This is the biggest group entered at Westminster, in terms of the number of dogs entered (560). There are 30 breeds and varieties represented. Judging earlier today selected the best of each breed to compete before Judge Sam Houston McDonald of Chester Springs, PA, who chose the group winners, as follows: Best in Group: Irish Water Spaniel Group Second: Black Cocker Spaniel Group Third: Golden Retriever Group Fourth: English Springer Spaniel Up next: The Working Group
Tag Archives: 2014 Westminster
2014 Westminster Results: Herding Group
There are 26 breeds and varieties in this group, and 318 dogs competed today at the Piers. The best of each breed got to come downtown to the Garden to compete for the group title.
The Australian Shepherd I picked to win it all needs to win this group to advance to the Best in Show competition. Fingers crossed!
Judge Walter Sommerfelt of Lenoir City, TN, chose:
Best in Group: Cardigan Welsh Corgi (Best wishes to this dog’s owner, who is recovering from surgery this evening.)
Group Second: Puli
Group Third: German Shepherd
Group Fourth: Old English Sheepdog
Come back tomorrow for the Terriers, Sporting dogs, and and Working dogs. I’ll post the first breed results no later than 1 pm (probably earlier). The evening session will begin at 8 pm, with the breed winners in these groups competing for Best in Group and culminating with the Best in Show announcement closer to 11:00 pm.
In the meantime, go to WKCBuzz.com to join in with live discussions on all that is Westminster from social media. If you’re interested in seeing the breed judging, download the Westminster 2014 app on your phone or tablet, or check out the videos posted on the main Westminster site. The breed judging is not narrated – the only audio you will really hear will be crowd noise and some barking.
Until next time,
Good day, and good dog!
2014 Westminster Results: Non-Sporting Group
A total of 307 dogs started out the day, representing 19 different breeds and varieties. (The Norwegian Lundehund did not have any entries this year.) The dog of each breed that best exemplifies the breed standard is here tonight before Judge Jacqueline Stacy of Chapel Hill, NC.
Although this isn’t typically a group near and dear to my heart, I did recently discover how cute the Keeshond is, and it’s rapidly working its way toward the top of my list of favorite breeds.
“Non-Sporting” means that the breeds don’t fit into any other group. Originally all dogs were designated either Sporting (meaning hunting dogs, which dominated the show) or Non-Sporting. After the Non-Sporting Group got too big, the Toys and Terriers were split off, then the Working dogs got their own group, which was split into Working and Herding when it got too big. (On the Sporting side, the Hounds were split off from the main group.) There has been some desire among AKC members to change the Non-Sporting name to “Companion dogs” to more accurately reflect the make-up of the group.
And the winners are:
Best in Group: Standard Poodle (who has 115 previous Best in Show wins and is retiring this year)
Group Second: Tibetan Spaniel
Group Third: Miniature Poodle
Group Fourth: Dalmatian
Coming up: the last group for tonight, the Herding Group.
2014 Westminster Agility Wrap-Up
To close out the evening, we have the trophies!
Congratulations to Roo! for winning the All American Trophy, and to Kelso for winning the Grand Championship in Masters Agility.
Some closing thoughts:
The evening show was great, but I would ask Westminster to give some thought to live streaming some of the day-time events. This is an exciting sport, and it’s so much fun to watch. I would have loved to have seen some of the earlier competition. Some of the dogs were showing the effects of a very long day during tonight’s competition, so it would have been nice to see them when they were fresher.
There was a little bit of confusion at the end, as the judges were awarding the trophies, but other than that, this was a great show. Congratulations to the folks at the Westminster Kennel Club for allowing mixed breed dogs to enter, and for putting on a very nice inaugural event!
Until next time,
Good day, and good dog!