On the last Sunday in June, we held our annual Dogs Day Out at Lower Withington Village Hall in Cheshire.  Once again, there were a lot of familiar faces, but quite a few new ones too this year, which was lovely to see.

As always, a sincere ‘thank you’ to everyone who came along on the day, offered to help, and donated prizes for the event.  We just couldn’t do it without your support!

In the lead up to the event, it was looking like it would be a real scorcher, but on the day the weather was relatively kind.  We nearly made it to the end of the day before the heavens opened and we all got drenched – but not quite!

There were more entries in the Dog Show classes this year – particularly Loveliest Lady and Fabulous Fella – all expertly registered once again by John in the entry tent, with Nicki doing a grand job as the new Steward.  The competition was stiff, but always good fun!

These were the results of each class:

Class	1st Place	2nd Place	3rd Place	4th Place
1 – Loveliest Lady	Bella Brown	Molly & Pip Jones	Suzy Catterall	Hattie Reid
2 – Fabulous Fella	Otto Rutherford	Charles Wood	Moose Henshall	Henry Goulding
3 – Waggiest Tail	Oscar Bracegirdle	Poppy Craig	Otto Rutherford	Ruby Legood
4 – Best Veteran	Bim Abbott	Ted Lewis	Midge Griffiths	Fen Johnson
5 – Best 6 Legs	Otto/ Rutherford	Buster/ McGuire	Kiara/ Taylor	Oscar/ Bracegirdle
6 – Best Paw Shaker	Max Park	Henry Goulding	Milo Harwood	Billy & Buster McGuire
7 – Best NWESSR Dog	Brodie Smith	Nutmeg Howard	Moose Henshall	Ted Lewis
8 – Best Rescue	Leo Royston	Jess Wood	Kiara Taylor	Tia Griffiths

 

 

The Dog Agility course was as popular as ever, with Eric keeping an experienced eye on the proceedings.  Chris and family did a great job of taking over the reins in the Dog Show Jumping ring, while Marie had to be quick on the draw with the stopwatch in the Fastest Recall, and Joy, Cath and friends did a fantastic job running the Gun Dog Scurry for the first time.  There were some very fast times in all the have-a go activities this year!

These were the winners and times for each of the Champions:

Activity	Winner	Time
Dog Show Jumping Champion	Lady Bella Brown	17:00
Dog Show Jumping Veteran	Fen Johnson	25:00
Fastest Recall Champion	Duke Marshall	1:58
Fastest Recall Veteran	Tilly Sparkes	2:60
Gun Dog Scurry Champion	Tain Poulton	9:28
Gun Dog Scurry Veteran	Honey Henshall	12:03

 

Sarah and Carol were kept busy again in the café in the village hall, serving up wonderful homemade cakes and drinks.  Thank you to everyone who brought cakes for us to sell this year.  Pizza Principles also came along again and supported NWESSR by making a donation for every delicious pizza they sold on the day.

A big ‘thank you’ to Elaine and David for running the tombola and raffle, and to Bill and Elaine for watching over the NWESSR stand.  This year we were supported by Pet Portraits by Avril, Ren & Thread, and Mel selling some fantastic cards – thank you all for your contributions to NWESSR.  It was a bit of a rush to keep everything on the stands dry at the end of the day, but everyone did a great job!

Our fabulous photographer, Janet, captured some great images throughout the day of the dog classes, have-a go activities, as well as individual dogs.  These will be posted on the website separately.

Special thanks to the ‘usual suspects’, and several new volunteers including Sara, Joy, Elaine, Karen and Andy, who came early to help set everything up, and, of course, to those who stayed to help pack everything away – and got drenched in the process!

It’s impossible to mention everyone personally, but nevertheless NWESSR is extremely grateful to ALL the volunteers who helped in any way with the event.

As usual, the proceeds from the day will go a long way in helping us to continue our work, so thank you once again for your support.

Next year, Dogs Day Out will be on Sunday, 30th June 2024, so make a note of the date and we’ll hopefully see you again for another great day!

 

Julie Hesmondhalgh (NWESSR Fundraising Co-ordinator) & Elaine Wood (Dogs Day Out Co-ordinator)