Pooches and their owners came out in force to entertain and participate for various prizes on offer at the annual Bathurst Dog Show at the Village Green on Saturday.
Masters of Ceremonies, Louwrens Orsmond and Corinne Willoughby kept dogs, owners and an enthralled audience entertained with lively banter as they introduced 64 participating “fur babies” in eight competing categories.
These were from the wonderful to the wacky – such as “friendliest” and “happy family” to the “noisiest” and “hooligan” categories of the competition.
All owners with their doggies in tow put on a fantastic spectacle but there were of course a few showstoppers who came out on top on the day.
Katie the Labrador with little Adeera Challis leading the way, showed up in colourful fancy dress attire. Adeera who was probably the cutest among all the owners in her pink outfit, led Katie to first prize in the fancy dress competition. Then there was “Mikie” the little terrier mix breed which won him the favourite rescue dog award with handler Hilary Storer putting him through his paces.
Storer told the audience: “We have had Mikie for three months now … we got him from a project site, nobody wanted him so we took him in. He was very emaciated … we had to have all his teeth out, he had mange and ticks all over his body. He was in really bad shape and look at him now.”
Marmite – a cross breed – led in to the arena by Willoughby who laid down her microphone for a brief moment to help steal the show, took first prize for the “noisiest dog” on show.
Said Willoughby: “I lost my beloved dog … and I’d never been so depressed. One day I said to Vivienne [Challis], ‘I need another companion’. After Marmite’s previous owner passed on, he was given to people who didn’t treat her well, so I took her in and now she’s got her ‘forever and ever’ as long as there’s breath in my body.”
The Happy Family award went to Border collie, Tippex and Ridgeback, Galileo, led by Nicola Bowes. Her best friend Dani Mackay joined her in the win with Border collie Argos and mixed breed, Snippy.
The friendliest dog title went to Major, an all-black Giant Schnauzer, led in to the arena by Caleb and Josh Tessendorf.
The cutest award went to Rexie, a Yorkie cross belonging to Mandy Crystal, while Chaos the bulldog who was a star attraction won dog of the day award with his owner Mike Allen, who brought him to South Africa from the US.
A highlight while the judges were sifting through the participants to choose the various winners was a dog agility show demonstration led by Pauline Stafford with her Border Collie Bolt who heeled, sat, stayed and wound his agile frame through a shute and scaled hurdles with ease.
The entry fee dog food donation was distributed to three main local dog shelters – Retreat2Eden, PA SPCA and Bathurst Pet Ark. Organisers also donated food to deserving families in Bathurst area.
The four judges who had the onerous task of judging the doggies were Port Alfred and Ndlambe SPCA vet, Dr Megan Tucker, Johann Wilhelm from Retreat2Eden, Zanne Tessendorf and Charlotte Brennan.
Sponsors for the generous prizes were Pick n Pay, Paws n Claws, the Pig n Whistle, Nola Eva, Tori Stowe from the corner gallery, Relix, That Coffee Place, The Workshop, Makana Vet, Ploughmans and Ukusiza Consulting. They were also donated a photo shoot from Grant Webb and a drawing by Dereck Newson.
Said organiser Vivien Challis: “We must thank all the dog lovers who participated and to all these lovely well-behaved doggies who made the whole event possible. “See you next year.”
- This article was first published in Talk of the Town, July 25, 2024. The newspaper serving the communities of Ndlambe and the Sunshine Coast, with a weekly wrap of Makhanda news, is available at stores from early on Thursdays.
