A 15in beagle named Miss P is the toast of New York after being named best in show at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show on Tuesday.
Here’s everything you need to know about America’s new top dog.
The win was rare
Only once in 138 previous years had a beagle won best in show at Westminster, when the hugely popular Uno captured the top honor in 2008. The two are in fact related: Miss P is Uno’s grand-neice, though they’ve never met.
The competition was fierce
Miss P had scored a minor upset over Nathan the bloodhound on Monday to win the hound group and advance to Tuesday’s final round. The seven-dog lineup for the competition’s top prize was stacked, with more than 500 career best in shows represented (and Miss P accounting for only 19 of them).
Frontrunners included crowd favorite Swagger, an old English sheepdog who had won reserve best in show in 2013, and Matisse, a Portuguese water dog (and cousin of Sunny Obama) who is the most successful male show-dog in history with 238 best in shows under his belt. Also in the hunt was Rocket, a shih tzu co-owned by famed heiress Patty Hearst.
She’s officially retired
William Alexander, Miss P’s handler, said the three-year-old had already been scheduled to retire after this competition regardless of the outcome. After beating out nearly 2,800 competitors in 192 breeds and varieties, the move into motherhood will be that much sweeter.
She’s Canadian
Miss P – short for Peyton – is co-owned by the mother-and-daughter team of Lori and Kaitlyn Crandlemire from Enderby, British Columbia, though she’s spent most of her life with Alexander in Milton, Ontario. A third co-owner, the American breeder Eddie Dziuk, was also co-owner of Uno.
She’s booked solid the next few days
Miss P’s whirlwind media tour on Wednesday includes a 6.30am appearance on Fox & Friends, 7.30am on the Today show, 9am on Good Day New York, 11am on The View, a photo-op atop the Empire State Building, then lunch at Sardi’s in midtown Manhattan where she will be served steak on a silver platter – an annual post-Westminster tradition. Appearances on Shepard Smith and Keith Olbermann will follow, before she caps the night with a walk-on role in Kinky Boots.
She’s a diva
When asked to expound on what makes Miss P unique, Alexander was quick to respond.
“She is a princess,” the 49-year-old handler said. “It’s all about her. She’s so demanding. She thinks she’s the biggest dog in the dog show. I’ve shown her before where she gets so mad at the dog she’s behind that she grumbles and marches around. She wants to be the one.”
For one night, that’s exactly what she was.
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