality and creativity (40%), how well your ideas will enhance the fun you have with your dog (40%), and feasibility (20%).
Entries that make it to round 2 will have to make and narrate a video to answer the question of the first round’s essay prompt. The best videos will be voted on by the public. So do not enter the contest unless you would be willing to complete this second half!
You can check out other peoples’ entries on Beneful.com.
Here is last year’s winning idea:
The Canine Amusement/Water park
Angela and her dog Beau from Lancaster PA won the 2012 contest with an entry which inspired a theme park idea – a “roller coaster” area to encourage dogs to go fast in agility training, a “water park” area or splash pad for the hot days, and a covered area for rainy days so dogs could still play or do agility.
Here are photos:
Angela and Beau
(photos from beneful.com)
Here is the link again to find our more, enter, and read the offical rules.
I love this contest so much because where I live just getting a dog park near me has been slow. The city refused to help, but would allow the project if all the funds for a fence could be raised. The funds were raised, but then we only got a large fenced in area. No benches, no agility course, nothing but a promise for a drinking fountain. So a contest like this is breath of fresh air. If your area is anything like mine, I hope that you are able to enter and I wish you the best of luck!
— Cola Pig