Anton Du Beke hosts First Mates for dog romances

The Strictly Come Dancing personality is match-making pooches for Children’s Television channel Boomerang.

Anton Du Beke with two of his first mates dates.

The Anton Du Beke fronted First Mates sadly isn’t a series and its certainly not an April Fools. It is however a great promotion put together by Boomerang, the children’s channel to  to launch its new show Mighty Mike on May 1st.

The channel also commissioned research that gives us a glimpse into pet ownership being good for your social life. A study of 2,000 dog owners found they have met an average of four new people though their pet while out for walks or at puppy training classes.

Similarly, this has led to the dogs themselves having a vast social life too, with 60 per cent of owners believing their pet has ‘dog friends’. In fact, the average pooch is considered to have three friends, with more than one quarter even having a ‘walking buddy’, often going out with the same canine and owner.

Eight in ten believe it is ‘important’ for dogs to have friends, which they regularly see. As well as canines, three in 10 dogs also have other animal companions, the majority of which are cats. But some respondents even said their pet is friends with a horse and rabbit.

Mighty Mike follows the haphazard and hilarious efforts of a sophisticated pug named Mike, as he tries to befriend the dog next door and defend his house against pesky neighbours. The series launches on Boomerang on May 1st.

To bring the show, and the world of canine friendships to life, Boomerang called upon Strictly Star, Anton Du Beke, to appear in a hilarious spoof ‘First Mates’ campaign involving dogs. You can see the promo above.

“Dogs that mix nicely together can form strong bonds and learn a variety of social skills from each other that humans may find hard to spot or recognise.

“Similarly, dogs are the perfect ice breaker to start conversations with people you might otherwise pass by and are proven to bring numerous health benefits along the way, such as improvements in mental and physical health, which this research has also shown.” – Nick Jones, MA Dog Behaviourist