It’s hard to believe it’s already June, but it is, which means that it’s nearly Dogs Day Out! This year’s
event is on Sunday, 28th June 2026, from 12-4pm, and all of us here at NWESSR would really love for
you to come along and join us for a fun afternoon!
We’re as busy as ever helping Springers in Need, so it’s also a great opportunity to raise much-needed
funds for NWESSR. There is a £2 entry fee for adults, children’s entry is free. Everyone is welcome, so
please bring along your family and friends – and remember that any breed of dog can enter our dog
show!
As usual, there will be lots of things for both two- and four-legged visitors to enjoy – including favourites
such as the dog show, the have-a-go activities, a tombola, and a raffle. We will also have craft stalls
selling some fabulous handmade items. All proceeds raised are in aid of NWESSR.
This year, NWESSR’s trainer will be running a 30-minute training session at 12.30pm, so why not join in
and ‘Teach Your Dog an Emergency Stop’!
The first dog show class starts at 1pm, but please register at the entry tent beforehand so that the
classes can start on time. £2 per entry:
Class 1 – Loveliest Lady
Class 2 – Fabulous Fella
Class 3 – Waggiest Tail
Class 4 – Best Veteran
Class 5 – Best 6 Legs
Class 6 – Best Paw Shaker
Class 7 – Best NWESSR Dog
Class 8 – Best Rescue
The have-a-go activities, including Dog Agility, Dog Show Jumping, Fastest Recall and Gun Dog Scurry
will be available to take part in throughout the afternoon, these are also £2 per entry.
The ever-popular Pizza Principles will be selling their wood-fired pizzas again (and will be generously
donating to NWESSR for each pizza sold, as usual), and delicious homemade cakes and drinks will be
available in the Village Hall.
Important Information
Parking is free. Please follow our car parking attendant’s instructions and park in the designated area of
the field. Remember the ground is uneven on the field so please take care.
Please note there is no camping available on site, and no picnics are allowed in the Village Hall car park.
Please bring your own chair (or picnic rug) if you wish, as there won’t be any available on the field, sorry.
Please keep your dog on a lead unless taking part in a have-a-go activity. Sorry, no dogs are allowed in
the Village Hall.
Please help us to clear up by placing your and your dog’s litter in the bin bags provided around the field.
Poop bags will be available at the dog show entry tent and the NWESSR stand if you forget your own.
Remember it is CASH ONLY, so please make sure you bring plenty of change with you.
Last but not least, can you help us, please?
This annual event is only possible with the hard work of our volunteers, and we are always looking for
extra people to help on the day. If you can spare some time to help to set up, can help out with the
activities or on a stand, can offer a prize for the raffle or tombola, or can bake some cakes or biscuits to
sell in the Village Hall, please email: dogsdayout@englishspringerrescue.co.uk – any support is greatly
appreciated!
If you are kindly intending to bring along cakes or biscuits on the day, it would be useful to know in
advance what you will be bringing – just so that we can plan accordingly!
The postcode for Lower Withington Village Hall (and fields), Cheshire is SK11 9DX.
We really hope to see you there on Sunday, 28th June 2026!
I know we are a bit biased, but for our NWESSR Crufts Team, there could be only 5 winners, our wonderful Springers, Charlie, Freddie, Milo, Nutmeg and Otto.
What a great day we all had, showcasing Rescue Springer Spaniels on the Royal Kennel Club Breed Rescue Stand. Aptly it was Gun Dog Day and being Sunday was
the day of the final, ensuring a capacity crowd. However, all our dogs took this in their stride and were happy to meet and greet admirers. Especially Charlie who
took things to another level, by lying in the walkway inciting the public to give him a belly rub. We missed a trick and should have charged for it.
After a long but fabulous day, our canines and their owners returned home for a well-earned rest.
I would like to thank the following for their assistance and enthusiasm on the day. Angela, Andrew, Andy, Chris, Eric, Julie H, Julie C, Janet, Kaitlyn, Karen and Shona.
And of course the stars of the show Charlie, Freddie, Milo, Nutmeg and Otto. Finally our sincere thanks to The Royal Kennel Club for the opportunity to attend.
