NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Must love dogs. Really, really love dogs.<\/p>\n
The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show<\/a> spotlights the bond between people and dogs. But reaching the United States’ premier canine event also can be about another kind of love.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, it would be very hard to do this without somebody who was as vested in it as I am,\u201d said two-time Westminster-winning handler<\/a> Bill McFadden, who’s half of a dogdom power couple. His wife, Taffe McFadden, handled the second-place winner in 2019<\/a>, and she and Bono the Havanese are among past finalists set to appear Monday evening in a special tribute to Westminster’s 150th annual show<\/a>.<\/p>\n Yes, the McFaddens \u2014 who met at a dog show in the late 1970s and married in 1985 \u2014 have faced and sometimes beaten each other at various shows. And no, there are no hard feelings.<\/p>\n \u201cI think some of my best memories are watching Taffe win best in show,\u201d Bill said Saturday while the couple readied for Westminster. \u201cIf one of us takes the big ribbon home, it\u2019s awesome. Doesn\u2019t matter which one.\u201d<\/p>\n After starting with agility and other sports<\/a> on Saturday, the storied show got down to its traditional business Monday. Dogs ranging from teeny Chihuahuas to towering Irish wolfhounds started competing in the multi-round, breed-by-breed competition<\/a> that leads to the best in show award Tuesday night.<\/p>\n Among first-round winners advancing to semifinals later Monday were a Lhasa apso named JJ, who won the massive AKC National Championship show in December, and George, an American foxhound who was runner-up at the National Dog Show televised last Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n JJ is \u201ca show dog all the time,\u201d said breeder, handler and co-owner Susan Giles of Manakin Sabot, Virginia, who has had Lhasas for 53 years. JJ is everything the breed is supposed to be, though he departs from one norm for a breed that’s generally reserved with strangers: \u201cHe’ll talk to everybody,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n George is a strapping, playful representative of one of the United States’ oldest but now rarest breeds.<\/p>\n \u201cThey’re such cool dogs \u2014 more people should know about them and have them,\u201d said handler Tristen Miller of Mechanicsville, Maryland.<\/p>\n Like a number of professional handlers, she’s married to another dogdom devotee. Husband John Miller’s family business helps manage dog shows.<\/p>\n Such pairings make sense for people who might, like the McFaddens, travel the country to 150 to 200 dog shows a year and share their home with a varying cast of canines that need feeding, exercise, grooming and training.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t even imagine trying to date and explain to somebody, \u2018Now, I\u2019m going to be gone five days a week, and I\u2019m going to have like 20 dogs with me,\u2019\u201d said Bill McFadden, who largely credits his wife \u201cfor any semblance of order that we have\u201d at their home on five acres (two hectares) in Acampo, California.<\/p>\n The key is \u201cbeing with someone you can actually coexist with \u2014 constantly,\u201d said Bill McFadden (who’s aware of the 2005 romcom \u201cMust Love Dogs\u201d but doesn’t recall seeing it). Like many top handlers, they also have assistants, he notes.<\/p>\n Then there are couples such as Randy and Andrea Huelsemann, who juggle breeding and showing their own French bulldogs with their full-time jobs. He\u2019s a 911 dispatcher, and she\u2019s a dental hygienist.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do it for just the love of it, for something to do together,\u201d Randy said while waiting to bring their dog Ollie into the ring Monday. (The Huelsemanns, of Prairie Du Sac, Wisconsin, alternate handling their various dogs.)<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s a great hobby for the two of us,\u201d allowing for travel together, Andrea added.<\/p>\n Not handling but no less enthusiastic were Lydia Hearst and Chris Hardwick, who cheered and whooped for their otterhound, Zoltar. He didn’t win his breed, but he probably got the most decibels.<\/p>\n \u201cI die a lot in horror movies, so I can scream for a long time,\u201d Hearst said with a laugh. She and her husband, who hosted AMC’s \u201cTalking Dead,\u201d are both actors and grew up with dogs \u2014 pets in his case, and show dogs in hers. Her mother, newspaper heir and longtime Frenchie owner Patricia Hearst Shaw<\/a>, was on hand to see both Zoltar and her dog Sassy in Monday’s competition.<\/p>\n Wilbur the beagle had his own Hollywood connections. The dog, who appears in the new Netflix police drama \u201cThe Rip,\u201d<\/a> starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, was squired Monday by Charlotte Jones, 13, in a competition for junior handlers.<\/p>\nBreed competition gets underway<\/h2>\n
Juggling dog shows with full-time jobs<\/h2>\n
Show dogs with show-business ties<\/h2>\n