2022 GOOD DOG PHOTO CONTEST
Meet the Winners of the 2022 Good Dog Photo Contest
Get to know Margeaux, Chauncey, and Cache, who took home top honors, as well as the readers’ choice winner, the runners-up, and many more endearing good dogs
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH


Our 2022 Good Dog Photo contest, presented in partnership with Eukanuba, showed once again how much G&G readers love their canines. With nearly six thousand photo entries spanning the heartwarming, hilarious, and handsome, the job of selecting the champs was a challenge (but someone had to do it). G&G editors couldn’t help but smile at the personality-filled snapshot of Margeaux and Chauncey, our overall winner. In the sporting dog category, the sun-kissed portrait of Cache, a four-year-old Boykin spaniel, captured the essence of man’s best hunting companion. Eukanuba will send prizes to Margeaux, Chauncey, and Cache (including a supply of food from its premium line), and we will include their photos in the December/January issue of Garden & Gun. In the readers’ choice competition, Silas and Atticus, two Yorkshire terrier brothers, received the most online votes.
Below, get to know Margeaux, Chauncey, Cache, Silas, Atticus, and more of our favorite entrants and top vote getters. And because we had so many great entries, we’ve put together collections of puppies, dogs being buddies, funny dogs, dogs in the great outdoors, muddy mutts, and, for the second year, “if dogs had driver’s licenses.”
Thank you to everyone who took the time to share photos and vote in this year’s contest. It’s always a pleasure to see so many good dogs.
The Overall Winner

Margeaux, terrier mix, and Chauncey, Brussels griffon mix
Fairhope, Alabama
While visiting family in Fairhope, Alabama, Rita Badalamenti would take her dogs on a daily stroll along the Orange Street Wharf. One blustery day she pulled out her camera and captured the shot that would earn the top prize.
Despite their differing breeds and pronounced age gap, Margeaux, a two-year-old terrier mix, and Chauncey, a seventeen-year-old Brussels griffon mix, share a close bond. “Margeaux looks up to him like a big brother,” Badalamenti says. “Chauncey definitely keeps an eye out. If we go to the dog park, he does not like any dogs being too rough with her. He’s her protector, but he also just ignores her most of the time.”
Don’t let Chauncey’s surly expression or prominent snaggletooth fool you: “He is very friendly and very distinguished,” Badalamenti says. He does his best to keep up with Margeaux, who has a literal pep in her step. “Sometimes she’ll just be walking somewhere and she just does a little jump,” Badalamenti says. “I am completely obsessed with them. They are my whole life.”
The Sporting Dog Winner

Cache, Boykin spaniel
Huntsville, Alabama
Boykin spaniels are regarded as versatile hunting dogs thanks to their stamina, retrieving skills, and general enthusiasm. They’re also known as loving and kind family dogs. And four-year-old Cache is a prime example of both.
“He’s my best bud, my running partner, my copilot,” says Cache’s owner, Logan Hardy, of Huntsville, Alabama. The pair travel the country together to find the perfect hunt, and though the sport is serious business (as Cache’s expression in the photo makes clear), Hardy and his human hunting buddies—including Jon Stahulak, who captured the winning shot—make sure to set their guns down from time to time to snap some pictures.
Hardy credits Cache’s bloodline for the dog’s laser-sharp focus. “When we go on a hunt, he is not there to be picked up and loved on—he’s there to pick up birds,” he says. But Cache knows how to turn it off: “I have a little girl, and Cache can lay with her on the couch and get up and go on a hunting trip the next morning.”
The Readers’ Choice Winner

