In only its second week, The Chow Down Challenge created by pet wellbeing startup Paws.com has now reached ITV’s Love Island status.

Dog lovers everywhere have been challenged to show their pup chowing down on their favourite meal on social media, and for every mealtime moment shared, Paws promises to feed a healthy meal to a shelter dog in the UK. Now, Instagram users can put their platform to good use and share a simple snap with their followers. For those accounts with not so many followers, tools like Nitreo can be rather useful when looking to increase the follower count.

With over 1.5 million Instagram followers, ex-islander Laura Anderson has shared a picture of her adorable pooch Buddy taking The Chow Down Challenge – joining over 5,000 other dogs who have taken part in this nationwide social media craze.

In the same post, Laura invited her other dog-loving celebrity friends – previous Love Island winner Jack Finchman and former contestants Adam Collard and Olivia Buckland to post a picture of their own dogs chowing down on their food for a worthy cause.

Other influencers who have taken part include The Daily Pomerian and Pugs and Pawrenting, making this the biggest UK dog viral campaign to date.

To get involved like Laura Anderson you need to:

1. Share a video, photo or GIF of your pup ‘chowing down’ their dinner to Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
2. Mention #BuyFoodGiveFood and @Paws.
3. Nominate and tag 3 friends to keep the ‘bowl’ rolling.

Paws.com founder says, “We are so pleased that the campaign has inspired such support from dog lovers everywhere including our celebrity backers, etc etc.”

Buy Food, Give Food

With support for independent dog shelters baked into its business model, Paws.com’s Buy Food Give Food initiative has already helped feed over 100,000 dogs. With every subscription order, Paws customers feed a healthy meal to a shelter dog in need. That’s a whopping £49,388 bags worth of food donated. And next week, Paws will be launching The Chow Down Challenge across social media to further help reach their goal of feeding 250,000 meals to shelter dogs this summer.

Why get involved?

Paws is committed to tackling pet abandonment, and Buy Food Give Food is just the first step in that mission. By providing nutritious meals for shelter dogs across the UK, Paws customers help improve their health, happiness and chance of being rehomed.

Head over to Paws.com for more information on their shelter network, plus handy tips on how you can get involved and show your support – from The Chow Down Challenge to subscription orders, or even becoming an official Buy Food Give Food ambassador.

Stephanie Wenban, Paws Vet, says: “Dogs arriving in shelters can often have a range of issues, both physical and emotional, so it’s sometimes easy to overlook the importance of a good diet. Poor nutrition can lead to an increased susceptibility to disease, skeletal abnormalities, skin disease and even cancer. By donating high quality and nutritious food to shelters, we are able to improve the health and wellbeing of the dogs and allow shelters to focus their resources and rehoming efforts. Healthy dogs are happy dogs who are more likely to be rehomed!”.