Top Dog

As the tuxedoed old judge bent down to peer at the odd little creature, a child shrilled: "What is it, momma, a lamb?" Unconscious of the childish blasphemy and of the Madison Square Garden crowd, Dr. Samuel Milbank studied the Bedlington terrier intently--measuring his narrow skull, feeling his linty coat and reached (arched) back, testing his alertness and movement.

The veteran judge gave an equally careful going-over to each of the five other finalists in the ring--an English springer spaniel, a Pomeranian, a Boston terrier, a greyhound and a Doberman pinscher. But in the end, just before midnight, it was the Bedlington and his handler that he motioned to the ring's center. Champion Rock Ridge Night Rocket thus became 1948's top dog: "best in show" of 2,540 entries at the Westminster Dog Show, most prestigious event in U.S. dogdom.

No Bedlington terrier had ever won the best in show in 40 years of Westminster competition. Ch. Rock Ridge Night Rocket was also the second dog in history to win both the indoor Westminster and the Morris & Essex show (the "outdoor Westminster").*

Judge's Choice. As the little girl had noticed, exhibition Bedlingtons look more like lambs than dogs. Their natural topcoat grows fairly long, but handlers trim it. In their northern English homeland, where the breed originated around 1825, Bedlingtons were anything but lamblike. Tough miners of Bedlington used them to hunt badgers and otters; sometimes they pitted two Bedlingtons together in finish fights for big wagers.

Ch. Rock Ridge Night Rocket, who looks as if he wouldn't last five minutes in an alley fight, lives in style at the Connecticut kennels of his owner, William A. Rockefeller (John D.'s grandnephew). Out at the kennels, which even have an imitation red water hydrant to entertain the Bedlingtons, the grand champion answers to "Timmie." Only two years old next month, he was handled in the ring by Anthony Neary, a square-beamed Bedlington coal miner who helped introduce the breed to U.S. shows 18 years ago.

People's Choice. As far as the Garden crowd was concerned, the best dog lost in the semifinals. He was Ch. Red Coat of Tercor, best of breed in the Irish setters and runner-up to the springer in the "sporting group." Red Coat was handled by Harold Correll, who the same day was named the best handler of 1947. Correll runs his own kennels, sells his dogs and his training services to the best-bred bidders ("I look them up in Who's Who").

Many a grandstand dog-lover wondered how judges could pick the little lamb over "real dogs." How on earth can a judge decide between a Pomeranian and a pinscher, anyway? One Westminster veteran offered an expert's explanation: "The crowd sees only six dogs in the ring, but the judge sees twelve--the six real dogs, and six ideal dogs that exist only in his mind's eye. He isn't comparing the Bedlington with the springer; he measures the real and the ideal Bedlington." Ch. Rock Ridge Night Rocket might not look much of a dog, but of his kind, he was tops.

* The other: Ch. My Own Brucie, a cocker spaniel.

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