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After a two year enforced break due to Covid, an annual contest has returned to celebrate the types of dog unlikely to ever feature in a pet food commercial.

Mr Happy, a 17-year-old Chinese Crested-Chihuahua mix from Arizona, won the annual competition held in Petaluma, California, as part of the Sonoma-Marin Fair.

The contest, which organisers say is held to “celebrate the imperfections that make all dogs special and unique”, has received global attention since being established in the 1970s and now attracts audiences of up to 30,000 people.

The winner receives $1,600, a trophy and a free trip to New York City.

This year’s triumphant owner was Janeda Banelly who adopted Mr Happy from a shelter in Arizona in 2021 after seeing “a creature who was indeed old, needed a second chance and deserved to be loved”.

Mr Happy was previously rescued from a hoarder’s house where he was said to have been living in “deplorable” conditions.

Janeday said: “I asked to see a particular dog that, fortunately for me, had just been adopted.

"I asked if there were any other dogs that were similar to that one.

Mr Happy is officially the world's ugliest dog.

"There was in fact, another dog there who was much older and had health issues and I was warned could be inbred because he was so ugly.

"The shelter staff tried to prepare me for what I was about to see.”

But it was love at first sight for both owner and dog, as she explained in her entry form: “When I first met him, he was the happiest creature that I had ever met. He hobbled up to me and chose me.

"I vowed that day, he would be so loved that he would never remember how awful his previous life had been.”

According to Janeday, his hobbies are “being fearlessly adorable, invoking his elder privilege amongst his four-legged and three-legged fur siblings and eating stinky things.”

He also enjoys “sleeping, snoring, woofing in his sleep and making odd sounds when he is happy – he sounds just like a Dodge Ram diesel truck reviving an engine when he is elated.”

Mr Happy Face’s goals are “to have a longer tongue than Gene Simmons and a more dashing snarl than Billy Idol”.

His dislikes include “climbing stairs, wearing diapers, sharing a bed, not being the center of my universe and mommy kisses”.

Second place in the contest went to Wild Thing, a distemper survivor who had entered the competition twice before, while the final podium place went to Monkey, a 12 year old Blue Factor Brussels Griffon.

For more information about the contest and for more on all the competitors, visit the competition website here.

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