Yellowknife (Mar 31/04) - The beauty of Caribou Carnival was that the whole family could come out to bowl some whitefish, dance with the diamond divas and launch off big air island on snowboards -- even the pooch.

Goofy tricks and wagging tails were a hit with the crowds as big, little and strangely dressed dogs headed to dog city to win themselves some treats and their owners some respect.

Kingsley, a standard poodle, learned to jump through a hula hoop just for the carnival, a trick that earned him a big bag of doggy treats at the end of the day.

"He learned this trick just a couple days ago," said handler Michaelis Hurst, of the jump Kingsley executed with ease."He trained just for this," the 13-year-old said.

The competition wasn't so stiff, consisting of some wound-up pooches who had a little trouble concentrating on the task at hand as crowds waited for the fantastic feats.

Even so, Kingsley was the obvious crowd favourite, sharing the podium with Superdog and Bonny.

Wanted to bring pooch

Hurst and mom Nicole Dion decided to bring their pup down to the carnival because they figured he could use some fun.

"We didn't want to leave him at home," said Hurst, who brought her own hoop to the event.

She had some advice for folks looking to teach their old dog some new tricks, or any tricks at all.

"You've got to teach them a trick when there are no distractions," she said Friday.

The SPCA sponsored dog city tent was a hit all weekend, inviting mutts out for food-pulling contests, howl-offs and dog-owner look-a-like events.

Kingsley's win opened up Hurst's mind to the doggy opportunities all weekend. There was no rest for this talented pup, he still had to show off his pom-pom tail in the tail wagging contest.