Girls Aloud support dog charity

Girls Aloud have helped launch a scheme to teach children how to look after their dogs.

The band have lent their support to an initiative being piloted in the London area, which involves Nintendo donating DS consoles and copies of Nintendogs to the Dogs Trust.

The charity will then use them as part of an educational outreach programme designed to reduce the number of abandoned dogs in the UK.

Girls Aloud, who feature in the Nintendo DS advertising campaign, gave their backing in a statement, saying: "We are all dog lovers ourselves so are fully supportive of this scheme which teaches kids what looking after a dog really involves."

The group released latest album Out Of Control earlier this month.