Madison Square Garden in New York City usually hosts NBA games and big-name concerts, but last week, the dogs took over. The almost 20,000-seat arena hosted the 135th Annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show last Monday and Tuesday. The famous venue welcomed 2,626 dogs, representing 179 breeds.

Many winners were crowned in this prestigious two-day competition, billed as “America’s Dog Show.” Judges selected the best dog from each of 179 breeds, and slowly narrowed now each winner round by round until finally reaching the Group rounds. The seven Groups are Sporting, Non-Sporting, Toy, Hound, Terrier, Working and Herding dogs. Visit the Westminster Kennel Club website to see the names and photos of the winners.

The big finale came on Tuesday evening, when the seven dogs who were chosen as winners of their Groups returned to the stage to compete for the grand prize of Best in Show. These remarkable show dogs are shown in the slide show below.

It was a tight race this year. Judge Paolo Dondina stated that he couldn’t remember a better lineup of dogs. Yet there must be a winner, and the 2011 title went to Hickory, the five year-old female Scottish Deerhound. This was the first time a Scottish Deerhound had ever taken the Best in Show prize at Westminster, making Hickory’s win an historic one. To watch a video of USA network’s live coverage of the Best in Show round, click here.

We want to know what you think? Take our poll below, and vote for your personal pick for Best in Show! We will reveal the results on our Facebook page next week. Congratulations to Hickory and all of this year’s winners!

In addition to Super Bowl XLV, last weekend also marked the annual DogWatch Hidden Fences Dealer Conference. 180 people, representing 75 Dealerships, traveled to Clearwater Beach, Florida for the two-day conference. The group included DogWatch Dealers from as far away as California, Alaska, and even the United Kingdom. This week in Dog Tails, we wanted to share with you a few of the highlights of our biggest annual gathering, and celebrate the accomplishments of some of our amazing Dealers.

The conference kicked off on Saturday, with a number of exciting presentations. DogWatch Dealer Shawn Bader of Mount Kisco, NY discussed the BigLeash, DogWatch’s remote trainer product. He highlighted some of the exciting new features that will be available starting this March.

DogWatch staff also introduced our newest, smallest receiver collar – The R7mini. (See image at right.) A perfect solution for small dogs and cats, the R7mini has all the same great features you have come to expect from DogWatch. Weighing in at only 1.1 ounces (including the battery!), it is the smallest receiver collar available for hidden fences. To find out more about these new products and features, contact your local DogWatch Dealer.

Other presenters included Chris Burns of Fort Point Design, who discussed website optimization, and Catherine Weber of Weber Media Partners, who discussed social media marketing. That evening, we held our annual awards dinner, honoring the achievements of our Dealers in 2010. A complete list of award winners is included after the jump.

On Sunday afternoon, we held a Dealer Fair where Dealers shared information with each other about their businesses and learned from each other’s varied experiences. Of course, the Dealers also shared a lot of their own dog stories and training advice – after all, it’s all about the pets!  At the end of this productive day, everyone gathered together for a Super Bowl viewing party. Our Green Bay and Pittsburgh dealers were there to cheer on their home teams along with the DogWatch team.

All in all, it was fantastic weekend. Congrats to all of the awards winners, and a big thanks to the all of the dealers who attended. To see photos of the event, check our Facebook page next week. We hope you’ve enjoyed this glimpse into our event, and we encourage you to contact your local Dealer to learn more about our new products. We can’t wait to tell you about them!

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