The Westminster dog show is coming in a few weeks!

[cassiesmom]

Here's a video of yesterday's winners -- it is about 4 minutes long. There is a short Pedigree commercial beforehand.

All 4 of these dogs are so different from each other with 3 more to come tonight; I would love to have coffee with a Best in Show judge and learn how they choose from between 7 unique dogs!

http://www.westminsterkennelclub.org/videos/fullep/

[Pinot's Mom]

On to the final! I like the Bearded Collie - what do you all think?

[cassiesmom]

The Working Group - I picked the wrong one again! I was rooting for another dog that finished in the top four. I won't say the results in case anyone hasn't seen it yet. But I was rooting for the beautiful Samoyed!

[Grace]

It's over - and I'm totally delighted

That's the one I wanted

[Freedom]

Another FIRST! LOL

[cassiesmom]

Well, that's not the one I chose --- I'm 0 for 8, ha haa!! But, okay! Wow! Hello, beautiful winner and congratulations!

What do Best in Show judges look for, anyway? Do they have to be familiar with the standards of each of the 150+ breeds? They don't know which dogs are up for Best in Show, right? So it could potentially be any combination of seven from all the breeds in each group? I know they have to figure out which dog best represents their standard; but I think that would be very hard to do. If I were judging, it would be a seven-way tie... thank you for coming, hand me seven ribbons and let me pet the winners!

Edited to add: I'm with Pinot's Mom and K9Karen-- I picked the bearded collie (on cuteness ). The man who judged the group had great things to say about the eventual best in show winner in the video clip from the first night.

[Grace]

What do Best in Show judges look for, anyway? Do they have to be familiar with the standards of each of the 150+ breeds? They don't know which dogs are up for Best in Show, right? So it could potentially be any combination of seven from all the breeds in each group? I know they have to figure out which dog best represents their standard; but I think that would be very hard to do. If I were judging, it would be a seven-way tie... thank you for coming, hand me seven ribbons and let me I pet the winners!

I read this about what this particular judge said about his winner -

The Best in Show judge, whose first language is not English, said of the win, "xxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx... is exactly the same like I studied in the standard that was about 150 years ago. Outstanding dog. Moving and type was super. All the others were wonderful."

[K9karen]

I loved the Bearded, but I picked the winner. I wasn't familar with the wolfhound, but loved his aloofness, calm, elegance, everything about him. Congratulations Hickory!

[IRescue452]

Congrats Hickory! I'm certainly glad we had a good judge over one who chooses bases on popularity. Sometimes a dog who fits the standard the most amazingly is there, but the judge chooses the crowd favorite.

Its not that hard to get all those standards in your head. I've been obsessed with dogs since I was a kid. Its all in me noggin I tells you. I even got upset seeing the Icelandic sheepdog in the show for the first time. It was too darned big! So I ran to get my dog breed encyclopedias and all of them said they should be 12-16 inches. Then I checked the new and un-improved AKC standard and they want 16.5-18 inches! Blasphemy! And its not like I even looked up the icelandic sheepdog before the show so I'd be prepared. I had no interest in the breed. But I remember all about them because I read every new dog breed book I get from cover to cover.