Welcome one, welcome ALL to the beautiful Spring Issue of The Working & Herding Dog Digest.
The repeated saying of “This was the BEST Westminster EVER” has been heard many times during my decades of attending this Iconic event as part of the media. However, this year has to be at the top of my list as my personal favorite Westminster on every single level.
The question all over the world since the 2026 150th annual Westminster Kennel Club has undoubtedly been “A Penny For Your Thought.”
My thanks and respect to the amazing President: Donald Sturtz JR and Vice-President: Tommy Milner for all the tireless work they and the rest of the Westminster Kennel Club Members do to put on the greatest Dog Show in the world.
Every year the trusted member of the press are given Back Stage Passes for either an assigned seat or an area to stand. Imagine my thrill when I saw for the VERY first time, I was given front row seats at Madison Square Garden!!! Seriously, when I saw where I was sitting, I almost cried.
Because of this unimaginable great location in such an enormous venue, I was able to get a video of “Penny’ during her show stopping Best in Show performance that quite simply.... changed my life for the better. With an early flight from New York back to Atlanta, I was a bit preoccupied Wednesday morning when I turned my phone back on and at first thought it was a malfunction as the messages and notifications began to go off at a rate I had only seen on YouTube. I looked at the number of views it had from late the night before and it was already at OVER 100 thousand views!!!! For the first time, one of my videos has gone viral. It now has gotten Over Seven Hundred thousand Views~21 thousand Likes, 120 thousand Comments and 975 Shares. Of course, of course, of course I have, like everyone on our planet earth, knew the giant space this Facebook Land encompasses. But I had no idea how many people would get a glimpse of the excitement and grandeur of our great sport. Here is just one of the thousand message I received that touched me.
“Ok… this just popped up in my feed, and I’m not involved on any sort of level with this best in show thing… however my applause to you all for seeing and hearing the music in this and for the BIS winner, congrats and thank you for giving me this new experience. A gift of a moment where nothing exists except that current moment.”
Go to my Facebook page and check it out and I bet you get the same goosebumps and tears again we all felt that history making night in the Big Apple.
Congratulations again to all on this great Doberman Pinscher’s team for an unforgettable finale to an amazing career.
While on the phone with my clairvoyant big sister Daryl Martin A.K.A. The “Midwest Maven” of Toys. She told me about an interesting dream she had experienced the night before: She had gone to the famed Knolland Farms for a dinner Party put on by Edward B. Jenner. While at the party, Jason Hoke comes up to her to say Sulie Greendale-Paveza had to miss the party because she had just gotten admitted to the hospital!!!”.
Imagine my shock when I find out Mrs. Paveza had that very SAME DAY canceled her Judging Assignment in Louisville, Kentucky and was in the hospital overnight with a middle ear problem. In her 27 years of Judging this was only her 2nd time EVER missing an assignment. Happy to report all is well and she has been given a clean bill of health by her doctor and is already back doing what she loves so very much.
Now, will someone please give me a hand up so I can get back on my Soap Box.
Because of my career I have always had the opportunity to talk to many, many dog people both new and old and I get to hear what they truly feel about all the judges that have the honor of standing in the middle of the ring getting to officiate over our treasured pets.
Few individuals are held in such high regards all across the board as a Judge as Sulie Greendale-Paveza but yet she remains one of several very respected top judges that have never had the honor of Judging Westminster or The A.K.C. National Championship.
Okay, someone help me down so I can get BACK in my lane. But I just had to express my thoughts on this too often overlooked subject.
Y’all know the old saying...If you ain’t invited to Texas, Stay the heck out of Texas”..well consider yourself invited this year to our HOT Summer Issue. Deadline May21st. This issue is the one that goes to all the shows on the gigantic Texas Circuit in June and July. We can write and design your ad at no extra charge to our cherished clients.
Always remember at The Working/Herding Dog Digest...We WORK for YOU.
James Perry Taylor
Publisher:The Working/Herding Dog Digest
289 Jonesboro Road # 371
McDonough,GA 30253
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817-238-3274 cell
www.workingdogdigest.com
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