NWESSR are honoured to have been asked once again by the Royal Kennel Club to attend Crufts, as one of their recognised Breed Rescue organisations 🥰
Crufts, probably the most famous dog show in the world, is taking place from Thursday 5th – Sunday 8th March at the NEC Birmingham. We will be there on Sunday 8th March, which this year is Gundog Day followed, of course, by the Best in Show judging 🏆
So, if you are planning to be at Crufts this Sunday, then please come and say hello to us and some of our beautiful rehomed Springers, who’ll be joining us throughout the day to showcase the rewards of adopting a dog 💞
You can find us on the Royal Kennel Club Breed Rescue Stand – Hall 3, Stand 50 – and we’d love to see you there!👋👋
Our friends at HAPPA (Horses And Ponies Protection Association) have kindly invited us to have a stall, and speak about NWESSR’s work, at their Doggy Doo! A Halloween Fest event on Sunday 26th, October 2025 at Shore Heys Farm, near Burnley, Lancashire.
The event will run from 11.00am – 4.00pm, and there will a variety of dog-focused stalls, on-site dog grooming and spa treatments, and a display by the Pendle dog agility team. In addition, there will a novelty dog show, with several fun categories to enter – including ‘Best Halloween dressed’! 👻
HAPPA has a dog-friendly café, featuring a special doggy menu – so you can all have lunch together too!
The event is FREE if you book 2 or more novelty dog show classes, otherwise the Regular Entry Fee is £6 per adult and £1 per child. The Novelty Dog Show is £4 per dog per category.
On the last Sunday in June, as usual, we held our annual Dogs Day Out at Lower
Withington Village Hall in Cheshire. It’s always a joy to see those people and dogs
who attend each year, along with those who are joining us for the first time.
The event is only made possible with the support of a lot of volunteers, and we are
truly grateful to everyone who offered to help in any way and/or donated prizes – as
well as those who came along to support the event on the day.
What the weather is going to do is always a bit of a worry and those who arrive early
to set up everything up invariably get rained on, to some degree or other! However,
it turned out to be a lovely afternoon – sunny, but not too hot for either humans or
canines.
There seemed to be even more entries in the Dog Show classes this year. Waggiest
Tail was again the most popular, closely followed by Fabulous Fella and Best
Veteran. Thank you to John and Heather for expertly coping with registering all the
entries, and to Jennie who then had the unenviable task of judging the winners from
what were all such fabulous dogs!
These are the results of each class:
Class
1st Place
2nd Place
3rd Place
4th Place
1 - Loveliest Lady
Bonnie
Beardshaw
Jess
Sutcliffe
Bisto
Coward
Breeze
Tuohy
2 - Fabulous Fella
Ozzy
Healy
Floyd
Parry
Murphy
Tuohy
Milo
Harwood
3 - Waggiest Tail
Daisy
Jones
Bridie
Gibson
Cedric
Benson
Floyd
Parry
4 - Best Veteran
Fen
Johnson
Tara
Rothwell
Billy
Maguire
Boo
Gibson
5 - Best 6 Legs
Mitzie/
Brindley
Tia/
Griffiths
Grayce/
Newport
Tara/
Rothwell
6 - Best Paw Shaker
Murphy
Tuohy
Diesel & Harris
Wignall
Max
Park
Billy & Buster
Maguire
7 - Best NWESSR Dog
Gus
Abbott
Reuben
Querelle
Phoebe
Needham
Tucker
Upton
8 - Best Rescue
Tia
Griffiths
Flora
Davenhill
Ted
Lewis
Alfie
Gregory
This year, during the short break between the Dog Show classes, The Charlie
Roebuck Trophy was awarded to Milo Harwood, and The Hoover Cup (a new award
in memory of well-known NWESSR dog Hoover, and which replaces The Philip
Green Shield) was presented to Ozzy Leighton-Williamson.
The have-a-go activities were as popular as ever, and a big thank you goes (in no
particular order) to Sue, Rhiannon, Kaitlyn, Shona, Charlene, Janet, Nicki, Becky
and Wendy for running the Dog Show Jumping, Fastest Recall, Gun Dog Scurry and
Dog Agility throughout the afternoon!
Here are the Champions and their times:
Activity
Winner
Time
Dog Show Jumping Champion
Cedric
Benson
34:00
Dog Show Jumping Veteran
Fen
Johnson
40:41
Fastest Recall Champion
Gus
Abbott
2:94
Fastest Recall Veteran
Brodie
Smith
3:03
Gun Dog Scurry Champion
Freddie
Smyth
14:82
Gun Dog Scurry Veteran
Buster
Cross
22:28
Thank you to Sarah and Fiona who were kept busy again in the café in the Village
Hall, serving up wonderful homemade cakes and drinks. Thank you also to
everyone who brought cakes for us to sell in the café. Pizza Principles came along
again and supported NWESSR by making a donation for each delicious pizza they
sold on the day.
