Area pup featured on Budweiser holiday cans

A 160-pound Liberty Twp. pup is famous this holiday season as the winner of Budweiser’s first Pupweiser contest.

Wilson the St. Bernard, who lives with a pit bull mix bother and a feline sister, is the face of special edition holiday cans on sale now.

Kelsey Dempsey, a civil engineer, and fiancé Colin Black, a software engineer, worked from home a lot during the pandemic, and Dempsey said that’s when she took up photography in her spare time. In March, the Budweiser contest looking for photogenic dog caught her eye.

“I got into photography as a hobby. I had taken some pictures during the holiday season. I saw someone had posted to be on the cans. I thought that would be fun. We love beer and dogs,” Dempsey said. ”I posted to their hashtag not thinking much of it. They contacted me a few days later and said we were in the final four. It was crazy.”

After several days of voting on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, Dempsey learned her 2-year-old dog was the winner.

“The public got to vote and he won. I couldn’t believe it,” Dempsey said.

Wilson was purchased from a breeder after the loss of Dempsey’s much-loved rescue St. Bernard, Apollo. The senior dog lived a long life, but developed health issues. Dempsey said she hoped a dog from a breeder would have less issues.

Wilson comes from a line of show dogs and has a mellow

temperament.

The first week of this month, they traveled St. Louis for Wilson’s photo shoot and a tour of Anheuser-Busch that included a meet up with the famous Clydesdale horses.

“They made Wilson look tiny,” Dempsey said.

Wilson has always loved people and his fame is something he’s loving.

Wilson has always really liked people and attention, so this is dream to have people say, ‘hey can I get a picture and can I pet him’,” Dempsey said.

This was the first year for the contest and Anheuser-Busch is now looking for the special pup to be pictured on 2022 holiday cans. More information may be found online at us.budweiser.com/ en/Pupweiser.html.

And Wilson’s adventures be followed on his Instagram page at @apollo_and_wilson.

CONTRIBUTED Liberty Twp. resident Kelsey Dempsey’s Wilson is a big dog, but he looked a bit small at his photo shoot earlier this month meeting the famed Budweiser Clydesdales at Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis.

NICK GRAHAM / STAFF Wilson, 2-year-old St. Bernard from Liberty Twp., was selected to be featured on Budweiser holiday cans and packaging for the 2021 season. Wilson was chosen out of more than 100,000 entries.