Westminster, Here I Come

Top Spa in Town — This Week — Going to the Dogs

By GABRIELLE BIRKNER, Staff Reporter of the Sun
February 11, 2008

New York's canine population spikes this week, but dog-runs across the city are not likely to see an influx of visitors. The out-of-towners, competitors in the 132nd annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, won't have much time to play in between their grooming and massage appointments.

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Konrad Fiedler

Jill Maloney, left, and Susan Doersam prepare Stonybrook Dakota, an Irish wolfhound, for Westminster.

The 2,500 contenders come from across the globe to take part in the venerable two-day pageant, which begins today at Madison Square Garden. The first-place pooches are said to best represent the standards of their breeds, as determined by a panel of judges. Tomorrow night, winners in seven categories, such as hound, terrier, and toy, will vie for the "Best in Show" title during the televised competition.

Last year, that trophy went to James, a 7-year-old English springer spaniel.

This year, dog owner Polly Hix of Indianapolis said she hopes it will go to her 3-year-old Great Dane, Eva, who will be participating in the Westminster show for the second consecutive year. "When a ribbon is awarded to her, she often wants to bite on and play with it," she said of her fawn-color pet. "She's a queen — and she knows it."

Eva is among more than 700 show dogs now residing at the Hotel Pennsylvania, situated across from Madison Square Garden in Midtown, according to the hotel's so-called doggy concierge, Jerry Grymek. For the duration of the show, the hotel's basement has been converted into a canine playground, spa, and art gallery. There, dogs can get baths and blowouts, visit a masseuse, psychic, or portraitist, exercise on Jog A Dog treadmills, and attend to business in a makeshift restroom equipped with potted plants and plastic hydrants.

Yesterday morning, a New Ipswich, N.H., resident, Lisa Saari, cheered for her 7-year-old Finnish Spitz, as he exercised on one of the hotel treadmills. "Show dogs are treated a lot better than a lot of children in this country," Ms. Saari said, noting that her strawberry-blond dog, Cool, eats a diet of raw meat and exercises on a treadmill three or four times a week.

"You can't get this kind of speed and conditioning on the street," she said, stretching and massaging Cool's limbs after his workout yesterday. "They're athletes, after all."

Despite all of the pampering that goes on in advance of Westminster, the show's commentator, David Frei, said that these competitors, above all, are loving pets. "The main message I try to get across is that these dogs are real dogs — and they don't sit around on doggy cushions eating doggy bonbons all day," he said. "They sleep on the couch, shed on our good clothes, and steal food from the counter."

At competitions such as Westminster, however, the dogs are expected to transcend those house-pet habits, proving themselves to be "built closer to perfection and of sounder temperament" than cohorts who are not show dogs, Mr. Frei said. "We're always looking to identify the dogs that will be involved in creating a generation that's a little better than the previous one," he said.

Tickets for the show, which has the contenders traipsing, with their handlers, across the floor of Madison Square Garden, are available for $40 a day, and $75 for both days.

Of the entrants, 287 are from California and 244 are from New York State. The dogs represent 169 recognized breeds and varieties — including the Beauceron, Plott, Swedish Vallhund, and Tibetan Mastiff, all of which will make their Westminster debuts this year.

The terriers seem to have the upper paw at the show, with dogs from that category taking home 43 of the last 100 "Best in Show" titles, Mr. Frei said. "They were bred to be independent hunters and patrol an area for rats and vermin, so they're always up and on their toes always looking for trouble," he said. "Golden Retrievers and labs, they want to live in our world. With terriers, it's their world — and we're just living in it."