Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) -- A happy beagle named ``Uno'' made history last night, becoming the first of his breed to win the 132-year-old Westminster Kennel Club dog show in New York.
The 15-inch-tall (38-centimeter) champion beat six highly ranked, highly coifed pooches for the title: a standard and toy poodle, a Sealyham terrier, an akita, a weimaraner and an Australian shepherd.
``Everything he does is correct,'' said J. Donald Jones, the 75-year-old judge who bestowed the top prize for purebreds on the beagle. ``This is a great dog.''
Uno was the crowd favorite as he sauntered back and forth on the floor of Madison Square Garden, his tiny tail wagging.
``He's what a beagle is supposed to be,'' his 29-year-old handler, Aaron Wilkerson, told reporters as Uno bayed and barked. ``A merry little hound.'' There was no word on whether he might be hoping for a celebratory e-mail from Snoopy.
To celebrate his triumph and satisfy the media crush, Uno appeared on NBC's ``Today,'' CBS's ``The Early Show,'' followed by lunch at Sardi's restaurant and a visit with Charlie Rose.
Beyond that, ``I have no idea what the future holds,'' Kathy Weichert, one of Uno's four owners, said today in a telephone interview.
Time Off
Uno, who has won 33 best-in-show awards, can become the most successful beagle in dog-show history by claiming 8 more titles. For now, he'll take time off after Westminster, skipping planned competitions in South Carolina and Florida.
``If you win Westminster, you don't want to go out and get beat,'' said Weichert, who works as an accounting associate for the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District. ``You want to go out on top.''
Weichert credits Wilkerson, who is based in Columbia, South Carolina, and has cared for Uno since he was six months old, for grooming him into a champion. What's with the baying?
``He's a talker ever since he was a baby,'' she said. ``That is his personality. It makes him what he is.''
Beagles date back to the 1300s and were first bred as a hunting companion for small game, according to the Westminster club's Web site. They were imported to the colonial U.S. and used for hunting rabbits. Asked if Jones had advice for new beagle owners, he recommended installing a fence in the backyard.
Like most dog shows, Westminster doesn't offer cash prizes. Top dogs may rack up annual expenses of hundreds of thousands of dollars as they compete in as many as 150 shows a year. Uno, who turns 3 on May 5, has four owners paying his bills.
``Everyone does it for the love of the dogs and their own ego,'' said Beverly Wilson, a San Diego handler who brought three dogs to the event. ``Best in show is like a Pulitzer Prize.''
Doggy Devotees
Spectators, who filled most of the seats in the lower levels of the Garden, included doggy devotees as well as the merely curious. Columbia University senior Abby Broberg was sitting in the 12th row of the mezzanine with her friend David Spector.
``We saw the movie `Best in Show' a couple of years ago,'' Broberg said early in the evening, referring to the Christopher Guest comedy.
``We're as interested in the people as the dogs,'' said Spector.
After just a few minutes observing the dogs running on the floor with their handlers and being gently manhandled by judges, they said they were engrossed.
``It's strangely compelling,'' Spector said.
The annual Westminster show calls itself the second-oldest continually run sporting event in the U.S., one year younger than horse racing's Kentucky Derby. At the Westminster club's first annual show in 1877 in the Hippodrome at Gilmore's Garden, 1,201 dogs were entered, according to the club's Web site. This year there were about 2,600 entries divided among 157 breeds.
How will Wilkerson reward Uno for bringing overdue glory to beagles?
By Philip Boroff
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