A Burnham-On-Sea dog has been judged to be one of the friendliest in Britain in a nationwide competition.
Ness Holbrow entered her border terrier Jack by submitting a photo to the ‘Dog Friendly’ judges, who had the job of selecting the most friendliest dogs across the country.
Ness told Burnham-On-Sea.com she “shed a tear” this week when she realised to her delight that her much-loved pet – formerly a rescue dog – had won a place in the 2018 Dog Friendly Calendar as one of the top 12 friendliest faces, plus a £250 holiday voucher.
There were two parts to this year’s photo competition. Firstly the ‘Dog Friendly Face of the Year’, which was chosen by celebrity judge Paul Martin of BBC2’s ‘Flog It!’ from every single entry in the competition. Paul and his wife Charlotte had a massive task with more than 3,500 wonderful photos to choose from.
The second part of the competition was voted for by the public. The 40 pictures with the most votes were presented to the judges and 12 were chosen for the 2018 Dog Friendly Calendar.
The 12 winners will appear in the 2018 Dog Friendly calendar and have each won a £250 holiday voucher and a professional photo shoot. Ness will have to travel to London to receive her prize… along with Jack of course!
She explained: “This is my rescued Border Terrier, Sir Jack Spratticus, from Border Terrier Welfare UK. Once he had stopped zooming through the leaves, tossing them up in the air and then pretending to hide, decided to eventually pause for this photo!”
“Jack joined his forever-home at 13 months old, and this was Jack’s fourth home. Although he had lots of problems, which took a year to turn around, he went on to come second in The Rescue/Rehomed dog championships a few years ago out of approximately 80 dogs that had to qualify for in the first place.”
He qualified with a first at the Mid Somerset Show. At the beginning of August Jack was accepted by the organisation Canine Generated Independence, so has commenced his training to be an assistance dog for Ness.
The intensive training is carried out by Ness herself. Jack loves nothing more than learning and being with his buddies.
She added: “I was telephoned on Saturday to say Jack’s photo had been shortlisted and the person responsible for Dog Friendly went on to ask me some questions about the photo and Jack.”
“I never thought in a million years we stood a chance to win as an 100% amateur photographer who takes photos with her phone!”
“Of course I knew Jack was a great poser but I still could not remember for the life of me which photo I had submitted!”
“Out of over 5000 photos I have stored on my computer, I certainly wasn’t going to hazard a guess, and anyway the thought did not enter my mind to do this as I said never thought I stood a chance.”
“I just left it to, ‘what will happen, will happen’ and if it is meant to be, then it is meant to be.”
She added: “When I checked on the Dog Friendly website for the winners, I scrolled down and then spotted second to the end Jack’s face staring back at me!”
“At that point I shed a tear.”
“Never have I won anything – and certainly nothing of this monetary value. I was stunned to say the least and am infinitely grateful!”
