Police dog joins his handler in the 22 push-ups challenge

The challenge is to raise awareness for veteran suicide.

Published 18th Jul 2016

A police dog has joined his handler taking part in the 22 push-ups challenge to raise awareness for veteran suicide.

The campaign's goal is to reach 22 million push-ups and people around the world are encouraged to post on social media the number of push-ups they've done with the hashtag #22KILL.

The number 22 comes from the sad statistic that 22 US veterans commit suicide each day, something that is echoed in the British former-Service community.

As part of the campaign PC Steve Hopwood, from Avon and Somerset Police, has been doing 22 push-ups a day and on the ninth day he was joined by his police dog Monty.

In the video posted by Avon and Somerset Police the pair can be seen doing the push-ups together with Monty following commands to stand and lie down.

The video has since been shared nearly 8,000 times on Facebook and viewed 1.4 million times.