As well as containing essentials like toys and a collapsible dog bowl to help make moving house easier for dogs, the kit has been created to encourage responsible dog ownership when moving house, most importantly, keeping microchip details up-to-date.
The Doggy Moving Day kit is available via an exciting competition only. For a chance to win the Dogs Trust kit, interested members of the public (UK only) are invited to email feedback@dogstrust.org.uk with a 25-word response as to why they should win one. The competition runs today (Thursday 23rd April), and responses will be accepted between 9.30am – 10.30am. Dogs Trust will select their favourite 75 entries, and winners will be notified by email.
In recent research conducted by the charity, 46 per cent of British dog owners confessed that they had not updated their pet’s microchips each time they moved home. Reasons for not updating chip details following each house move included; 15 per cent forgot to update them, 9 per cent claimed it was too expensive and 3 per cent thought that they updated automatically. However, with close to a quarter of those surveyed admitting that their beloved dog strayed within just two days of being in the new area, dog owners could be putting their pooches at risk by waiting to update vital information with their database provider.
To combat the issues found in the research, Dogs Trust’s limited edition kit provides dogs with much needed essentials and a printed tea towel to remind dog owners to update microchip details alongside their address, bank details and home insurance after they move home. With research finding that a third of dog owners admit to forgetting items belonging to their pooch in the flurry of a home move, the kit also includes a chew toy which 12 per cent of those surveyed said that they forgotten by mistake.
Adrian Burder, CEO of Dogs Trust said: “Whilst moving home is exciting, it can be a busy time for the whole family including four-legged members. We have created this limited edition kit to help dog owners in those first few days. Lots of respondents in our recent survey mentioned that they would have loved a dog sitter to help them with the day, and whilst we can’t provide that, everything from a collapsible dog bowl to a chew toy should keep beloved pets soothed during the move. Of the 46% of dog owners who had not updated their details, 15 per cent simply forgot and we want the kit to act as a reminder and make sure that this moves up the priority list ahead of compulsory microchipping coming into force in April 2016.”
Along with microchipping, updating your database provider with the correct details will also be compulsory in England and Scotland by April 2016 and the Welsh Government has committed to also introducing the legislation in Spring 2016. To find out more information on microchip databases and how to update a microchip, please visit www.chipmydog.org.uk/update-your-dogs-chip.