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The Great Read
Last year’s Westminster dog show winner was not in it for the money — there is no prize money — and he is very much a dog, even if it can be hard to tell from a distance.
Credit...Andrew Mangum for The New York Times
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EAST BERLIN, Pa. — For a brief, shining moment last summer, Wasabi the Pekingese was the most celebrated dog in America, all hair and hauteur as he posed next to his best in show trophy at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.
But a new champion will be crowned on Wednesday, when the 2022 competition comes to a close at Lyndhurst, a mansion in Tarrytown, N.Y. Which raises the questions: What has happened to the old champion? Once a dog reaches the pinnacle of success, what does he do next?
A recent visit to rural Pennsylvania found GCHG CH Pequest Wasabi, as he is officially known (the letters represent his winning credentials), chilling at home, already semiretired at the age of 4. Bestirring himself to say hello, he did not exactly run, but moved with all deliberate speed, his luxuriant locks wafting like wheat blowing in a breeze.
Do not rush a Pekingese. If there’s one thing about Wasabi, it’s that you are not the boss of him. “If I throw a toy for him, he’ll go get it, but he won’t bring it back,” said David Fitzpatrick, Wasabi’s breeder, handler and co-owner. “He knows I’m going to get it for him.”
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