Desmond, a Chihuahua, and Nolan, a Labrador, will journey from Ocala to New York next week with their trainer to compete in this year’s Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.
The 148th annual installment of the show will kick off on Saturday, May 11 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center within Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, New York City.
Led by their trainer Bridget Kennedy, Desmond and Nolan will compete in the 11th Annual Masters Agility Championship Preliminaries on the first day of the event. The preliminaries will be broadcast on the FOX Sports app from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m and will be streamed through the club’s website.
Both Desmond and Nolan are no strangers to the bright lights, having competed in several shows over the past two years. That includes their debut appearance at Westminster in 2023, where Nolan was the youngest of 50 dogs who made the finals of the 24″ jumping class. The young Labrador Retriever came in fourth place in that event.
At the end of last year, both dogs also competed in the AKC Agility Invitational in Orlando, where Nolan had four clean runs and finished 3rd in the 24″ jumping finals.
In 2022, Desmond made finals at the AKC Agility Invitational and came in fourth place out of 220 dogs.
According to Kennedy, Desmond is the first chihuahua invited to participate in the AKC Premier Cup, which will feature 100 of the top agility teams across the country competing in different height classes. Nolan will also compete in this year’s cup on June 29.
Kennedy, who owns and operates Kennedy Performance Dogs, previously took her now-retired chihuahua Rory to Westminster back in 2018, coming home with a fourth place finish.
When she isn’t training world class competitors, Kennedy offers private lessons and hosts various classes and workshops out of Little Brook Farms in Ocala.
For more information on the trainer, her dogs, or her program, visit Kennedy Performance Dogs online.
To cheer on Ocala’s own, watch Desmond and Nolan during the livestream of the 2024 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on Saturday, May 11, at the Westminster Kennel Club website or through the FOX Sports app.