Vito the pug leaped into the record books by winning this year’s National Dog Show. It became the first pug to claim a prize in 'Best in Show' in over twenty years. This year, the event happened on Thanksgiving Day on November 28, 2024, in the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center.
Around 2000 dogs of more than 200 different breeds participated to become the champions. This year’s National Dog Show is another annual Thanksgiving staple, airing immediately after the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and capturing tens of millions of viewers every year. It originated from the development of dog shows and a business plan to broadcast a program on television channels that audiences typically tune into during the holidays.
Origins of the National Dog Show
National Dog Show was an offspring of the Kennel Club of Philadelphia, which initially organized its dog show in 1879. This event has been performed each year since 1933, thus, it constitutes one of the oldest dog show events in the USA.
The show is sanctioned by the American Kennel Club (AKC), allowing only purebred dogs registered with the AKC to compete. It features around 2,000 dogs competing across seven categories: sporting, hound, working, terrier, toy, non-sporting, and herding.
Transition to Thanksgiving tradition
The National Dog Show became part of the Thanksgiving program in 2002 when NBC started airing the event right after the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. This timing made sense as NBC had been using this time to replay “It’s a Wonderful Life,” but ratings had been dropping. Jon Miller, the then-head of NBC Sports, realized that a dog show could gather viewers from the families.
Partly owing to the film by Christopher Guest, “Best in Show” – a satirical comedy about dog shows. He persuaded Purina to make it their event and managed to sell it to his supervisors at NBC. Such a grand scale viewership was achieved in the first telecast that it started broadcast on an annual basis and has become a holiday viewing tradition.
Vito's journey to victory
Vito triumphed and topped it all after becoming the winner at 2.5 years of age in the Toy Group competition, which comprised 24 breeds. He proceeded to compete against six other winners of the competition’s groups to emerge as the overall winner. Michael Scott, Vito’s handler, expressed confidence in him, especially due to his “beautiful head and expression” and fantastic outline. Scott told NBC:
“I was optimistic,” he said in a statement. “I always hope to get a really good look [from the judge]. ... Vito has a beautiful head and expression. Great outline.”
Vito's co-owner, Carolyn Koch, was happy with the win, stating:
Trending
“I’m so proud of him.”
Vito’s win can be considered a landmark in the general development of pugs at the dog shows. The last pug to win the ‘Best in Show’ at this event was in 2003.
Reply