Atticus and Silas, Yorkshire terriers
Erie, Pennsylvania
The Yorkshire terrier sibling duo Atticus (left) and Silas won the hearts of G&G readers, earning the most votes in this year’s competition. Owner Karrah Rajewski snapped the winning photo as the pups posed on the couch at home in Erie, Pennsylvania. “I know they’re cute, but I just couldn’t believe they got so many votes,” she says of the unexpected honor.
According to Rajewski and her husband, Shaun, the brothers possess very distinct personalities despite coming from the same litter. “Silas is very bossy, spunky, and always has an agenda. He is also athletic for being five pounds,” Rajewski explains. “Atticus is all about being a dog. He just wants to eat, sleep, play, and cuddle.”
Runners-Up: Overall

Kepler, Dachshund
Savannah, Georgia

Rowan, Yorkshire terrier
West Palm Beach, Florida

Moose, Labrador retriever
Lexington, Virginia

Hatteras and Valor, English golden retrievers
Loudoun County, Virginia

Macie, Chihuahua
San Pedro, California

Dasher, golden retriever
Charlotte, North Carolina

Gertie and Pancakes, golden retrievers
Atlanta, Georgia

Mollie, Millie, and Blue, standard poodles
Baton Rogue, Louisiana

Grace, golden retriever
Mint Hill, North Carolina

Pauline, English bulldog
Jacksonville Beach, Florida

Seymour, corgi
Albuquerque, New Mexico

Finn, English golden retriever
Mount Pleasant, South Carolina

Remi, Chesapeake Bay retriever
Troy, Michigan

Teak, flat-coated retriever
Baltimore, Maryland

Alice, pointer/pitbull mix
Columbus, Georgia

Sugar, English golden retriever
Johns Creek, Georgia

Fin, Labrador retriever
Islamorada, Florida

Dunkin and Orville, wolfadoodle and Labradoodle
Irmo, South Carolina

Goose, wire-haired vizsla
Charleston, South Carolina
Runners-Up: Sporting Dogs

Niko, German short-haired pointer
Milton, Georgia

Lady Pea, English setter
San Francisco, California

Karl Spackler Sheen, golden retriever
Fayetteville, Arkansas

Honey, Chesapeake Bay retriever
Moncks Corner, South Carolina

Nova, German wire-haired pointer
Greer, South Carolina

Taos, Labrador retriever
Greenville, South Carolina

Mojo, Labrador retriever
Charleston, South Carolina

Wilson, Llewellin English setter
Beaufort, South Carolina

Hank, British Labrador retriever
Little Rock, Arkansas
Runners-Up: Readers’ Choice

Cricket and Teddy, Cavalier King Charles spaniels
Nashville, Tennessee

Sophia Grace, Labrador retriever
Colleyville, Texas

Gunther, golden retriever
Atlanta, Georgia

Bogey, golden retriever
Mount Pleasant, South Carolina

Millie, Chesapeake Bay retriever
Chatham, Virginia

Oliver, golden retriever
Charlotte, North Carolina

Isabella, border collie mix
Atlanta, Georgia

Enzo, Siberian husky
Los Angeles, California

Atlas, Great Pyrenees
Decatur, Georgia

Beatrice, boxer
Charlottesville, Virginia
See More Photos from the 2022 Good Dog Photo Contest
Related Stories:

Good Dog
Sporting Dogs Wow the Crowds at SEWE
High-flying pups and retriever demos steal the show at Charleston’s Southeastern Wildlife Exposition

Sporting
Hope on the Wing: A Falconer’s Story
Rodney Stotts’s journey with falconry means knowing when to let go

SHARK ENCOUNTER
A Great White Shark Gets Up Close and Personal
A South Carolina fishing guide spent quality time with a huge apex predator—and has the footage to prove it
Trending Stories:

Music
Song Premiere: Listen to Chapel Hart’s New Single, “If You Ain’t Wearing Boots”
New music from the Mississippi trio who rose to fame last year on America’s Got Talent

Arts & Culture
“The Outsiders” Turns Forty
See rare images of the stars—before they were big—around the Oklahoma set

Arts & Culture
A South Carolina Seafood Company Reveals a Piece of Forrest Gump History
How much shrimp is required to create a movie classic? About six thousand pounds, apparently