By: Isabella Wong
As most of the audience cheered for Striker, the charming white Samoyed, who was known for his history of victories in the Westminster Dog Show, Trumpet the bloodhound exuded a quiet confidence in the background. Later in this year’s competition, Trumpet became the first bloodhound to ever be crowned Best in Show at the Westminster Dog Show.
“There were seven beautiful dogs in that ring. You know, I feel like sometimes a bloodhound might be a little bit of an underdog. So I was absolutely thrilled,” said Heather Buehner, Trumpet’s trainer, as she sat in the winning circle with him.
Dogs shows like such are just friendly sports for dogs, where each dog represents their own breeds and are judged of their conformity and behavior through different tasks and obstacles, which helps preserve the breeds’ integrity.
Trumpet is a one of those dogs, specifically a 4-year-old bloodhound from Illinois that wasn’t known to be too bright. However, on Wednesday, he stood up tall and proud before his shining trophy cup like a true, reigning champion
However, Trumpet was not always one of the dogs in the spotlight. People viewed his chances of winning as quite slim, compared to the other dogs competing against him. Most of the support from the audience was aimed towards dogs like Striker the Samoyed, who was known to be a lively and victorious canine participant of this competition. Striker was one of the finalists participating in the 2021 event but lost to a little Pekingese named Wasabi.
This year, Trumpet was able to prove those that underestimated him wrong. He was born in a generation of past champions. His great-grandfather, Tigger, held a record in the Guinness Book of World Records for canine with the longest ears. His right ear measured up to 13.75 inches long and his left measured up to 13.5 inches long!
As Trumpet finally got recognized for his hidden talent, he was able to demonstrate to many people that popularity does not always define everyone and their level of skill and ability as well as how appearances can be deceiving.
Sources: https://www.google.com/search?q=wht+do+dogs+do+in+dog+shows&oq=wht+do+dogs+do+in+dog+shows&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i13l9.7793j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#:~:text=Showing%20Dogs%20%2D%20VCA,pet%20%E2%80%BA%20showing%2Ddogs
https://www.thesprucepets.com/definition-of-conformation-1118561