A Wisconsin-handled dog finishes runner-up at Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show

David Clarey, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Updated ·2 min read
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A Wisconsin-handled dog was runner-up and won its group at the prestigious Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on Tuesday.

The 148th edition of the dog world’s signature contest was won by Sage, a miniature poodle from Texas. The runner-up, or Reserve Best in Show, for top dog was Mercedes, a 4-year-old German Shepherd from Bethesda, Maryland, and was handled by Kent Boyles, from Edgerton, Wisconsin.

The contest has over 2,500 dogs and over 200 different breeds and features various competitions by groups, along with the overall best in show.

Mercedes won its group, for herding dogs, against 32 other breeds, USA TODAY reported, in addition to its runner-up finish in the overall competition.

It’s not the first time that Boyles has done well at the competition, either.

Mercedes is the cousin of Rumor, another dog Boyle handled. Rumor was a star in the dog show circuit, winning Best in Show in 2017 at Westminster and named after the Adele song "Rumour Has It."

Boyles' website said that he and Liz Oster have “bred more than 100 champions and finishing more than 400 titles in the German Shepherd Dog breed.” In 2018, they won the American Kennel Club’s Breeder of the Year Award.

The 2024 Westminster Dog Show was held at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, New York.

The competition takes place across three levels of competition, according to the Westminster website. First is the best of breed or variety competition, which is a judging of only one breed. Those selected as best of breed or variety are then advanced to the group stage.

There are seven groups — sporting, hound, working, terrier, toy, non-sporting and herding — and each group's judge places then first through fourth. The winner of each group then advances to the best in show stage, where a judge names a runner-up and winner.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Mercedes, a Wisconsin-handled dog, gets runner-up at Westminster