Ranny Green, a long time Seattle Times feature writer/editor and Dog Writer’s Association of America Hall of Famer has published a feature story about Oscar The Grouch with his friend Juliette, the Bernese Mountain Dog. Keaton the Tibetan Terrier, Steed the Borzoi, and Indy the Dalmatian were also mentioned in the article. The story symbolizes the mark that the five Westminster Kennel Club participants leave outside of the ring. The feature story can be accessed on the Seattle Kennel Club’s web page here. Once you read Ranny’s article, you may fall in love with his monthly feature. He also wrote a book “Good Dogs Bad Habits: The Complete A-To-Z Guide for When Your Dog Misbehaves“.
If you live near Seattle, we encourage you to attend the dog show on March 9th & 10th at the Century Link Field Event Center. Activities include the dog show, obedience, rally, and agility.
The below links lead to over 2500 photos we took at Westminster Kennel Club last month. Enjoy!
Westminster Dog Show Day 1
Westminster Dog Show Day 2: Part 1 (including the Bernese Mountain Dogs)
Westminster Dog Show Day 2: Part 2
Westminster Dog Show Day 2: Part 3 (at MSG including Working Group & Best in Show)
Westminster Dog Show Day 2: Part 4 (Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs)
Oscar’s Website was mentioned and linked to in a number of media publications recently including the LA Times. We are so grateful for the support. Please keep visiting the site as we have many more surprises to come including thousands of behind the scenes Westminster Kennel Club pictures from our photographer who was on-site. Professional cameras put the images into very large files so there’s post-processing required before the pictures can be posted.
Oscar was selected yesterday to come to Central Park to film in a segment called “Best in Snow”. As you can guess, Oscar was shown enjoying the snow with some new friends including Juliette the Berner. It’s set to air on NBC during the Westminster Broadcast. Here are some behind the scene photos. The woman in the photo is Mary Carillo, who is the co-host of Westminster, a sportscaster and former French Open Doubles winner with John McEnroe. Oscar enjoyed getting to know her and gives her two paws up.
Oscar participated in a press conference yesterday with over 50 reporters to mark the beginning of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show week. The Swissy’s accomplishments over the past year were highlighted, which include being a hurricane survivor and the top show dog on Facebook with 80,000 fans. Next to the Oscar is Juliette a Bernese Mountain Dog who served as a therapy dog after the Sandy Hook shooting. We still have many pictures to post, stay tuned to CentralBark.com.
*Please come out and cheer for NYC’s Oscar the Grouch, Greater Swiss Mountain Dog (Swissy) #20 at the Westminster Kennel Club. Pier 94, Ring 10, Tuesday February 12th at 1 PM!
The NY Post with a combined circulation of a million readers, today profiled Oscar calling him “The Man About Midtown” and “A Fashion Hound”. The opening of the story reads “Attention follows this 2 ¹/₂-year-old Greater Swiss Mountain dog wherever he goes, and how could it not — he weighs 125 pounds and is prone to wearing argyle sweaters around town and dressing up for the holidays…At least when he’s not traveling the show circuit: Oscar just returned from a string of seven shows in Florida with handler Ashley Cuzzolino, and won seven Best of Breed awards.” Pick up a copy of the paper to read the rest of the story. That is if you can find one (since we already bought 12).
Oscar appeared with two other dogs on the WPIX morning show today with David Frei (host of the Westminster Kennel Club) and Richard Simmons (star of Sweatin’ to the Oldies). Living only two blocks away from the studio, it was just a normal walk for Oscar. The swissy could not fit through the revolving doorway into the studio, which was not big enough for a greater swiss mountain dog. Maybe Oscar should be sweatin’ with Richard Simmons? Luckily we found a hidden elevator (aka VIP entrance) a little further down the street that took us right upstairs to the studio. When we walked into the green room, the other two dog owners commented about how they woke up at 5 am to get there.
Click the links to watch each video: Westminster Segment and Oscar Meets Richard Simmons
Something was clogging up my e-mail box. Then I saw what it was…Oscar’s pictures from Westminster! Much thanks to Alex for taking great pictures of Oscar during the greater swiss mountain dog breed judging.
Below is a screen grab of Oscar The Grouch from the opening credits of the Westminster Kennel Club’s TV Show which aired on NBCUniversal USA. Notice Oscar’s doberman like focus on the camera man, a standout trait from a typical swissy.
