Vito the Pug was named “Best in Show” at the 2024 National Dog Show, becoming the first pug to win the honor in the two decades since the contest first began airing on TV.
Vito surpassed 1,940 other dogs vying for the title at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania. Accompanied by his owner, Carolyn Koch, the two-and-a-half year old from Chapel Hill, N.C., has already won 25 best-in-show awards, and won best of breed at this year’s Westminster Dog Show in New York City and the 2023 AKC National Show, according to NBC, which televises the show.
Vito first won the “Toy Group” category, where he competed against 24 other breeds.
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Elsewhere in the contest, a Welsh Terrier named Verde was named Reserve Best in Show. Other finalists included a giant schnauzer, a Clumber spaniel, a Lhasa apso, a Berger Picard and an Ibizan hound. Contestants were judged based on overall appearance, temperament, and structure according to their breeds’ official standards.
The National Dog Show began in 1879, as the Kennel Club of Philadelphia Dog Show, and turned into an annual occurrence in 1933, according to NBC. The televised event has boasted the same hosts, John O’Hurley and David Frei, since it first aired in 2002.
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Vito’s handler, Michael Scott, commended the pug for his “beautiful head and expression,” calling him “a very compact dog” with “wonderful movement.”
And Scott was not the only person celebrating Vito’s victory. Mary Carillo, a sports commentator and former professional tennis player who joined the hosts this year, asked Scott if the pug knew he had won, noting how the dog “looks a little smug.”
“He’s very smug,” agreed Scott. “I think he knows.”
