The National Dog Show is excited every year to be part of The Dog Writers Association of America's Annual Writing Contest with our sponsorship of The National Dog Show Presented by Purina Excellence in Writing/Producing Award.
The contest gives people an outlet for creativity through a competition that encourages our collective community’s unique talents. One of the things we most look forward to is celebrating the winner of our award, which revolves around our favorite topic, therapy dogs.
The DWAA contest is a phenomenon in that it has now grown to include 88 categories. The competitors include journalists, authors, bloggers, photographers, illustrators, editors, TV producers and digital media and young writers. Each of these talented content creators can compete in a variety of regular categories in order to win the Maxwell Medallion. This award is named after the dog writing legend, Maxwell Riddle.
Like all the special category awards, ours sheds light on the important topic of the therapy dog movement. We created this award to show appreciation and gratitude for those dogs and handlers who give of their time to brighten the lives of those who can benefit from the comfort that therapy dog teams can provide.
Our award was inspired by David Frei, one of this country’s most visible advocates for the modern Therapy Dog movement. He was inducted into the DWAA Hall of Fame in 2018 with a long list of accomplishments and awards and is also co-host of the National Dog Show Presented by Purina, which airs on NBC each Thanksgiving Day.
As already announced on the DWAA website, dogwriters.org, this year’s finalists for the Best Producing/Writing Award in the realm of the therapy dog movement are the following:
- Risë VanFleet, PhD, with Alternative to Cookie-Cutter Competition of Dog Therapy: Using the Goodness-of-Fit Model to Determine Suitability https://iiaapt.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/SPRING-2025-COTD-Goodness-of-Fit-VanFleet.pdf
- Sarah Montague with Behind the Scenes of the Friend https://caninechronicle.com/current-articles/ccs-new-podcast-episode-behind-the-scenes-of-the-friend/
- Teri Wilson with Bluebonnet Season and FA-LA-LA-LA FAKING IT https://dogwriters.org/wp-content/uploads/gravity_forms/41-5c4b9d90b5903b1f60283ce4f5ba214f/2026/01/Bluebonnet-Season-Chapter-One.pdf
- Ted Slupik with Finding the Right Dog For Therapy Work https://dogwriters.org/wp-content/uploads/gravity_forms/41-5c4b9d90b5903b1f60283ce4f5ba214f/2025/10/Finding-the-Right-Dog-For-Therapy-Work.pdf
- https://dogwriters.org/wp-content/uploads/gravity_forms/41-5c4b9d90b5903b1f60283ce4f5ba214f/2026/01/Chapter-One-FA-LA-LA-LA-FAKING-IT.pdf
The winner receives a $500 prize to be used for the furtherance of their pursuits in writing and producing content about the wonderfulness of our favorite species.
MaryPat McManus is a senior at Penn State interning for the Kennel Club of Philadelphia and the National Dog Show. As an active Penn State student, she is on the Women’s Club Lacrosse team. She will also be featured next month as a Dancer during the renowned Penn State “THON” fundraiser, the largest student-run philanthropy in America.
The National Dog Show is America’s most prominent showcase for the wonderfulness of our canine friends, encompassing the Kennel Club of Philadelphia (KCP) mid-November cluster in Oaks, PA and The National Dog Show Presented by Purina on NBC Thanksgiving Day. National Dog Show Weekend, hosted by the Kennel Club of Philadelphia, is the only single-venue benched show in America, boasting some 2,000 entries and capacity crowds every year. The TV special on Thanksgiving Day reaches an audience of over 20 million annually. Co-hosts/commentators John O’Hurley, David Frei and Mary Carillo and the NBC and KCP teams will be celebrating the Silver Anniversary 25th show in 2026.