News from LAB+BONE and useful articles relevant to our mission to eradicate dog-theft.
We were kindly invited to include LAB+BONE in Pezo.
Quite simply; Pezo helps you keep your pet healthy with an easy-to-use pet wellness platform.
Here is a little what you can get from the Pezo app:
LIFESTYLE ANALYSIS
Easily keep track of your pet's health and wellbeing using our weight and activity tracking tools.
ON-DEMAND ADVICE
Get the peace of mind that you need for you and your pet. After talking to one of our experienced veterinary nurses, you’ll always know what to do next.
CURATED HEALTH PARTNERSHIPS
Get exclusive access to a curated selection of Pezo Health Partners and make sure that your pet is getting the best care.
24/7 EMERGENCY HOTLINE
Never worry again in those emergency situations with our 24/7 emergency hotline.
LAB+BONE are one of the carefully curated Health Partnerships that Pezo have established. We are really keen to help Pezo, and love to see some customers who basically help "Keep their dog healthy, earn points, and redeeom rewards.
Super cool to redeem points and reward your dog with the gift of LAB+BONE...now that's cool.
Recently I had the need to receive some urgent advice for my lovely Bo, luckily I had the good fortune to have access to FirstVet.
FirstVet is an independent digital veterinary service that offers video consultations to pet owners for advice and guidance on their pets - wherever you are.
Now the good news...our LAB+BONE DNA Collection Kits are available for purchase to FirstVet customers on the FirstVet Shop.
Their service is purely focussed on assessing the situation of your concern. They then passed their diagnostic to my local Vet, and Bo was taken care of in lightning speed.
Brilliant, a big welcome, and thank you to FirstVet for your support in bring our packs to your customers, and to our journey.
Lets all join the mission to bring an end dog theft!
We are very proud to have forged a partnership with Mike and the team at Breedera.
Breeders are typically overwhelmed in doing the right thing for their litters. Whether it be Post it notes, vaccination records, dates, whelping dates, you name it there is a vast amount of preparation that is required with responsible breeding.
It can often be seen as a thank less task, but that little furry bundle of joy has taken hours of care and consideration before re-homed to a loving family, for life.
Breedera have also poured hours of care and consideration to solve the headache to provide breeders the tools and support they need to bring healthy, happy puppies into the world.
Breedera places all your essential breeding records in the palm of your hand so you have an extensive log of your dogs’ health data.
As part of our partnership, LAB+BONE are offering all breeders the opportunity to better protect their litters as they move them to a new home.
If you are a breeder, then sign up to Breedera, if you're doing your research for a new pup, make sure you find a breeder who has followed best practice using Breedera.
Woohooo...Pickles has opened their first practice!
It is the new kind of vet that with a membership never charges you for a consultation - just WOW!
What is also great is our LAB+BONE packs are available to all Pickles customers (ask the team), and there is no charge to have your dog swabbed by the vet.
We are proud to be partnering up with Pickles to ensure that all dogs are given the best chance in life. Its all about doing the right thing, and protecting our dogs. Peace of mind from the outset.
What everyone needs in a vet. Thank you Pickles.
https://pickles.co/west-london
LAB+BONE and APDT UK are pleased to announce an official partnership.
The APDT UK & LAB+BONE partnership is committed to improve the education of dog parents and owners about the risks associated to dog crime, recommending DNA samples are stored as evidence of ownership and identity.
About APDT:
APDT members undergo a rigorous assessment of both theoretical and practical knowledge and are committed to using kind, fair and effective training methods when teaching dogs and their owners. All members work in accordance with a Code of Practice which prohibits them from using aversive training methods.
The APDT promotes training skills and techniques based on up-to-date, researched methods that are in keeping with modern learning theory.
Members provide education (via pet dog training classes and one-to-one lessons) to the dog owning public.
Please visit: https://apdt.co.uk to learn more and get access to the UK's leading dog trainer network.
We had such an amazing day meeting 100's of lovely dogs and their parents at our first time attending the Chiswick House Dog Festival.
The weather was on everyone's side, what started as a bright, beautiful sunny Sunday, 25th September.
We would like to extend our thanks to all the volunteers for making the day run so smoothly.
If you did not manage to make it down, mark it in your calender for next year as a must attend day out with the entire family.
Our very own LAB+BONE DNA Collection Kits can now be purchased alongside any other shopping requirements that you may have from the fantastic range of top quality products available from YourDogsClub.
