NEW YORK (AP) — The dog was Penny. The win was priceless.
A Doberman pinscher named Penny won best in show Tuesday night at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, netting U.S. show dogs’ most coveted prize — and giving veteran handler Andy Linton another win after nearly four decades. Linton got best in show in 1989 with another Doberman, named Indy.
Penny “is as great a Doberman as I have ever seen,” Linton told a supportive crowd. Despite health problems, he guided the 4-year-old dog through an impeccably crisp performance.
“I had some goals, and this was one of them,” Linton said, adding later in a conversation with reporters that as he’s winding down his career, winning at the milestone 150th annual Westminster show is “extra-special.”
Runner-up — and cheers just as loud — went to a Chesapeake Bay retriever named Cota. While Dobermans have won five times including Tuesday, no retriever has ever won, and their fans applaud every encouraging sign.
Cota also seemed to enjoy the moment, particularly when his handler, Devon Kipp Levy, let him play with the ribbon.
Other finalists included an Afghan hound named Zaida, a Lhasa apso called JJ, a Maltese named Cookie, an old English sheepdog dubbed Graham and a smooth fox terrier called Wager. The judge, two-time Westminster-winning handler David Fitzpatrick, called the lineup one “that will go down in history.”
Each dog is assessed according to how closely it matches the ideal for its breed. The winner gets a trophy, ribbons and bragging rights.
A crowd favorite at the 2025 Westminster show, Penny has rocked show rings since. A throng of handlers and other dog folk cheered for the seemingly undistractable dog and for Linton in early-round action Tuesday afternoon.
Ringside afterward, Penny politely but pointedly nudged her nose into a visitor’s leg, looking for something — pets, as it turned out. She’s generally “very chill,” Linton said later, “but she can get pretty pumped up for a bad guy. Or a squirrel.”
Co-owner Greg Chan of Toronto said Penny is “very demanding and very smart,” but she’s also “a pleaser — she’ll do anything for food.” (Her favorite snack? “Everything.”)
Penny came out on top after 2,500 dogs, spanning more than 200 breeds, strutted their stuff at the show.
Even if they didn’t make the finals, there were plenty that scored meme-able moments or lightened up the crowd.
Over two nights of semifinals, spectators cheered extra-loud for a Xoloitzcuintli named Calaco, a hairless dog who went around the ring like he had nothing to prove. A vizsla named Beamer charmed the audience by hopping into a box set out for his handler’s tools, and Storm the Newfoundland got laughs when he jumped up on his handler, standing as tall as she. Spectators cheered so loud for a golden retriever named Oliver that they drowned out the arena’s announcer, and chants of “Lumpy! Lumpy!” resounded as Lumpy the Pekingese strolled before a judge.
One dog that made history in the semifinals was Millie, a Danish-Swedish farmdog. The small, spry breed just became eligible for the Westminster show this year, and Millie bested about 10 other farmdogs Tuesday afternoon to get to the evening round.
Westminster wins often go to pooches with professional handlers or owners with decades or even generations of experience behind them. But just reaching the elite, champions-only show is a major accomplishment in dogdom, especially for first-timers such as Joseph Carrero and his Neapolitan mastiff, Dezi.
After yearning for a Neo since his teenage years, Carrero finally got one when he was 35. A heavy equipment operator from Indian Springs, Nevada, he started showing the dog only because the breeder wanted him to. Now Carrero himself breeds and handles his Neos in the ring, while also working full-time and then some.
“It’s really hard for us to do this, but we enjoy it, and he enjoys it,” Carrero said as a visitors gathered around to greet the jowly, 190-pound dog.
Boerboels, which are formidable guard dogs originally from South Africa, played a major role in how Natalee Ridenhour met her late husband and why she eventually left metropolitan life for a farm in Royse City, Texas.
On Tuesday, Ridenhour and a Boerboel named Invictus did something else she once would never have pictured: compete at the Westminster show.
The dog didn’t advance past the first round. But as a passer-by delightedly petted the 170-pound animal, Ridenhour said, “Honestly, the big win is: You’re about the 50th person who’s gotten down in his face and loved on him.”
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