By Roxy Ekberg
Republican Staff
Local Dawn Jacobson, owner of Canine Design in Wayne, showed her dog at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show last month.
Guerin, Jacobson’s five year old Glen of Imaal Terrier, competed at the leading U.S. dog show competition on May 7 in New York. He competed in conformation, in which the dogs compete against others of their own breed and are not compared to each other, but rather measured by how closely they conform to the standard of their breed, according to the American Kennel Club.
Guerin won his breed, advancing him to a semifinal round of judging against other dogs in a group of various breeds. He did not qualify for the final round, where the group winners competed for best in show.
Roughly 5,000 dogs were entered into the competition and only seven qualified for the best in show round.
Jacobson, who started showing dogs roughly 20 years ago, considers Guerin to be her most successful dog. She began showing him when he was six months old, and the pair earned an impressive amount of awards through his career.
“He loves it, he just loves to show,” Jacobson said. “A dog has to like it in order to perform, just like in anything, whether it’s obedience or agility, whatever — his is conformation. He loves conformation.”
Jacobson said Guerin advanced to the point where he needed a professional handler. Jacobson competes with Guerin at local competitions, but began using a professional handler to enter him into more competitions across the nation.
At Westminster, Guerin was shown by a married couple who work as handlers together.
In order to qualify for Westminster, a dog must be ranked in the top five in the nation. Guerin was ranked sixth, placing him in a lottery that he was drawn out of and asked to compete.
At the pinnacle of U.S. canine competition, Guerin earned top ranking in his breed.
“It was an experience being in New York City,” Jacobson said. “A new venue, a huge venue, finding everything — and then once he won breed, then we got special wristbands that we got in up and close and personal.”
Jacobson said Guerin is starting to be big time, as he is on the cover of Terrier Magazine and will be in a two page spread in the Canine Chronicle.
Due to his current first in the nation in his breed ranking, Guerin has a high chance of qualifying for the premiere dog show competition again next year, Jacobson said. Results for qualifiers will be finalized at the end of this year, Next year’s competition will be held in February at Madison Square Garden.