Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff.
Speaker 1: Lauren vogebam here at the very first Westminster Kennel Club
Speaker 1: Dog Show in eight seventy seven, held in an open
Speaker 1: air building in New York City that P. T. Barnum
Speaker 1: built for his circus, Somewhere around one thousand, five hundred
Speaker 1: canines were displayed for what The New York Times declared
Speaker 1: a new fashionable amusement among members of the city's high society.
Speaker 1: The Times announced in advance of the show on March
Speaker 1: of that year, the attendance promises to be very select.
Speaker 1: That hoity toity image for the world's most famous dog
Speaker 1: show may, for some lingered nearly a century and a
Speaker 1: half later bolstered by perfectly quite poodles performing for tuxedo judges,
Speaker 1: but the hundred and forty five running of the Westminster Show,
Speaker 1: which begins on June eleven, is a good bit more
Speaker 1: than a finally brushed out coat on a careful controlled
Speaker 1: pure bred. Certainly meticulously bred dogs, often outrageously groomed, are
Speaker 1: still the show's centerpiece. Beyond that, though, Westminster is an
Speaker 1: unabashed lovin for all dogs from the prancing show dog
Speaker 1: performing for a worldwide audience to that rescue mutt taking
Speaker 1: up residents on your living room sofa. For the article
Speaker 1: this episode is based on How's to Work. Spoke with
Speaker 1: Gayl Miller Bischer, the director of Communications for the Westminster
Speaker 1: Connel Club, the world's oldest group dedicated to the sport
Speaker 1: of showing pure bred dogs. She said, Westminster is a
Speaker 1: celebration of dogs, and it's a celebration of companionship, and
Speaker 1: that's something that we have always strived to promote. If
Speaker 1: you ever come to the dog show, where one of
Speaker 1: the few benched shows still in existence, and that just
Speaker 1: means that all the dogs have to stay at the
Speaker 1: show all day. They're categorized alphabetically, so if you want
Speaker 1: to see all the Afghans, they're all together in one area.
Speaker 1: All the beagles are together. The whole purpose of that
Speaker 1: is because we are a public education event. It's about
Speaker 1: educating the public and making sure they learn about the
Speaker 1: breed before you bring a dog into your home. And
Speaker 1: as we mentioned that show has been around for a while.
Speaker 1: The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is the second longest
Speaker 1: continuously held sporting event in America, behind only the Kentucky Derby,
Speaker 1: which started in eighteen seventy five. The Westminster show was
Speaker 1: around before the light bulb, which debuted in eighteen seventy nine,
Speaker 1: and the first gasoline powered automobile from eighteen eighty five.
Speaker 1: It also predates both the invention of the game of
Speaker 1: basketball eighteen ninety one and the first World Series nineteen
Speaker 1: o three. But the Westminster Show, as long running as
Speaker 1: it is, will be vastly different this year due to
Speaker 1: the remnants of the coronavirus pandemic. For the first time
Speaker 1: and it's a hundred and forty five year history, the
Speaker 1: Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show will not be held in
Speaker 1: Manhattan in twenty one. Because of the early planning needed
Speaker 1: to put on a show of this size and the
Speaker 1: uncertainty of where the world would be pandemic wise, organizers
Speaker 1: months ago opted to move the show twenty five miles
Speaker 1: or forty kilometers north of the city to Terrytown, New York.
Speaker 1: What's more, the show will be without any human spectators. Westminster.
