The Puppy Up Foundation

How it all began…

In March 2008 a man and his two dogs embarked on a cross-country trek that was inspired by the loss of his Great Pyrenees to cancer. Some of you have heard the story of Luke Robinson, Hudson and Murphy…

They walked from town to town sharing Malcolm’s story and educating people about cancer in dogs and as they built a nationwide grassroots movement, Mr. Robinson had a vision: 2,000,000 dogs walking simultaneously all across the United States for cancer. If 2 dogs could walk over 2,000 miles surely it was possible!

And that’s how The Puppy Up Foundation was born and the legacy that started out with just a man who lost his beloved dog continues…Learn more at www.puppyup.org.

“My feeling toward the animal is that he is our younger brother, and that we are our brother’s keeper.”

—Mary Johnston

Our Organization

The Puppy Up Foundation is committed to discovering the common links between canine and human cancers and the causes of these cancers through comparative oncology research.

Our organization will accomplish that mission in the following ways:

Education and Awareness:

The field of comparative oncology is relatively new and the Puppy Up Foundation will educate people about its tremendous potential through a global campaign of strategic partnerships, seminars, speaking engagements, social media, events, broadcasts, and other forms of media.

Empowerment and Mobilization:

Through the PuppyUp Walks, we are building one of the largest pet and people cancer communities in the world; from business people to artists to scientists and humanitarians, a partnership forged with the singular purpose of ridding the world of its deadliest disease.

Investment in Research:

PuppyUp’s scientific objectives are:

Broadening our understanding of the links between human and companion animal cancer

Creating a cross institutional collaborative platform

Developing new approaches to research

and funding translational cancer studies that benefit both pets and people

How to describe us

The Puppy Up Foundation is a grass roots organization, defined by Wikipedia as:

A grassroots movement is one which uses the people in a given district, region, or community as the basis for a specific movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at the local, regional, national, or international level.

Our Team

While our list of Foundation personnel is quite small (only 4 people), we have numerous local organizers all over the country who continually step up to promote our goals.

The official name for them is Puppy Up Program Supervisors, or PUPs for short! Without their dedication to our cause, we would not have had the successes we have seen.

Over 14,000 dogs have attended our walks for the past 11 years, including 1,299 that have been touched by cancer. 80,000 pet owners have been educated on the early warning signs of canine cancer. That knowledge has helped them be proactive in their pets’ health. Just like in people, Early Detection results in better treatment options… often less expensive and more successful outcomes too.

We want our pets to have as many happy, healthy days with us as possible.