The Australian Pup & Handler Competition was started in 2017 by Pup Tycho, who had a vision of a national pup and handler competition. Although the first couple were held in Melbourne, the vision was always for the competition to travel around the country, hosted by a different club each year.

Queensland was first set to host in 2020, but with COVID-19 border closures, we had to wait an extra two years before we got our turn. This presented a number or challenges. Firstly, a change in our management committee between 2019 and 2022 meant that nobody in Q-PAH had been part of the running of APHC before. Usually, the president of the incoming host PAH will be part of the production team the year before, but our own Sir Tigs didn't have this advantage. Secondly, most of the tools and account used to run APHC had lapsed or become inaccessable with the lack of momentum. "In a lot of ways, we had to start from scratch." says Sir Tigs, who took on the role of Head Producer for the competition.

However it all came together, with a team of Q-PAH members joining forces with community elders from around the country to make the weekend a success. Between 7 - 9 October, Brisbane hosted the largest pup event our state had ever seen, with 8 competitors vying for the titles in front of a panel of 7 judges, and hundreds of pups and handlers attending 6 public events across the three days.

"Feedback from APHC has been overwhelmingly positivie," says Sir Tigs "and I couldn't be more proud of Q-PAH. All three of our competitiors did amazingly well, and the local producers and volunteers went above and beyond."

Ultimately Handler Stuart of NSW was named Australian Handler 2022 and Pup Jaxx of WA was named Australian Pup 2022. We congratulate them whole-heartedly, and look forward to what they'll do with their title year.

If you missed the fun, be sure to check out all the photos from APHC, and follow APHC on FaceBook, Twitter and Instagram for all the details about next year's competition in Perth.