“He was an impulse buy—my best impulse ever,” tennis star Venus Williams said about her dog, Harry.

Now, more than a decade later, Harry and Williams are still doing life together—and partnering with dog food brand Purina Pro Plan to promote its 2023 “Monday Like A Pro” Challenge.

The challenge aims to motivate dog owners to get active with their pets. For instance, when Harry was younger, Williams said they used to run sprints together. Now that Harry is 16, he likes to come to the gym with Williams and spend time with her while she works out.

Williams and other athletes will “issue weekly challenges inviting owners to log active minutes with their dog” between March 13 and May 21, a Purina Pro Plan spokesperson said over email.

For each 1 million collective minutes of activity, the company will donate $15,000 (up to $150,000 total) to Athletes for Animals, a non-profit organization focused on protecting homeless pets, the spokesperson said. One person a week will be randomly selected to win a year’s supply of Purina Pro Plan dry dog food.

The campaign promoting the challenge, which includes videos and images of Williams and Harry exercising together, will roll out via paid and organic social media (Facebook, Instagram and TikTok), paid digital media, paid audio, integrated media partnerships and coordinated efforts with Purina Pro Plan’s retail partners. Williams and other athletes as well as fitness influencers will post about the challenge on social media channels such as TikTok and Instagram.

The broader campaign, which includes an ad that shows some insight into how Harry and Williams spend time together, will run for a  year.

Purina Pro Plan worked with its internal creative agency, Checkmark, as well as media agency OpenMind on the effort. A spokesperson for Purina declined to share financial details surrounding the campaign.

Williams said she’d like to think Purina Pro Plan reached out to her about the partnership because they knew about the “epic relationship” between her and Harry.

Venus's sister, Serena Williams, helped build that relationship. “I was literally just walking and found myself looking at dogs, just randomly, and just thought ‘I love this dog. What should I do?’” Williams explained. So she called her sister for advice. “She said ‘Get him, I love him already.’ So I got the dog and it was the best moment of my life, and we’ve been together ever since,” Williams said.

Dog or no dog, she’s all for more brands partnering with female athletes.

Over the past five years, as people have developed more of an interest in women’s sports such as the women’s World Cup, she said she's noticed more female athlete brand partnerships than ever before. “Obviously, there can be more, but I like where it's going,” Williams said. 

“For me working with Purina, I’m literally telling a story I live every day: being active, and a life that I live with my dog,” she continued. “Whoever you’re working with, whatever that organization is, figure out ‘what is that story?’ And ‘how's it authentic?’ Because then, it resonates—you can tell.”