AWARD-winning dog photographers The Artful Dog Studio in Farnham have em-barked on an unusual way of raising funds for a local dog shelter.

Co-owners Jenny Wilkinson and Anna Georgakakos have given themselves a challenge to photograph 30 different breeds of dog in the 30 days of April.

Each owner was asked to donate £20 for the portrait and The Artful Dog Studio match funded each donation, raising £1,725 in total for Chimney Farm International Dog Rescue.

“We thought it was a fun way of raising money and building awareness for this wonderful charity,” said Jenny.

“We put the call out for the challenge on our Facebook page and were overwhelmed by the response, in fact, within 24 hours we reached the target of 30 breeds.

“We have a wide range of dogs coming in, some of the most unusual are a chow chow, Italian greyhound, griffon, mallinois, ridgeback and two Hellenic hounds.

“Some of these we haven’t photographed before and have been on our bucket list for ages, so we are very excited!”

Lisa Webster, who runs Chimney Farm InternationaI Dog Rescue with partner Julia Stephenson said: “We would like to thank the talented ladies at the Artful Dog Studio for choosing to support the work of Chimney Farm Dog Rescue for their innovative and really well received 30 in 30 campaign.

“We need all the help and exposure we can get and the £1,725 raised will go a long way to support our rescue efforts.

“There are so many dogs in the UK and worldwide that suffer so terribly at the hands of humans, unfortunately we see the worst neglect and abuse cases and we can’t sit by and do nothing.

“Our rehoming centre and rescue kennels in Normandy, Guildford, gives the lucky few new hope, safety and love until a responsible adopter is found. Our motto is: ‘Adopt don’t Shop!’.”

The Artful Dog Studio was established two years ago by Jenny and Anna. Both have been photographers for 20 years and this new venture in dog photography has already won them many industry awards including a second for the Pet Category in a national competition run by the Guild of Photographers and also receiving a five-star status from the National Xperience Group that only award five stars to studios that deliver exception quality and service.

“We are both fundamentally dog lovers, and we absolutely love seeing the owners’ faces when they see their pup as a piece of photographic art,” added Anna.

The Artful Dog Studio is based in Farnham, near Waverley Abbey Ruins. Find them online at www.theartfuldogstudio.co.uk, email [email protected] or call 01252 336 737 or 07966 136 427.