FAQs

Registration fees can be found here.

Registration fees are considered donations, so when you register you are raising money for the animals. If you join a Best Friends network partner team, your registration fee goes directly to that organization. If you register to raise money on behalf of Best Friends, your registration fee goes directly to Best Friends.

Strut Your Mutt registration fees (paid directly by you) can be used as a tax deduction for 2016 income tax purposes. All donations made by individuals to participating organizations are also considered tax deductible.

If you participated by donating to one of the network partner organizations, tax receipts will be provided directly from that network partner organization. Tax receipts will be provided by Best Friends Animal Society if you participated by donating to a friends and family team, or company team.

With the option to register as an individual or part of team, you might have some questions regarding what type of participant you want to be. Check out our decision tree to help you choose the best type for you.

Please be aware that you cannot register for Strut Your Mutt through the mail. You can register online or in person on the day of the event. Registering in advance will save you money.

If you attend Strut Your Mutt alone or with a friend, please register as an individual. But if you can rally a few friends or family members to join you, please register as a team! While we define a team as two or more people, your team must have five or more paid registrants in order to be eligible to win top team fundraising awards at a live event. There is no maximum number of participants on a team.

It's more fun to strut with a team — plus there are bragging rights! Create or join a team for a chance to win one of the top fundraising awards. Recruit friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, clients, pet sitters, your vet, your groomer and anyone else you can think of who might want to participate. You might find that Strut Your Mutt is the perfect way to get a conversation started about the great work being done to save the lives of homeless pets in your community and across the country.

You can tell your friends, family members, co-workers (and even strangers) about the cause and ask them to support it by participating with you in Strut Your Mutt. Make sure that every member of your team knows they must join your team either by typing your team name in the search box or by choosing your team in the “join a team” button during the registration process.

Unfortunately, you cannot form a team for an animal welfare group that has not signed up to participate in Strut Your Mutt. All animal welfare groups wishing to participate in Strut Your Mutt must be approved Best Friends No More Homeless Pets Network partners (or members of the Los Angeles or Utah coalitions). These groups are asked to select a team captain, submit an application that includes their contact information, and sign a basic agreement. You can find the application to participate in Strut Your Mutt HERE.

The deadline for non-network partner organizations to apply for partner status is August 1. The deadline for approval to participate in Strut Your Mutt and having a fundraising page up and running on strutyourmutt.org is September 1.

Yes, but you only have one opportunity to do so to register other people — during your initial registration process.

If you register as an individual:

• You can also register other people during “step 5 review” of the registration process.
• Rather than choosing “complete registration,” click on “register another participant.” You will then be taken through the registration process to add another person.
• Continue until you have registered everyone.
• Click on “complete registration” and you can pay all of the registration fees in one transaction.

If you join or create a team:

• You can register other people during “step 6 review” of the registration process.
• Rather than choosing “complete registration,” click on “register another participant.” You will then be taken through the registration process to register additional people.
• Continue until you have everyone registered.
• Click on “complete registration” and you can pay all of the registration fees in one transaction.

Once you have completed this process, all your registrants will receive an email with instructions on how to set up their passwords and log in to their own participant center.

Please note: If you do not register another person during step 5 or step 6, as described above, you will have to register each individual as a "new user" (just as you did yourself), provide a unique email address, username and password for that individual, and pay via a separate transaction fee.

You can change your registration status by following these simple steps:

• Log into your “participant center” (using your email and password)
• On the right side of the page, click on “change team membership.”
• If you want to join a team or change teams, enter the information in one or all three fields (team name, captain’s first name, or captain’s last name) and click “search.”
• Find the team you want to join and click “join team.”

*If you need to change your registration to or from a network partner registration, please email events@bestfriends.org.

For live events, donation and registration fee refunds will be permitted through Friday, one week prior to each city’s event date. The following are the donation refund request cutoff dates for each city:

• Atlanta, Georgia September 17, 2016
• Austin, Texas September 10, 2016
• D.C. Metro September 24, 2016
• Houston, Texas - October 8, 2016
• Jacksonville, Florida September 17, 2016
• Kanab, Utah (Best Friends) September 10, 2016
• Los Angeles, California October 8, 2016
• Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota September 4, 2016
• New York City, New York September 24, 2016
• Phoenix, Arizona October 8, 2016
• Portland, Oregon September 3, 2016
• Salt Lake City, Utah October 15, 2016
• San Francisco, California September 11, 2016
• St. Louis, Missouri October 1, 2016

For the Virtual Strut Your Mutt, refunds for donations will be permitted through Friday, October 28, 2016 (no refunds after that date). Requests for donation refunds received after applicable deadlines cannot be honored due to the effect such requests have on our fundraising contests.

Registration fee refunds will be honored through the close of registration for each city, which is 12 noon the day prior to each event.

