There's a new top dog in New York City.
Buddy Holly the Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen (pronounced peh-TEE’ bah-SAY’ grihf-FAHN’ vahn-DAY’-ahn) won the Best in Show honor at the 147th annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on Tuesday at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, beating over 3,000 dogs of more than 200 different breeds for the ultimate prize.
Buddy Holly's selection marked history. He's the first Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen (PBGV for short) to ever win Best in Show in Westminster's 147-year history. This is the second year in a row that a dog from the hound group has won the gold-and-purple ribbon for the first time after Trumpet the Bloodhound became the first Bloodhood to win Best in Show honors last year.
"I never thought a PBGV would do this," said handler and owner Janice Hayes. "Buddy Holly is the epitome of a show dog. Nothing bothers him. He loves all the cameras... He's just everything a PBGV should be, hard-headed, stubborn, happy and he moves just so easily. We are so proud of him and this is so surreal."
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The Best in Show winner is selected from seven competitors – each of whom first won Best in Breed, and then best in one of the seven groups that purebred dogs are divided into: Hound, Toy, Non-sporting, Sporting, Herding, Working and Terrier.
The champion was selected by Elizabeth Sweigart, a breeder and handler from Pennsylvania, who served as the sole judge for Best in Show. Sweigart gave the runner-up honor – Reserve Best in Show – to Rummie the Pekingese.
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In addition to Buddy Holly the PBGV (Hound) and Rummie the Pekingese (Toy), the finalists were Winston the French Bulldog (Non-sporting), Ribbon the Australian Shepherd (Herding), Cider the English Setter (Sporting), Monty the Giant Schnauzer (Working) and Trouble the American Staffordshire Terrier (Terrier).
Four of those breeds – Giant Schnauzer, Australian Shepherd, American Staffordshire Terrier and French Bulldog – have never won Best In Show.
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The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show − which this year was held at the same sports complex that hosts the annual U.S. Open tennis tournament − is the second oldest continuously running sporting event in the U.S. behind the Kentucky Derby. Westminster was previously held at New York City’s Madison Square Garden from 1877 to 2020, but moved to the Lyndhurst Estate in Tarrytown, New York, in 2021 and 2022 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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