Men’s Health South Africa just did something pretty epic!

UPDATE: Stanley has found a home! But his buddy, Dizzy still needs one!

Cape Town - Meet Stanley, the Men’s Health cover model. Not the tall, pale one, the good looking dude with a tan on the left who’d really like to meet you.

Stanley is a shelter pup and he’s looking for a home, so Men’s Health South Africa put him on the cover to help him out.

The Men’s Health February issue is a tribute to our four-legged friends, and it’s filled with stories and research that illustrate just how much benefit they can provide. Men’s Health and dogs have always had a strong bond.

“We’ve had dogs on our cover before, but this time around, we wanted to do things a little differently. To help look after these furry friends, we wanted to create a drive around adopting a rescue or shelter dog instead of buying a pedigree pup, and we are using the #adoptdontshop to promote the cause – starting with Stanley and his mate Dizzy who we invited down to our shoot.

“To this end we, partnered with DARG – the Domestic Animal Rescue Group and did our cover shoot with these two handsome fellas and our role model cover guy, Riaan Ellis.

“Stanley was the pooch who made the cover, and now we are raising awareness to find a home for Stanley, Dizzy, and all their friends at DARG. Check out their website, and adopt a best friend – you won’t regret it,” Arthur Jones, Men's Health editor, told Channel24.

Meet Stanley:

And his mate, Dizzy:

And if you need more mutt motivation, here are three reasons:

1) Dogs take you outside to exercise. Their energy and sense of adventure is contagious. Their fitness secret, they do interval training all day and constantly vary their intensity.

2) They can teach you how to eat. No junk food, and plenty of water.

3) Pets make kids healthier. Research in Pediatrics found that children who live in a home with a pet during their first year of their life are more likely to be healthier thanks to a better immune system. Research from Australian’s Deakin University showed dog ownership can decrease a child’s chances of being obese by as much as 50 percent.

Follow Men's Health and Darg on Twitter for more info.

(Cover guy: Riaan Ellis. Cover dogs: Stanley and Dizzy. Photos: Men's Health)