Page 184 - HOTdog Magazine 1-2.2019

COMMENTS AKC NATIONAL CH
PRE
Whiskey is typically an
acquired taste. But at the Orlando - Orange County Convention Center (OCCC)
largest-ever AKC National
AKC National Championship Championship presented
by Royal Canin on Decem-
ber 15 and 16, judges and
spectators alike toasted a
3-year-old Whippet by that
name who went all the way
to Best in Show under judge
Elliott B. Weiss.

• The First Whippet
Winner

Platinum Grand Champion
Pinnacle Tennessee Whiskey,
as he is formally known, is the
first Whippet to win the flag-
ship AKC event, beating con-
tenders from 49 states and 21
countries in the biggest show
ever won by a Whippet in AKC
history. Whiskey also topped
the Best Bred-By-Exhibitor
competition – only the second
time that’s happened in the
show’s history – shown by his
breeder-owner-handler, Justin
Smithey of Sugar Valley, Geor-
gia.

“It’s the pinnacle of anyone’s
career in dogs to be recog-
nized by such knowledgeable
dog people from all differ-
ent breeds and backgrounds,”
Smithey says. “And it means
even more when you’re show-
ing a dog who was born next
to your bed.”

Whiskey – who is co-owned
by veterinarian Dr. Ken La-
timer and Cheslie Smithey and
co-bred by Yvonne Sovereign
– has been on a roll, winning
the prestigious Philadelphia
Kennel Club Show this Novem-
ber and ending 2018 as the
nation’s top hound. And within
his own breed, he’s also defied
the odds: In a sport where
male dogs usually dominate,
top-ranked Whippets in re-
cent years have almost always
been females. (More proof of
that girl power in the Whip-
pet world: The winner of the
popular AKC Royal Canin Na-
tional All-Breed Puppy and
Junior Stakes was Aperture