Helping out our fellow dog-lovers

The festive spirit was well and truly flowing throughout the Portsmouth region, and at The Academy of Modern Canine Behaviour & Training, we wanted to replicate this.

Our idea was to hold a fundraiser for Portsmouth Stray Dog Kennels, as it shares a similar sort of goal as us and we have a massive amount of respect for the work they do.

Recently, we were able to hand over a cheque from the fundraiser – which came to a grand total of £404.50. Everyone at the academy was thrilled to have achived such a milestone.

The event that we held was a Christmas cabaret and disco evening, which was open to all of our members and their families.

We expected to raise about £60 from the evening, so you can imagine our complete surprise when we raised more than £400 for the Stray Dog Kennels – I for one was absolutely astonished by the result.

The evening was so successful that we are planning to do something similar again at the end of this year too and hopefully for many years to come.

We decided to hold a cabaret evening because it is something we used to do many years ago – I think a lot of our members enjoyed having a throwback to days of yesteryear. Those cabaret evenings used to be held to cover our annual costs – but we are now fortunate enough to be in the position where we can help another dog-loving organisation such as the Portsmouth Stray Dog Kennels.

We booked the Cosham Community Centre for the event because we hold some of our classes there, so the venue is very close to our hearts.

It was great to have the cabaret and disco all in one evening – there really was something for everyone to enjoy.

More than £190 was raised by the raffle alone; the community really came together and for a frankly wonderful cause.

The kennels team helps the public by taking in or collecting stray dogs that are found in Portsmouth. They assess the dog’s condition and care for them in their modern kennels facility until contact with the owner can be made.

Most dogs are successfully returned to their owners, but if no owner comes forward then they work to re-home those animals.

If you would like to donate to the Portsmouth Stray Dog Kennels, you can call them on(023) 9268 8181.