Pet products see candidates battle it out to be top dog on The Apprentice

Pet products see one candidate use up their nine lives in the latest challenge on The Apprentice.

In the show’s most tenuous link yet, the teams discover their task when they turn up at lexicographer Samuel Johnson’s house, outside of which is a statue of a dictionary and Johnson’s pet cat Hodge.

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Lord Sugar is on hand to reveal the connection – they’ll be choosing products for pet lovers and attempting to sell them at the London Pet Show.

With the teams returned to a mix of men and women, the selection process for the role of project manager becomes a game of pet Top Trumps, with Scott and his dog Mason being selected for Connexus and enthusiastic David leading Versatile.

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Faced with options from hi-vis vests for chickens – not, as Vana suspects, to help them cross the road – to eco-friendly dog poo bags, the teams take different approaches in winning over the vendors, pitting Brett’s aggressive pricing pitch against overly-enthusiastic David.

When both teams decide they want animal balloons, it’s a dog-eat-dog battle to see who claims the coveted product.

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For the winning team, the balloons are a big hit with families, but their chaotic ordering process and a distracted project manager leave their guinea pig-bedecked clothing option neglected until a last-minute on-stage fashion show.

On the high-end products, Connexus focus on customisable cat towers, while Versatile attempt to shift luxury dog sofas.

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But for one team, an overzealous sales technique sees customers slip through their fingers, and a bored performance from one candidate sets the cat among the pigeons.

When the figures come out in the boardroom, who is top dog and who made a real dog’s dinner of the task?

(Boundless/BBC)