For the Dogs

When I received an invite to attend the Westminster Dog Show on behalf of a PR company repping a beauty product for--you guessed it--dogs, I jumped at the chance. After all, one of my favorite movies is "Best in Show," so I just had to see the real deal. At the very least, I could get some exclusive access to the what I could only imagine would be madness behind-the-scenes.

Madness is an understatement. I was disappointed to find out that when I reached the Garden, the earlier portion of the judging was over and the "Best in Class" competition wouldn't start for another hour. I could still check out the dogs as they're "benched" (or crated) in the bowels of Madison Square Garden, but the public,with a paying ticket, is allowed to do the same. (Coincidentally, this area was also reserved as the athlete warmup for the Milrose Games last week). Not that I'm against the public, but when anything is open to the masses in NYC, people show up, well, en masse. This place was a mob scene. From crazy, frazzled handlers who looked straight out of 1975 to yappy New Yorkers bragging about their own designer dogs, I couldn't take a step forward, backward, or sideways without running into some kind of doggie freak. The woman leading me around, a Siberian Husky breeder who works for the beauty product company on the side, introduced me to what she deemed were the "Michael Jordans" of dog handling, but I don't follow the "sport" enough to really be impressed. I mean, how hard is it to lead a dog around an arena while wearing an atrocious suit?

Though the overall experience was a bit disappointing (I really wanted to see some real competition or at least hold a dog, but they're fiercely protected), the dogs themselves were not. As evidenced by the pictures below, they were all stunning in their own right, from the ginormous Great Dane to the tiniest Pomeranian. If nothing else, it was an entertaining way to spend a Monday evening!