In September 2020, dog-friendly holiday cottage company Canine Cottages announced the start of a four-week recruitment drive to find some truly special pups from across the UK to join its team as ‘Canine Critics’. As part of their prize, these four-legged ambassadors would be responsible for testing out and reviewing facilities in some of Canine Cottages’ holiday properties.

Application criteria included sharing a brief ‘pup personality’ description, along with a recent photo. The company were looking for dogs with character and an obvious love of fun and adventure, with a willing human who would be able to capture their experiences for the Canine Cottages website.

As a Canine Critic, each of these dogs will now get the chance to spend their £1,000 voucher on a Canine Cottages holiday (or two!), review their stay and they’ll also receive a hamper full of exclusive goodies. In addition, they will all be profiled on the Canine Cottages website and will appear regularly across the company’s social media channels.

Ten new top dogs have now been hired to represent a plethora of categories, and many of them have their own incredible story; from dogs that help change lives to rescues that have themselves been saved by their humans alongside Instagram superstars that will melt your heart.

Daphne from London has been selected from more than 62,000 dogs across the UK to sniff out the best cottages for small dogs over the next 12 months, she has been crowned winner of ‘The Mini Mutt’ category.

Daphne the dachshund loves exploring new places and travelling around the UK by all modes of transportation. As she lives in the capital, regular escapes are necessary and her humans never travel without their ‘pint-sized diva’. Upon finding out she’d won, she commented: “I am beyond thrilled and oddly humbled by such a momentous opportunity.”

Canine Cottages’ Digital PR Manager, Shannon Keary, said: “Last year’s Canine Critics were fantastic and really set the bar high for the 2020 applicants. We were once again blown away by the calibre of dogs which applied, making the selection process unbelievably difficult. However, after a few weeks of deliberations and some help from our previous Critics, we’re incredibly proud to announce our full pack of new top dogs and can’t wait for them to come on an adventure with us in the coming year!”