SPIKE the English toy terrier has won a major award at Crufts.

The two-year-old is owned by Richard Forsythe and Clive Milkins from Brighton.

He walked away with the Junior Warrant Winner Of The Year at the world’s most famous dog show on Thursday

Spike, whose Kennel Club name is Champion Witchstone Tommy Hawk at Richpin JW, has had a great start to his career.

He won the Junior Warrant, an award for pedigree dogs from six to 18 months which have won a series of first prizes at both open and championship shows.

Now he has followed this up with his big win at Crufts at the NEC in Birmingham.

Spike and Richard were up against nine other finalists.

Richard said: “We had so

many supporters there cheering us on.

“When we got the result I was very emotional as we want to help make more people aware of the breed, which is on the

Kennel Club’s official vulnerable list.

“I was trying to hold back tears in the arena because it’s such a big stage – the biggest dog show in the world – so having the English toy terrier centre stage will hopefully help it.

“We are certainly going to be celebrating.”

The Argus:

Caroline Kisko, Kennel Club secretary said: “Congratulations to Spike and Richard for this fantastic achievement.

“We will no doubt see a lot more of Spike in the future.

“Competing in the Junior Warrant Winner Of The Year competition final is a great achievement for any young dog so we want to say a huge well done to all the finalists who competed.”

The competition is for dogs who have gained the title of Junior Warrant the previous year.

There were heats held throughout the UK with five dogs and a reserve selected by judges at each heat.

Sixty two top young dogs were then invited to the semi-finals at the Kennel Club’s Discover Dogs event at ExCeL London where ten of them were selected to compete at Crufts.