The 2021 WKC Dog Show will be a little different.
The 2021 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show presented by Purina, also known as the WKC Dog Show, will look a little different next year. Actually, the 2021 WKC Dog Show will look very different.
For one thing, it will not take place at Madison Square Garden, but instead move to the historic Lyndhurst Mansion in Tarrytown, New York. For another, instead of happening in mid-February, due to uncertainty of the status of the COVID pandemic by that point, it will be moving to the weekend of June 11-13.
This was announced on Wednesday, October 21, 2020, on the WKC website, and it makes sense, as many dog sports events have been either canceled or postponed since March.
“We are excited to host the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Lyndhurst, a unique icon of American culture with its park-like landscape and majestic castle overlooking the Hudson River,” Westminster Kennel Club President Charlton Reynders III said in a press release. “The wide-open outdoor space at this extraordinary venue allows us to hold a dog show safely while following current social distancing guidelines and public health regulations.”
The WKC Dog Show will be preceded by the companion events of the Masters Agility Championship on Friday, June 11 and the Masters Obedience Championship on Saturday, June 12, and the Best in Show judging for the 2021 WKC Dog Show will be broadcast on the main Fox channel for the first time on Sunday, June 13. (Previously, it was shown on the cable channel Fox Sports 1.)
Westminster is traditionally considered the conformation event that conveys the most prestige to its victors, and its reigning winner is a Standard Poodle called Siba or Sheba (officially GCHP CH Stone Run Afternoon Tea).
Lyndhurst is a Gothic Revival mansion listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and was designed in 1838. it has been a filming location for the TV series All My Children, Forever and The Blacklist, among others.
One of the mansion’s occupants, Frank Jay Gould, was an avid breeder of St Bernards in the late nineteenth century, and the property was hosted dog shows since at least the early 1980s.
So while the wait until the 2021 WKC Dog Show will be a little longer, it should be a fantastic event as well, and wider access to the general public is always a good thing.