Westminster Dog Show: Live Updates of Best in Show

Sarah: There’s a difference between being excused — essentially, released without charge — and disqualified. Dogs are disqualified when they do something very bad, such as bite the judge.

Andy: To be clear: that does not appear to be what happened. I checked with Westminster’s Lisa Peterson, who is a judge in her own right, and she explained: Apparently the spaniel refused to allow the judge to examine him. The judge gave the dog a quick chance to run around, but after conferring with an official, the dog was excused.

The handler seemed crushed, and got some comforting taps from the other handlers on her way out.

Dogs, dogs and more dogs

New York City has been Dog City the last few days. More than 2,600 dogs have competed/are competing in the competition, representing 49 states — every state except North Dakota, where they apparently have more important things to worry about — and 19 countries other than the United States.

Sarah: Andy, who do you like in the Sporting Group?

Andy: I’m partial to the retrievers, but then I’m partial to perennial underdogs. Especially dog underdogs. But I’ll be honest: the clumber spaniel really looks kind of huggable.

Who do you like so far? The spaniel? The other spaniel? Or the other other spaniel?

Hold on … there’s trouble.

Dog show secret: There’s a lot of sitting around.

With 33 dogs in the sporting group, there’s quite a bit of down time for the handlers and their sometimes bored charges. The Brittany went first, but now has about a half hour to kill. The wirehaired Vizsla, on the other hand, will go last.

Sarah: I’m always surprised at how quiet (and lazy) some of the dogs seem. Several spaniels in this groups are currently lying in a sort of heap behind the signs announcing their names. One of them has a bib on, I assume so that his drool does not mar the appearance of his carefully-combed coat.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/11/sports/westminster-dog.html?emc=rss&partner=rss