By popular request, North West Ipswich Big Local Trust held our second Fun Dog Show at Castle Hill Park on Sunday, 8 September.

Following on from last year’s success, the NWI BLT Events Team, ably assisted by a number of volunteers and Ipswich Borough Council Parks, decided to repeat the show with a slightly different slant.

As well as having a large number of entries into the usual dog show, it was decided to expand the offering and invite organisations who had a more specific use for our four legged friends, showing the great work they do and how specially trained dogs improve the lives of many people who suffer from a variety of needs and disabilities.

We were lucky enough to be joined by guide dogs for the blind and hearing dogs as well as the RSPCA who re home dogs, matching them carefully to new owners.  It was fascinating to speak to the guide and hearing dogs owners and learn how their dogs had transformed their lives.

One was a young working family man who was profoundly deaf and had all the electronic gizmos going to improve his and his family’s quality of life.  But when he got his hearing dog his life changed for the better almost overnight.  He had so many wonderful stories about how his dog gave him and his family the independence he hadn’t experienced before.

All these organisations are charities and depend for their existence on donations.  We will divide all the money made at the event between the 3 organisations who took up the offer to attend.

We were lucky enough to have good weather and the judging in the dog show was great fun to watch with all ages showing off their dogs, much to the delight of the crowd.  The winners were presented with rosettes by the experienced judge and it was good to see many young people taking part.

We would like to thank everyone who contributed by way of their time and organisations who donated prizes for the draw etc.

Another very successful event for the team – so what next?  Would you like the Dog Show to become an annual event or if you have any ideas of what you would like to see happen in the NWI BLT area (Whitton, Whitehouse and Castle Hill) please let us know on facebook, twitter or using our contact form.