The 2020 ACE Awards are airing this year on AKC.tv.
The 2020 ACE Awards (technically the Awards for Canine Excellence) are given out by the American Kennel Club each year, traditionally during the AKC National Championship presented by Royal Canin dog show at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, each December.
Since this has been a very different year for obvious reasons, this has also affected championship weekend, as the NADD Nationals, for example, will not happen in an attempt to limit the amount of people and dogs within the vicinity.
The 2020 ACE Awards will be aired as a series of specials titled AKC Heroes: 2020 Awards for Canine Excellence on the AKC’s free streaming service, AKC.tv, each day at noon ET from Monday, November 30 to Friday, December 5. AKC.tv is available on the internet, as well as an app for App Store, Google Play, Apple TV, Roku and Amazon Fire TV.
The 2020 ACE Awards will be profiling fifteen candidates leading up to the revealing of the winners of each of the five categories of Uniformed Service K9, Therapy Dog, Service Dog, Search and Rescue Dog and Exemplary Companion Dog.
Last year the winners included Molly the Fire Safety Dog as Exemplary Companion Dog, a Dalmatian from Arkansas who has been going through a rough patch healthwise in the past few months. She teaches elementary-age kids around the country fire safety protocol and procedures, which is a very good cause.
Other winners last year included Summer the Labrador as Uniformed Services K9, Gunther the Rottweiler as Therapy Dog, Polly Pocket the Labrador as Service Dog, and Joe Pete the Doberman as Search and Rescue Dog.
Last year the winners received a $1,000 donation to the charity of their choice, a year-long pet insurance policy from AKC Pet Insurance, and a year’s supply of dog food from Eukanuba.