A paw-rade of 22 dogs participated in furry fundraiser at Mayo school

Cooper the miniature pinscher wouldn’t win best-behaved dog, that’s a sure bet. It’s one of the reasons Mattie Washburn-Zech said she didn’t enter him in the Mayo dog show.

“He gets into a lot of things,” Washburn-Zech told the News over the phone on Oct. 11. “I’m scared he’s going to get into the bake sale.”

Washburn-Zech is one of the students in the Grade 6/7 class at J.V. Clark School who came up with the idea to host a dog show as a fundraiser for the school.

She spoke to the News during a break from arranging the gym for the event, which took place later that night. It drew 22 competitors and an audience of more than 90.

The goal of the event (other than, obviously, to pet dogs), was to raise funds for the Grade 6/7 volleyball team to travel to Whitehorse for the championships in early November.

“We were looking for probably $2,500, because that’s the cost for 11 students to stay in a hotel for three nights,” said school principal Doug Cooper (no relation to the pinscher).

The cost to enter a dog in the show was $20. Cooper had thought $1,000 was a conservative estimate for the evening, which included the sale of the afore-mentioned baked goods, hot chocolate, hot dogs, tickets to a 50/50 draw and Yaami Candles made by entrepreneurship students at the school. “We raised $1,350.35. We were amazed.”

For the first-ever show, dogs came dressed in their finest t-shirts, bandanas and bowties, to show off their skills, soak up audience support, and compete for prizes.

Cooper said there were enough ribbons and categories that no dog should have had to go home empty-pawed.

During the show, a panel of judges chosen from the community were tasked with awarding prizes (sponsored by the Feed Store in Whitehorse) in categories including best rescue dog, best puppy, best elder dog, best groomed dog, waggiest tail, best in show, most obedient dog, and best owner-dog look-alike pair.

Washburn-Zech says the class arrived at the categories by thinking about the dogs in Mayo. A lot of them are rescues, she said, or stray dogs from the community or Pelly Crossing.

Because of that, the scope of this particular show was broadened beyond traditional categories like the ones you’d find at Westminster. There was no toy group, herding group, or best of breed, for example. The categories were designed with that most ubiquitous of northern breeds in mind — the Yukon Special.

A complete list of winners is as follows:

Best Puppy

Chimmy (Cassius Hager)

Yoda (Lynn Dubois)

Buster (Joan Hyvre)

Nooka (Aaron Burnie)

Luna (Sarah Paschuk)

Best Rescue

Axel (Tanner Moses -Mclaren)

Osa (Ava Young)

Tika ( John Reid)

T-Bone (Dan Stach)

Stanley (Tara McCauley)

Best Older Dog

Hunter (Michelle Buyck)

Milo (Simeon Paschuk)

Lacey (Trevor/Aiden Ellis)

Penny (Syd Anderson)

Randy (Velma Anderson)

Best Groomed Dog

Bambi (Chelsea Dolan)

Lindy (Virginia Mitford)

Macy (Taylor Ewing)

Tack (Amy Noseworthy)

Levi (Rosy/River Stenerson)

Waggiest Tail

Phoebe (Annabelle Lattie)

Bennie (Brett Stauffer)

Bernie (River Stenerson)

Stanley (Tara McCauley)

Macy (Taylor Ewing)

Most Obedient

Abby (Colin Dubois)

Macy (Taylor Ewing)

Lindy (Virginia Mitford)

Yoda (Lynn Dubois)

Betty (Joan Hyvre)

Most Like Owner

Buster (Joan Hyvre)

Best in Show

Stanley (Tara McCauley)

Contact Amy Kenny at amy.kenny@yukon-news.com