With over 60 entries for our Happy Dog Photo competition, we're sure you can imagine it wasn't easy to choose the winner! In our book all these lovely dogs are winners, you can see this from their smiling, happy faces ... and we're heartened that so many were rescued dogs that once led very sad lives but now thanks to the wonderful dog lovers around the UK (and overseas) are leading the kind of lives that all dogs should have.
As the UK team really couldn't make a final decision, we 'passed the buck' to Jill, who made the final cut from our short-list. It wasn't easy but her final choice was Alfie, a rescue Border Collie, followed by Mollie, Rafa and Skipper.
Jill said of Alfie, "Alfie's lovely trusting eyes, smiling mouth and the sheer joy of loving something as simple as a stick in a field of bluebells....it doesn't get better for a dog. "
Alfie's pal David who put him forward gave us some more background on him, "Alfie was taken from a flat in London where he was born and not treated well, he was then shifted from home to home with people that could not handle his energy levels and was not socialised or walked - all of this in his first 9 months. We picked Alfie up from Portsmouth dog rescue in 2005. He was terrified of travelling in cars and could not be left alone (even following us from room to room all day long) but after lots of training, treats, walks, love and cuddles he has become a fantastic, well adjusted dog that likes nothing more than his walks - especially if it's a trip to the beach."
We hope you agree Alfie is a well-deserved winner and our generous donors at Company of Animals will be sending his lovely prize soon.
Thanks to everyone and their dogs for entering our competition and please enjoy the slideshow below of all our wonderful entrants.
