Puppy Bowl and UBER Team Up

This year Puppy Bowl XI did something incredibly special and awesome! Animal Planet teamed up with UBER to bring puppies to your office! That is right, you could order a car full of puppies to play with for 15 minutes!

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UBER is a company which allows you to use a cell phone app to order a taxi, private car, or rideshare. They are prominent in the news because the company employs any qualified driver and car for use as a taxi in the face of existing taxi medallion systems and companies, and has been rapidly expanding to new areas.

Unfortunately, The Human only heard about this after the time you could try to order this service which was Wednesday February 28 from 11am to 3pm. It was also very limited due to the demand for such a service and the difficulties of moving puppies around to many play dates. Maybe, just maybe if this works out this year they will offer the same type of service in the future. It was also extremely geographically limited, available in only 10 major cities so many were out of luck to begin with.

Where, How, Why, and How Much?

Where:  Atlanta, Baltimore, Cleveland, Dallas, DC, Denver, Indianapolis, LA, Phoenix, and Seattle.

How: You had to use the UBER app and request the PUPPIES option, which could only be viewed by those using the app in the above cities.

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(UBER)

This is what was displayed if all the puppies were busy:

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It was stated that puppies only be delivered to office buildings, and you had to make sure ahead of time that your office manager/building manger/boss was okay with this. You needed a room available for the puppies to go in and/or an enclosure to keep them safe and contained.

How does UBER even have puppies to drive around? They partnered with local shelters in each city. Many of the puppies that were involved were adoptable.

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Why: This event draws attention to puppies in need of a home. It also brings exposure to the shelters who participated. In most cities the puppies in the car were adoptable and the representative who traveled with the car of puppies could help. Plus, who wouldn’t want to play with a bunch of puppies while at their office?!

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Here are the participating shelters:
Phoenix – Arizona Humane Society
Atlanta – Atlanta Humane Society
Baltimore – BARCS Baltimore
Cleveland – Cleveland Animal Protective League
Dallas – Dallas Animal Services
Denver – Dumb Friends League
Indianapolis – Humane Society of Indianapolis
LA – Wags and Walks
Seattle – PAWS
DC – Washington Animal Rescue League

How Much: $30 for 15 minutes of puppy play time. All the money went to the shelter that participated in the event.

Puppies from the UBER promotion in Dallas:
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(Twitter/City of Dallas)

You can read the rules here and find out more.

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The puppies also went to schools and children’s hospitals to brighten their day!

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The Human is very sad to have missed this, but the opportunity was amazing!

– Fizz

 

Puppy Bowl 2015 is this Sunday

It is once again time for Puppy Bowl! YES!!!! This Sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY!!!!!

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Puppy Bowl is a show on Animal Planet which always airs on the Sunday of the Super Bowl. It is to show off cute puppies playing a fake game of football for your enjoyment. You can watch puppies both before, during, and after the big game. Puppy Bowl XI will air on February 1 2015 at 3 pm. It will start and end before the big game begins. However, PBXI will also replay a few more times so you can watch it instead of football or you can catch it after the game if you do not have time before.

As usual, the show features puppies from animal shelters playing with football (and other) dog toys on a miniature field inside a mini fake stadium. Puppies are switched out throughout the game and a touchdown is made any time a puppy makes it over the goal line with a toy. A ref calls penalties and makes sure that the puppies play nice. The halftime show features kittens playing. One puppy usually wins an MVP (most valuable puppy) award for playing the best. But I am not sure if that is true this year with the addition of an online fantasy draft. The point of the whole thing is to show off cute puppies to encourage people to go to their local shelters and adopt dogs in need of homes. All of the puppies featured have been adopted into new homes.

This year they are also featuring a fantasy draft, which might take the place of the mvp award.
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You go online here to sign into the site and pick three puppies for your dream team from the starting line up. The puppies are split into two teams: Team Ruff and Team Fluff. You can pick three puppies in any variation and across both teams.

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You also get to pick which team you think will win. Team Ruff is in the lead!

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Here are a couple of the puppies from the starting line up:

Aria the Labrador Retriever mix, on Team Ruff:
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Keith Barraclough/DCL

Blue the Schnauzer Poodle mix, on Team Fluff:
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Keith Barraclough

Boomer the German Shepherd mix, on Team Ruff:
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Chicklet the Australian Shepherd Mix, on Team Fluff:
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Keith Barraclough

Falcor the Clumber Spanial, on Team Ruff:
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Keith Barraclough/DCL

Fritz the Mini Schnauzer, on Team Fluff:
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Keith Barraclough/DCL

Lee the Boxer mix,on Team Ruff:
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Keith Barraclough/DCL

Panda the Pomeranian, on Team Fluff:
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Keith Barraclough/DCL

You can see the entire starting line up here. There is a great mix of beautiful and adorable puppies this year, you won’t want to miss out!

Make sure you tune in and watch all the adorable puppies this Sunday at 3 pm on Animal Planet!

– Fizz