Meet the good doggos at the 25th annual Great PUPkin costume contest

This year’s winner at the Fort Greene tradition was Gertie, the chihuahua dressed as ‘David Byrne's Big Suit’

It all started 25 years ago, when Kath Hansen put her 100-pound mutt Cameron in a cheerleader outfit for Halloween and joined five of her local dog-loving friends in what she called “a little corral at the top of the hill” in Fort Greene Park. And so the Great PUPkin dog costume contest was born.

“We started really small, and it became this crazy behemoth,” Hansen told Brooklyn Magazine. “It’s become a neighborhood tradition, and today people come from all over the city to gawk at these creative masterpieces and be amazed at what dogs will put up with.”

A pup as a martini (Scott Lynch)

On Saturday, unseasonably warm as it was, thousands of said gawkers came to the Monument Steps at Fort Greene Park, spreading out in all directions, to laugh and cheer as some 100 (mostly) very good doggos completely lost their dignity on the stage below.

It was a glorious, chaotic scene. Emcees Dan Fox and Torey Strahl did an excellent job of throwing out witty banter and keeping track of all the dogs moving across the stage. And although everybody’s a winner when dogs get dressed in ridiculous costumes, the Great PUPkin is very much a contest, with glory and corporate-sponsored goody bags at stake.

A ‘Fritoes’ employee (Scott Lynch)

The judges this year were Faridah Gbadamosi, a programmer at the Tribeca Festival; Amy Phillips, executive editor at Pitchfork; Crystal Hudson, councilperson for District 35; and Joylynn Holder, board chair of the Fort Greene Park Conservancy. But while there were plenty of incredible costumes, the clear, unanimous winner was Gertie, an 18-year-old chihuahua nearly swallowed by a mini replica of David Byrne’s Big Suit from the Talking Heads concert film “Stop Making Sense.”

And you may ask yourself … who else was going to win this contest? (Scott Lynch)

Other crowd-pleasing costumes on the day included dogs dressed as a yacht-eating orca, a DJ spinning in honor of hip-hop’s 50th anniversary, an adorable panda who also knew how to high-five, a martini, a cockroach scurrying from his building on Clermont Avenue, the Times Square New Year’s Eve ball, a worker at the “Fritoe” factory, Missy Elliott from her video for “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly),” a “Barkenstock” shoe and a beautiful “Brooklyn water tower” modeled after Tom Fruin’s art work in Dumbo.

Water tower dog (Scott Lynch)

Fort Greene resident Anna Haubould was the creative mastermind behind this latter outfit, which her dog Pepper happily sat inside whenever asked. “It took a couple of weeks of work,” she said. “This is our fifth competition, I love being around all the dogs, and I love being able to be creative. Pepper’s my muse and ultimately this is how I can let my creativity shine in my adult life.”

Here are a few more gussied-up pups: