My fellow fans will know that it was the biggest weekend on the sports calendar: Puppy Bowl XXI going down just as events of the 149th Westminster Dog Show were getting underway. While Monday the 10th is the first of two show competition days, last Saturday was Westminster’s “Canine Celebration Day,” that included preliminaries and championship finals for the Masters Agility contest. Earlier in the day the athletes ran the veritable obstacle course according to height, with the winners of each group reconvening later to vie for the big title. With a zippy final time of 26.49 seconds, the appropriately-named border collie Vanish, from the 16-inch group, emerged victorious.
Vanish the border collie has won the Masters Agility Championship at the 2025 Westminster Kennel Club dog show.
The dog, guided by her owner-handler, Emily Klarman of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, made short work of obstacles like weave poles, tunnels and a teeter without an ounce of hesitation.
She finished her run in just 26.49 seconds at the Javits Center in New York Saturday as the agility contest aired live on Fox.
Border collies, which are part of the herding group at Westminster, have now won the competition nine out of 12 times. Vanish, 8, won the 16-inch class before becoming agility champion.
Agility dogs compete in various height classes, or divisions, at Westminster — from 8-inch to 24-inch.
The winners of the other height classes are as follows:
*Gabby, a papillon from Cape Coral, Florida, won the 8-inch class with a run of 30.05 seconds.
*Swindle, a Shetland sheepdog from Centerburg, Ohio, won the 12-inch class with 26.91 seconds.
*Shelby Cobra, a border collie from Newington, New Hampshire, was fastest in the 20-inch class with 27.57 seconds.
*Sterling, a Weimaraner from Huntington Beach, California, topped the 24-inch class with 34.67 seconds.Westminster representatives said 42 New Jersey dogs competed at the 12th Westminster Masters Agility Championship, which had a total of 300 dogs participating.
Agility is one of the events at the long-running dog show that allows mixed-breed dogs to compete — the Westminster Kennel Club calls them “all-American” dogs.
Gable, a mixed-breed dog from Lima, New York handled by Kayla Feeney, was recognized as the highest-scoring all-American dog in this year’s competition with a time of 48.89 seconds.
In 2024, a border collie-papillon mix named Nimble became the first all-American, or non-purebred dog to become agility champion at Westminster.
…The dog show continues at the Javits Center Monday, Feb. 10 with the first day of breed competition before evening group competition at Madison Square Garden, the traditional home of the dog show. A dog will be named best in show Tuesday, Feb. 11, the second night of group competition at the Garden.
I love sports! And I love that the announcers talk us through the action with just as much seriousness and excitement as they would when covering two-footer sports. These athletes really must be seen in motion to be believed — particularly when they get to the weave polls. That segment was a showstopper for each and every one of the group finalists. I will say, though, that the only element that made me think it may not be fair to have the different sizes compete against each other, was the teeter. It’s essentially a see-saw, which the dog has to walk from end to end, beginning with the side that’s touching the ground. But they’re not allowed to disembark until the far side touches ground. The larger pups totally have an advantage in weighing the teeter down! I swear you could see poor Gabby, the papillon from the 8-inch group, vibrating with nerves waiting for that thing to descend. She was like, “Come on, I’m losing valuable time, here!” And speaking of Gabby, those ears are perfection. The wingspan they have is nothing short of arresting. And with the long hair that hangs down from them, it’s like drapes framing the window of her face.
Congrats to all the competing canines, with a special tail wag to champion Vanish. She really owned that course, as evidenced by her pounding the floor with pride upon finish.
photos via Instagram/Westminster Kennel Club and Emily Klarman