Puppy Bowl referee Dan Schachner has been the face of Animal Planet’s canine sporting event for the past 13 years. In 2011 Schachner began his journey on the show of making sure the pups can play a clean game.
Schachner explained that his role as referee is to “keep these pups in line!”
Even though he hopes to see a clean fair game, Schachner’s main goal is to tell the audience that these pups are in need of forever homes.
Both Animal Planet and Schachner emphasize the importance of adoption over buying a dog. “ADOPT a dog instead of buying one from a store or a breeder, the shelter dogs need homes badly.” The show specifically features dogs who come from shelters rather than breeders to show the audience dogs they could help by adopting.
Schachner has seen hundreds of shelter dogs throughout his time on the show. This year there was a total of 131 dogs looking for forever homes on the Puppy Bowl. “Every one of them is an incredible puppy waiting for adoption.”
Schachner’s favorite part of the Puppy Bowl is calling out the fouls and penalties, “you will only see these in puppy football, not human football.” Some of his favorite lines are, “paws interference,” “ruffing the passer,” and “dog collar tackle.”
The Puppy Bowl has inspired viewers to adopt dogs from rescue shelters or even straight through the show. This past November Schachner and his family took in a pup of their own, who they named Papi. After fostering dogs for about 10 years Schachner decided it was time to adopt.
To learn more about the Puppy Bowl or to watch the show you can visit Animal Planet’s website. https://www.animalplanet.com/show/puppy-bowl-animal-planet-atve-us
