Westminster Dog Show 2025: Photos behind the scenes

Follow with live updates of the 2025 Westminster Kennel Club dog show

For the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, things are finally normal again. Or at least as normal as expected for a competition with more than 2,500 dogs flooding in Midtown Manhattan to fight for the coveted title of the best on the show.

Traditionally, a winter events in the Madison Square Garden – since the event location had this name – was thoroughly disturbed by the pandemic. For two years it was completely from New York City, with the event in Lyndhurst, a discount in suburb Tarytown. And in the past two years it has lived in Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens. It was also moved in warmer months to limit the spread of covid.

For the 149th edition of the event, which began on Saturday with a series of competitions that test the agility and obedience of some dogs, the show is back until February and back in Midtown. The original stages of the racial and group assessment take place in the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, and the main event – best in show – is planned for Tuesday evening in the garden.

The preparation for the show includes a lot of work, from humans and dogs alike.

Dogs are everywhere in the Javits Center and Madison Square Garden, as well as clothing and accessories with pictures of dogs.

The large selection of dogs requires a variety of seating solutions. Well, a Borzoi, a nice big platform grabbed a break with her handler and owner Kelley Davis, while Tova, a Shih Tzu, only needed a part of Judy Harding’s lap.

Before the dogs go under the microscope of the assessment, they are pushed, pushed and vacuumed and inspected.