5th Annual FRTD Dog Calendar Contest: How Voting Works & How to Win

What the FRTD Dog Calendar Contest is and who runs it

The 5th Annual FRTD Dog Calendar Contest is a photo fundraiser built around a simple promise: every dog is welcome. Dog owners enter a photo of their pet, supporters vote for the entries they love, and the finishing order decides which dogs appear in a printed calendar sold to raise money for the organizer's work.

That organizer is First Responder Therapy Dogs, an organization that lists its mailing address as P.O. Box 4387, San Rafael, CA 94913. The fundraiser is its named calendar program, and the ballot carries the FRTD shorthand drawn from the organization's own name. The host is GoGo Photo Contest, a platform that runs paid-entry and free-vote photo fundraisers for nonprofits and community groups, and the ballot lives at gogophotocontest.com/firstrespondertherapydogs.

The format is a single public vote rather than a judged competition. The page states plainly that all dogs are welcome, so there is no breed filter, no size class and no entry fee gate described on the ballot itself. Prizes flow from the vote tally: the leading dogs claim calendar months, and a broad incentive tier rewards entries that clear a stated vote count.

The dated record for the FRTD dog calendar ballot

The ballot has a long and consistent history. Confirmed editions of the First Responder Therapy Dogs calendar fundraiser ran in 2020, then 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024, followed by 2025 and 2026, which makes 2026 the 5th Annual edition under the numbering the organizer prints on its own masthead. Seven consecutive calendar years is the strongest recurrence signal a community fundraiser can carry, and it means supporters in California can treat this as a fixture rather than a one-off experiment.

The dated fact that matters most this season is the close: voting ends 9/26/2026 at 4:59:59 PM Pacific Time. That timestamp is printed directly on the ballot page, and it is the deadline every entry is measured against, including the 1,000 vote calendar incentive and the top 13 finishing order.

Two facts are absent from the printed ballot: the opening day of the 2026 window and a full category roster; confirm on the live ballot each cycle. First Responder Therapy Dogs also does not publish an eligibility rule for who may enter a dog, so owners planning an entry should open the rules section of the ballot before paying any entry fee the platform shows.

One structural note: the calendar the contest produces is the 2027 edition, since the winning dogs are photographed into the following year's months. That is why the prize language references 2027 while the voting itself closes in September 2026.

How a supporter votes on the FRTD ballot today

Voting takes little effort. A supporter loads the ballot at GoGo Photo Contest, chooses View Entries/Vote, and browses the dog photos entered for the season. Each entry carries its own vote control, and pressing it logs support for that dog immediately. No nomination round separates voting from entry; the same ballot handles both, which is why the masthead reads "Enter or Vote now!".

The rule that shapes strategy is the organizer's own: "There is no limit to how many times you can vote for an entry." A household can return to the same dog again and again through the window, and a supporter backing several dogs can split attention freely. Nothing on the ballot imposes a daily cap or a login requirement as a stated condition of voting.

Two prize layers sit on top of the tally. The top 13 finishers, 1st place through 13th place, take spots in the printed calendar, and the 1st place dog chooses its month, January through December, along with recognition in the First Responder Therapy Dogs newsletter. Separately, any entry that receives 1,000 or more votes at the end of the contest earns a free copy of the 2027 calendar mailed to the owner's home. A tie for any spot in the top 13 is resolved by the tie breaker procedure printed in the contest rules, so close finishes have a defined process rather than a coin flip by the organizer.

How the FRTD ballot sits beside its California neighbours

California carries a crowded field of pet photo fundraisers, and the FRTD ballot is distinctive in three ways: it is statewide in reach rather than tied to a single shelter's service area, it welcomes every dog without a breed or class filter, and it pairs a top-13 calendar ladder with a broad 1,000 vote incentive that lets mid-table entries still walk away with the finished product.

The nearest structural cousin on this site is the Community Concern for Cats Calendar Cat Photo Contest, which runs the same calendar format for cats instead of dogs. Dog owners deciding between ballots may also weigh the Pasadena Humane Calendar Photo Contest, which is anchored to a specific humane society, and the San Diego House Rabbit Society Bunnyfest Photo Contest, which serves a different pet audience entirely. For costume-season entries, the Bark for a Cure! Pet Costume Photo Contest is the themed alternative.

Beyond pets, the state's Best of Central Valley Business and Best of Marin ballots show how the same public-vote energy is used for local business rankings. The FRTD program differs from all of them in one more respect: its organizer publishes a no-limit voting rule in plain language, which few of its neighbours do.

Strengthening support for a dog on this ballot

This ballot rewards sustained, repeated support more than a single burst, because the organizer places no ceiling on votes per entry. The practical playbook for a San Rafael or wider California owner is to give every supporter the direct entry link, ask each person to return more than once before the 9/26/2026 close, and set a household goal around the 1,000 vote mark that unlocks the free 2027 calendar copy even if the top 13 stays out of reach.

First Responder Therapy Dogs has published no position on outside voting help for this contest, so the contest rules page on the ballot is the authority to check before trying anything beyond organic sharing. For tactics that fit a photo fundraiser with an open vote rule, read how to get more votes online, and for the wider question of paid support on award ballots, begin at buy votes online.