Bill Cosby’s dog wins his group
Published 9:00 pm Monday, February 12, 2007
Co-owned by Bill Cosby, a 6-year-old Dandie Dinmont named Harry won the always-tough terrier group at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show Monday night.
“They were all beautiful dogs out there,” Erinn Cosby said, “but there was only one.”
Harry, officially named Hobergays Fineus Fogg, entered the No. 1 dog show in America as the country’s top dog. But favorites often fall at this event, perhaps the reason the comedian stayed away.
“Bill thinks he has bad luck here in New York. But I want to change that,” said Bill McFadden, Harry’s handler.
Clipped and combed right before showing, Harry charmed judge Richard Meen – “he was the epitome of the breed standard,” he said. Constantly wagging his tail as if he’d spied a liver treat, his big black eyes lit up at the crowd’s cheers.
“He’s a natural clown,” McFadden said.
Dandies are a rare breed and, in fact, the pepper-and-white Harry was the only one of his kind among the 2,628 entries at Westminster.
A poodle bred in Japan won the toy group, a standard poodle took the nonsporting category and a female Akita with a fluffy, full coat won the working group.
The sporting, hounding and herding winners will be picked tonight, and then the silver bowl for Best in Show will be presented. An English springer spaniel and a Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen were among the other main contenders.
With 165 breeds and varieties, the dogs at Westminster, a champions-only show for purebreds, come in all shapes and sizes. The giant Neapolitan mastiff is always a crowd favorite and is judged on the “wham” method – wrinkles, head and mass.
They come in different ages, too. There’s a Tibetan spaniel only 13 months old and a schipperke named Nan that’s 131/2 years old.
Many dogs come with interesting backstories. There is a vizsla that was bitten by a rattlesnake, a Dachshund that looks for bones on archaeological digs and a Great Dane that posed on David Bowie’s album cover.
