Westminster Dog Show...

February 15.  Around 140 years ago, a bunch of guys got together in the bar of a Manhattan hotel, and they shared stories about the great accomplishments of their hunting dogs.  As they sat around bragging about who had the best dog, someone decided to form a club – having to do with dogs.  And so was the start of the Westminster Breeding Association – named after the hotel where they first met.  In 1877, they changed the name to the Westminster Kennel Club.  They held their first annual dog show in 1877 and had an entry of 1201 dogs.

According to the Westminster website, today marks the 140^th Annual show.  Last year, an agility event was added to the long-standing beauty pageant, and this year the Inaugural Masters Obedience Championship is also taking place.  It’s about time they realized we dogs are not JUST pretty faces.

This year, there are 12 Polish Lowland Sheepdogs entered in the beauty pageant and 27 Bernese Mountain Dogs. Who do you think has the largest entry – with 51 dogs?  Labrador retrievers.  Of course.  Followed closely by Golden Retrievers with an entry of 50.  The lowest entries with just a single dog are the Harriers, the Anatolian Shepherds, the Neapolitan Mastiffs and the American Water Spaniels.  You would feel kind of badly if you didn’t win your breed, wouldn’t you?!

Seven new breeds were added to the line-up this year - the Bergamasco (8 entered), the Lagotto Romagnolo (9), the Berger Picard (20!), the Miniature American shepherd (14), the Boerboel (11), Spanish water dog(10) and the Cirneco dell’Etna (10).  I want one of those Berger Picards – a herding breed from France.  They look cool.  But so far, my human is saying “no.”  We’ll see about that.

I see that Westminster has also added a “Meet the Breed” feature at the show.  A chance for people to meet and learn more about specific dogs.  Kind of like what our Kennel Club does – in fact, Frodo participated last year.  All of these new features look like Westminster might be taking a cue from Crufts – the world’s largest dog show which takes place in Birmingham, England each year.  I’ll be talking more about Crufts in the next little while – because THIS year, my human is going there.  Without any of us.  I’m a bit too upset about it right now to discuss it further, but I’ll get over it.  I hear it will be a GREAT place to buy guilt gifts.

But back to the show at hand.  You know after my human watches the show, we will all be groomed.  That’s the one thing I hate about these shows.  We have to play simulated dog show after my human sees all the nicely groomed dogs.  Ugh.

Anyway - good luck to all the dogs competing in the Big Apple.  And may the BEST dog win! Because of course, that ALWAYS happens.  Doesn't it?

˙©  Linda Wozniak