Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?
Stump, a 10-year-old Sussex spaniel, shocked the canine world last night by becoming the oldest Best in Show winner ever at the Westminster Kennel Club Show at Madison Square Garden.
The champ from Texas, who’d be old enough to qualify for Social Security in dog years, came out of retirement and beat a brush with death to take the top honors.
Stump, whose walk around the Garden floor was described as a “plod” by his handler, is a veteran of the dog-show circuit and won the toy group in 2004.
But his retirement nearly killed him.
“He got very sick,” handler Scott Sommer told the USA Network. “His whole body completely quit.”
Stump spent 19 days under veterinary care and managed to pull through.
“They just had some kind of miracle,” Sommer said.
After retirement, Stump, the first Sussex ever to win the Westminster, enjoyed just “being a pet and sleeping on the bed and doing whatever he want[ed] to do,” Sommer said.
But Sommer decided to give his dog one last shot at the big time, deciding only last week to enter him in the Westminster. “His outing turned out to be a big one,” Sommer said.
Stump had to beat six other dogs to win his ribbon, including a New York poodle named Yes, who also has a remarkable tale. Yes was sired using sperm that had barely survived being frozen 20 years before she was born.
Additional reporting by Andy Geller