Whether it is dog food, a treat, shampoo or something else, add our DNA Collection kit to your order, and you are well on your way to protecting your 4-legged friend.
Remember; what makes them unique, keeps them safe...
We're on page 8 of the late Summer/Early Autumn 2022 Honeys Real Dog Food Newsletter.
The team at Honeys are just a fantastic bunch, and it has been Bo's favourite meal since he was a pup introduced to their lovely raw meals.
Its a great read, not just our article but the entire newsletter: https://honeysrealdogfood.com/newsletter
The clouds were out, but didn't stop the first ever Wormwood Scrubs Dog show, along side our friends at Honey's and the FOWWS team.
The first Scrubs Dog Show - here!
We weren’t quite sure if it would all work out…but it did! Thanks to round-the-clock organising by Friends Trustee Ben Novak, it was a great event and we are all determined to do it again next year….yes, around 80 lovely Scrubs canines and up to 200 humans converged on the Scrubs on Sunday 31st July 2022 for the VERY FIRST SCRUBS DOG SHOW!
The atmosphere was delightful. All the dogs - well, very nearly all - behaved perfectly - and the humans behaved reasonably well too.
The afternoon kicked off with a fantastic demonstration by APDT accredited dog trainer Bradley Evans, who took a group of volunteers through their paces. Bradley showed us the most up-to-date training approaches - it was fascinating and we all learned a surprising amount. Bradley is available for one to one classes via http://westlondon-dogtrainer.co.uk/
Councillors Alex Sanderson, Bora Kwon, Dominic Stanton and Wesley Harcourt worked tirelessly through the day with the near-impossible task of judging classes including “best paw shaker” and “musical sit”.
Winners were awarded not just rosettes but some truly fabulous prizes donated by Honey’s Real Dog Food, Brian Recommends dog treats and Sister Mary Joy from the Scrubs Pony Centre who donated a special trophy for the best trick. We are also indebted for sponsorship to the innovative anti-dog-theft DNA recording service LAB+BONE, our generous sponsors Winkworths and the Mayhew rescue centre. Proceeds were divided between the Mayhew and the Scrubs Pony Centre.
Friends of the Scrubs are deeply grateful to all our wonderful sponsors and hope to see them all supporting us again next year.
Next year’s dog show will be a bit bigger, but honestly could not be better - we all agreed that this kind of event was “what the Scrubs is all about”.
Thanks to the Trusted House Sitters team for including us in their newsletter, sharing the love, and educating about keeping our pooches safe from thieves.
Check it out here
You can steal my chip, but you can’t steal my DNA Pet owner, or beloved trusted house sitter, the joy of time with a dog is like nothing else. But when a dog runs out the door, disappears in a park, or stolen from your back garden - like up to 50 others a week - then we’ve got your back. Don’t leave it too late. For a few pennies a day, keep the identity of your dog safe from thieves. LAB+BONE ensures you can legally prove ownership of your pet.
Good news, our DNA Collection Kits available for purchase at WagWorks, the happy place for city dogs, providing amazing facilities for Daycare, Health, Grooming & Training.
WagWorks and LAB+BONE have teamed up to better protect dogs from loss or theft.
To find out more about WagWorks please visit: https://wagworks.co.uk or drop in to see them if you are local to their area.
Here is a lovely article posted by our Friend, Alex who is an award winning trainer (yes, you got it, Alex also trained Bo!!!) .
Please visit: https://www.wolfgangswaydogtraining.com/blog to see Alex's services.
Here is her article in full:
As most of you will be aware, dog theft is on the increase, certainly in the UK, and most certainly since the start of the Covid pandemic.
Dogs are being taken from people’s homes, gardens and even in parks when out on a walk. The increased demand for puppies and dogs since Covid lockdown has turned our furry friends into a booming business opportunity, sadly and terrifyingly. Just watch the Vice documentary ‘The Gangs That Steal Your Puppies’, it’s eye-opening, to say the least.
