BEST IN SHOW
King, a wire fox terrier, competes in the 143rd Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on Tuesday in New York. King won Best in Show. A local cocker spaniel finished fourth in the Sporting Group.
A black cocker spaniel co-owned by Regina Beinhauer of Peters finished fourth in the Sporting Group at the prestigious Westminster Kennel Club dog show Tuesday night in New York City.
The dog, Grand Champion Clerwood Silhouette Speed of Light, was the No. 1-ranked show dog in the country, according to Dog News magazine and had won Best In Show at 38 American Kennel Club shows in 2018. Called “Grant” by his five owners, he won the Sporting Group at 127 shows.
Had Grant finished first in the Sporting Group at Westminster, he would have advanced to the Best in Show competition.
Earlier Tuesday, Grant won Best of Variety by beating all the other black cocker spaniels. The win is the equivalent of a Best of Breed award.
Winning the Sporting Group at Westminster was a Sussex spaniel, Grand Champion Kamands Full of Beans @ Erinhill. Called “Beans” by his owners, he also won the Sporting Group at Westminster last year. He was ranked 12th in 2018 by Dog News.
About 3,000 dogs competed in the Westminster show, and only four are awarded ribbons in each of the seven groups.
The AKC recognizes 31 breeds in the Sporting Group. That includes the highly recognizable Labrador retriever and English springer spaniels and lesser-known dogs such at the Sussex spaniel, Boykin spaniel and the Nova Scotia duck tolling retriever.
Mrs. Beinhauer — a member of the family that operates funeral homes in the Pittsburgh area — has been breeding and showing cocker spaniels for more than 30 years.
Grant, however, was bred by Laurie Ferland and Linda Pitts of Knoxville, Tenn., who is also one of his owners. The others are Stephanie Kau of California, Ellen Charles of Washington, and Motoei Furukawa of the Philippines.
Mrs. Pitts and her husband, Mike Pitts, are professional handlers whose many clients include Grant. Mrs. Pitts handled Grant on Tuesday night.