Santa Fe woman to judge ‘ultimate’ dog show
Pet resort owner will officiate at Westminster 2019
The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show’s Toy Group competition has a special history with Sharon Newcomb. Her Pomeranian, Champion Duke’s Lil Red Baron of O’Kala, won that group in 1971. The Toy Group is reserved for smaller breeds, like Chihuahuas, pugs and Shih Tzus.
Newcomb was “a skinny kid from Texas” back then, she recalled, still a “novice” in her dog show career and living in Houston. “I hardly knew how to get in and out of the ring,” she said earlier this week.
The Pomeranian went on to be a multishow winner, she said, taking 16 Best in Shows at various competitions.
Now, 48 years after her dog’s victory at Westminster, Newcomb has been selected as the judge for Toy Group for the 2019 show in February. She described it as a huge honor; only seven judges are selected worldwide to judge the show’s group competitions each year. Group winners then go on to compete for the coveted Best of Show title.
The Westminster Kennel Club’s Dog Show, held annually in New York City, hosts thousands of dogs of all breeds. The group and Best of Show competitions are held in Madison Square Garden.
“It’s a big deal for us dog people to judge Westminster,” said Newcomb, who turns 81 next month. “Who would have
thought when I was a skinny kid back in Texas that I’d come back and host that Toy Group. I would’ve never known that.”
This February’s event will be the 143rd show. Newcomb pointed out that the only older sporting event in the United States is the Kentucky Derby, which is just two years older.
“To put it in perspective, when they started Westminster, we didn’t have light bulbs, we didn’t have automobiles,” she said. “It’s been around forever.”
Newcomb has judged at Westminster twice before. However, this is her first time officiating a group competition. In previous years, she judged different breeds, mostly those in the Herding Group, like Shetland sheepdogs and collies. She received her invitation to be the Toy Group judge last year.
When asked how someone gets to be selected to judge a Westminster group, she cited some advice her mentor, acclaimed dog show judge and Clovis native Langdon Skarda, told her decades ago: “Don’t ever ask.”
She said that if someone was pushy enough to ask how to become a judge, the person wouldn’t be wanted. People must wait for the honor of being chosen.
“You have to be around a long time,” she said. “You have to pay your dues. Whoever their board of selection is has to think you’re smart enough to host Westminster and honest enough.”
She said she started off in dog obedience, training her own dog and then running large dog obedience classes in Houston. She then became a handler, traveling around showing her dogs and those of other owners.
She attended her first dog show in Nashville, Tenn., in the early ’60s. “It was like an alcoholic’s first drink,” Newcomb said. In the late ’70s, she first became a judge. However, she said she took some time off from judging to work with a German shepherd — not hers — named Champion Covy-Tucker Hill’s Manhattan. He won Westminster’s Best of Show in 1987.
She said judging has taken her all over the world, to countries including China, Australia and Sweden. She said she still shows dogs in the United Kingdom, as well.
The Dallas native has lived in Santa Fe for 30 years with her husband, David. She’s owned Top Dog Pet Resort, a luxury all-suite boarding kennel southwest of the Interstate 25/N.M. 14 interchange, for the past year. She previously owned a kennel in southern New Jersey for more than 40 years.
Newcomb says she has always been a dog person. When she was growing up, her father was a bird hunter, and the family had German shepherds, English pointers and Irish setters. “We always had dogs,” she said. “And I was always dragging stray dogs home, saying, ‘Mom, can I keep it?’”
Today, she continues to show papillons, Anatolian shepherds and Chihuahuas. She shows with her two daughters, who operate boarding kennels in Florida and Texas. A few years back, she added, a papillon of hers won Best of Breed at Crufts, the largest dog show in the world held in the United Kingdom, three years in a row.
Newcomb isn’t sure most people can truly grasp “what a prize” Westminster is, both for a judge and contest participants.
“It’s the ultimate,” she said.
The Westminster Kennel Club Dog show is Feb. 11-12. The first round of group competitions, including Newcomb’s Toy Group, will be telecast live on Fox Sports 1 on the evening of Feb. 11. Group judgings take place from 5:30 to 9 p.m. MST. The pre-show starts at 5 p.m. MST.
The remaining groups, followed by Best in Show, will be telecast on FS1 the next day over the same period. Other features will be shown on Nat Geo Wild or live at westminsterkennelclub.org. Check the website for a complete viewing schedule.