Every year we celebrate all the special dogs in South Africa as well as the professional people who ease the lives of animals, with the Animaltalk Top Dog Awards. There are three different categories for dogs and two categories for humans.
Throughout the year, dogs compete to become the ultimate Top Dog at the annual Animaltalk Top Dog Awards in the agility and show dog categories from accumulated points throughout the year. The remaining three category winners are chosen from the readers’ nominations.
Animaltalk Top Dog 100 ratings
This category honours the best of South Africa’s show dogs. Included in this category are the Top Dog, Top Bitch, Top SA-Bred Dog and group winners.
Animaltalk Top Dog Agility
This award goes to South Africa’s talented agility dogs and their dedicated handlers for their achievements throughout the year. Junior handlers are also awarded for their outstanding work.
Animaltalk Recognition Awards
The Animaltalk Recognition Awards are divided into three categories: Courageous Canine, Veterinary Excellence and Animal Hero. The readers are in charge of nominating worthy winners through our website. [Click here] to nominate the person or dog who you think should win one of these awards.
Courageous Canine
Although all dogs are heroes, there are those dogs who stand out above the rest and who deserve to be honoured for their courageous actions. We are looking for true hero dogs who inspire people. The Courageous Canine for 2017 was Buddy. He works as a therapy dog for Medicare24 and helps as a search and rescue dog when the South African Police Service K9 unit is not available or needs assistance.
Veterinary Excellence
In this category, we honour a passionate representative of the veterinary profession who has gone above and beyond the call of duty to enrich the lives of pets and their owners. They may have accomplished something exceptional in the past year, or it may be the way they conduct themselves to change lives on a daily basis. The Veterinary Excellence Award 2017 went to Dr Le-Anne Kleynhans. She has been involved in many charity and outreach programmes to better the lives of vulnerable animals and people.
Animal Hero
Either an individual or organisation who enriches the lives of animals who live in substandard circumstances can receive this award. Many people work hard every day to ease the suffering of animals in our society, and we are looking for the one person or organisation who really deserves this award through their special achievements.
Jerry Selwane won the 2017 Animal Hero Award for exposing animal abusers, training children in communities about responsible pet ownership, and running the Soweto Animal Rescue and Advisory Centre.
