Danbury Animal Welfare Society Dogs Are Puppy Bowl Bound

DANBURY, CT — The Patriots may have been eliminated a while ago, but there's still one New England team who'll be competing in the big bowl game on Super Sunday.

Nine dogs from the Danbury Animal Welfare Society shelter won't so much suit up as they will "cute up" for Puppy Bowl XVII on the Animal Planet TV network on Feb. 7.

It's the fourth year that DAWS pups have been selected to compete, but Karen Pasieka, DAWS' volunteer puppy coordinator, was pretty sure the network wouldn't be producing the 3-hour event this year due to all the pandemic restrictions. Previous productions have been a bit cramped, she said.

But instead of shooting at its regular Manhattan studio location the show relocated its cameras to Glen Falls, NY, and recorded over three days to reduce the number of teams on the set. The show's producers made the decision to only use dogs from shelters within "drivable distances," Pasieka said. Previous Puppy Bowls flew in competitors from as far away as California. This year, 20 dogs from Connecticut-area shelters are part of the pack of 71 who will be squaring off as members of either Team Ruff or Team Fluff.

"As much as I'd love to say we had nine (puppies selected) this year because 'we are so amazing,' I think we had nine because they couldn't use as many groups," Pasieka said.

Scouting for the Puppy Bowl is a tough gig. Puppy Bowl rules appear to favor dogs that ignore people and prefer to play with the other dogs.

"You can never predict who's going to be 'the player,' Pasieka told Patch. A puppy that is playful and charismatic back at the shelter may not be ready for its closeup when surrounded by bright lights and strangers. "We find that a lot of our puppies are so human-attached that they just want to run off the stage and lick the cameraman's face."

The DAWS squad has gotten stronger. In their first competition four years ago, none of their dogs even picked up a toy, Pasieka said. "We were kind of a bust." She already knows how her pups have performed this year — the show has been in the can since October — but is sworn to secrecy. She did share that every member of the DAWS team America will see on game day has already been adopted, and that's the big win.

The Puppy Bowl kicks off what will likely be a banner year for rescue dogs, as Major, Joe Biden's German Shepherd from the Delaware Humane Association, assumes his duties as First Dog this week.

Pasieka hopes the media spotlight on Major will remind Americans they "can get adoptable, friendly, wonderful — even sometimes purebred — puppies from rescue groups. It gives you another option besides the pet store or the breeder."

Shelters, nonprofit rescues, private breeders, and pet stores have all reported a huge boom in demand for dogs, coinciding with the pandemic. That's good news for dogs in need. Even better news is that the return rate of dogs back to the shelter from families who had a change of heart has dropped dramatically. The increased demand and pandemic-spawned red tape has led to more thorough vetting on both sides of the transaction, and more "forever homes" that live up to the name.

At DAWS, the demand has been "way over the top." 2020 was a record-breaking year with 1,200 adoptions across all its charges, adult animals as well as puppies and kittens.

"A lot of jobs are being 'converted,'" Pasieka said. "A lot of people believe they are not going to be back at an 8-to-5 office for a year."

Although the returns of adopted pets have been happily low, the surrenders — pets turned over to DAWS for the first time from local homes — have been on an uptick, according to Alice Meenan, the shelter's director of development and interim operations manager. A deteriorating financial situation has sent some residents into housing that doesn't allow pets, or prevents them from providing the proper food and care for their best friends.

"We do our best to help offset that," Meenan said. "A lot of our fundraising goes to support the community with low-cost clinic services. We do our very best to help them maintain, and not have to surrender."

The response to DAWS' "Paw It Forward" holiday drive, an appeal to the community to assist down-on-their-luck pet owners with pet food and other necessities not found in the local food pantry, was "overwhelming," Meenan said,

Puppy Bowl XVII airs Sunday, Feb. 7 at 2 p.m. EST on discovery+ and Animal Planet. Sponsorship opportunities for local businesses are still available.