Westminster Dog Show

It's impossible to show you everything going on at the Westminster Kennel Club show on the first day, so I'll focus on 1-2 judgings in the ring of the Herding group. There are 4 rings of judging going on at once. I have a press pass so I can go almost anywhere.

But the guard mistakenly lets me into an exclusive area for only purple cards, so I get some wonderful closeups of these magnificent Briards - a French herding breed. Like I said, being around these beauties, one's brain is reduced to mush and the most dreadful cliches, so please excuse.
Look! Feets of perfection The future prize winner says, "Hi"
Poetry in motion. The dogs are constantly primped as they wait their turn to show. They are constantly fed treats too, so they'll take the perfect stance with head raised etc...

Getting down on all fours is the norm if one hair is out of place. There's a lot of spritzing going on with water bottles to get those hairs to do the right thing. A hind leg is deftly arranged to best advantage...

The handler hids doggie snacks in her cheeks.

Professional handlers are usually dressed in brightly colored suits that contrast nicely with the dog shown. This is a Belgian sheepdog, another herding group, like my Rudi, so they're hard to resist...

In the dog show, you get 2 minutes in front of the judge at the breed level, 2 minutes in front of the judge at the group level and 2 minutes at Best in Show. You have to impress 3 different judges. You have to hope your dog has its proper moments of divine inspiration in front of each of those judges.

The winner in the Belgians is

And the winning Briard.

These two will compete against each other and all the other BIB-Best in Breed in the evening competition and that winner will go on to compete Tuesday night for BIS-Best in Show.
Some WKC show numbers:

Nearly 2500 dogs of 150 breeds compete in the134th WKC show

In 7 categories over 2 days.

And the 7 categories are:

toy, hound, sporting, non-sporting, working, terrier, herding groups
Terriers have won 44 out of 100 recent Best in Show Awards.

This year, the top dog slated to win is a Scottish Terrier named Sadie. She won Best in Show at the National Dog Show. That was Sadie's 100th career Best in Show, which is a the landmark.

I haven't seen Sadie yet.

An update here:

A funny informative book on what it takes to win at WM (Westminster) is Jane and Michael Stern's Dog Eat Dog.

Well I loved it.

BONJOUR BRIARDS!