The 147th Westminster KC Dog Show Kick-off!

All photos ©Deana Niosi 

By Amy Fernandez

Ironically, after more than a century of direct comparison, Westminster 147 opened the same day of the running of its historical sports rival–the Kentucky Derby. It’s a total coincidence but still kinda cool.

So, the USTA facility is marvelous. It offers both indoor and outdoor exhibition space, and both were running full tilt Saturday with the Agility Masters, Obedience Masters and the club’s new venture into Dock Diving. The club also took advantage of this spacious venue to offer ‘Celebrate Dogs’, which was a scaled down version of Meet the Breeds. Unfortunately, it appeared to receive limited support from the fancy; and REALLY folks, we can do better. Events like this are the key to maintaining interest in purebred dogs. So many breeds were unrepresented and considering the wealth of local purebred expertise …it was disappointing.

The breeds that were on display received incredible crowd adoration. Now that Westminster has jettisoned benching, this is the single opportunity for the general public to see their favorite breeds up close and talk to breeders–which has always been the primary lure for spectators.  Topping the list of crowd pleasers was last year’s Westminster BIS winner, Trumpet the Bloodhound.  Yeah, he knows he’s a star!

photo ©Deana Niosi

Westminster’s first offering of Dock Diving was obviously a logistical challenge, but they pulled it off. Anyone who has watched this event–or seen it televised–is familiar with the sport’s electrifying tone. Of course, crowd participation is half of that equation.

Despite the perfect weather and the fact that this was the single weekend day of Westminster 2023, spectator attendance could have been better. The positive aspect was that it allowed everyone to get a great view.

Agility highlights will be aired tomorrow on FOX from 2:00-4:30 PM and FS1 and FS2 will show selected coverage of Breed, Group and Junior Showmanship finals Monday from 1:00-4:00 PM. We will be there.

One other fun fact: Mage took the 149^th Derby on Saturday.

photo ©Deana Niosi

photo ©Deana Niosi

photo ©Deana Niosi

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Posted by admin on May 7 2023. 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.