Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show
What Qualifies Dogs to Compete at Madison Square Garden?
Dog enthusiasts watch as breeders, trainers, and handlers focus on Best in Show award in the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show ring.
Back in 1877, before cars, electricity, the World Series, or even the American Kennel Club, a group of New York sportsmen just wanted to compare their canines. That first show boasted 1201 dogs. Approximately 300,000 dogs have since competed in the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.
What Kind of Dog Competes at Westminster?
It’s a long road to Westminster. The dogs you see strutting in America’s Dog Show each February are show veterans who have proved themselves many times over. What exactly is it that qualifies a dog to take the stroll around Madison Square Garden?
A look at the printed program shows that each entrant has ‘Ch’ before its name, meaning that each dog has earned an AKC Championship. Every dog at Westminster must be a champion.
What is a Champion?
A show dog must accumulate fifteen points, including wins of three, four or five points, awarded by at least three different judges, to become an AKC Champion of Record. The maximum per show is five.
How Dog Shows Work
An official written standard for each breed is maintained by that breed’s national club. This is a description of the ideal specimen of that particular breed, considering the original function for which the dog was bred. AKC dog show entrants are judged by their conformation to that standard as well as soundness and showmanship. Winners earn points toward a Championship.
After hours and weeks of training and grooming, males and females compete separately in six classes within their breed. The winners of these classes compete again to find the best of the winners. Only the best male and best female receives Championship points, and proceeds to compete for Best of Breed.
Best of Breed winners then move on to compete in Group competitions. Each breed is classified in one of seven groups, Sporting, Hound, Working, Terrier, Toy, Non-Sporting or Herding. Finally the seven group winners compete for Best in Show.
The dog taking Best in Show at Westminster has not only worked his way first through a Championship, but emerged still standing in the ring as some 2500 other Champions fell away. What an accomplishment!
Past Winners at Westminster
The first Westminster Best in Show award in 1907 went to a Smooth Fox Terrier named Ch Warren’s Remedy. She won again in 1908 and 1909, becoming the only dog ever to win three times. Three more varieties of terriers won in the following years but a Bulldog named Ch Strathtay Prince Albert broke that pattern in 1913. Other winning breeds are shown below in ten year increments.
1917 - Wire Fox Terrier
1927 - Sealyham Terrier
1937 - Wire Fox Terrier
1947 - Boxer
1957 - Afghan Hound
1967 - Scottish Terrier
1977- Sealyham Terrier
1987 - German Shepherd Dog
1997 - Standard Schnauzer
2007 – English Springer Spaniel - Ch Felicity's Diamond Jim CD RN, beautiful dog with a soft expression and an effortless gait, pictured above
In 1999, Kirby, a Papillon officially known as Ch. Loteki Supernatural Being, at age eight, became the oldest dog ever to win Best in Show at Westminster. He also won the World Dog Show in Helsinki in 1998.
Four new breeds, bringing the total to 169, are eligible to compete at Westminster in 2008. The new dogs making their debut are the Plott Hound, the Tibetan Mastiff, the Swedish Vallhund, and the Beauceron.
First televised in 1948, the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show airs live on USA Network for thousands to witness the glitz and glamour in the show of Champions.
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Related Reading:
What Not to Wear at Westminster
Advantages of Mixed Breed Dogs
