For the last 12 years, Dan Schachner has had the cutest job in show business as a ruff-eree for Animal Planet’s annual Puppy Bowl. Teams Ruff and Fluff face off in an adorable battle for the coveted Lombarky Trophy. It’s really the only show that could possibly compete with the Super Bowl.
Schachner is there to capture every tense moment from touchdowns, to field goals, to impromptu potty breaks on the field. He has also confirmed that the puppy cheer squad, the water-bowl cam, the slo-mo camera, and the end zone pylon cams will all return for Puppy Bowl XIX. This year also boasts a 100% adoption rate, before the show airs!
2023 will actually see the most dogs ever involved in Puppy Bowl. “When I first started, I think we only had like 60 dogs in the puppy bowl,” Schachner said. “This year, we have 122, which is an insane amount of dogs — not all on the field at the same time! What keeps me coming back is seeing how can we grow our roster. This year, we have the most amount of dogs ever, plus we’re repping 67 different shelters from across the country.”
This year is also a tie-breaker between the two teams. “We only started keeping score eight years ago — up until then, it was every pup for himself or herself,” he explains. “So when we started keeping score, people actually got behind teams: Ruff vs. Fluff. Ruff has won the Lombarky Trophy four times. Fluff has won four times.” Meaning, bragging rights are on the line, but to be fair, are there really any losers here?
Puppy Bowl XIX will be adding some new features as well. One is an international dog from the island of Dominica in the Caribbean named Kokobean. They will also be adding a red carpet area for even more cuteness. “It used to be that when the pups would pull up to the game on the team bus in the barking lot, the handlers would have to carry them in their little crates over to the play area,” Schachner explains. “Now there’s a red carpet area where we have the pup-arazzi on one side, and then the red carpet area leads to a tunnel that goes directly into Puppy Bowl stadium.”
As for the future of the Puppy Bowl, Schachner contends it shouldn’t be limited to just football. “I think we should have a puppy World Cup. I think we should have a puppy NHL — I’d love to see them on the ice, can you imagine them sliding? They themselves could be the puck! The only one I think is maybe a challenge is baseball, because of the whole opposable thumbs thing.” And is anyone really opposed to more cute animals on the air?
Puppy Bowl XIX premieres February 12th at 11am (PST). It will be simulcast across Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, TBS, Discovery+, and HBO Max. We wish teams Ruff and Fluff the best of luck in the big game and with their new fur-ever homes.
Check out a video of all this years players below:
