Winner of Pap Your Pooch Competition Announced

A Border Collie from Bury St Edmunds and his hooman have won a prize for the best photograph in an iconic location in the town.

Apollo and his hooman Kate Munoz entered the competition run by the town’s official tourism brand Bury St Edmunds and Beyond as part of their national digital marketing campaign to promote dog friendly stays.

To enter, people were encouraged to take a photo of their canine companion in an iconic Bury St Edmunds location and upload it to Facebook or Instagram, tagging Bury St Edmunds & Beyond in the post and use the hashtag #dogfriendlybse. Then visit the town’s Dog Friendly Bury St Edmunds website to find out how to plan their next dog friendly stay and to find out which businesses are dog friendly!

The photo of Apollo among the ruins in the Abbey Gardens was chosen as the winner by the competition judge Jon Kay, owner of Camp Tails Doggy Daycare.

Jon, who also founded the town’s dog friendly scheme with help from Bury St Edmunds Town Council, Our Bury St Edmunds BID, and Bury St Edmunds and Beyond, said: “I was so excited to support the competition and promote our amazing town. We had some amazing entries, but Apollo’s picture was not only fab, but it also just shouted Bury St Edmunds. I so loved it.”

Apollo and Kate won a portrait in pencil of Apollo by Howard King of Pets in Pencils and a super stylish collar and lead, plus bowl and treats from Camp Tails Doggy Day Care. Apollo and Kate were presented with their prizes in Bury St Edmunds, which has just been voted England’s Most Dog Friendly Town, on 19 December.

Kate said: “As an American expat living in Bury St Edmunds, we love living here especially knowing that it is a dog friendly town. The fact that we can include our one-year-old pup Apollo in our day-to-day errands makes our lives easier. Apollo is a social and energetic border collie who loves meeting new people in the Abbey. We saw that there was a contest going on and thought it would be fun to throw our photo into the mix and we were so excited and grateful to be chosen.”

Howard King, from Pets in Pencils, said: “Being a real lover of dogs I was delighted to be asked to support the competition and provide the portrait of the winner dog, Apollo.”

The Dog Friendly Digital Marketing Campaign ran in October and November but has now been restarted thanks to the town winning England’s Most Dog Friendly Town at the Dog Friendly Magazine Awards on November 29, coming second to Girvan in Scotland for the Most Dog Friendly Town/City in the UK.

The campaign so far has delivered nearly three million advertisements targeted to dog owners, generated over 150,000 ad views of the campaign’s dog friendly video, which stars Jon and his Labrador Loki. The video was shot from a dog’s eye view of the town by filmmakers Move Media and shown at the awards. The Dog Friendly pages on the website have been viewed over 42,000 times since the campaign started.

Sue Warren, Marketing Manager of Our Bury St Edmunds BID which looks after the tourism brand, said: “The campaign was a huge success and highlighted to visitors but also local people that Bury St Edmunds is very dog friendly. Being voted England’s most dog friendly town was the icing on the cake!”

More information on dog friendly things to see and do and where to stay visit the official tourism website for Bury St Edmunds www.dogfriendlybse.co.uk