A total of 2,721 dogs are scheduled to compete in next month’s Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York. The club says that’s the largest entry the show has had in 15 years.
According to WKC figures subject to final club audit, 26 entries are from Missouri, with eight going from Kansas. New York has the most entries (287), followed by California (228), New Jersey (219) and Pennsylvania (210). There are also 117 foreign entries from eight countries.
For the first time in Westminster’s 137-year history, two venues will host the show. Group judging, Best in Show and the Junior Showmanship finals will occur at Madison Square Garden as usual. However, because of ongoing renovations at the Garden, breed judging and Junior Showmanship preliminary judging will be at Piers 92/94, an events venue in Midtown Manhattan.
Westminster is a “benched show,” meaning that on the day of competition, dogs must be present in their designated area when not in the ring. This gives spectators a chance to see the dogs up close. Benching for the breed competition will occur at the Piers. Around mid-afternoon, all breed winners will travel to the Garden to be benched there and wait for Group judging.
All of the 187 breeds and varieties eligible to compete in this year’s show will be represented. Golden Retrievers lead with 61 entries. Labrador Retrievers have the second-highest entry (54), followed by Rhodesian Ridgebacks (50), French Bulldogs (46), Australian Shepherds (43) and Chinese Cresteds (40). Among the three varieties of Dachshunds (longhaired, smooth, wirehaired), there are 73 entries; however, the varieties are judged separately. The Plott, Anatolian Shepherd Dog, Kuvasz, Norwegian Lundehund and Entlebucher Mountain Dog have just one entry each. And two newcomers to the AKC registry will make their Westminster debut this year: the Russell Terrier and the Treeing Walker Coonhound.
Also competing at the 2013 WKC show are 84 young people under the age of 18 in Junior Showmanship. Preliminaries are held on Monday and Tuesday during the daytime hours. The finalists compete just before Group judging and the live telecast Tuesday evening. The winner is introduced to the viewing public during that night's broadcast. In Junior Showmanship, juniors may handle titled or non-titled conformation-eligible dogs, as well as those purebreds that have been spayed or neutered, have AKC Limited Registration status or have AKC Purebred Alternative Listings status (PAL). Juniors may also show dogs from the AKC Miscellaneous Class.
The Hound, Toy, Non-Sporting and Herding Groups compete on Monday, Feb. 11. Dogs in the Sporting, Working and Terrier Groups show on Tuesday, Feb. 12. Television coverage will be from 7 to 10 p.m. CST both days. The show will air on CNBC on Feb. 11 and on USA on Feb. 12. You can also watch live streaming video of the breed judging—a Westminster first—on the club website, westminsterkennelclub.org, during the day.
