Northern Ireland Show Dog of the year Patton’s Samoyed Ir Ch Dilroth Bonnie Apollo

Queen’s Island Canine Club hosted the NI Show Dog, Show Veteran and Pup of the Year 2002 in the Highways Hotel, Larne on the 10 and 11 January.

This event, sponsored by Our Dogs and Pedigree commenced on the Friday evening with the veteran and pup event. This year the judges were Mrs A Cawthera-Purdy and Mrs A Evans and Miss A Ingram was the referee. The ring was marked out in the Pedigree colours, with a table at one end decked out with the beautiful crystal prizes and rosettes to be awarded to the eventual winners.

The format for these events was the same as had been adopted in other years;

Both judges utilising the ring at the same time so that two exhibits were present at any one time. All exhibits had to qualify for entry, and this provided for some very nice dogs on show to the packed ring-side on both days. After examination of the dog and putting them through their paces the judge then completed a marks sheet for this exhibit. Each dog was judged by both judges present and the marks totalled to give a final result.

The Veterans were judged first and the winner was Felicity Thompson's Whippet IR CH BARNESMORE ACE OF SPADES, with Olive Taylor's Chow Chow IR CH LECAN RED WARLORD the runner up. In third place was Olive's second veteran Chow LECAN LOUISIANNA FLASH and in fourth spot was the Irish Setter, SH CH CLONAGEERA FLAMBOYANT AT STARCHELLE.

The winner was presented with a beautiful piece of crystal sponsored by Our Dogs and the runner up received crystal sponsored by Pedigree. All exhibitors on both days also received 2003 diaries sponsored by Our Dogs.

After the photographs were taken, it was time for the judging of the Show Pup of the Year to commence. There were a total of 52 entries with eight absentees on the evening. When judging was completed, it was announced that the services of the referee were required. It was explained to those around the ring-side that there was a clear winner and runner up but, with just one point less were four further exhibits. At this stage these exhibits were called into the ring for the referee, Miss Ingram, to judge, in order to determine third and fourth places. Eventually, called into fourth place was the Min Poodle CATHLORMAR I AM, owned by Mrs McCann; in third place was Diane Ritchie’s Irish Setter GWENDARIFF DOM PERIGNON JW. The runner up to Show Pup of the Year was Kate and Roy Harbinson's Great Dane DAINWOOD DREAM OF VICTORY WITH ACTOLIA and Christine McLarnon's Irish Setter DUNCARREG RIVER SWIFT AT GLENAVNA was declared Show Pup of the Year 2002. Again crystal was presented to the winner and runner up and after photographs were taken it was time to hit the road as many people were returning the following morning to compete in the Show Dog of the Year event.

On Saturday morning judging commenced as scheduled and when each judge had judged half of the dogs present there was a break for lunch. During this time the Junior Handling Classes judged by Mrs Cawthera-Purdy took place. Brett Connolly, turned out as immaculately as ever and handling his Maltese won class A, the age 6-11 category. Class B, age 12 to 16 was won by Kylie Petrie-Gould, well known exhibitor both at junior handling and in the Breed rings, to-day she was handling her Bichon Frise. Wendy Topping handling her Akita won Class C, age 17 - 21. Wendy has been showing dogs since she was eight years of age and has already handled two dogs to their Irish title and her Akita just needs five more Green Star points to claim her title. Well done to all the 'Juniors', the adults would do well to take a leaf out of these young peoples book when it comes to personal presentation and ability to handle their dogs.

Following the lunch break the judges now judged those dogs they had not seen in the morning. Again the marks were totalled up to find the winners, but before these were declared a presentation was made to Ronnie Brown, Show Manager by Mr McGucken in recognition of all the hard work Ronnie put into these events. The results for Show Dog of the Year were then declared in reverse order, and this time the services of the Referee were not required. In fourth place was Gerry McFaul with his L/H Dachshund CH/IR CH DARSOMS ZWAGERSON. In third place was the Afghan hound IR CH POLITICAL STORM AT WILHEN owned by the Stanley/Bickerstaff/ Keenan partnership. Runner up to the Show Dog of the Year was the Newfie INT CH AND I’M GREAT TO BE BACK who resides with Willie Dobbin. Finally, to great cheers the Samoyed IR CH DILROTH BONNIE APOLLO owned by Jim and Mary Patton was declared Show Dog of the Year 2002.

Following the presentations and photo session further presentations were then made to the judges and the referee, in appreciation of all their hard work over the weekend. This brought to a close another very successful weekend in the dog show calendar.

It is regrettable to hear that this may be the last canine event to be held at the Highways Hotel. I understand that in previous years some owners had allowed their dogs to ‘foul’ the inside the hotel in the area provided for use.

Understandably, hotel owners are not going to tolerate this kind of behaviour. It is always the few who destroy it for the majority!

(OUR DOGS apologises for the error in reporting the principal winners of this event Ed.)