DOGGED PURSUIT
Three new breeds are in play at the Westminster Kennel Club show
The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show welcomes three new breeds into its elite fold for the first time this year — and a Yonkers woman who owns two is thrilled she’ll finally get to show them off.
The rat terrier, Portuguese Podengo Pequeno and the Chinook all make their debut at the pedigree pageant held this Monday and Tuesday in Manhattan.
Loretta Iazzetti is the only New Yorker who will be showing a rat terrier, her pup Noah, at breed judging at Pier 92/94 on 12th Ave. Her Podengo, Rocky, is sitting this one out, but he has already taken top ribbons in shows up and down the East Coast. “He’ll definitely be at Westminster next year,” she says.
Iazzetti’s glad the two breeds will have the chance to strut their stuff this year.
“They’re both very smart, they’re small and easy to transport, and they get along well with anyone,” she says.
A pediatric nurse practitioner at Mount Sinai in Manhattan, Iazzetti owns five dogs and often treats patients with therapy pups. She has been showing pooches in competition (mainly standard schnauzers) since 1992.
She believed in the blond Podengo’s potential long before the chic canine club. “They’re nice dogs, small and easy to show, with great personalities,” Iazzetti says. “They have a wire coat that’s pretty easy to keep. You just have to wake it up with the brush in the morning, and I trim around his feet.”
And the animal lover fell for the rat terrier — which resembles a Jack Russell terrier in its coloring, pert ears and alert facial expression — after spotting Noah’s father in a New Jersey show about a year ago. “I saw him in the ring and said, ‘Wow, he’s a gorgeous dog!’ ” Iazzetti recalls.
She reached out to his breeder about adopting a puppy, and little Noah was the pick of the litter. He’s already following in his father’s winning footsteps, taking the best of breed award at a Virginia Terrier Club show in Richmond last month, and scoring the same prize in a Wildwood, N.J., show last week. “He’s been doing very well in the ring, and we are very, very excited to be at Westminster,” Iazzetti says. “It’s the Kentucky Derby of the dog world.”
Rat terriers make great family pets, as they’re small enough to fit in a tiny New York apartment, and their coats are lower maintenance than a standard poodle or a Bichon Frise.
Iazzetti also recommends the Podengo, but warns they require a firm hand. “They can be manipulative. They are so cute that they try to
weasel things out of you,” she says. “Rocky jumped onto the kitchen table once looking for food! This may not be the breed for a first-time dog owner.”
Both posh pups are playful and get along with Iazzetti’s three mixed-breed rescue dogs. “They love playing tug-of-war and fetch,” she says. “They don’t need a lot of exercise. And they’ll snack on anything, so they’re easy to train.”
Noah is up against 19 other rat terriers for Best of Breed on Monday. If he takes that, he moves up to the Group competition on Tuesday against other terrier breeds, and the winner from that round heads into the Best in Show competition in Madison Square Garden that night.
Unfortunately, rat terriers are underdogs for the grand prize. “He stands a good chance for Best of Breed, but he won’t go Best in Show,” Iazzetti says. “It would be nice, but I have to be realistic. The judges don’t know the new dogs as well.”
Iazzetti’s learned to brush off losses after two decades on the show circuit. “I need to be a good winner, but I have to be a great loser as well,” she says. “You have 20 great dogs competing, and there’s only one blue ribbon, so you have to have a tough skin.”
The competition can get pretty ruff, as depicted in the 2000 Christopher Guest mockumentary “Best in Show,” which followed an ensemble cast playing neurotic, hypercompetitive trainers who freaked out if their wellheeled hounds didn’t get the right treats or toys.
“I thought it was pretty funny,” Iazzetti admits. “Some of the dog show people are crazy like that!” But overall, most pageant parents are as well-behaved as their pampered pooches. No catfights here. “Most of the people have got their wits about them,” she says. “You have to try not to take it too seriously.”
Eventually, every dog has his day. “There’s always another show around the corner.”