Couples at the Westminster show bond over dogs, and each other

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NEW YORK (AP) — Must love dogs. Really, really love dogs.

The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show spotlights the bond between people and dogs. But reaching the United States' premier canine event also can be about another kind of love.

“For me, it would be very hard to do this without somebody who was as vested in it as I am,” said two-time Westminster-winning handler Bill McFadden, who's half of a dogdom power couple. His wife, Taffe McFadden, handled the second-place winner in 2019, and she and Bono the Havanese are among past finalists set to appear Monday evening in a special tribute to Westminster's 150th annual show.

Yes, the McFaddens — who met at a dog show in the late 1970s and married in 1985 — have faced and sometimes beaten each other at various shows. And no, there are no hard feelings.

“I think some of my best memories are watching Taffe win best in show,” Bill said Saturday while the couple readied for Westminster. “If one of us takes the big ribbon home, it’s awesome. Doesn’t matter which one.”

After starting with agility and other sports 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 that leads to the best in show award Tuesday night.

Among first-round winners advancing to semifinals later Monday were a Lhasa apso named JJ and an American foxhound called George. They were winner and runner-up, respectively, at the massive AKC National Championship show in December.

JJ is “a show dog all the time,” said breeder, handler and co-owner Susan Giles of Manakin Sabot, Virginia, who has had Lhasas for 53 years. JJ is everything the breed is supposed to be, though he departs from the somewhat aloof norm in one way: “He'll talk to everybody,” she said.

George is a strapping, playful representative of one of the United States' oldest but now rarest breeds.

“They're such cool dogs — more people should know about them and have them,” said handler Tristen Miller of Mechanicsville, Maryland.

Like a number of professional handlers, she's married to another dogdom devotee. Husband John Miller's family business helps manage dog shows.

Such pairings make sense for people who might, like the McFaddens, travel the country to 150 to 200 dog shows a year and share their home with a varying cast of canines that need feeding, walks, grooming and training.

“I can’t even imagine trying to date and explain to somebody, ‘Now, I’m going to be gone five days a week, and I’m going to have like 20 dogs with me,’” said Bill McFadden, who largely credits his wife “for any semblance of order that we have” at their home on five acres (two hectares) in Acampo, California.

The key is “being with someone you can actually coexist with — constantly,” said Bill McFadden (who's aware of the 2005 romcom “Must Love Dogs” but doesn't recall seeing it). Like many top handlers, they also have assistants, he notes.

Then there are couples such as Randy and Andrea Huelsemann, who juggle breeding and showing their own French bulldogs with their full-time jobs. He’s a 911 dispatcher, and she’s a dental hygienist.

“We do it for just the love of it, for something to do together,” Randy said while waiting to bring their dog Ollie into the ring Monday. (The Huelsemanns, of Prairie Du Sac, Wisconsin, alternate handling their various dogs.)

“It's a great hobby for the two of us,” allowing for travel together, Andrea added.

Not handling but no less enthusiastic were Lydia Hearst and Chris Hardwick, who cheered and whooped for their otterhound, Zoltar. He didn't win his breed, but he probably got the most decibels.

“I die a lot in horror movies, so I can scream for a long time,” Hearst said with a laugh. She and her husband, who hosted AMC's “Talking Dead,” are both actors and grew up with dogs — pets in his case, and show dogs in hers. Her mother, newspaper heir and longtime Frenchie owner Patricia Hearst Shaw, was on hand to see both Zoltar and her dog Sassy in Monday's competition.

Wilbur the beagle had his own Hollywood connections. The dog, who appears in the new Netflix police drama “The Rip,” starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, was squired Monday by Charlotte Jones, 13, in a competition for junior handlers.

It was difficult to bring one of the family's dogs to New York from Charlotte's home near Honolulu, so her family connected through beagle circles with Wilbur's owner, Mary Cummings, who has long trained dogs for both the show ring and show business.

Which does Wilbur prefer?

“Everything,” said Cummings, of Binghamton, New York. “He likes anything that involves food and getting attention.”