Westminster Dog Show 2013: Banana Joe wins Best in Show

The Terrier Group at the Westminster Dog Show features plenty of pitter-pattering feet under swift legs and lines of sight blanketed by locks of hair, but in the end the Smooth Fox Terrier won the Terrier Group on Tuesday night, setting up only the Best In Show judging round to go.

Adam, the Smooth Fox Terrier, finished ahead of the second-place Wire Fox Terrier and the Border Terrier, who came in third place. “A bed dog who loves everyone,” Adam, with his half-dark, half-light face, is probably just as cuddly waking up on either side of the bed. You’d think.

The Working Group at the Westminster Dog Show usually covers a lot of ground in terms of shapes, sizes and looks. Most of them, such as the Komondor, are winners no matter what. On Tuesday night, though, the Portuguese Water Dog won the actual group and will head to the Best In Show judging round.

The Doberman Pincsher, which began the group as the odds-on favorite, came in second place while the Boxer took third.

Psst. Hey, you. Yes, you. I’ve got a hot tip on the dogs for ya.

Bet on the doberman pinscher.

The Westminster Dog Show finishes up tonight with the Sporting, Working, and Terrier groups. We rank the participants in each group by personal bias. Sorry, Cocker Spaniels and Rottweilers; you bite the writer, the writer bites back.

SPORTING

Dogs are great. Dog shows, however, are weird -- and none is weirder or grander or older than the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, which airs on CNBC and USA over the next two nights. If you’re new to dog shows, or have only ever been a casual observer of them, don’t worry: I’m gonna walk you through this.

OVERVIEW: This year’s event features over 2,700 competitors broken across 187 breeds (two of which -- the Russell terrier and treeing Walker coonhound -- are newly recognized by Westminster this year). Those breeds are categorized into seven groups: Hound, Toy, Sporting, Non-Sporting, Working, Herding, and Terrier. During the day, preliminary judging determines Best of Breed (BOB), each of which advances to the televised Group competition. On Tuesday night, the seven Group winners face off to determine Best in Show.