Many thanks again to Karon, with support from Sheila, for running the tombola, to
Pauline and Irene for selling the raffle tickets, and to Bill, Elaine and Deborah for
running the NWESSR stand. Thank you too to Mel for selling her fantastic cards and
donating the proceeds to NWESSR!
This year Chris did a grand job of making the announcements throughout the day,
and Janet, our loyal photographer, once again caught lots of happy and humorous
moments during the event. The photos can all be viewed below.
A huge ‘thank you’ from me to all the early morning crew (you know who you are!)
who arrived to help set everything up, including Sara for helping to mark out the field
– and to those stayed to pack it all away again at the end of the day. Thanks to
Karen and Andy, who once again directed everyone through the entrance gate and
ensured they were safely parked, but who also helped to load the van the previous
day and unload it after the event.
It’s almost impossible to mention everyone personally, but NWESSR is extremely
grateful to ALL the volunteers who helped in any way with the event.
As usual, all the proceeds from the day will help us to continue our work, so thank
you once again for your support.
Dogs Day Out next year will be on Sunday, 28th June 2026, when we hope you’ll
join us again for another great event!
On Sunday it was NWESSR’s main event of the year “Dogs Day Out” and what a good time was had by all.
A little drizzle of rain early on got the organisers a bit jittery, but it stopped before it really started, the day was dry and we didn’t get the thunderstorm threat of past year’s either.
It was fantastic to see so many Springers and non-Springers on the field with their owners. Some have been coming for years and are old friends, for others it was their first time, having only been adopted this year.
The dog classes were well contested, I did not envy the judge having to choose the winners. Dogs were put through their paces on the “have a go” agility, show jumping, fastest recall and the scurry.
Some of them not playing exactly to the rules, but causing some merriment in the process.
I would like to thank fundraising co-ordinator Julie Hesmondhalgh for putting the event together. The judge and professional photographer who give their time freely. The volunteers who came on the day and slipped effortlessly into their roles.
And the volunteers who worked in the background to promote it. We had the tastiest of pizza’s on the field, mouth-watering cakes in the hall and a lovely selection of cards on Mel’s stall. Finally, thank you to those who stayed to pack everything away tidily and load the van and those who cleaned the café, you would never have known we had been there.
I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. Even if your furry friend didn’t come away with a rosette or cup, you should know they are all winners in our eyes and we are very proud of them and their owners.
The results of the competitions will be published on the site shortly and the fabulous photos of the day will be available to view here too.
This week is Volunteers’ Week (2nd – 8th June), which is an annual UK-wide campaign to celebrate and recognise the contributions of volunteers. It’s a great opportunity to thank all of NWESSR’s volunteers for giving up their time to enable us to help as many lovely Springers as we do each year!
NWESSR is entirely run by volunteers, including its Trustees and those who carry out key roles within the charity. We have many other, not so visible, volunteers though – including home checkers, those who ‘meet and greet’ when dogs are surrendered to our care and subsequently rehomed, foster homes, dog walkers, those who help out on a stand or with an activity at Dogs Day Out (it’s on 29th June this year!), or who join us at Crufts to showcase the benefits, and the joy, of rescuing a Springer.
Like many charities, NWESSR depends on its volunteers to be able to carry out our work so, whatever it is that you do to help us, we are truly grateful, thank you!
There were many winners at this year’s Crufts Event, but the one’s we were most proud of were the fabulous NWESSR Springer Spaniels, Charlie, Freddie, Jess, Milo, Nutmeg and Webster. They did an amazing job on our stand on Gun Dog Day, taking it in turns to meet and greet the public, accepting their pats, strokes and belly rubs graciously. True ambassadors for the charity.
We would like to thank the Kennel Club for allowing us this opportunity to showcase the charity and taking good care of us on the day. Of course none of this would have been possible without our “Best in Show” human volunteers, who joined me on the day. Many thanks to Andy, Bill, Charlene, Chris, Elaine, Eric, Julie C, Julie H, Karen, Kaitlyn and Shona
On Sunday 30th June, our annual Dogs Day Out took place at Lower Withington
Village Hall in Cheshire. It was lovely to see so many familiar faces (human and
canine!) again, but it was also great to see new some faces too this year!
It takes a lot of volunteers to make the event happen, so a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to
everyone who came along on the day, offered to help, and donated prizes for the
event. Your support really is appreciated.
The weather on the day is almost the only thing that can’t be accurately predicted,
but thankfully it was kinder to us this year. We did have some light rain, but not the
monsoon we experienced at the end of Dogs Day Out in 2023!
