Behind the scenes with the glam squads at Westminster Dog Show

By Charlotte Wilder
FOX Sports Columnist

TARRYTOWN, N.Y. — Pippin headed again to his RV, which was parked at the far fringe of the Lyndhurst Mansion property. It was eight o’clock in the morning, and he had simply sufficient time for a fast morning stroll earlier than he needed to begin making ready for his greatest day of the 12 months.

Originally Slovenian, Pippin moved to Dallas when he was younger, and in the previous week, he made the roughly 1,575-mile drive from Texas to New York. He wasn’t about to waste all that point and vitality to look something aside from his finest.  

Pippin didn’t, nevertheless, drive himself, nor was he getting himself prepared. 

Because Pippin is a canine.

Charlotte Wilder meets Pippin

Charlotte Wilder meets Pippin the Borzoi at the 2022 Westminster Club Kennel and learns about how Pippin’s handler grooms him to arrange for competitors.

“He’s not only a good-looking boy,” mentioned Beth Collins, who started washing Pippin shortly after his stroll. “He can do the job he was bred to do.”

That job could be looking wolves in Russia, contemplating that Pippin is a Borzoi, a breed beforehand often called a Russian Wolfhound. But Pippin’s homeowners, Patricia Silverman and Dick Hafner, desire displaying him at the Westminster Dog Show to taking him looking on the Siberian Steppe. 

Both are rigorous undertakings.

Getting any canine prepared for Westminster requires a glam squad. Some canines are larger upkeep than others, however all require TLC to ensure they’re placing their finest paw ahead. 

Silverman and Hafner like to let Pippin play with his finest good friend, their Afghan Hound named Soren. The two aren’t simply fairly, lengthy faces: They fiddle in the mud and steal pillows off the sofa like some other canine. But on the subject of present day, Pippin should be spotless.

His routine falls someplace in the center of the upkeep continuum. He shouldn’t be as glam-intensive as Soren, who wears his ear-hair in little rubber bands to maintain it from tangling and whose fur should be straightened with a flattening iron earlier than he enters the ring. Or Iris, one other Afghan Hound I used to be fortunate sufficient to satisfy, who wears just a little mesh bathe cap to ensure her ears don’t get tangled and will get misted with doggy hair product. Or Cooper, an Old English Sheepdog who will get a shower at least as soon as every week and should be brushed for 4 hours afterward to make certain his coat doesn’t mat. 

Pippin does, nevertheless, require extra primping than Bergamasco Sheepdogs. After a shower, these canines are merely put into their crates with three or 4 flooring followers pointed of their path for hours till they dry. They’re alleged to look “rustic and pure.”

Westminster Kennel Club: How a lot grooming does it take?

Ever questioned how a lot grooming it takes for canines to prepare for Westminster? Charlotte Wilder talked to some canines and their homeowners to seek out out.

Pippin took a full bathtub about two days earlier than the present, so Collins gave him a sponge bathtub at round 9 a.m. on Monday to make it possible for any grime he picked up on his morning stroll was faraway from his pristine white undercarriage. He stood patiently on a white folding desk beneath an awning linked to his RV whereas Collins soaped him down. 

Collins is neither Pippin’s proprietor nor the handler who would present him at 10:45 a.m. in entrance of a really discerning choose. But the canine present world is small, shut and linked, and associates assist one another out. It actually takes a village to get one elegant animal prepared for primetime, and since Collins is the finest groomer, she was tapped for the process.

Silverman and Hafner hovered close by as Collins blow-dried their canine. They’ve had Borzois earlier than, and knew precisely when at hand Collins the instruments she wanted, like one in all two Mason-Pearson hairbrushes on the desk, which value upward of $170 every. Collins fluffed Pippin’s fur a technique after which smoothed it down the different, ensuring no hair was misplaced.

Pippin, maybe sensing the gravity of the second, panted fortunately and allowed Collins to trim his paws. She reduce the fur in “rabbit model,” in order that it was longer in entrance, like a hare’s foot. She then trimmed the fur that she had simply washed beneath Pippin’s abdomen and thoroughly reduce away hairs that had been hiding the form of Pippin’s ears, which she mentioned had been “beautiful” for a Borzoi.

There was one thing ritualistic — virtually primal — about watching somebody fastidiously and methodically groom a canine as the still-rising solar forged shadows throughout the subject on that idyllic, late spring day. The rhythm of the brush, the clip of the scissors and the belief Pippin put in a human he cherished all made the second really feel serene and in some way disconnected from each different aspect of on a regular basis life. The barks of close by canines and the whir of turbines powering hairdryers supplied a gradual background hum.

Westminster is one in all the uncommon sporting occasions that’s actually joyful. It’s very exhausting to be grumpy when so many fluffy, modern, tough, massive, tiny, tall, lengthy, brief, wiry canines are cruising round the grounds of a mansion. It’s exhausting to not smile while you cross a Bloodhound whose cheeks and ears are blowing in the wind.

Dogs are merely the finest.

And seeing between 15 and 30 of the identical breed in a single place is exceptional — it’s like strolling right into a Photoshopped picture or a CGI-altered video. And they’re all so good! All the canines had been as chill as Pippin was, they usually all frolicked collectively beneath a giant tent with out a lot as a tiny lunge at each other. I’ve solely ever seen canines that clear, good and calm at Westminster (you don’t notice how soiled your canine is till you pat one at the canine present).

At promptly 10:45, Pippin entered the ring with the different Borzois. He appeared flawless. The silhouette of his fur was reduce at the excellent angle, and he shone in the sizzling solar. Collins and Pippin’s homeowners, Silverman and Hafner, watched nervously as Pippin was trotted round the ring by one other one in all their associates. They had been proud mother and father at a baby’s soccer sport, pacing backwards and forwards alongside the sidelines, squeezing associates’ fingers and, at occasions, having hassle watching at all.

Pippin made the first reduce after which finally fell brief. But the wonderful thing about the Westminster Dog Show is that the canines don’t know they misplaced. Unlike sports activities video games, the place one group should lose, all canines are winners no matter the rating.

And due to their glam squads, they all the time appear to be winners, ribbons or no.

Charlotte Wilder is a basic columnist and cohost of “The People’s Sports Podcast” for FOX Sports. She’s honored to symbolize the continually uncared for Boston space in sports activities media, loves speaking to sports activities followers about their emotions and is happiest consuming a hotdog in a ballpark or nachos in a stadium. Follow her on Twitter @TheWilderThings.