This year’s Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show concluded on Tuesday evening with the naming of its best in show winner at Madison Square Garden.
The show featured thousands of dogs who weren’t judged against each other but rather based on how closely they matched the ideal for their breed. The winner, a Doberman, was announced after two days of competition.
Here’s a look at some things that happened during this year’s show:
Doberman wins best in show
This year’s best in show winner was a 4-year-old Doberman Pinscher named Penny who received loud cheers from the crowd and became the 42nd female to win the award. This is the fifth time a Doberman has won the top prize at Westminster.
Penny came from the working group and beat out all other 2,499 dogs at the show.
Her handler, Andy Linton was also the handler of the last Doberman who won the top prize at Westminster nearly 40 years ago in 1989. Linton has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and when asked about his health difficulties told The New York Times, that winning best in show was one of his goals.
“She is as great a Doberman as I’ve ever seen,” Linton said, according to CNN.
Reserve best in show went to Cota, a Chesapeake Bay retriever who was the winner of the sporting group.
Best in show is chosen by a single judge from the seven group winners. The groups are: herding, non-sporting, hound, terrier, working, sporting and toy.
Here’s a look at the other group winners.
Hound group: Zaida the Afghan Hound
Non-sporting group: JJ (short for Jingle Juice) the Lhasa Apso
Terrier group: Wager the Smooth Fox Terrier
Toy group: Cookie the Maltese
Herding group: Graham the Old English Sheepdog
Utah miniature schnauzer wins best in breed
The dog show’s miniature schnauzer best in breed winner, was a dog named Joe. The dog from breeder Carma Ewer in Sandy, Utah, has won best of breed at the show multiple times in the past.
Joe also placed well in the group competition, earning third place in the terrier group.
He was also awarded the 2025 Purina Top Dog award in New York City over the weekend.
Westminster Dog Show celebrates 150th year
This year was the 150th Westminster dog show, making it the country’s oldest continuously-held dog show, per The Associated Press. It is also the second-oldest sporting event in the U.S. second only to the Kentucky Derby.
The name comes from the Westminster Hotel where the founders of the show spent time at the bar. The hotel is long gone, but the name has remained. The show was first held in 1877 and it featured around 1,200 dogs of a few dozen breeds, with a range from pugs to mastiffs.
This year the show featured 2,500 dogs, representing 212 breeds and 10 “varieties.”
When the show first began there was no overall prize, the best in show award was added in 1907, The Associated Press reported.
Westminster debuted at Gilmore’s Garden, an arena that was later replaced by Madison Square Garden.
A new breed makes it to the semifinals
Millie, a Danish-Swedish farm dog, made history by beating out at least 10 other farm dogs on Tuesday to make it to the semifinal round in the evening. This year is the first time the breed has been eligible for the Westminster show.
There were 12 Danish-Swedish farm dogs in the show this year and Millie won best of breed. According to CBS News, the breed is small and spry.
Some fun moments from the competition
While the dogs are well-trained and the elite of their kind, they are still dogs meaning there were plenty of fun moments throughout the show.
There was Beamer the vizsla who caught the crowd’s attention by jumping into a box set out for his handler’s tools. Storm the Newfoundland provided plenty of entertainment after jumping up on his handler, standing almost as tall as her.
Oliver, a golden retriever received such loud cheers it drowned out the arena’s announcer and a Pekingese named lumpy received repeated chants of “Lumpy! Lumpy!” according to CBS News.