Miss America may boast beauty and pageant prowess, and you rarely find a dog in that group, but the canine competition for The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show proves beauty and the breed rules supreme. For the 136th time, furry  folks will flock to New York City for the contest, which you can catch on television, too:

Monday, February 13, 2012
Hound, Toy, Non-Sporting and Herding Groups
7-8 p.m. USA Network
8-10 p.m. CNBC

Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Sporting, Working and Terrier Groups, Best In Show
8-10 p.m. USA Network

To celebrate the 2012 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, DooGooders™ wants you to grab a monocle, jog around the living room with your primped pooch and predict the Best In Show winner. Post the pup you think will triumph before the Best In Show begins Tuesday on our Facebook page, and if you get it right, you win a $20 DooGooders gift certificate. We’ll also donate a dollar to the Sioux Falls Area Humane Society for each person that posts their pick. If no one selects the show’s final star, we’ll draw for a winner from those who participated.

westminster dog

Courtesy: Bitnoots

And a couple fun furry facts about the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show:

  • First held in 1877, the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is America’s second-longest continuously held sporting event, behind only the Kentucky Derby.
  • Westminster pre-dates the invention of the light bulb and the automobile, the building of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Washington Monument, the invention of basketball and the establishment of the World Series.
  • The first telecast of Westminster was in 1948, three years before “I Love Lucy” premiered.  
  • There have been a total of 299,024 dogs entered in Westminster’s 134 shows through 2010.