Competition continues Tuesday night in the Sporting, Working and Terrier groups, and concludes when the seven group winners get together for Best in Show.
If you're a dog, you want to be at the 136th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, which opened Monday night at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Westminster is the best of the best, the top dogs in 185 breeds.
On Monday night, the competition included best-of-group judging in the first of four breed groups. You had the Hounds – such as Bloodhounds, Bluetick Coonhounds, Greyhounds, Beagles ... and the Herding group – like German Shepherd Dogs, Australian Cattle Dogs, Border Collies, Old England Sheepdogs ... and the Non-Sporting group – including Dalmatians, Bulldogs, American Eskimo Dogs, Boston Terriers ... and Toys – among them Shih Tzus, Papillons, Pekingese, Cavalier King Charles Spaniels.
If ever you want to see what man hath wrought through selective breeding of one species over the millennia, watch a few minutes of a Westminster Dog Show. Or check out some of the photos included in this article. Dogs are all the same species, descended from wolves, domesticated by us.
For the record, Monday night's group winners were:
• Hound: Wirehaired Dachshund
• Toy: Pekingese
• Herding: German Shepherd
• Non-Sporting: Dalmatian
Competition continues Tuesday night in the Sporting, Working and Terrier groups, and concludes when the seven group winners get together for Best in Show.