I checked on internet still I could not confirm that this project is officially from telegram. Still, the airdrop we get is based on the age of our telegram account leads me to assume that this project is officially from telegram still I am not 100% sure about that.
Looking at the ann in their channel [1], it seems $DOGS was inspired by Telegram founder's (Pavel Durov) created dog sketch and Telegram or it's founder has got nothing to do with this memecoin.
Plus, on bold part, it doesn't make any sense, because plenty projects use third party platforms as their eligibility criteria, it doesn't make project affiliated with platform.
[1]
https://t.me/dogs_community/7Yeah, it's just for getting attention and because it is associated with the Telegram founder. Still, the project seems a bit different to those who appear on the TON chain usually so I am eager to see how it will develop!