It was a competition filled with poofs and prancing and winners. Of thrills and frills and spills.
Tuesday was the last night of the 148th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, and Sage the miniature poodle was its champion.
Kaz Hosaka, Sage’s co-owner, has shown dogs for more than 40 years, winning Best in Show honors in 2002 with Sage’s great-grandmother Surrey Spice Girl. It took him 22 years for his first big win and 22 more for his second.
Hosaka said Tuesday that he is leaving the high-maintenance sport atop its zenith: “Showing poodles for 45 years is not easy.”
Sage is joining him in retirement to be a normal dog who will get to live the pet life after working so hard for her owner.
“I love her,” Hosaka said.
Sage wasn’t the only dog to have her day this weekend. Let’s take a look back.
Weekend competitions included three main events — obedience, dock diving and agility — which produced some excellent photographs:
Monday night’s competition selected the toy, non-sporting, hound and herding groups. The winners were:
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- Herding — Mercedes, a German shepherd.
- Toy — Comet, a Shih Tzu.
- Hound — Louis, an Afghan hound.
- Non-sporting — Sage, a miniature poodle.
On Tuesday, three group winners rounded out the Best in Show field.
In the sporting group, Freddie the English cocker spaniel won style points by strutting to “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen — the band, of course, fronted by Freddie Mercury. But it was Micha the black cocker spaniel who won the group.
Monty the giant Schnauzer then topped the working group for the second year in a row.
Frankie the colored bull terrier took the terrier group, rounding out the seven finalists, but there was a dramatic moment during that presentation.
Gabriel Rangel, handler for the Welsh terrier, tripped and fell. The arena crowd gasped, and several other handlers rushed over to check on him. He rose and walked his dog again, to massive applause.
That stumble wasn’t the weekend’s only disruption.
On Saturday, four protesters associated with the group Extinction Rebellion stormed the Westminster field during agility finals and unfurled an orange banner that read, “No Dogs on a Dead Planet.”
Shortly before Tuesday’s Best in Show competition, two protesters from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals were tackled and hauled out of the arena after trying to jump into the ring to display anti-dog-breeding signs.
Despite those brief interruptions, Sage and Hosaka cleared a path into the record books.
Now, they can strut off into the sunset together.
“This is my perfect end,” Hosaka told reporters after leading his miniature poodle to the top. “I can’t ask for more than this.”
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