Virtual Strut Your Mutt participation fees will be refunded through Friday, October 28, 2016. Any refund request must be made directly by the registrant or donor and sent to events@bestfriends.org. Refund requests must be received no later than 5 p.m. Eastern time on the deadline day, outlined above.

NOTE: All decisions of Best Friends Animal Society regarding incentive and award winners are final.

You are not required to fundraise for the Strut Your Mutt event. However, Strut Your Mutt is a fundraising event, and raising money above and beyond the requested registration fee means more money for the animals. Plus, you can earn great prizes!

You can also collect donations by check and use the offline donations form to track them. Click here to access the offline donations form, which include more details about offline donations and how to submit them.

Checks are considered offline donations. The team member accepting an offline donation must fill out an offline donations form, then send it along with copies of the checks to Best Friends for verification. We will enter those donations onto the team's fundraising page. If check donations are sent in on time and in accordance with the offline donation official rules and regulations (see offline donation forms), they count toward team or individual fundraising efforts, as well as toward various prizes and incentives offered by Best Friends.

You can bring offline donations (including the corresponding offline donations forms) with you to the event and drop them off at the donations tent. Please remember that for offline donations to count toward team or individual totals, top fundraising awards, contest prizes and grand prizes, they (offline donations, forms and corresponding check copies) must be received by Best Friends no later than 5 p.m., Eastern time, one week before the event.

Click here to access the offline donations forms, which include more details about offline donations and how to submit them.

Cash donations, which are accepted only at live events, do not count toward top fundraising awards, contest prizes or grand prizes. Cash donations cannot be accepted for any team/individual participating in the online Strut Your Mutt Challenge.

Please note: Offline donations do not count as registration fees. Registration must be completed online by noon on the day before the event, or you can register in person the morning of the actual live event (at a slightly higher rate).

A company match is an easy and effective way to increase your fundraising! Just ask people to contact their employer for the correct paperwork. If you are fundraising for a network partner organization, please ensure that you fill out a matching gift form with the organization's name and information, and follow the company's directions for submitting the form. If you have any questions, please contact the organization you are supporting.

If you are fundraising for Best Friends, please ensure that you fill out a matching gift form with Best Friends’ information and follow the company's directions for submitting the form. If you have any questions about matching gifts in support of Best Friends, please email workplacegiving@bestfriends.org.

Live events:

Online donations count toward top fundraising awards up to the close of registration, which is noon, the day before the event.

Offline donations in accordance with the offline donation official rules and regulations must be submitted no later than 5 p.m., Eastern time, one week before the event date. Click here to access the offline donation forms, which include more details on how to submit them to Best Friends.

Strut Your Mutt Challenge:

Online donations will count through 11:59 p.m. Eastern time, Saturday, October 31, 2016.

For Best Friends’ participant offline donations to count toward the top fundraising awards and grand prize, all offline donation forms and copies of the checks must be received by Best Friends no later than 5 p.m. Eastern time, Saturday, October 26, 2016, and in accordance with the official rules and regulations. Click here to access the offline donation forms, which include more details on how to submit them to Best Friends.

Best Friends uses the money to help tens of thousands of animals, both at the Sanctuary and through outreach programs all across the country. If you are raising funds for a network partner team, the money goes to support that group’s own lifesaving programs.

The best way to ensure that your donation gets to the appropriate person or team is to ask for a link to their personal or team fundraising page.

You can also visit strutyourmutt.org, go to the search box at the top of the page and type in the name of the person or team. Click on “support me” beside the name of the individual or team to get to their donation page.

If someone makes a $30 (or more) donation to your fundraising page (without registering), they are considered a donor, not an event participant. Individual participants in the event must register and pay the registration fee.

Just send an email to events@bestfriends.org with the correct information. You will receive confirmation once the error has been fixed and the donation has been moved to the correct person or team.

Please note: The change request must come directly from the person who made the error. We cannot move donations at the request of another person.

The Strut Your Mutt event is full of fun for everyone. The day starts with you and your dog going on a celebratory walk, the length of which varies from city to city. Each city typically offers two options — a short walk of about one mile, or a longer walk of about two miles.

There are fun activities for the entire family, including lots of exciting pet-centric activities for you and your dog. These activities are up and running you return from the walk.

On-site food trucks offer vegetarian and vegan options for human participants. You may also bring food and beverages (excluding alcohol) for your family and pets.

A variety of event sponsors and vendors, who typically give away coupons and samples and hold drawings for prizes, will be there. Be sure to stop at their booths! There will also be music, contests and other entertainment.

Parking is typically free for participants, but availability of free parking may vary by city.

For the most current information about event-day activities, sponsors, vendors, and parking, please visit strutyourmutt.org and click on your event city.

If you registered online before the event, go to the preregistered check-in tent, pick up your free T-shirt, bag and reusable water bottle and start enjoying all of the activities!

If you did not preregister online, check in at the on-site registration tent. If you plan to register on-site, we strongly recommend that you check the schedule of events in your city and arrive early to avoid the long lines. Please note: If you want your registration fee to support a network partner organization, you must preregister online.

