Philadelphia recently went to the dogs.
2,000 of them from all over the world competed at the National Dog Show, which was hosted by the Kennel Club of Philadelphia at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center at Oaks. This year’s winner was a dog that some say looks a lot like Chewbacca of Star Wars fame.
Newton, a Brussels Griffon. won “Best in Show” after first winning the Toy Group competition. In the finals, he beat six other group winners. This included a Portuguese water dog named Noah, who came in second. Other finalists included a whippet, an English springer spaniel, an American Staffordshire terrier, a French bulldog and an Old English sheepdog.
Winning is nothing new for 3-year-old Newton, who’s been called a Chewbacca look-alike on Twitter. He has previously won 21 “Best in Show” awards. Though this is the first time a Brussels Griffon has ever won at the National Dog Show, at least since NBC began broadcasting the event in 2002.
The American Kennel Club calls Brussels Griffons “intelligent and cheerful” and they say that they have an “almost human expression.” Perhaps the most famous of the breed was a dog named Jill, who won viewers heart in the film As Good As It Gets.
So, how did Newton react to his win?
His handler Susan Depew said that he “is just happy all the time. Everything’s great in Newton’s world. I just want to live in his world because everything is fun.”
He especially had fun after his win, as he got ice cream as a reward.
The National Dog Show was broadcast on Thanksgiving Day, right after Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (even though the actual event took place a week earlier). The show garners 20 million viewers every year, and if you missed it NBC will be rebroadcasting the event this Saturday
