How to See the National Dog Show Before It Airs at Thanksgiving

Last Thanksgiving, somewhere between the Macy's parade and the afternoon football, millions of Americans watched a black Belgian Sheepdog called Soleil win Best in Show. The people who had stood in the hall in Oaks, Pennsylvania, already knew.

The National Dog Show is the Kennel Club of Philadelphia's annual all-breed show, a weekend in which around 2,000 of the country's top show dogs are judged breed by breed, then group by group, at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in the suburbs north-west of the city. NBC films the Saturday and broadcasts it on Thanksgiving Day. This year the show runs on Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 November, so anyone in the hall sees the winner crowned twelve days before the rest of the country.

What makes it worth the trip is the bench. The show calls itself the only single-venue benched show in America: the competing dogs stay at assigned places, their benches, through the whole day instead of arriving for their ring time and leaving, so you can walk the aisles, see the breeds close up and talk to the people who show them. Some 205 breeds and varieties are eligible, according to the show information page, and the floor of the Expo Center holds 13 breed judging rings and more than 75 vendors.

The club behind it is older than the American Kennel Club. Its history page traces Philadelphia dog shows back to an event at the 1876 Centennial Exposition, and the club and its predecessors have been staging shows since 1879, five years before the AKC was founded in 1884. Last year's National Dog Show was the 24th edition, so November brings the 25th.

Saturday or Sunday

The two days are two separate shows, each with its own Best in Show. Saturday is the one NBC tapes, and the show's own detailed FAQ is frank about what that means. Doors open at 8am. The stadium ring holds more than 1,000 seats, all first come, first served, and it is packed from around 11.30am, ahead of group judging at about noon. Seats free up again around 3 or 4pm as people drift back to the main floor or home for dinner, and Best in Show comes some time after 6pm. The home page puts it at about 6.30pm.

Sunday runs from 8am to 5pm, with more competitions, athletic dog exhibitions and activities for children, and Best in Show at about 4.30pm. If you want to be in the room for the television final, go on Saturday and stake out a seat early. If you want space to wander the benches and watch the breed rings without the crush, go on Sunday. Either way, check the judging programme, which the show posts on its site no later than Monday 9 November, so you know when your favourite breed is in the ring.

Tickets and Getting There

Tickets cost $20 for adults and anyone 12 or over, $10 for children aged four to 11, and nothing for children three and under. Buy them through the show's own ticket page, at the door on either day, or in person at the Independence Visitor Center, Reading Terminal Market and four other Philadelphia visitor centres. The show is clear on one point: tickets bought through resale platforms will not be accepted at the door. The hall is large enough that it does not expect to sell out.

The Greater Philadelphia Expo Center is at 100 Station Avenue, Oaks, and lists 5,000 free parking spaces. Food and drink are sold inside from opening time. Strollers are not allowed, because most of the dogs are at the eye level of a child in a pushchair. Wheelchairs and walkers are welcome, and there is accessible seating in the stadium ring: on the Saturday, tell the ushers as early as you can.

Where Your Own Dog Spends the Day

Here is the catch for a dog owner. Spectators cannot bring their dogs to the National Dog Show, and the show says so on its home page and its information page. Its own suggestion is a kind one: watch the broadcast together at home on Thanksgiving, when NBC shows it from noon to 2pm local time, with John O'Hurley and Mary Carillo presenting and David Frei, the dog show commentator, explaining what the judges are looking for.

So the weekend is built around who looks after the dog while you are in Oaks, and the two hotels we would choose sit by Rittenhouse Square in Center City. The Rittenhouse is the grand one, right on the square, with an atrium pool and brunch at Lacroix. Dogs of any size are welcome, two to a room, for $150 a stay, and the room comes ready with a bed, bowls and free treats. Dogs cannot be left alone in the rooms here, but the hotel arranges dog sitting and dog walking, which is exactly what a long Saturday at the show calls for. Its Roch Dog review has the detail.

Kimpton Hotel Palomar Philadelphia takes the other approach. It is a boutique hotel in a restored Art Deco landmark in the Rittenhouse Square neighbourhood, dogs stay free with no weight limit, and the hotel lets you leave a calm dog in the room, so you can head for Oaks after a morning walk and be back for the evening cocktail hour. Its Roch Dog review covers the rest.

On the day you are not in the hall, Oaks is close to Valley Forge National Historical Park, where dogs are welcome on a leash. The Grand Parade trails close to dogs from April to mid September to protect nesting wildlife, so in November they are open, and the park will make your dog a Valley Forge B.A.R.K. Ranger: pick up the activity book at the visitor centre, finish it on the trails, bring it back and make the promise on its back cover, and your dog gets a metal tag. Dogs cannot go inside the building, so a ranger comes out to the front doors. In the city itself, our Philadelphia City Guide has the wooded Wissahickon gorge, the squares and the riverside paths.

The Next Shows

The National Dog Show opens the winter season. A month later the AKC National Championship takes over Orlando, and in the new year come the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York and Crufts in Birmingham.

Before any of them, there is Thanksgiving. On Thursday 26 November, at noon, NBC will show the Saturday final to the country. If you were in Oaks, you will be on the sofa with the dog, knowing which of the seven group winners walks out of that ring as Best in Show.