The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show
February 11, 2008
Beginning Monday, February 11th, the 132nd Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show opens at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Four new breeds: the Plott (Hound Group), the Tibetan Mastiff (Working), the Swedish Vallhund (Herding) and the Beauceron (Herding) will join 2,500 purebreed dogs in the annual judging competition. All Hound, Terrier, Non-Sporting and Herding breeds and varieties will be judged on Monday, with Groups judged on Monday evening. All Sporting, Working, and Toy breeds and varieties will be judged on Tuesday, with Groups judged on Tuesday evening. Best In Show will also be judged on Tuesday evening. Junior Showmanship preliminaries will be judged each afternoon, with the finals to be held at 7:30PM on Tuesday evening. In total, 169 breeds and varieties will be judged in seven different groups.
The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show will be televised live on the USA Network from 8-9PM ET and CNBC. The second day will be televised live on the USA Network. Check your local listings for times.
In 1877, the The Westminster Kennel Club hosted the first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show to increase the interest in dogs, and thus improve the breeds, and to hold an Annual Dog Show in the city of New York. The dog show is only one year younger than the Kentucky Derby. Some interesting facts about the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show include:
- The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show was around before the invention of the light bulb and the automobile, the building of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Washington Monument, the invention of basketball and the establishment of the World Series.
- Since the first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, there have been 24 men elected president and 12 states have joined the union. The dog show has outlasted three previous versions of Madison Square Garden, and is currently being staged in MSG IV.
- And finally, the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show proudly states the dog show has survived power outages, snowstorms, a national depression, two World Wars and a tugboat strike that threatened to shut down the city.
