To Be Top Dog, A Lot's at Steak

Spaniel's Win at Westminster Is a Triumph for Fairfax Pair

After his celebratory lunch at Sardi's, James had a kiss for his "mom," owner Teresa Patton of Fairfax Station. Her husband and James's co-owner, Allen, is at right. (By Kathy Willens -- Associated Press)

NEW YORK, Feb. 14 -- The best part about watching a champion dog take a day-long victory lap is the rare moments when the pooch seems to realize that he is victory-lapping. James, a sweet-tempered English springer spaniel raised in Fairfax County, had a couple of those moments Wednesday, as he enjoyed the spoils of top honors at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show -- basically the Oscars of the canine world.

The day-after ritual includes lunch at Sardi's, the Manhattan landmark where the walls are covered with celebrity caricatures. And the highlight there is the ceremonial serving of the champion's meal. This arrives on a pewter plate and is set in front of the dog, who is sitting on a chair at a fully set table, white linens and all.

Surrounded by photographers, James snarfed down all the meat and promptly looked around as if to say, "You got any more of that?" This brought awwws and chuckles from the dozens of dog enthusiasts around the table. But one photographer didn't get the shot she wanted and loudly demanded that James get seconds, and step on it.

"We need more! We need more!" she yelled.

A few feet away, James's owner and self-described mom, Teresa Patton, frowned. Patton owns and operates the Felicity Dog Training School, a 2,400-square-foot operation on a five-acre park in Fairfax Station. She's been breeding dogs for years, but this is the first time one of her animals won the Big One. And she wasn't going to watch her prize possession overeat his way to a tummyache.

"That's too much," she said, not very loudly. "You're going to make him sick."

With that, Patton grabbed the meat off the second plate that was headed James's way. James looked disappointed and the photographer fumed. For a good 10 minutes, there was a stalemate: photographer vs. owner, with James and his empty plate stuck in the middle.

"She brought the meat back to the kitchen," said Allen Patton, Teresa's husband, who is a teacher at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale. "And she's not bringing it back."

It takes a certain kind of determination to win at Westminster, and a different kind to face off with a New York photographer desperate for a money shot. The Pattons, it seems, have both.

To prevail at Westminster, you don't just show up at Madison Square Garden -- where the 131-year-old event was held on Monday and Tuesday -- with the perfect animal. You need to campaign for your dog: entering him (or her) in lots of smaller shows, hiring an expert handler, and buying advertisements in doggie magazines to herald your triumphs.

The Pattons say they spent somewhere north of $100,000 on their campaign for James as he racked up 51 best-in-show victories over the last few years and built a national reputation. The Westminster title comes with ribbons and bragging rights, but no cash. When asked how they planned to recoup their investment, the Pattons recoiled. Inhabitants of the purebred-dog world get touchy at the notion that financial considerations might play any part in what they do. "We're in this to enhance the breed," Allen Patton said.

In December, James won the AKC/Eukanuba Championship in Long Beach, Calif., beating 2,500 other dogs. On Tuesday night, in the Westminster finals, he whupped a Dandie Dinmont terrier that is co-owned by Bill Cosby, as well as a toy poodle, a standard poodle, an Akita, something called a bouvier des Flandres and something else called a petit basset griffon vendeen. When the best-in-show judge, Robert Indeglia, picked James out of this bunch, after mulling for several agonizing minutes, Teresa Patton couldn't even bring herself to gasp. The news was too good to comprehend. And James?