NEW YORK (AP) — They’re on the prime of their sport. They run, weave and go airborne. They usually went all out for this weekend’s championship.
Sorry — no, they’re not the Chiefs or the Eagles. They’re the agility canines on the Westminster Kennel Membership present, which started Saturday by showcasing agility and different canine sports activities.
Canine folks typically name Westminster the Tremendous Bowl of canine reveals, and the comparability is perhaps particularly becoming this 12 months. The US’ most prestigious canine competitors opened on the identical weekend as professional soccer’s Tremendous Bowl, which options the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday. The uncommon coincidence comes after each competitions’ dates shifted in recent times.
“I at all times stated I needed folks to name the Tremendous Bowl ‘the Westminster of soccer,’” quipped canine knowledgeable David Frei, who has a foot in each worlds: He used to work in publicity for the Denver Broncos and the San Francisco 49ers.
The Westminster of soccer? Properly, Westminster is 90 years older than the Tremendous Bowl, in any case.
And there have been another connections between the gridiron and Westminster’s inexperienced carpet. Los Angeles Chargers defensive finish Morgan Fox co-owns a French bulldog who got here inside a smushy-nose size of successful at Westminster in 2022 and was a finalist the next 12 months. (Many different NFL gamers even have canines for enjoyable, if not for present, together with Kansas Metropolis quarterback Patrick Mahomes.)
Regardless of the analogy, being at Westminster was a triumph for Guster the rescue pug. He and proprietor Steve Martin took up agility after Guster began wagging his tail and tilting his head whereas they watched the Westminster agility contest on TV a number of years in the past.
“We by no means thought we’d be right here. And now we’re right here,” Martin, of Austin, Texas, stated Saturday.
A border collie named Vanish received the competition, which featured about 300 champion-level canines.
“She’s very intuitive, very pure — in all probability smarter than me,” handler Emily Klarman of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, informed a Fox interviewer within the ring. Whereas Klarman stated the win initially left her speechless, Vanish had lots to say, barking enthusiastically.
A particular award for the most effective mixed-breed competitor went to Gable, dealt with by Kayla Feeney of Lima, New York.
Westminster added agility in 2014, marking the present’s first occasion with mixed-breed canines because the 1800s. Final 12 months noticed the primary mixed-breed agility winner, a border collie-papillon combine named Nimble, who competed once more this 12 months.
She’s an intentional mix of two prime agility breeds. However the sport additionally attracts rescue canines corresponding to an Australian cattle canine combine named Sawyer, or Soy Sauce for brief.
His proprietor, Dr. Amy Ondeyka, has a sophisticated work schedule as a New Jersey emergency room physician and EMS medical director. However she made time for agility after realizing she’d adopted a super-energetic canine who opens cupboards, unzips issues and in any other case causes home mayhem when bored.
“He’s at all times thrilling — he does ridiculous issues,” Ondeyka stated as he intermittently leaped into her arms throughout what was ostensibly down time between agility runs. “We’ve enjoyable, regardless what occurs.”
Whereas some canines do agility to burn off vitality, the game helps others come out of their shell. Tully, a lanky, shaggy, largely Labradoodle combine, was “afraid of the world” however now’s excited to go to agility courses and competitions, proprietor Carla Rash stated.
Saturday’s opponents have been a spectrum of dogdom, from an important Dane to a 7-pound (0.9-kilogramg) papillon, and so they included such lesser-known breeds as a big Munsterlander and a Danish-Swedish farmdog.
They navigated jumps, tunnels, ramps and different obstacles as handlers gave hand and voice indicators. The article is to be the quickest, with out making errors.
No matter scores, some canines received cheers from spectators. There was a bichon frise with its tail dyed blue, a normal poodle that took a leisurely trot throughout an A-frame ramp, and a curly-coated combine that apparently had second ideas concerning the weave poles, circled round and went by them once more.
Westminster’s conventional, breed-by-breed judging occurs Monday and Tuesday, capped by the coveted finest in present prize Tuesday evening.
That’s for purebreds solely, however mixed-breed canines additionally have been eligible for Saturday’s obedience competitors, an occasion that Westminster added in 2016. The highest prize went to Willie, an Australian shepherd who additionally received in 2022 with handler Kathleen Keller of Flemington, New Jersey.
Steve Wesler sported a Philadelphia Eagles sweatshirt as he cheered on accomplice Jennifer Weinik and Cookie, her Belgian Malinois. They got here away with a ribbon, which Wesler deemed extra thrilling than the Tremendous Bowl — as a result of he was assured the Eagles would prevail.
There aren’t any money prizes at Westminster, however the agility and obedience winners every get to direct a $5,000 donation to a coaching membership or the American Kennel Membership Humane Fund.
The present additionally featured Westminster’s first demonstration of flyball, a canine relay race that includes retrieving a ball.
“It’s numerous organized chaos,” Hillary Brown stated after competing together with her Boston terrier, Paxil. His teammates on a York, Pennsylvania-based squad referred to as Clear Break have been a normal poodle, a border collie and a whippet-border collie combine.
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“It’s a blast. The canines like it,” Brown stated.
This story corrects that the canine named Cookie received a ribbon, not the general prize, in obedience.