NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Must love dogs. Really, really love dogs.<\/p>\n
The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show<\/a> spotlights the bond between people and dogs. But reaching the United States\u2019 premier canine event also can be about another kind of love.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, it would be very hard to do this without somebody who was as vested in it as I am,\u201d said two-time Westminster-winning handler<\/a> Bill McFadden, who\u2019s half of a dogdom power couple. His wife, Taffe McFadden, handled the second-place winner in 2019<\/a>, and she and Bono the Havanese were among past finalists who appeared Monday evening in a special tribute to Westminster\u2019s 150th annual show<\/a>.<\/p>\n Yes, the McFaddens \u2014 who met at a dog show in the late 1970s and married in 1985 \u2014 have faced and sometimes beaten each other at various shows. And no, there are no hard feelings. <\/p>\n \u201cI think some of my best memories are watching Taffe win best in show,\u201d Bill said Saturday while the couple readied for Westminster. \u201cIf one of us takes the big ribbon home, it\u2019s awesome. Doesn\u2019t matter which one.\u201d<\/p>\n Breed competition gets underway<\/p>\n After starting with agility and other sports<\/a> on Saturday, the storied show got down to its traditional business Monday. Dogs ranging from teeny Chihuahuas to towering Irish wolfhounds started competing in the multi-round, breed-by-breed competition<\/a> that leads to the best in show award Tuesday night.<\/p>\n Some finalists were chosen Monday, starting with Zaida, an Afghan hound<\/a> who has twice won the World Dog Show, a major international showcase. She\u2019d never gotten this far at Westminster before, and handler Willy Santiago told the crowd he\u2019d been waiting for \u201cthis day for all my life.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s the dog that makes me feel everything can happen,\u201d he said, choking up.<\/p>\n Zaida\u2019s rivals will include a Lhasa apso named JJ, who won the massive AKC National Championship show in December.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a show dog all the time,\u201d breeder, handler and co-owner Susan Giles of Manakin Sabot, Virginia, said in an interview earlier Monday. A Lhasa owner for 53 years, she said JJ is everything the breed is supposed to be, though he departs from one norm for a breed that\u2019s generally reserved with strangers: \u201cHe\u2019ll talk to everybody.\u201d <\/p>\n Also advancing were Graham, an old English sheepdog<\/a> whose grandfather, Swagger<\/a>, was runner-up at Westminster in 2013, and Cookie, a Maltese who pulled off an upset in the toy dog semifinals. Cookie bested two-time prior Westminster finalist and former AKC National Championship winner Comet the shih tzu<\/a>. <\/p>\n Graham loves showing. \u201cHe comes from a long line of dogs that love it, and we\u2019re just happy to be on the end of his lead,\u201d handler and longtime breeder Colton Johnson told the audience. <\/p>\n Three more finalists will be chosen Tuesday night. <\/p>\n Juggling dog shows with full-time jobs<\/p>\n A number of veteran Westminster handlers are married couples, and no wonder. <\/p>\n The McFaddens, for instance, travel the country to 150 to 200 dog shows a year and share their home with a varying cast of canines that need feeding, exercise, grooming and training.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t even imagine trying to date and explain to somebody, \u2018Now, I\u2019m going to be gone five days a week, and I\u2019m going to have like 20 dogs with me,\u2019\u201d said Bill McFadden, who largely credits his wife \u201cfor any semblance of order that we have\u201d at their home on five acres (two hectares) in Acampo, California.<\/p>\n The key is \u201cbeing with someone you can actually coexist with \u2014 constantly,\u201d said Bill McFadden (who\u2019s aware of the 2005 romcom \u201cMust Love Dogs\u201d but doesn\u2019t recall seeing it). Like many top handlers, they also have assistants, he notes.<\/p>\n Then there are couples such as Randy and Andrea Huelsemann of Prairie Du Sac, Wisconsin, who juggle breeding and showing their own French bulldogs with their full-time jobs. He\u2019s a 911 dispatcher, and she\u2019s a dental hygienist.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do it for just the love of it, for something to do together,\u201d Randy said while waiting to bring their dog Ollie into a first-round ring Monday. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a great hobby for the two of us,\u201d Andrea added.<\/p>\n Show dogs with show-business ties<\/p>\n Not handling but no less enthusiastic were Lydia Hearst and Chris Hardwick, who cheered and whooped for their otterhound, Zoltar. He didn\u2019t win his breed, but he probably got the most decibels.<\/p>\n \u201cI die a lot in horror movies, so I can scream for a long time,\u201d Hearst said with a laugh. She and her husband, who hosted AMC\u2019s \u201cTalking Dead,\u201d are both actors and grew up with dogs \u2014 pets in his case, and show dogs in hers. Her mother, newspaper heir and longtime Frenchie owner Patricia Hearst Shaw<\/a>, also had a dog in Monday\u2019s competition.<\/p>\n Wilbur the beagle had his own Hollywood connections: He appears in the new Netflix police drama \u201cThe Rip,\u201d<\/a> starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. On Monday, Wilbur was performing for Charlotte Jones, 13, in a competition for junior handlers.<\/p>\n