From The Publisher

The subject of Kerrin Winter-Churchill’s series The Great Ones profiles the great English Springer Spaniel, Ch. Chinoes Adamant James. (I know, there is no GCH, GCHG or GCHP2 before his name, but trust me when I tell you he was one of the greats of all time.)

James (not Jim or Jimmy) was the last dog to win back-to-back Best In Shows at Westminster Kennel Club. He won his first BIS there in 1971 and repeated the feat in ‘72.

My gut feeling is he’ll be the last dog to win two Bests at this inconic event whether in consecutive years or not. Time will tell.

There are several reasons we’ll probably never see a dog win two Best In Shows at Westminster–or the AKC National Championship–in the future. The reasons have to do with how we show dogs today and certain customs and expectations that didn’t exist when James made history in the early ‘70s.

Just to give his wins some context, there have only been seven dogs to win Westminster more than once. The great Smooth Fox Terrier Ch. Warren Remedy won three in a row form 1907-1909. The Wire Fox Terrier, Ch. Matford Vic, won in 1915 and 1916. Another Wire, Ch. Conejo Wycollar Boy, won in 1917 and again in 1920. The Wire Fox Terrier, Ch. Pendley Calling of Blarney, won back-to-back BIS in 1930-31.

Posted by AnthonyA on Oct 6 2022. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.