My puppy and dog training programmes have always included teaching ways to keep your dog close by when walking off-lead, for a multitude of reasons, so here are some tips on what you can do to keep your dog safe when out on a walk:
Practice check-ins (engagement); mark (with a marker word such as an enthusiastic ‘yesss’ or a clicker) when your dog turns to look for you, then throw a little (you’ll be throwing plenty) treat. This teaches them to stay close by, after all food might fall out of their human and they can make this happen all by themselves. What’s not to love. I give Wolfgang a little something 90% of the time she turns up walking next to me (when she’s off lead), the other 10% I forget, I’m only human after all….I think it’s brilliant that she knows she can have a little snack when she feels peckish, and it doesn’t make her less responsive to her cues and she doesn’t even ask all the time. It works really rather well for the both of us.
Bullet-proof your recall; practice every day and make it fun and rewarding for your furry sidekick (food, play, game of chase, whatever works best for your dog). This means, you can quickly call him/ her back to you if they amble out of sight or are eyeing up a stranger for food or scratchies. And on that note….
Do NOT allow any strangers to give your dog treats, EVER. All the good stuff should come from you. If they learn strangers mean food, most dogs will be off to try that human-treat-dispensing-machine.
Teach an arsenal of behaviours that make your dog come back to you, such as a hand target, a leg weave, ‘middle’ (where your pooch swerves in and ends up sitting between your legs) and so forth. This means you have plenty of ways to quickly get your dog to come back to you and you don’t run the risk of over-doing it with your recall cue.
And while you are working through the above outlined training methods or if you have a rampant adolescent or adventurous adult, please manage their access to their environment with a long training line attached to a well-fitting harness.
And there’s even more you can do now! I’m so excited to learn that one of my former clients, Dave and his wonderful Labrador Bo, has launched a business to help dog owners get reunited with their pet if stolen or lost.
LAB+BONE is a subscription-based dog identity service that proves a dog’s identity via their DNA. Thieves can, and are, disabling microchips, leaving the dog unidentifiable. Which is where LAB+BONE comes in: if a dog is found, one of the cryogenically stored DNA samples is then profiled by their laboratory partner, and test packs are sent out to any potential matches of the found dog. If a positive DNA match is made, the owner can prove ownership using forensic evidence to legally reclaim their dog.
If you want to find out more about LAB+BONE, have a perusal on their website.
So, stay safe and happy training xx
It's been a long time coming but we have had so much constructive feedback from potential customers, law-enforment and industry experts that it has taken a while for us to get our arms around it.
We have broadened our range of products so all our potential customers should be able to find a program that suits them.
Our mission is 100% focussed on creating an environment that makes it impossible for dog crime to flourish. If you think we have missed your needs then let us know.
David and I found each other at our previous company that worked in computer vision. I learned a lot about machine learning and I wanted to use that knowledge positively and makes our customers feel as special as we think they are.
It may seem a trivial thing but we put the same effort and care into everything we do. Technically we built an AWS lambda function that uses Tensorflow to generate unique handwriting text for our address labels.
We composite these handwriting paths wth the prebuilt customer label from RoyalMail to build a final sticker.
Each run is slow at around 20-30 seconds so not great for high volume but every instance is 100% unique and we think everyone of our awesome customers deserves that attention.
Like all medical scientific equipment, demand has far exceeded supply in these covid times so we are grateful that one of the premier UK suppliers empathised with our mission and was able to supply a liquid nitrogen vessel to supply our first freezer.
Many thanks to Statebourne Cryogenics of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Brexit and covid have been tough for us but this was a gratefully received win.
Today was a big day for the LAB+BONE brand. After weeks of hunting for charismatic examples of the canine world we brought them together for a photoshoot.
From day one, LAB+BONE did not want to be a cookie cutter company and that included using lazy stock photos for our brand. while it was a challenge to get our 12 heroes we think it was worth the effort.
Obtaining science grade medical equipment has been especially challenging during covid. There are only a few forensic grade cryogenic equipment suppliers in the world and all of them were too busy to talk to a little company on a mission other than covid.
It took a lot of phone calls and back and forth with UK customs but our crate is finally on site. There is still a long way to go to commision, test and audit our first freezer but it is an exciting step in the right direction.
Finding a commercial office space supplier that did not freak out when we explained that we intended to use liquid nitrogen on premise was a real struggle. The only people that would react coherently were university incubators but due to Covid these were sold out for the forseeable future.
We were really lucky to find a group of staff at Workspace that were prepared to calmly work through the risk analysis and be comfortable that we knew what we were doing.
Are custom built monitoring sensors and working processes far exceed industry practices so there was realistically no risk to the building or our neighbours.
We move in next week.