Voting begins in Holyrood '˜dog of the year' competition

Voting has opened on the contest to decide Holyrood's dog of the year.

MSPs dogs will be pitted against each other in a vote. Picture: TSPL

The pets, which belong to MSPs across a number of different parties, are all trying to win the competition which has been organised by the Kennel Club and Dogs Trust.

There will also be a judging event which will be held at the Scottish Parliament on May 8 to put the dogs through their paces in order to see who is the most ‘pawfect’ pooch.

The event follows on from the long-running Westminster dog of the year competition.

Among the dogs vying for votes is Hector, owned by Conservative MSP John Lamont.

Hector is a five-year-old miniature schnauzer who would, if First Minister for the day, install a dogs only trampoline into the garden of the Scottish Parliament.

Hector will have fierce competition from SNP MSP Emma Harper’s four-year-old border collie Maya.

Maya reckons she should win because she was a rescue and loves everyone no matter what, and because sometimes people need rescuing too.