Several months ago, the Mad About Schnauzers admin team asked for fundraising ideas. I suggested we try a fun on-line dog show. They thought it was a good idea and Schcrufts! The first Mad About Schnauzers online dog show was born.
We agreed on 15 categories from a very long list of ideas and decided that we would ask for a sponsor for each category. The sponsor would donate the prize for their category and have the hard task of shortlisting the finalists. Entry would be £2 per photo with all proceeds going to the fund to support rescue schnauzers at DBARC.
The first step was to find sponsors so we asked on our Facebook groups if anyone was interested. Our fantastic members came up trumps and we had sponsors and prizes for each category in no time.
15 Categories. 15 Fantastic Prizes!
We also organised a trophy for each winner along with a mug featuring their winning photo.
And to top it all off, the wonderful Inka Designs donated a beautiful Pickle bracelet. Everyone who entered 7 or more photos was automatically entered into a draw to win this amazing bonus prize.
The Lead Up To The Dog Show
In the lead up to the dog show we had some helpful tips on taking photos of dogs from professional pet photographers. They covered topics such as photographing black dogs, lighting, staging and posing the photo and how to take great action shots. I have complied these tips into a separate blog post so we can all get some practice in ready for next year’s dog show!
The Dog Show
The dog show was open for entries for one week. We had an incredible response. We had hundreds and hundreds of entries. I really loved looking at all the funny, sweet, beautiful schnauzers photos that people had entered.
Once entries closed, the sponsors had to pick just 6 finalists for each of their categories. And whilst this was happening, the draw to win the Pickle bracelet took place.
Samantha Reksat was the lucky winner of the prize draw. She shared this photo of her gorgeous prize:
Once the shortlist had been decided for each category, it was over the the MAS group to vote for their winners. Voting was open for several days and loads of people took part.
When voting closed, we had a tie in two categories so the drama continued! The joint winners in each of the categories were put to a vote again and when that closed, we had our final list of glorious winners.
By then we also had totted up all the entry monies. The dog show raised a fantastic
£2,400
The Winners And Their Winning Photos
And here they are – our winners. Congratulations to the winners and also a massive thank you to everyone who took part.
All the winners will receive their photo printed onto a mug…
Let’s not forget the schnauzer slaves who entered their gorgeous schnauzers in the show…
And here are some really lovely photos shared by the winners of their lovely schnauzers with their trophies. Click on the photos to open them in a larger window.
All in all, the dog show was a huge success. The fantastic Mad About Schnauzers members raised loads of money and had fun doing it. I think we should make this an annual event! Thank you to everyone who donated a prize, entered the competition and voted for winners.
Author: Joanna Booty