Everyone thinks their dog is the cutest, but this weekend a dog show will once and for all crown the cutest pooch in Wollongong.
The Rotary Club of West Wollongong is hosting the Paws4aCause Dog Show at Illawarra Dog Training Club on Sunday, May 7.
Illawarra residents will be entering their four-legged friends into competitions for the best tail-wagger, cutest puppy, fancy dress, most dignified old timer, best hairdo and best dressed.
While a dog groomer will be judging the best hairdo, it's not clear yet what the criteria is for the best tail-wagger: the most enthusiastic pooch perhaps?
Taco, the Labrador, is hoping to take out more than just her surroundings when entering the best tail-wagger competition this weekend.
"She just wags [her tail] and she can knock everything flying. She's very enthusiastic with her tail-wagging," the event organiser Dianne North said.
If you would like to enter your dog in a competition, entry is a five dollar donation per competition which can be registered on the day or beforehand on paws4acause.raisely.com.
The dog show will include demonstrations, stalls, and competitions to raise money for reconstructive surgery in developing countries.
The charity Interplast, celebrating its 40th anniversary, helps people with burns, tumours, hand and foot injuries, and congenital anomalies in the Asia Pacific.
Mrs North said Guide Dogs will also be attending for training and hopefully to encourage more Illawarra locals to become foster families.
"The guide dogs will be coming along with some of their little puppies-in-training, which will be lovely, they're going to give us a demonstration," she said.
Mrs North, the club secretary of the Rotary Club of West Wollongong, said she was invited to a similar dog show in Kings Cross, Sydney and wanted to bring the event to the Illawarra.
"This is the first time we've had a dog show like this in the Illawarra but we're hoping to make it a really big event," she said.
"We're running a big raffle with it as well and local businesses have been so generous we've got about 18 prizes."
The top prize is a three-course meal at Kembla Grange Turf Club for four people.
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Perhaps one of the more peculiar events for the day is a "wee dog lotto".
Twenty donated tyres will be set up in a ring for old-timer Buddy, a 'Shih Tzu -Maltese with a bit of Jack Russell thrown in'.
"We've got a dog who is older, and he's got a weak bladder, so all the tyres are numbered," Mrs North said.
"We sell those tyres for five dollars each, put the dog in the ring and the first tyre he wees on that's the winner of the dog lotto."
Mrs North says the event and competitions are all a bit of fun to raise money for charity and bring the community together.
"It's just really great to get out and get connected again, and involve our most loved family member - the dog," she said.
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Marlene Even
Journalist at the Illawarra Mercury. Previously a radio and podcast host at 2SER Radio.
Journalist at the Illawarra Mercury. Previously a radio and podcast host at 2SER Radio.
