About 3,000 dapper dogs descend on New York City for the 147th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show May 6-9. After a two-year stint in Tarrytown, New York, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the show is back in the boroughs at its new venue, the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens.
A bloodhound named GCHB CH Flessner’s Toot My Own Horn (pictured) — “Trumpet” for short — won Best in Show in 2022. It’s the first win for a bloodhound, and only the seventh win from the Hound Group.
We fetched some facts about the most popular and prestigious of dog shows:
1. The WKC Dog Show is the second-longest continuously held sporting event in the U.S., behind only the Kentucky Derby.
2. The American Kennel Club recognizes 212 breeds of dog. So your puggle, Chiweenie, labradoodle or bullshih may be a wonderful companion, but it’s no show dog. Also, since this whole thing is about breeding, the dog can’t be spayed or neutered. Sorry, Bob Barker.
3. There is one new eligible breed competing this year: the Bracco Italiano (Bracchi Italiani is plural).
4. Casual viewers might tune in for a cute doggy pageant, but this is serious business for everyone involved. Dogs are judged on breed Conformation, or how well each dog compares to the official breed standards describing a dog’s appearance, movement and temperament. Judges have a mental picture of the criteria for everything from the thickness of the whiskers to the color of the eyes.
5. The terriers are the big dogs of Westminster. The group has produced 47 Best in Show winners, with 15 of those being wire fox terriers. The next best is the Sporting Group, with 18 winners.
Fox, FS1 and Fs1 have live and tape-delayed TV coverage throughout the event, beginning Sunday with taped highlights of the Masters Agility Championship Finals on Fox. The Best in Show is awarded Monday night on FS1.
147th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on TV
Sunday, May 7: 10th Anniversary Masters Agility Championship Finals, 2/1c, Fox
Monday, May 8: Breed Judging and Junior Showmanship Preliminaries, 1/noon c, FS2; Group Judging (Hound, Toy, Non-Sporting and Herding Groups), 7:30/6:30c, FS1
Tuesday, May 9: Breed Judging and Junior Showmanship Preliminaries, 1/noon c, FS2; Group Judging (Sporting, Working, and Terrier Groups followed by Best in Show and Junior Showmanship Finals), 7:30/6:30c, FS1
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