Best in Show

Back in February I got tickets to The Westminster Dog show. I took the day off to go see what all the fuss was about. As a dog person, I felt I needed to see what happens at this insider event. 

I expected it to be in the actual arena of Madison Square Garden as I had seen on television so many years. But that event would be the following day. What I saw was the actual decisions for best of breed.

My sister and I arrived at 9 am to an area full of seats looking onto a small amphitheatre which was divided in two. One side held one set of dog breeds, while the other side had another. Luckily we got to see the terrier breeds which are some of my favorites. The handlers gathered in each of the judges mini-circles. Each dog was placed on a pedestal (because they were small) and inspected. This task disturbed me because sometimes the handlers put the dogs up on the stand by picking them up by their tails. The dogs seemed not bothered by this but I sat there feeling a visceral pain in my phantom tail. In addition the judges often ran their hands down the dogs’ private area and would squeeze. This made me twinge but the dogs continued on with their chests forward and unmoved. 

After each dog was checked, the judges asked the handlers to let the dogs walk around so they could see their stride. From there the officiate would line up the dogs in order of preference and have them do one more walk in a circle. At this point, the judge would point to the dog and call out a numeric value between 1 and 3. Number 1 became best in breed that would be moving onto the bigger breed category the next night.  

Overall it was fun and there were a number of famous people at the event. So it was good people and animal watching all around. If I were to go next year, I’d like to go to the bigger and televised event. Or I’d try to see more of the breeds that I like such as retrievers, terriers and shepherds.