It’s almost here … the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, and each year it seems to get bigger and bigger. The main event, if you’re watching from home, will be the groups, televised from Madison Square Garden on Monday and Tuesday evenings. Monday night, the Hound, Toy, Non-Sporting and Herding groups will be on CNBC. Tuesday night, you’ll watch on USA Network and you’ll see the Sporting, Working and Terrier groups, as well as Best in Show.

If you want to keep up with the individual breed judging during the day, you can get live streaming video and results on westminsterkennelclub.org and on the Westminster app.

This year, the show drew an entry of 2,752 dogs, with the three largest entries being labrador retrievers at 51, golden retrievers with 50 and french bulldogs, 48. When you’re watching the groups, keep an eye out for the seven breeds that are making their Westminster debut. In the sporting group, it’s the Lagotto Romagnolo, in the hound group, the lovely Cirneco dell’Etna, the working group, the solid boerboel, and, in the herding group the Berger picard, the miniature American shepherd, the Bergamasco, and the Spanish water dog. Besides herding, this versatile dog has been used to help both hunters and fishermen.

Meet the Breeds, a joint effort of both Westminster Kennel Club and the American Kennel Club, is today, and has been expanded to both the pier locations. This is a terrific event, and I’m glad they’re giving it more room because it’s very popular and quickly becomes crowded. Spectators will have a chance to meet over 100 breeds of dogs.

Also, today is the Masters Agility Championship with 330 entries. Finals will be on FOX Sports from 8-10 tonight. There are 49 border collies entered and 29 Shetland sheepdogs and that’s not surprising, but there are also two Alaskan Malamutes, and a shiba inu, and neither breed is generally associated with either agility or obedience. I’d also love to see the chihuahua compete, and, of course, the Pembroke Welsh corgis, but I’m going to miss this competition, so I have to hope the hotel gets FOX Sports.

Monday, for the first time, WKC is offering a Masters Obedience Championship. This is an invitation-only event, with 34 of the nation’s top obedience dogs competing. The exercises will be existing AKC-approved Open and Utility Exercises with some modifications. Exercises will include hand signals, retrieving over high jump and scent discrimination. The dogs come from 17 states led by New Jersey and Ohio with five each. Golden Retrievers represent the largest entry with 13. Like agility, the obedience competition is open to both purebred and mixed-breed dogs at the highest level of the sport.

As excited as I get over seeing all the amazing dogs, the other reason I go to New York City every February is the annual awards presentation by the Dog Writers Association of America. Currently, I’m the secretary of this organization, which has over 500 members from across the country. The DWAA was founded in 1935 at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show but all that survives from that first meeting is a yellow sheet of paper listing the names of eight people who paid dues to join the organization. Ever since then, the annual meeting has been held the Sunday before the Westminster dog show.

Many new members find their way to DWAA through our annual writing contest, which encourages excellence in writing about dogs in all aspects of communication. The competition is open to all writers, photographers, editors and publishers, and the awards program is also held the Sunday preceding the dog show. Non-members who are nominated for a Maxwell, or for one of the special awards frequently take the next step and join DWAA. Members receive a quarterly newsletter, “Ruff Drafts,” as well as having access to the group’s e-list, which is a wonderful place to ask for help, share information, and to brag about successes.

This year, we’re also having a mini-conference, with four seminars. Those attending will also have the opportunity to have one-on-one meetings with publishers and editors.

For more information on the DWAA and about the writing competition, check out our website, dwaa.org.

Pawprint: Amanda Swanson of Jamestown is once again competing at Westminster in both Junior Handling and the breed ring. This is the third year Mandy has been at Westminster, but the first year for her Australian shepherd, Smokin. I hope we see them Monday at Madison Square Garden.