Trustpilot’s Tribute to the 2023 Westminster Dog of the Year

Many thanks to The Kennel Club and Dogs Trust for helping to celebrate our best friends and recognise the importance of canine welfare, and congratulations to TJ the cockapoo, the 2023 Westminster Dog of the Year! 

Prize-worthy pets …of Trustpilot

Here at Trustpilot, we agree wholeheartedly that pets enliven the workplace and we’re lucky to have a pretty dog-friendly working arrangement. Aside from flexible options to work from home, some of our offices allow dogs to come in to help spread a positive vibe and remind us all to take regular walks and breaks.

We’re also allocated two volunteer days a year, and some of our employees have used these to work at local animal shelters.

Alongside forming special bonds with people and bringing everyday benefits for our mental health, dogs at Trustpilot also contribute to our special culture, which is evidenced by the sense of connectedness and comradery that our Slack channel #club-trustpilot-pets delivers. This lets everyone - regardless of where in the world they’re working - share pictures and follow the antics of our employees’ furry friends and (sometimes, but not always) heroic deeds. This is excellent pet therapy, regardless of whether we’re hard at work on fraud detection systems or reviewing the latest policy developments! 

Meet 11 of our Trust-pups

To mark the Westminster Dog of the Year, we’re giving a little shout out by introducing 11 of the very special dogs that support their humans in Trustpilot’s Trust & Transparency Team. This includes those that are more pawlitically oriented (the pooches supporting our humans in Trustpilot’s Public Affairs team) through to the critters that keep members of our Legal and Content Integrity Teams company while they work. Scroll down to meet them! 

1.  Frankie

Frankie the English Springer Spaniel standing in a field of green grass.

Frankie is a ten year-old English Springer Spaniel who helps her human make sure our Content Integrity Team is continuously improving their customer service and providing paws-itive assistance to consumers using Trustpilot.

Frankie is obsessed with the humble tennis ball, second to nothing! Her superpower is living in the moment and - a bit like a heartfelt 5-star review - she is a complete ray of sunshine.

Favourite fact about Trustpilot: As an optimist and a pup who listens to her human, we’re pretty sure that Frankie loves that Trustpilot’s purpose is to help people share and listen to feedback. 

2.  Rigsby

Rescued Border Terrier Rigsby is a distinguished gentle-dog of 11 years. In another life, he could have been a professional basketball player.

Despite previous surgery on his ACL and a metal plate in one leg, Rigby can dribble a basketball around the garden for hours…or until it’s confiscated for his own good!

In the same way that Rigsby is committed to his ball dribbling, his human, from Trustpilot’s Communications Team, knows that crafting any good piece of text - like a helpful online review - can take a little focus and dedication. But it’s totally worth it! 

3.  Wally

Wally, aged nine, specialises in providing comic relief to members of Trustpilot’s hard-working Legal Team.

When he can lure them away from their computers, Wally’s favourite hobby is going to the park and rolling enthusiastically around in the grass.

Wally is also strongly committed to Trustpilot’s values, like being collaborative to “actively help each other”... polish off lunch! His favourite food is whatever the closest human to him is eating.

4.  Bonnie

Meet Bonnie, a 2.5 year-old Working Cocker Spaniel. Bonnis is an active yet refined lassie who assists Trustpilot’s Chief Trust and Chief Consumer Officer in all things trust and transparency - from making sure people’s data is paw-tected through to sniffing out fake reviews. When she’s not doing that, she absolutely loves chasing balls flat out until she’s pooped!

Favourite fact about Trustpilot: Just like Bonnie is happy to share a brilliant new toy with her four-legged friends, we suspect she also thinks it’s great that around 75% of reviews on Trustpilot are 5-stars - reflecting that people are motivated to help others discover the best services on offer.

5. and 6. Rex and Xabi

Introducing the double trouble that is Rex (2 years) and Xabi (3) - Labrador brothers from different litters.

Xabi was the original tennis-ball obsessed dog of the house for a member of Trustpilot’s Security Team, but Rex was adopted when his previous owner couldn't take care of him.

While these two look similar, they’re living proof of how different approaches to the same task create very different results! For example, Rex is a 1-star running partner - he thinks long runs are like the hurdles - best tackled via a series of sporadic sprints and jumps. In contrast, Xabi’s namesake is former Liverpool and Spain footballer, Xabi Alonso and, like anyone who’s lasted a 90-minute game, Xabi sets a sustainable pace. This makes him a 5-star running partner!  

7.  Tayto

Tayto the Cockapoo is named after Taytos the Irish crisps. She's 11 months old and loves swimming in the local lake (definitely one of the UK’s 5-star cooling off spots for summer).

While Tayto’s human is a big proponent of living the Trustpilot company value “Always with integrity”, Tayto’s still learning the ropes: she’s not yet a fan of “doing the right thing, even when nobody’s watching” - quite the contrary - such opportunities are used to steal her human’s socks!  

8.  Darwin

Darwin is a two-year old Golden Retriever who loves playing tug of war with his toy ducks and randomly bestowing friendly licks upon unsuspecting strangers.

As an occasional visitor to Trustpilot’s Copenhagen office, he’s a fan of the employee diversity and the freely given pats and hugs - Darwin has already been greeted in a range of European languages: not least Danish, French, German, Dutch, Portuguese and Lithuanian.

And that means there are still Trustpilot employees from around 37 other nationalities to meet!

9.  Lola

Lola, aged 6 months, is a Standard Parti Poodle and the second-youngest of our featured Trustpups.

Lola’s human is a member of Trustpilot’s Content Integrity Team who oversees content moderation, so Lola knows the importance of investigating content within its context. Her love of inspecting and sniffing things has even earned her the nickname 'Inspector Gadget'.

Lola also has a soft spot for cheese and peanut butter, and because she’s still growing, takes the liberty of enjoying long naps on the sofa while others are nutting out key tasks like moderation policy and processes. You can check out Lola’s insta account at @sheepypoodle.

10. and 11. Lily and Willow

The sleepy Trustpups shown here are Willow, a five-month old Cavalier Poodle cross and Lily, a 12-year old Beagle. They help their human manage our Platform Integrity team - which means overseeing machine learning to improve our fraud detection systems and chasing down companies selling fake reviews, among many other things.

A bundle of morning energy, Willow loves charging upstairs and into her humans’ beds to start the day on a high.

Lily is an extremely food-motivated pooch and therefore more targeted in her activities: forget AI-driven vehicles, Lily could probably be taught to drive a car with the right-sized juicy steak!