Top dogs at Northland Canine Association show

A whopping 664 entries coupled with sunny weather provided the ideal platform for the Northland Canine Association's centennial celebrations that started with a three-day dog show in Whangarei over the Northland Anniversary weekend.

Barge Park in Maunu was a sea of tents and dogs of all breeds strutted their stuff to compete for the daily title of best in the show.

Association secretary Gael Bassett said the competition had been fantastic, with dogs of more than 100 breeds competing in seven categories - toys, working, terrier, gun dogs, hounds, utilities and non-sporting dogs. The main prizes were kauri trophies carved by Kaiwaka artist John Whelan.

Ms Bassett said a basset hound won the best in show prize on Saturday morning, an Australian shepherd won in the afternoon, a Siberian husky on Sunday morning, and a doberman in the afternoon.

Dogs came from as far south as Christchurch, Wellington, Taranaki and Hawke's Bay.

All except one judge for the three-day show were from Australia and Canada.

The dobermann called Macy, judged best in the show on Sunday afternoon, is owned by Aucklander Samantha Hedges, who has been competing in shows for 25 years, including Australia, the US and Britain.

"Macy has done well. I bred her for three and a half years from frozen semen from the US. She's been best in shows before," she said.

Another Aucklander, Yau Laura, scooped the best in show prize yesterday

with her utility dog samoyed.

"I am excited. I didn't expect to win because there's a lot of competition and some good dogs out there," she said.