As usual, there were plenty of entries in the Dog Show classes – with Waggiest Tail
and Best Veteran being the most popular this year. John and Heather did a sterling
job once again registering all the entries, while Anthony provided a training
demonstration in the Dog Show ring, and then Irene, Wendy and Sarah had a tough
job judging so many fabulous dogs!
Here are the results of each class:
Class
1st Place
2nd Place
3rd Place
4th Place
1 - Loveliest Lady
Tia
Griffiths
Nutmeg
Harwood
Sasha
Bown
Honey
Henshall
2 - Fabulous Fella
Max
Park
Freddie
Smyth
Buster
Maguire
Duke
Marshall
3 - Waggiest Tail
Jess
Sutcliffe
Daisy
Jones
Milo
Lawrence
Jess
Wood
4 - Best Veteran
Rocco
Jones
Alfie
Gregory
Ted
Lewis
Rose
Ratcliffe
5 - Best 6 Legs
Jess/
Wood
Leo/
Niels
Sasha/
Bown
Alfie/
Gregory
6 - Best Paw Shaker
Luna
Sutton
Henry
Goulding
Max
Park
Billy
Maguire
7 - Best NWESSR Dog
Ted
Lewis
Flora
Davenhill
Milo
Lawrence
Floyd
Parry
8 - Best Rescue
Jess
Cooper
Lacey
Coulter
Nutmeg
Harwood
Whisper
Butterworth
During the break in the Dog Show classes, The Charlie Roebuck Trophy was
awarded to Stan Taylor, and The Philip Green Shield was presented to Alfie
Butterworth.
Eric guided lots of giddy dogs (and owners!) around the fun Dog Agility course, while
this year Kaitlyn and Keeley counted the faults in the Dog Show Jumping ring. Chris
and family timed some speedy entrants in the Fastest Recall, and once again Joy
ably ran the Gun Dog Scurry, with support from new volunteers Chris and Abbi, for
some very clever dogs. Thank you all!
These were the Champions and their times:
Activity
Winner
Time
Dog Show Jumping Champion
Penny
McCourt
22:56
Dog Show Jumping Veteran
Fen
Johnson
50:06
Fastest Recall Champion
Billy
Maguire
2:69
Fastest Recall Veteran
Buster
Croft
3:38
Gun Dog Scurry Champion
Paddy
Procter
8:32
Gun Dog Scurry Veteran
Luna
Sutton
9:25
The café in the Village Hall was a hive of activity as Sarah and Fiona provided
fabulous homemade cakes and drinks. Thank you to everyone who brought cakes
for us to sell in the café – including some homemade doggie treats! Pizza Principles
were in attendance again and supported NWESSR by donating for every delicious
pizza sold on the day.
Many thanks to Karon for running the tombola, to Pauline and Irene for selling the
raffle tickets, and to Bill, Elaine and Deborah for running the NWESSR stand. Thank
you to Mel for selling her fantastic cards, to Pat for creating doggie advent calendars
and so much more, and to Allyson for knitting some seriously stylish dog jumpers –
your contributions to NWESSR were all amazing!
Bledd did a brilliant job making announcements throughout the day, and Janet, our
dedicated photographer, caught lots of happy moments during the dog classes, the
have-a-go activities, and of individual dogs. The photos can all be viewed below.
A big collective ‘thank you’ from me to all the early morning crew who arrived to help
set everything up, and to those stayed to pack it all away again at the end of the day!
Thanks to Karen and Andy, who once again directed everyone through the entrance
gate and ensured they were safely parked.
It’s always difficult to include absolutely everyone by name, but NWESSR is
extremely grateful to ALL the volunteers who helped in any way to make the event
possible.
All the proceeds from the day help us to continue the charity’s work, so thank you
once again for coming along to show your support.
Next year, Dogs Day Out will be on Sunday, 29th June 2025, so pop that date in
your diary and we really hope to see you then for another grand day out!
Last Sunday, one of our fantastic supporters, Jessica Robson, successfully completed the Manchester Half Marathon, in aid of NWESSR.
As we’ve already mentioned, Jessica decided to take part in the event for a very special reason:
“The half marathon will be on the first anniversary of the day my English Springer Spaniel, Henry, unfortunately passed away after his liver cancer diagnosis, so I found it fitting to run in memory of him and fundraise for a cause so close to my heart as he was a rescue Springer”.
Through her JustGiving page, Jessica has already raised £800 (including Gift Aid) for NWESSR! A big ‘thank you’ to everyone who’s already donated – as Jessica said, “everyone has been very generous”.
Jessica’s JustGiving page is still open, so if you haven’t already donated, but would like to, you can do so here:
