2008 Westminster Dog Show

I'm still monitoring the pups as the Best in Breed competitions wrap up at the Garden! Remember how three of the four group finalists from the AKC/Eukanuba show made it to Best in Group yesterday? Well, all of the final three have made it again today. That means competing along with the others in the Sporting, Toy, and Working groups tonight will be Marge (the Weimaraner), Vikki (the Toy Poodle), and Macey (the Akita) respectively.

For those of you with other faves in these groups we've yet to see, don't worry about biased judges here. Even though other pups were big finishers in the past, the rules do not allow judges that have presided over a competition in the past six months to be present at Westminster. The pups are competing against the breed ideal, so it only makes sense that pooches who measured up before, will once again do so. However, that being said, I'm still pulling for one of those pups who captured the Hound group at the AKC show and here at Westminster last night — in case you missed my not-so-subtle hints, I'm really hoping that big Beagle, Uno, takes the big title tonight, too!

I love smushed faces and I think Frenchies are cute clowns in (and out) of the ring. Last night during his moment in the spotlight, little Wishbone wished to break and smell the grass green astroturf . . . mid stroll.

Of special note, there will be four new breeds competing at Westminster this year . . . and two are part of the Herding group! The Swedish Vallhund is AKC's 156th breed and the Beauceron the 157th, both eligible to compete within this group effective June 27, 2007. Unfortunately neither of those new breeds won but, if you wanna know who captured the Herding Group at last night's portion of Westminster, read more

This hodge-podge collection has a special place in my heart for my little North is part of the Non-Sporting group! I learned during last night's show that, not only is it made up of pups that didn't fit any other group, originally there were just two groups – the Sporting and the Non-Sporting. As new groups formed and split off, first the Hounds and Terriers separated from the Sporting and the Toys and Working split from the Non-Sporting, with Herding later breaking away from the Working. But, who topped the remaining pooches in the Non-Sporting group that competed last night? To see their winner, read more

Woof! The Terrier group has brought home more titles than any of the other seven groups with various terrier breeds winning a record 45 times since the Best in Show award was first introduced in 1907! These typically high-energy pups are bred to be agile enough to "go to ground" to pursue various quarry like rats, foxes, and other vermin and often display a large amount of determination and courage . . . in a pretty small package. Curious who took the group last night, then read more

The first group we saw at the big show was the Hound group. Its members include the "scent" hounds; these pooches are typically low-to-the-ground with an acute sense of smell like the Basset Hound. Also in the hound group are those that are considered "sight" hounds and use an incredible speed and stamina to relentlessly run down their quarry! It was a great group to watch (including my über-cutie fave) . . . and the results are in! Unless you've got it stored on TiVo (and you don't want to see who won just yet), read more

Of the four groups showing tonight – Hound, Terrier, Non-Sporting, and Herding – three of the four pooches that captured Best in Group at the AKC/Eukanuba National Championship have now captured their breed competitions at Westminster, too. That means, in addition to the other fabulous breeds included in those four groups, we'll see some familiar faces again tonight! Charmin, the Sealyham Terrier, that won both the Terrier and Best in Show title has captured the Sealyham spot, Geneva that captured the Herding group title will be the German Shepherd we see, and über-cute Uno, this 15-in. Beagle who won the Hound group, will be our Beagle du jour. Congratulations to those three pooches, and all the others that will be measuring up to the standards – I'll be updating as the show goes on, so check back on PetSugar tonight! In the meantime, if you're curious where little Uno is getting his exercise, read more