A resident of Pittsburgh, Pa., created a prize-winning illustration that features a man and his dog gazing at a sky filled with cloud formations as various American Kennel Club-registered breeds. Dave Klug’s artwork has been selected as this year’s AKC National Championship poster.

The image, Klug said, “conveys the canine-human relationship and our deep connection with dogs.” During his downtime, he creates unique folk art pieces of his dog Henry, or works on book ideas that always seem to involve a dog.

“There’s always been a dog in my family since childhood,” Klug said in a statement. “Now my kids are growing up with dogs. Having them in the household makes you more aware of the simple goodness in life.”

Klug has won $1,000 and a trip for two to Long Beach, Calif., for the AKC/Eukanuba National Championship Dec. 13 and 14. The show airs nationwide Jan. 31, 2009 on Discovery and Animal Planet.

The annual event features 3,000 of the world’s top canine competitors from all 50 states and more than 70 countries vying for Best in Show honors and a $225,000 prize. It takes place in conjunction with the AKC National Obedience Invitational and AKC Agility Invitational, representing the culmination of a year of competition in three AKC sports: conformation, obedience and agility.