Awwwsome Dogs at Brooklyn Heights Dog Show

BHA: They’re All Winners!

September 24, 2013 By Mary Frost Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Photos by Mary Frost

Share this:

Roughly 60 way-too-adorable canines strutted their stuff at the Brooklyn Heights Dog Show during Sunday’s Summer Space event.

Ring Master George Jagatic provided the entertaining patter as the dogs, tails-a-wagging, were led by their doting owners around the ring set up in the middle of Montague Street. Children pressed up against the metal barriers ended up getting their faces licked, to their squealing delight.

Pity the panel of judges — Anna Graziano, Peter Houghtaling and Charley Villacara — who had to decide which dogs were cutest, sweetest and most talented.

The official position of the Brooklyn Heights Association, event sponsor, is that all the participating pups are blue-ribbon winners, said Judy Stanton, BHA executive director. None-the-less, prizes in ten categories were handed out.

The winners:

Garcon: Cutest Outfit – owned by Beverly Mulley
Lainie and Jack: Cutest Dog Duo – owned by Suzie Cimato
Cricket: Best Kisser – owned by Christine Hayashida
Lola: Most Talkative – owned by Lily and Rory Rothman
Chewie: Best Behaved – owned by Erin Temple Siler
Pepper: Sweetest Big Dog – owned by Ruchika Shah
Jasmine: Cutest Small Dog – owned by Alexandra Kustow
Ava Barnes: Best Looking Medium Dog – owned by Richard Barnes
Arpad: Cutest Puppy – owned by Zsuzsanna Karasz
Lola: Most Talented – owned by Jeffrey Marks

Chosen from the above winners, by audience applause, is Best In Show. This year’s Best In Show was awarded to Ava Barnes, the Australian Sheepdog who won the Best Looking Medium Dog award. Ava, “the clear audience favorite,” according to the BHA, wowed the crowd with several impressive tricks.

Community members and businesses volunteered their time and goods to make the dog show a success. These include Tom Vasquez from Perfect Paws, Sammy Rum from Pet’s Emporium and Andrea Demetropoulos from Rocco and Jezebel for Pets, who provided the “generously stuffed” treat bags; the NYPD and Watchtower, who donated the metal barriers and stanchions used to make the ring; and Kyle Keays-Hagerman from Issue Project Room, who provided the sound system.

Le Pain Quotidien donated a $50 gift certificate for the Best In Show winner (the owner, not the dog), and Dellarocco’s Restaurant donated a raffle prize of a dinner for two, won by BHA member Mary Dunne.

Gale Edgerton volunteered as show photographer, and Ashley Kalmar as videographer.