If you are registered as a member of a friends and family or company team, we suggest you make arrangements with your team captain to determine a good meeting place. If you are a member of a network partner team, look for your team captain who will be holding an orange sign with the organization's name on it. If you don’t see your team captain, there will be a meeting area near the starting line where you will see network partner team signs.

Live events:

Registered participants must pick up T-shirts at the live event. If you are unable to attend, please make arrangements for someone to pick up your T-shirt on event day at the preregistered check-in tent. We make every effort to provide the -shirt sizes requested during the online registration process; however sizes cannot be guaranteed and quantities are limited.

Online participants:

T-shirts will be mailed by Best Friends to participants who would like to receive them.

Strut Your Mutt is held rain or shine so please dress (both you and your pet) accordingly. Remember, registration fees are non-refundable, even in the case of rain. T-shirts must still be picked up in person on event day.

You are welcome to skip the walk and just enjoy the festival. But remember, you must register for Strut Your Mutt, whether or not you participate in the walk.

Best Friends will accept cash, checks, and debit or credit cards for Strut Your Mutt purchases. Please note: Food trucks and other vendors may require cash.

Because Strut Your Mutt events are noisy, filled with dogs and children and held outdoors, we do not allow cats. This is to avoid a situation where there might be cat-reactive dogs present, a situation that can also be incredibly stressful for cats.

If you do not have a dog with you, you can walk alongside your fellow animal lovers (which gives you two free hands to pet the many adorable pooches out there). You can also offer to walk with a dog from another participating animal welfare group or shelter.

No. You do not have to bring a dog to enjoy the walk or festival.

Participants are limited to bringing no more than two dogs, and we are very strict about this. Because there are tons of kids and other animals there, we don’t want anyone to be out there with more dogs than they can handle (which increases the possibility of a dog breaking free). Dogs must be at least four months old.

To help ensure the safety of the pets and people, all dogs must be kept on a maximum six-foot, non-retractable leash. Some dogs don’t behave well with other dogs or in crowds, so we also ask that everyone keep their dogs in close proximity.

Unaltered dogs are welcome unless they are in heat. Best Friends encourages you to have your dogs spayed or neutered if they are not already fixed. Spaying or neutering not only helps reduce the number of pets entering shelters, but it also can help your pet live a longer, healthier life. A large portion of funds raised at Strut Your Mutt support our network partners’ spay/neuter programs.

Poop bags will be available at several locations. You are also welcome to bring your own. We encourage all participants to be courteous and clean up after their pets. Water bowls and troughs will be placed throughout the walking route and festival area, and we will make every effort to keep them filled during the event.

We want you and your pet to enjoy this fun event — and that means keeping you both as safe as possible! We will have a veterinarian and an EMT present on event day.

Click here for more rules, recommendations and safety tips for you and your pet.

Since the event itself is focused on fundraising and awareness, we do not promote it as an adoption event. However, we encourage participating shelters to bring adoptable dogs.

To help adoptable dogs stand out, they may be wearing brightly colored bandanas, vests or shirts that say “Adopt me” or “I’m looking for a home to call my own.” In most cities, we also will hold a "rescue runway" stage fashion show to showcase adoptable dogs.

Absolutely! Strut Your Mutt is made possible by the help of volunteers. Click here to learn more about how you can get involved.

Click on “forgot password” underneath the box in the top right corner of the participant log-in page. You will then be prompted to enter your username and email address, and password reset instructions will be sent to the email address provided.

Follow these simple instructions to edit your profile page or change your password:

1. Log in to your participant center.
2. Click on “my profile” located at the top of the page to the right of “Welcome, [your name].”
3. From there you can edit your profile to change your personal contact information, change or reset your password, or change your email preferences.

Personal pages:

1. Log into your participant center (using your email address and password).
2. On the right side of the page, click “edit personal page.” (Note: If you are already logged into your participant center, click on the “personal page” tab and follow these same steps.
3. From there, you can:
   • Update your fundraising goal by selecting "change" in your "my goal" box.
   • Personalize your URL by clicking on “personal page URL” and enter the new URL name.
   • Change the title of your page (default is “Welcome to my personal page”).
   • Replace the default text in the body of the page and tell your own personal story.
   • Add a photo or video. Please note: You can add one or the other, but not both.
   • Click “preview” to make sure you’re happy with how your page looks.
   • Click “save” when you are done.

Team pages:

1. Log into your participant center (using your email address and password).
2. Click on the team page tab.
3. From there, you can:
   • Update your fundraising goal by selecting "change" in the team goal box (under progress tab).
   • Personalize your team’s URL by clicking on “team page URL” and enter the new URL name.
   • Replace the default text in the body of the page and tell the story of your team or organization.
   • Add a photo. Please note that it is not possible to add video to a team page.
   • Click “preview” to make sure you’re happy with how your page looks.
   • Click “save” when you are done.