AN ambulance paramedic was back at home in North Yorkshire yesterday after scooping another top prize at Crufts.

Tola, a vizsla, had already won as a young dog at the nation's top show last year.

But owner Roy Bebbington knew it was up against more experienced entrants when the dog graduated to the senior class at the 2002 event.

"I wasn't expecting anything when I walked into the ring," he said. "I was looking at it merely as a way of giving her experience."

Roy was stunned when Tola was confirmed as the top post-graduate bitch Hungarian wire-haired vizsla.

"I'm over the moon," said Roy yesterday. "Nine months of the year she is a working gundog and I also do falconry. Tola was with me the four weeks before Crufts travelling around Scotland, so it is not as though we had plenty of time to prepare."

And it wasn't Roy's only reason to celebrate. Another dog he bred but has since sold to a new owner was the reserve champion in the class for male vizslas.