South Shields doggy day care recreates classic Christmas story

Pets2impress, a doggy day care centre in South Shields, have created a special re-make of A Christmas Carol.

The centre was founded by Tim Jackson in 2008, starting as a pet sitting service, before expanding and creating the doggy day care centre in 2015.

Jackson is a registered and qualified veterinary nurse, canine behaviourist and author. At Pets2impress, Jackson offers puppy classes, and one on one training sessions for dogs.

However, when Christmas comes around, Jackson and the dogs hilariously and adorably recreate a Christmas story, in aid of dog and cat charity Santa For Strays.

Last year, they recreated their first story, The Nativity. This year, Jackson decided to continue the new tradition, recreating A Christmas Carol.

Jackson stars as Scrooge, while the dogs feature as the other characters, including the ghosts of Christmas past and present, in full costumes.

“It was a massive hit last year,” Tim said. He decided to recreate A Christmas Carol this year, due to his love of the classic story. “I love Scrooge so it felt like the perfect fit.”

Jackson explained that the dogs were really good in the filming of the story. “They got into the roles very well,” he explained. However, he did mention that when filming outdoors, it proved to be a little more difficult, but he had a special treat for the dogs to keep them focused. “There’s nothing a hot dog won’t fix”, he explained.

Pets2impress used to raise money and awareness for Santa For Strays by having collection buckets in their centre, but have found that creating the special Christmas films are much more successful.

The owners of the dogs who took part were shown a special preview of this year’s film, before it was posted online for everyone else to enjoy. One owner said: “I love dogs and Christmas, so it’s the perfect mix” They added: “With it being in aid of Santa For Strays, I think it’s a really good cause.”

Jackson plans to keep the tradition going year after year. Next Christmas will mark the third time they will be re-making a Christmas classic, and Jackson already has ideas in mind. “Another Christmas classic I love is the story of Elf.” He continued: “It’ll have to have its own unique spin on it, but potentially that’s what we’ll be doing next year.”

You can view this year’s Pets2impress Christmas film here.