Dogs return to school at Nigeria Canine Festival

LAGOS, Dec 13 (Reuters) – Hundreds of dogs strutted down a track in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos, competing for the prizes on offer at this year’s ‘Back to School’ themed canine extravaganza .

The Lagos Dog Carnival, now in its third year, attracted many different breeds, wearing school uniforms in colorful fabrics, with sunglasses and schoolbags strapped to their backs.

Carnival organizer Jackie Idimogu said the idea was to bring dog owners together to celebrate their dogs and learn from each other how to take better care of them.

“This edition is bigger and better than previous editions and interestingly the number of dogs we have this year is over 250, double what we had last year,” he said. she told Reuters.

At the event, which was held outdoors in the Lekki neighborhood of Lagos, awards on offer included ‘Head Boy’ for the cleanest school uniform, ‘Punctuality Boy’ and ‘Most noisy”.

Canada, a white-haired golden retriever, was crowned head boy for a spotless lime green uniform with stripes and a school bag. Ivory, a bulldog, left with the punctuality prefect’s gong for arriving first at the carnival.

For barking throughout the event, Oscar, another golden retriever, won the noisemaker award. Ruby, a German shepherd, was voted “prefect of work” for his imposing size.

There was an appearance of a cat, which received a door prize.

“Since we started the Lagos Dog Carnival, pet owners take better care of their dogs, our motto is that no naked dogs are allowed, so owners dress and groom their dogs better and we have also contributed to educate people about keeping dogs as pets,” says Idimogu.

She said there are plans to hold the event in other cities in Nigeria in the future to create more awareness on how to care for dogs as pets.

Additional reporting by Seun Sanni, editing by MacDonald Dzirutwe and Jane Merriman

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