Giant Schnauzer Is Top Dog At Westminster Show

A giant schnauzer named Monty with a pronounced beard and a jaunty gait wins Best In Show this week at the Westminster Dog Show. The 5-year-old had reached the final round in the previous two years; he finally won it all, besting an impressive field of competitors.

Among the more than 2,500 dogs representing 200 breeds, six others joined Monty in the finals: Bourbon the whippet, Mercedes the German shepherd, Neal the Bichon Frisé, Comet the Shih Tzu, Freddie the English Springer spaniel, and Archer the Skye terrier.

Some of the canine competitors have second jobs.  A four-year-old Borzoi named Ziggy flew directly to Los Angeles after the show to comfort displaced victims of the California wildfires. The trained therapy dog won a merit award at Westminster, and will now go to work with the Red Cross and Therapy Dogs International.

Then there is Monty, who entered the show as the top-ranked dog in the country, based on points he’d accrued in previous shows. On his way to the  Best in Show round, Monty won both the Best in Breed for the giant schnauzer and the Best in Group for the Working Group.

The winner and his handler, Katie Bernardin, were swarmed by television cameras and presented with an enormous silver cup and a purple-and-yellow ribbon. The following day, Monty and Katie basked in their victory on “Good Morning America.”

“Lots of hard work and preparation goes into a dog show like this,” Bernardin said. “It's not just, you know, one day we wake up and go to a dog show. It’s months of preparing and getting him ready and getting him in shape, and just every dog we show – there's a process to the madness. It’s a lot.”

Watch Monty strut his stuff here.

Comet

Photo credit: Westminster Kennel Club via X