‘Lobster’ wins Halloween dog fancy dress contest

A “LOBSTER” took first prize in a Halloween fancy dress dog parade in Henley.

Olive, seven, a mini dachshund, wore the costume, complete with “pincers”, to match the outfit worn by Alba, the 18-month-old daughter of Russell and Emma McConnell, who dressed as chefs.

Sixteen dogs and their owners took part in the ninth annual contest on Saturday, which was organised by the Naughty Mutt Nice dog grooming parlour in Duke Street.

They paraded down a “dogwalk” to applause and were judged by shop owner Karole Robertson, Henley MP Freddie van Mierlo and comedy events organiser Tom Ryan.

Other costumes included bats, spiders and Mike Wazowski from Monsters, Inc.

Mr McConnell, 42, who is an architect, said: “We’ve had this outfit since last year, so it all spiralled out of that. We were like ‘We need to win’ and ‘How can we get Alba involved?’ so we got all the outfits together.” The runner-up was Roscoe, a three-year-old red Labrador, dressed in a Funnybones suit.

Joe Talboys, 38, who works in video game marketing, his wife, Amanda, 35, who works in higher education and their daughter Geneva all wore matching one-piece suits.

Mr Talboys said: “We based it on a book called Funnybones for kids that we got for our daughter. Because it’s her first Halloween, we just thought we’d make an effort. Amanda’s American, so Halloween is a big deal anyway. American people tend to dress up as anything, so I’m like we have to do something scary-ish.”

Dougal, a rescue Cavapoo, won third place for his spider outfit, which was created by Oscar Phillips-Hermann, who dressed up his grandmother’s dog.

He created the outfit by stuffing black tights with newspaper and attaching the tentacles to a purple body warmer.

Oscar, five, said: “I expected to win because it took quite long. We had to stuff newspapers into tights with a little help from Mum. Nana will be pleased he won the third prize.”

There was also a sausage catching competition, which was won by Vince, an eight-year-old mutt who dressed as a bat. All the winners received dog goody bags from Lily’s kitchen.

Mr van Mierlo said: “It was a very difficult contest but there were a lot of good entries. The fact that a whole family took part I think was the main thing and they put a huge amount of effort into it. I think anyone with a baby also had an advantage.”

Mrs Robertson, who dressed as Lydia Deetz, the bride of Beetlejuice, said: “I think this year was the best ever.”