Top Dog

RAISE THE WOOF!

Is your pooch the most magnificent mongrel around? Does your best buddy have what it takes to lick the competition and become Bozeman’s Top Dog? We want proof. That’s right, the Top Dog Contest is back, and we want to see southwest Montana’s scrappiest studs and baddest bitches.

Here’s how it works: send us a photo and a short tribute explaining why you have the most impressive hound around, and we’ll feature the best entries in the next print issue. Feel free to regale us with sordid tales of your worst flea-bag, too; we’ll add one Bottom Dog to the list.

Winner scores $200 in drool-worthy prizes from Ruffwear Performance Dog Gear:

–Highlands Bed
–Bivy Bowl
–Kibble Kaddie
–Slackline Leash
–Crag Collar
–Huckama Toy

Summer 2017 Winner

Dog: Bailey

Humans: Tim & Tammy Weis

Tale: A Montana dog from her bird-keen nose to the tip of her stubby tail, Bailey’s the result of a union that wasn’t supposed to happen: a Griffon and a chocolate lab—the latter was killed by a mountain lion north of Ennis, where Bailey was born. Almost 10 years old now, she’s had feathers in her mouth from Big Sky to Lewistown and Chinook to Scobey. Bailey pointed and retrieved her first rooster on the Gallatin at Logan. Got her first blue grouse atop the Gravellys. Her first point-and-flush on a covey of Huns was on the Madison Bench. She’s been our huntin’ buddy, co-pilot, bed hog, photographic ham, and hiking partner—not to mention best friend—ever since. She’s had both ACLs replaced yet she’s still is a world-class athlete and hunting machine. We’ll be behind Bailey chasing birds this fall with her protégé, Josie (another Montana Grif). Until then, Bailey’s summer will be spent swimming in the Gallatin, trotting up Middle Cottonwood, and maybe doing a little floating on the Yellowstone during the salmonfly hatch—that is, when she’s not sleeping out in the sunny back yard, dreaming of younger days when she could leap halfway across the Gallatin at Cameron Bridge.