A German Shepherd from Edgerton won Best in Show at the 141st Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show this week.
Rumor’s owners, Pamela McElheney and Kent Boyles were overjoyed with the win. Rumor is just the second German shepherd to win in that category since the event began in 1877.
“Unbelievable,” handler and co-owner Boyles said.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports
Rumor pulled something of a shocker. She’d been at home in Wisconsin for months, a house pet headed toward having puppies, when she suddenly jumped back into the show ring in January.
Rumor beat out a Norwegian elkhound, a Pekingese, a miniature poodle, an Irish setter, a boxer and a Norwich terrier in the final ring. The Irish setter, Adrian, finished second.
“The German shepherd standard talks about quality and nobility,” judge Thomas Bradley III said. “When you recognize it, it hits you at home, and that’s what it really is. She is just magnificent.”
Rumor is named for the hit song “Rumor Has It” by Adele, a champion herself after sweeping the major categories at the Grammy Awards on Sunday.
This was the 104th career win for Rumor, and earlier in the day, Boyles said that this would definitely, for real, be her last major show.
“She’s going to be relaxing for a while,” Boyles said after the win, but ultimately, there are “puppies in her future.”
Clearly the crowd favorite, Rumor came out flying into the best-of-seven final ring to fans whistling and calling her name.
Learn more about Rumor and her performance, via Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
