This dog had her day.
A four-year-old Doberman Pinscher named Penny nabbed Best in Show at the 150th Westminster Kennel Club earlier this month, and her owners, Greg and Theresa-Connors Chan, were in doggie heaven.
“You never think you’re going to win,” Greg gushed in an interview with The Post, noting that it was the first time in nearly 40 years that the breed had won the world-famous dog show.
Greg and Teresa, who hail from Ontario, Canada, were seated near the floor of Madison Square Garden on Feb. 3 as their statuesque canine was declared the winner in front of 50,000 fans.
“I remember I jumped up and looked back at Teresa and she was bawling here eyes out and from there, it’s all blurred,” Greg stated.
Teresa, meanwhile, called the experience “surreal,” saying she watched the show for 18 years on TV, hoping that she’d one day compete at the breeder level.
The winner, on the other hand, was as cool as a cucumber.
“Just like any other athlete, when she crosses that threshold into the show ring, she just switches it on to show-dog,” said Greg.
To win the pageant, the model Doberman had to beat out a murderer’s row of 3,000 perfectly-coiffed canines, who primped and pranced about with the hopes of netting US’ show dogs’ most exalted prize.
Penny’s trainer, Andy Linton, previously won Best in Show in 1989 with another Doberman, named Indy.
However, Penny’s win was sealed during the “free stack” portion — when contestants strike their show pose sans trainer assistance, allowing judges to gauge how well they embody their breed’s ideal.
“When Penny stopped on her own, you could hear a pin drop in Madison Square Garden,” recalled Theresa, a full-time investment advisor. “When he (Linton) came on down back with her, she just looked magnificent. Best in Show was hers to lose after that.”
With her victory, she edged out Cota, a Chesapeake Bay Retriever while runner-ups included Afghan hound Zaida, a Lhasa apso named JJ, and an old English sheepdog dubbed Graham.
Even the fastidious Linton — a Doberman breeding icon — was awestruck, dubbing Penny “as great a Doberman as I have ever seen.”
What separated Penny from the pack? Theresa credited her immaculate “structure,” noting that she is “well balanced” in both front and rear so she looks like she was “poured into her skin,” with no single defining feature but rather a harmonious whole.
But Westminster isn’t just about anatomy — attitude also plays a part. Theresa noted that Penny was “strong-willed” with a “diva” demeanor that says “look at me.”
“Really self-centered is probably the best description,” she quipped.
Greg noted that his pride and joy is “cuddly and snuggly” outside the arena, but can turn it on come gametime — a star quality that he insists was present from the start.
As a pup in the whelping box, Penny would climb to the top of his neck and growl at her littermates as if to declare: “This is mine.”
This marks the culmination of years of dedication by the Chans, who bred Penny back in 2021, nearly ten years after Theresa started rearing Dobermans.
Greg, a retired cop who now works as a community housing safety advisor, said they have a passion for doing right by the regal breed, originally developed in 19th-century Germany by tax collector Karl Friedrich Louis Dobermann as a brave but intelligent guard dog.
Together, the Chans run Connquest Dobermans with the goal of producing “quality show dogs as well as wonderful, well-bred pets with excellent temperaments.”
Despite showing well early on, Penny was still a ruff draft by Westminster standards. When they brought the prodigal pooch to Linton in Washington state several years ago, the “meticulous” trainer and breeder reportedly gave her a 4.5 out of 10, lamented Greg.
Much like a Seabiscuit story, the trainer took her under his wing and whipped her into Best in Show shape.
Greg called Linton — who suffers from Parkinson’s — a “wizard” who “disappears” in the ring and allows the dog to “paint the perfect picture.” It’s a unique style that many have tried and failed to duplicate.
He said this is accomplished via “loose lead obedience,” in which the dog-whisperer gets his trainees to do what he asks them without heavy leash-work.
“He teaches the dogs to respond to the movement of his body,” said Greg.
This is paramount during the main event, where the judges evaluate their natural movement with minimal puppeteering.
Greg noted that, unlike other Westminster contestants who had to manually move their contestant’s paws to give the judge a look, Linton simply walked Penny into the box — like something out of “Babe.”
Thankfully, Penny’s brain is uniquely suited for these complex tasks.
“Some people say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” said Theresa. “You can teach a Doberman a new trick almost every day.”
By the time Westminster came around, Linton graded her an “11 out of 10,” per Greg.
Winning marked the fulfillment of a lifelong dream for 67-year-old Linton, who said he wanted to “go out on top,” per Greg.
Following the announcement at the event — which is the second-longest continuously running sporting event in the US behind the Kentucky Derby — Donald Sturz, president of The Westminster Kennel Club praised the trainer and his pooch.
“Andy’s going through some personal health struggles that make some things harder,” he said. “She was like, ‘I got you.’ And that special energy that was there is what I saw. It was the magic.”
Like her trainer, Penny is leaving on a high note. She is “retired” from showing and will work as a therapy dog.
“The whole meeting new people and being loved on is her game,” Theresa gushed. “She loves that. So we’ll continue to do that with her and hopefully she’ll have puppies later this year.”
It will be difficult for Penny’s progeny to follow in her pawsteps.
“Only a select few make the cut,” said Greg. “If you have that one little thing off that we’re not happy with, you’re going to be a pet and you’re going to go off and live a great life with a nice family.”
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