Buster the boxer melted our hearts in the 2016 with his starring role in John Lewis' Christmas advert.
And he has since gone on to do more incredible things.
Buster, who is actually called Biff, is now 11 years old and remains a celeb in the dog world.
The boxer received instant fame from the heart-warming advert, which showed him bouncing on a trampoline on Christmas morning, after jealously watching a gang of wild animals doing the same thing on Christmas Eve.
Biff’s owner, Jan Patten from Bedfordshire, has been right by Biff’s side on his crazy journey. The pair have been incredibly busy, raising money for dog charities, posing for photographs with fans, featuring in adverts and dog shows, and gracing our TV screens again.
Jan said: “It was my agility trainer who spotted on Facebook that they were looking for a Boxer for an advert. We got invited along to the audition and he had to be able to bounce and he got the part. He’d never done anything like that before.”
Jan didn’t quite realise how big a deal the advert was at the time. She was stunned by the reaction when it came out that November.
She said: “I didn’t know at the time that the John Lewis advert had big followers, so when it came out and we had press knocking on our door, it was quite daunting. Nobody guessed John Lewis and it was the hardest secret to keep."
With the instant fame that Biff suddenly had, it has been important for Jan to “give something back,” especially to a breed that has stolen her heart. She used his fame to raise money for dog charities.
She said: “The first thing I did was get a couple hundred photos of Biff and he ‘pawographed’ them all with his paw prints on the back. I sent them off to eight different Boxer rescues and they were auctioned. Around £3,000 was raised.”
When the pair were invited to fun days, people paid to have photos taken with him. Jan’s dog training club also held a photoshoot where members could have their photos taken with Biff. This raised £250, which was donated towards canine cancer research.
Biff played a small part in the 2018 film Show Dogs, filmed in Pinewood Studios in Cardiff. Then he was on TV with Alexander Armstrong on Teach My Pet to do That. He has done adverts for Ring doorbells, which were done in four different languages. He has even been a vicar to two Boxers getting married, which also raised money for charity.
Biff's final appearance was with Jimmy Carr on the Big Quiz of the Decade which aired in January 2020.
Jan said: “It was difficult with the Jimmy Carr one because that was the first time he performed in front of a live audience.
“He’s a nice looking boy and photogenic – he still is even though he’s quite grey now. Whatever I ask of him, he will have a go. Biff has taken me on an incredible journey that I would never in my wildest dreams have imagined.”
Jan has had Boxers for 35 years and when Biff joined the family, she already had two others – Darcey and Betty – that Biff learnt a lot from. Betty was a rescue girl who came from Home Counties Boxer Welfare. Sadly the family lost Darcey in April but Jan has always tried to support the Boxer rescues.
Biff has also done incredibly well in the world of agility. He started agility at the age of two but started competing at around five, where he achieved Grade Two.
He has performed human weaves and tunnels at dog shows, where his longest line was 23 people. He has posed for photos with children, dogs and adults for donations.
They have done Countryfile Live with their agility team too. The long list of achievements go on for this pair.
Jan and Biff now live a much more relaxing life after the star finally retired in April 2019 from “all of the madness” – except for his long walks and being spoiled rotten.
Jan said: “To have a Boxer in the agility world is unusual. He is slowing down a bit now, he likes to go and train but not like he used to. He has spondylitis in his neck where his bones have started to fuse a little bit. On a regular basis he has hydrotherapy to keep him mobile.
“But he’s always had a normal life at home – he’s running in fields every day and we love him to bits. We would even if he hadn't done all these amazing things.”
