Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show: Top-ranked dog took care of business

Dogs are shown during the 149th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, at Madison Square Garden in New York on Feb 11, 2025. Photos: The New York Times/Graham Dickie

Monty, a regal Giant Schnauzer with a dramatic beard and a winning way about him, was awarded best in show at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York on Feb 11, defeating a tough crowd of canine competitors that included an extremely silky Shih Tzu named Comet and a rugged German Shepherd named Mercedes.

Monty, five, strode into the competition as the top-ranked dog in the United States, based on points amassed in previous shows, and was the odds-on favourite to win. But it was not a sure thing. He had reached the final round at Westminster before – for the past two years, in fact – only to be disappointed, and so there was a special sweetness to his victory. (Alas for Comet and Mercedes, they had both reached the final last year as well but were destined to lose again.)

Schnauzers come in three sizes, and oddly enough, are not all in the same group: Giant (like Monty here) and Standard Schnauzers are in the working group, but Miniature Schnauzers are considered Terriers.

Second place, or reserve best in show, went to a delicate Whippet named Bourbon, winner of the Hound group, which includes breeds like Beagles, Bloodhounds and Dachshunds. She was also a repeat performer, in an always-the-bridesmaid way: She took reserve best in show in both 2020 and 2021, once several months after having puppies, and came out of retirement at the advanced age of nine-and-a-half for this year’s show. “This bitch looked wonderful tonight,” her handler, Cheslie Smithey, said Feb 10, in dog-show parlance for “female”.

Overcome with emotion at the excitement of it all, Monty’s handler and co-owner, Katie Bernardin, burst into tears when the judge, Paula Nykiel, made the best in show announcement, bestowing on Monty a silver cup the size of a French bulldog and a massive purple-and-yellow ribbon.

“Winning best in show is a dream come true,” Bernardin said. She felt the weight of the moment even as the two circled the ring, thinking “that it would probably be our last lap together, and I just wanted him to enjoy it”.

Monty, a Giant Schnauzer, wins best in show during the 149th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, at Madison Square Garden in New York on Feb 11, 2025.

Monty will likely celebrate his win by chewing on a soccer ball, or several of them, back home in Chaplin, Connecticut. “He loves a good soccer ball,” Bernardin said. “He destroys them, but that is his favourite thing.”

The other dogs in the best in show final included Neal, a happy white puffball of a Bichon Frise who won the non-sporting group, a kind of miscellaneous category for dogs who don’t fit into any of the other six groups. (Bichons have won best in show twice, in 2001 and 2018).

There was also Freddie, a sprightly and crowd-pleasing English Springer Spaniel who won the sporting group, open to dogs meant to help hunters flush out game and fetch birds and waterfowl. Freddie’s full name is CH Telltale Bohemian Rhapsody; he’s named after singer Freddie Mercury.

Freddie, an English Springer Spaniel, competes in the sporting group competition.

Monty, whose father, Ty, was runner-up at Westminster in 2018, is a member of the working group, but he looks like a white-collar worker, somebody who would manage an office full of employees rather than the other way around. Schnauzers come in three sizes, and oddly enough, are not all in the same group: Giant and Standard Schnauzers are in the working group, but Miniature Schnauzers are considered Terriers.

Each of the dogs in the seven-dog final was resplendent in its way. Mercedes, the German Shepherd and the winner of the herding group, had a glossy coat and a decisive, powerful gait. Bourbon was all Whippet. Comet’s hairdo – secured with a blue bow as it rose in a dramatic peak above her head, and flowing so far to the floor that it looked as if she was hydroplaning, rather than jogging, around the ring – was a sight to behold.

As usual, the Terrier group was the most competitive. (Terriers have won the show far more often than any other breed.) The winner of that group, Archer, a Skye Terrier with hair swooping down over his eyes, had trouble exerting himself as he performed his breed victory lap, on account of his small stature.

“That’s a lot of cardio for a dog with short legs,” his handler, Antoinelle Vulpis, said.

Archer, a Skye Terrier, competes in the Terrier group competition.

Bernardin said that Monty’s win was likely to bring renewed attention to Giant Schnauzers as a breed, and she urged his fans to consider that Giant Schnauzers can be “a handful” before rushing out and procuring one for themselves.

“This breed is not for everyone,” she said. “They are very hard, they are very strong, and strong-willed. I just want people to understand before you buy one: Do your research.”

As she talked about Monty’s stubbornness, he wandered away towards a publicist, Monty being Monty. “Exit stage left,” she joked. – The New York Times/Sarah Lyall and Callie Holtermann