Congratulations to the 2024 and 2025 IPWatchdog Dog of the Year!

Although IPWatchdog has the word “Dog” in it’s name and logo, the publication is in no way associated with dogs. However, Gene and I have a shared love of dogs and have SIX German shorthaired pointers (3 sets of male/female siblings) ranging in age from 11 months to 6 years old. We love dogs so much that when we posted our first job post in 2020, one of the job “requirements” was “must love dogs” (Plural). Today, the majority of our employees share this same love of dogs and most have dogs of their own.

If you are a frequent reader of IPWatchdog.com and/or subscribe to our email newsletter, you know that we publish a weekly column every Friday, that we call “Other Barks and Bites” where we share newsworthy topics from that week that were not otherwise covered in their own article. Since May 10, 2024, we no longer use stock images of random dogs, but use images of our real dogs submitted by our speakers, sponsors and readers. We also print them and post them on our Dog Wall at IPWatchdog Studios.

On December 30, we announced that we were having a contest for the IPWatchdog Dog of the Year for 2024 and 2025. With 31 weeks of dogs to select from in 2024 and another 52 for 2025, each member of the IPWatchdog team was tasked with nominating their top 3 favorites from each year. The only caveat was we were not allowed to personally nominate our own dog(s), but could nominate the dog(s) of a fellow employee. The end result was 15 dogs for 2024  and 17 dogs for 2025, each of whom were listed anonymously by name only. We didn’t want the dog’s ownership to influence the number of votes, and instead wanted people to vote based on the image of the doggie alone.

AND THE WINNERS ARE:

Introducing the 2024 Dog of the Year!

The 2024 Dog of the Year! award goes to Kevin McNish’s Bassett Hound and Junior Morale Officer of McNish PLLC, Flora (pictured top left)  She was the featured Doggie in the September 20, 2024 Other Barks & Bites column.

In second place, is Jason Harrier’s 15 Yr.-old Samoyed, Blitzen (pictured bottom left), who was the featured doggie in the May 24, 2024 Other Barks & Bites column.

And tied for third place are John Wright’s 5 yr.-old Siberian Husky, Maverick (pictured bottom middle), who was the featured doggie in the May 10, 2026 Other Barks & Bites column, along with Janine Carlan’s Mountain Estrella, Quinto (pictured bottom right) who was the featured doggie in the August 16, 2024 Other Barks & Bites column.

Introducing the 2025 Dog of the Year!

The 2025 Dog of the Year! award goes to Sarah Kohn’s (of ACG Advocacy) 5 year-old Black Lab, Zoe (pictured left top)

In second place is Drew Sommer’s 4 yr.-old Pitbull & Golden Retriever Mix, Wilson (pictured bottom left) who was the featured doggie in the December 19, 2025 Other Barks & Bites column.

And tied for third place are Tanner Shae’s 11 month old German Shorthaired Pointer, Whiskey (pictured bottom right) who was the featured doggie in the May 10, 2026 Other Barks & Bites column, along with Jason Harrier’s 15 Yr.-old Samoyed, Blitzen (pictured bottom middle) who was the featured doggie in the December 5, 2025 Other Barks & Bites column.

Get Your Pup in the Running for 2026!

Send your dogs photo(s) along with their name, breed (if you know it) and their age to [email protected]. All photos will be added to the IPWatchdog Dog Wall at IPWatchdog Studios and will be added to the queue of images we select from each week.