Dogs Trust has supported premium car brand MINI to provide dog-friendly showrooms, ready to welcome customers with four-legged friends, in the UK. 
Over the past year, the UK’s largest canine welfare charity, Dogs Trust, has rolled-out their comprehensive dog-friendly training programme across 131 MINI retailers throughout the nation. The programme, Dog Friendly Workplaces, developed and implemented by Dogs Trust Canine Behaviour experts, helps businesses to ensure they provide dog-owning customers and their canine companions the perfect service and experience.
Rachel Casey, Director of Canine Behaviour and Research at Dogs Trust said: “Dogs are an important part of family life – and now there are more dogs in this country than ever before, retailers are starting to give serious consideration as to how they can support their dog-owning customers. We’re thrilled to be driving the way forward with MINI to build an accepting dog-friendly culture.”
A team of Dogs Trust experts have worked with MINI UK to deliver bespoke online training modules for their staff across all retailers covering topics such as how to keep dogs safe in showrooms by creating dog-free and dog-friendly spaces, how to approach a dog, how to avoid hazards for dogs as well as how to manage four-legged customers to make both human helpers and dogs feel at ease. The next phase of the partnership is to deliver further in-depth training to nominated Dog Champions across the retailers to enhance the two and four-legged customer experience at showrooms across the UK.
Colette Healy, General Manager, Marketing and Product for MINI UK said: “This is a really exciting next step in our work with Dogs Trust to help support our MINI and dog-loving customers. We recognise the big love they have for the dogs in their lives and now our four-legged fans will be able to enjoy the VIP treatment in all of our showrooms across the country.”
Dogs Trust is continuing its work with MINI UK retailers to help make sure that dogs can travel safely in cars and enjoy the ride by educating consumers on best practice for dogs and car journeys. Visit the MINI Dogs Hub here to find out more.
Businesses who would like to find out more about Dogs Trust’s innovative Dog Friendly Workplaces programme can join an introduction webinar being held on 27 July.
To register for the webinar click here, or visit www.dogstrust.org.uk/get-involved/corporate-partnerships/dog-friendly-workplaces/ to find out more.
