Owner’s delight as rescue dog from Connel wins first prize
A RESCUE dog from Connel took a surprise first prize in the gun dog category at the Lorn Show.
Just a few months ago Barney, a twoyear- old Golden Retriever, was terrified of dogs and people, but last Saturday he came top of the hunting breeds.
‘I was almost in tears,’ his owner Janet Finlayson told The Oban Times.
Barney’s previous owner bought him to show at Crufts, where he won both his showings as a puppy, but, as he grew up, other dogs began to attack him and he had to be retired from the competition life.
Thanks to the Golden Retriever Club of Scotland’s rescue and re-homing service, and after the death of her own dog, earlier this year, Janet met Barney, at first scared and cowed.
‘He crept up to me on all fours,’ she recalled. ‘It was the start of an interesting love affair. He’s soft, gentle and loving: he’s a big pussy cat.’
At the urging of her neighbour, Janet entered Barney in the Lorn Agricultural Show in Benderloch and didn’t think he stood a chance against all the other gun dogs. But, she said, as soon as the judge walked over to them with the winning rosette, ‘Barney knew: he jumped up on me, excited, with his tail wagging.’
The prize, of three crisp pound notes, wasn’t perhaps the equal of Crufts, but Barney’s owners were thrilled and proud of his return to champion form. They plan to celebrate with Barney’s favourite thing – food, particularly watermelon – and his second favourite thing: jumping into the sea.