Movies and television shows have made fun of the idea of calendars with firefighters or models on them for years. One local brewery in Worcester, though, has taken the challenge, and made it even better.

For its third year, Redemption Rock Brewing Company, at 333 Shrewsbury St., is hosting a dog calendar competition, and these dogs definitely all deserve some applause — or maybe app-paws.

“We know so many of the dogs personally,” CEO Dani Babineau said. “Dogs always seem to spread joy.”

Babineau said Redemption Rock was initially inspired by some shelters in the area that they saw doing a similar thing with their animals. Babineau’s cousin’s rescue dog actually won a contest at the shelter he came from.

“It kind of just snowballed from there,” Babineau said. “It was widely successful.”

Throughout September, dog owners submitted photos of their pups. Now, in October, voters will choose 12 dogs out of the record-setting 175 submissions for the Taproom Dog Calendar. 

Dogs range from dalmatian Bandit in front of one of the brewery’s murals, bernese mountain dog Chloe lounging on Redemption Rock’s couch, Batman-loving Angus, little Lacey with her blue and red checkered bandana scarf, Kora who wants to shake your hand, Otis who will make you fall in love with his little bow tie and bat-like ears, and husky Maple or bulldog Olive who both are staring up in the photo with a big smile.

There are so many dogs that to choose just 12 is — well — ruff. Babineau said that the contest has grown each year. The first year, there were 100 submissions. The second year, 150 photos came in.

“We’re kind of still mind boggled every year at how many submissions there are,” Babineau said. “It’s a lot. It does make voting a bit overwhelming.”

The voting site automatically randomizes the order the dogs appear on each ballot to ensure that things are fair and that there is no — as you can say — underdog in the bunch.

If a dog wins, they must sit out of the competition for one year. This means that no dog that was in the 2021 calendar will be in this upcoming one. However, some winners from the first year have entered the drawing for the 2022 calendar again.

Voting runs through October 30, and the winners will be announced on October 31 at the brewery’s Halloween party. To add your bark to the bunch, you can find more in-fur-mation at www.surveylegend.com/survey/-MkmpP2pS2mKtfOEcZVF.

In November, the dogs will be brought into Redemption Rock for professional photos. The top 12 dogs will be in the calendar. The dog with the most votes will not only be on the front cover but also the owner will be able to choose which month they prefer. Second place gets second choice and so on.

“We kind of leave it up to the owners in terms of what theme they want to do for their month,” Babineau said. “Some owners really want to jump on a theme with a holiday. A lot will go based on their dogs’ birthday.”

Dogs, though, are always welcomed at Redemption Rock. Oftentimes they can be seen snuggled next to their owners on a couch or at their feet outside near a picnic bench.

“It’s a big feature of our space, and we have lots of regular dogs that come in all of the time,” Babineau said. “People come in more often because they can bring their dogs. Especially during the pandemic once we were able to reopen, it was really just a great boost for all of our customers and staff to have all of the dogs around.”

The Taproom Dog Calendar for 2022 will be sold beginning in December, in time for the holiday season. A portion of all proceeds will go to NEADS dogs, which is a local nonprofit in Princeton that provides service dogs to veterans, people with disabilities and others.

“Get your votes in this month, and may the goodest dogs win!” the brewery’s Instagram declares.