Today, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published a followup article commenting on Oscar The Grouch. Oscar is very grateful the WSJ, with 3.5 million daily readers, had previously named Oscar as the dog to root for at Westminster Kennel Club on their front page. Being the youngest swissy entered by 1.3 years gives Oscar time, so he hopes the WSJ will continue their support of him for Westminster 2013.
http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2012/02/14/westminster-dog-show-an-underdogs-moment-in-the-ring
Below is the link for the original article.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204795304577219643566702620.html
As a reward for being so good at the 12 hr benched Westminster dog show and not being grouchy, Oscar gets a giant candy cane bone! He grabbed the bone right inside, but then fell asleep before he could chew his reward!
A benched show is where they require you to be there the whole time; this only happens twice a year, at the Westminster and the National Dog Show.
Below is the link to watch the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog 2012 judging at Westminster Kennel Club including Oscar The Grouch.
http://www.westminsterkennelclub.org/videos/#/Breed%20Judging/2012/Working/vid:17894161
It was Oscar The Grouch’s first time at Westminster Kennel Club. He was the youngest dog entered for the Greater Swiss Mountain Do Breed and the other dogs on average were 1 and a 1/3 years older. He showed very well, but was a bit nervous looking for his owner. There’s next year and also next show.
If his owner, David could change things, he would of got Oscar to Westminster either earlier (so he could sleep in his crate to calm down) or later (walk right in the ring). We got there as his handler, Ashley was showing her Cane Corso, Ch Castleguard’s Caillou. Madison Square Garden (MSG) was a mess and there was no way to find Oscar’s crate location till she came back. With his owner nervous, and having Oscar for that time in the middle of a mess, probably cast some bad luck. Now if MSG placed dogs by breed and then by handler, things would be much easier for everyone. Lesson learned for next year.
Oscar gives a big thank you to Ben Cohen (WSJ), Vin, Bob, and David Frei.
In a half hour, Oscar will be walking to MSG for the Westminster Kennel Club. Tagging along will be the Wall Street Journal to add a second part to yesterday’s Front Page Story. Remember if you go, to cheer for Greater Swiss Mountain Dog #18, Ring 3, at about 10am!
Short clip of Oscar, Ashley, and the Westminster Dogs of NYC on the NY Daily News’s website. Oscar’s cousin the entlebucher has a cameo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLebN76tpmw
Thank you to the Times-Picayune for suggesting to read up about Oscar to learn about Westminster. Oscar’s owner David was offered a job near New Orleans a few years back. It’s possible Oscar might of ended up as the dog from New Orleans instead of NYC if David had taken that job.
http://www.nola.com/tv/index.ssf/2012/02/tv_linkzilla_daily_westminster.html
.
Johnny Avello, the director of the Wynn Las Vegas casino’s sports book handicaps Oscar The Grouch’s chance of winning Best In Show at Westminster Kennel Club at 600 to 1. The bookies always are right, after all the NY Giants were 100 to 1 to win the Super Bowl and the St Louis Cardinals were 250 to 1.
Oscar The Grouch was just in the opening promo for the Westminster Kennel Club on USA!
A Youtube Video Cites Oscar the Grouch as being in the “Canine 1%”. Will the other 99% protest Oscar on his walk to Westminster Kennel Club tomorrow morning?
MarketWatch.com, a website of 4.5 million viewers, talks about Oscar The Grouch (Swissy #18) and how sleeping at his own home and walking to the show could give him an advantage at Westminster Kennel Club. They refer to Oscar as NY’s hometown hero.
Looking at the breed entries posted online, Oscar The Grouch’s competitors are on average 3.2 yrs old, 1.3 years older than Oscar. However Oscar has been selected over his competitors in the ring before including his own father back when he was first starting his show career.
There will be MAJOR Grouch Alerts coming soon, we’ll break the news on Facebook. Stayed tuned….
The Wall Street Journal, the largest daily newspaper with a circulation of 3.5 million readers, names Oscar The Grouch (Swissy #18) as the dog to root for at Westminster Kennel Club.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204795304577219643566702620.html
Exclusive pictures of NBC shooting Oscar and David for their opening promo to the Westminster show.
Oscar The Grouch met 2011 Westminster champion Hickory today. Hickory is a beautiful Scottish Deerhound. After exchanging pleasantries, Hickory wished Oscar (Swissy #18) good luck at ring 3 this Tuesday, 10am at the Westminster kennel club show at Madison Square Garden.
Oscar was featured on NY1 as one of the dogs from every borough. Check out what David has to say about Oscar!
Here’s the article with video:
*Please come out and cheer for NYC’s own Oscar the Grouch, Greater Swiss Mountain Dog (Swissy) #18 at the Westminster Kennel Club. Madison Square Garden, Ring 3, Tuesday February 14th at 10AM!*