Speaker 1: The show has been through a lot in the century
Speaker 1: plus of its existence. It was shortened to two days
Speaker 1: during World War Two, and in ninety six because of
Speaker 1: a tug boat strike in the city. The show was
Speaker 1: completed in just one day. Last February, just before COVID struck,
Speaker 1: the Westminster Conel Club held its hundredth straight show at
Speaker 1: the Madison Square Garden Venue. Organizers discussed all sorts of
Speaker 1: scenarios for the hundred forty showing, delay it until fall online,
Speaker 1: only cancel it for the first time ever, moving it
Speaker 1: north to the Lyndhurst Estate, a National Trust historic site
Speaker 1: on the Hudson River, in a control setting that would
Speaker 1: still allow for television coverage one the day. It's the
Speaker 1: first time, too, that the competition will be held in
Speaker 1: the month of June in non pandemic times. The show
Speaker 1: normally takes place over a week one, it's an elongated
Speaker 1: weekend and some two thousand, five hundred dogs are entered
Speaker 1: in the show this year. Festivities begin Friday, June eleven
Speaker 1: with a fan favorite, the Master's Agility Championship, which is
Speaker 1: open to all dogs, including all American a k A.
Speaker 1: Non purebred types. Some three fifty dogs will tackle an
Speaker 1: obstacle course in the timed event. Mixed breed dogs are
Speaker 1: also welcome at the Master's Obedience Championship. The Westminster Kennel
Speaker 1: Club Dog show, though, is the judging of two hundred
Speaker 1: nine breeds and several different varieties of certain breeds in
Speaker 1: seven distinct groups. Hound, toy, non sporting, sporting, hurting, working,
Speaker 1: and terrier. Dogs are judged by how closely they conform
Speaker 1: to their breeds standards, which are the features that the
Speaker 1: American Kennel Club or a KC defines as ideal features
Speaker 1: for that breed. The standards cover how the dogs should look,
Speaker 1: move and their temperament. Take, for example, a long haired
Speaker 1: docks and a one of the three varieties of the
Speaker 1: docks and breed, including smooth and wire haired in the
Speaker 1: hound group. To be judged well, a long haired ducks
Speaker 1: and must meet appearance criteria such as, to quote the
Speaker 1: a k C, the trunk is long and fully muscled
Speaker 1: when viewed in profile, the back lies and the straightest
Speaker 1: possible line between the withers and the short very slightly
Speaker 1: arched loin. Short hair on the ear is not desirable
Speaker 1: to profuse. A coat which masks type equally, long hair
Speaker 1: of the whole body, a curly coat, or a pronounced
Speaker 1: parting on the back are faults. Movement is based on
Speaker 1: criteria such as quote viewed from the front. The legs
Speaker 1: do not move in exact parallel planes, but incline slightly inward,
Speaker 1: and there are requirements for temperament as well, such as
Speaker 1: the docks in is clever, lively and courageous to the
Speaker 1: point of rashness, persevering in above and below ground work
Speaker 1: with all the senses well developed. Any display of shyness
Speaker 1: is a serious fault. Each dog is judged first among
Speaker 1: others in the breed uh Docksins, against Docksins, and then
Speaker 1: against members of its group. The hound group includes thirty
Speaker 1: five breeds and varieties from Afghans to Docksins, two Wimmen's.
Speaker 1: If judged best of breed, and then best of group,
Speaker 1: the dog competes against the winner of the six other
Speaker 1: groups for Best in Show, Westminster's top prize, and that's
Speaker 1: announced the final night. In the hundred and forty four
Speaker 1: years of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, a dog
Speaker 1: from the Terrier group has one Best in Show a
Speaker 1: record forty seven times. The wire fox terrier has won
Speaker 1: fifteen Best in Show awards, the most by any breed,
Speaker 1: but the show is clearly not a popularity contest. The
Speaker 1: most popular dog in America, according to The A k
Speaker 1: C is the Labrador Retriever, a member of the Sporting group,
Speaker 1: but a lab has never won Best in Show at Westminster.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article Westminster Dog Show
Speaker 1: celebrates a hundred and forty five years, but one will
Speaker 1: be different on House to haworks dot com, written by
Speaker 1: John Donovan. Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio
Speaker 1: in partnership with hows tofworks dot Com and it is
Speaker 1: produced by Tyler Clay. Four more podcasts my Heart Radio,
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