NEW YORK — When every dog has to have his day, one champion dog is about to have his year.
By the end of Tuesday evening, one of the more than 2,500 dogs, terriers, spaniels, setters and others competing in this year’s Westminster Kennel Club dog show will be crowned best in show.
Will Comet the shih tzu soar to new heights after winning the major American Kennel Club National Championship last year? Or would a wise bet be Sage the miniature poodle or Mercedes the German shepherd, both accompanied by handlers who have won the big prize before?
What about Louis, the Afghan hound whose handler and co-owner says he lives up to his breed’s nickname as “the king of dogs”?
And that’s not all: Three more finalists remain to be chosen Tuesday night before all seven compete against each other in the final round of the United States’ most illustrious dog show.
In an event where all competitors are champions in the sport’s points system, winning can depend on subtleties and a striking turn in the ring.
“You just have to hope they have everything sorted out” in front of the judge, said handler and co-breeder Robin Novack as her English Springer Spaniel, Freddie, advanced to the semifinals Tuesday after a first-round win.
The spaniel, named after late Queen singer Freddie Mercury, is currently the second-highest ranked dog nationwide in The Canine Chronicle magazine’s statistics, and Novack was hopeful about his chances at Westminster.
“He’s as good a dog as I can get, he’s in wonderful condition and he loves to show,” reasoned Novack of Milan, Illinois, as an optimistic-looking Freddie waited for new care before play resumed.
Dogs first compete against others of their breed. Then the winner of each breed competes against others in his “group” – in Freddie’s case, “sporting” dogs, usually bird hunters bred to work closely with humans. The seven group winners will meet each other in the final round.
Besides Freddie, other dogs in Tuesday’s semi-final group matches include Monty, a giant schnauzer who is the top-ranked dog in the country and was a finalist at Westminster last year, and Stache, a Sealyham terrier. He won the National Dog Show televised on Thanksgiving and took home the top prize at a major terrier show in Pennsylvania last fall.
Monty is “a stallion” of a Giant Schnauzer, solid, powerful and “very feisty,” said handler and co-owner Katie Bernardin of Chaplin, Connecticut, after winning his breed Tuesday afternoon.
So ‘spirited’ that Bernardin, while pregnant, took Monty to obedience and other dog sports because he needed the stimulation.
Although she loves giant schnauzers, “it’s not an easy breed,” she warns potential owners. But she adds that the driven dogs can be great to have “if you can put the time into it.”
Stache, the Sealyham terrier, a fraction of Monty’s size, showcases a rare breed considered vulnerable to extinction even in its native Britain.
“They are a little-known treasure,” said Stache’s co-owner, co-breeder and handler, Margery Good, who has been breeding “Sealys” for half a century. Originally developed in Wales to hunt badgers and other burrowing game, the terriers with a ‘fall’ of hair covering their eyes are brave but comical. Good calls them “silly hams.”
“They are very generous with their affection and their interest in pleasing you, rather than you being the one pleasing them,” says Good from Cochranville, Pennsylvania.
Westminster can feel like a study in canine contrasts. Just walking around, a visitor could see a chihuahua peering out of a carrier at a stocky Neapolitan mastiff, a ring full of honey-colored golden retrievers next to a row of stark black giant schnauzers, and handlers with dogs much larger than themselves.
Shane Jichetti was one of them. Ralphie, the 70-pound Great Dane she co-owns, far outweighs her. It takes a lot of experience to show such a large animal, but “if you have a bond with your dog, and you just go with it, you’ll be fine,” she said.
Plus, despite his size, Ralphie is “so chill,” Jichetti said. At home on Staten Island, New York, he’s playful and right there – just like his harlequin coat – when it’s time to enter the ring.
“He’s just an honest dog,” Jichetti said.