Venus Williams and Purina Pro Plan have a challenge for pet owners

As a proud pet parent, Venus Williams understands the importance of being active with your dog (or cat). And that’s why she has partnered with Purina Pro Plan for their Monday Like a Pro Challenge.

We already know that Williams is a pro in her own field (and honestly more than just the field we all know her from too), but that doesn’t mean that we can’t channel our own inner pro and get out and move. This is where the Monday Like a Pro Challenge comes to play.

According to the press email we received about their partnership, Venus Williams and Pro Plan are challenging pet owners to get out and move around with their pets. Every week on Monday, starting the Monday after Daylight Savings Time (so March 13 was the official start date of the challenge), they will be giving pet owners a new challenge to log time moving with your pet. Think walks in the park, hiking, and more, in terms of getting out and moving. (They also want to see pets experiencing the nutritional benefits of Pro Plan as well.)

In fact, there is even more to the challenge than just moving like a pro,

"Between March 13, 2023, and May 21, 2023, for each week that we achieve one million collective minutes of activity, Pro Plan will donate $15,000 (up to $150,000) to Athletes for Animals, a non-profit organization that focuses on protecting homeless pets. And each week, one person will be randomly selected to win a year’s supply of Purina Pro Plan dry dog food."

Venus Williams and Pro Plan are challenging everyone to Monday Like a Pro

While speaking to Venus Williams about her partnership, we learned more about the Monday Like a Pro Challenge, as well as her fur baby, Harry!

Up first we talked about what it was about the Pro Plan and the Monday Like a Pro Challenge that made her want to be part of this challenge. According to Williams,

"I’m just a pet owner. I love my dog. He’s my whole life and we spend our whole days together. So I was really excited about this message of getting people active because it’s literally what I do on the daily. Getting dogs active, giving back to the community and also helping to fuel your dog like a pro and making sure that you’re delivering the right nutrition to your dog too.Dogs are family members, beloved members of our family. So you want to make sure that you’re keeping them active and strong and energized for a lifetime of adventure. So I wanted to get this message out about Pro Plan sport being able to help you do that. And the Monday Like a Pro Challenge is just getting people this next level of motivation. Getting them to get active and when we get people to log it, and accumulate 1 million hours of activity per week, then Pro Plan is going to donate $15,000 to Athletes for Animals, which is fantastic because it’s helping animals that are homeless to find homes and to be protected and so on.So lots of great things out of this. And we want people to go to MondayLikeAProChallenge.com so that way they can get started logging these hours. Do something healthy for yourself and your dog and your community."

In digging a bit deeper into what it is about Pro Plan that had Venus Williams wanting to work with the brand on this challenge, we learned more about her beloved dog, Harry, as well. And with Harry being a senior pup, it does make sense that Williams would want the very best for her dog.

According to her the reason she wanted to work with Pro Plan was,

"because it mirrors my lifestyle as a professional athlete. I have to feed my body in a way that helps me to be my best, be my healthiest, to perform at my best, those things are first and foremost. So why not? Why should we not treat our pets the very same way, so it really gives that nutrition to our dogs and it helps with the protein to fat ratios, things like glucosamine and Omega especially for a dog like mine who’s 16 years old. He needs those things for his health and his joint mobility. A little guy with his little knees. They’re very little knees. And real meat and poultry and salmon, those are very important to him. They have directly made a huge difference in my dog’s health and I could see the difference within weeks.I want him to live forever. I joke with him and I’m kind of serious. I’m like, Harry, you promise me you’re gonna live forever. Never leave mom. Oh, it’s really my goal. To get him to live as long as possible, and then have the healthiest life possible and to be as happy as possible and do the things he wants to do. Now a lot of those things are just running to the food bowl. But if that’s what he wants to do, I want him to be able to do that or climb stairs. All those things are important."

As a pet parent, it is clear that Venus Williams wants the very best for her dog, Harry. And we want the same for our own dogs (and cats). So it makes sense that when given the chance to take on a health challenge like the Monday Like a Pro Challenge, we can’t help but want to step up and log those hours with our pet at our side.