UPDATE 1-Six dogs vie for Westminster Kennel Club grand prize

Six dogs will compete for the "Best in Show" title at the Westminster Kennel Club's annual pageant in New York, excluding the winner of the non-sporting canine group, a schipperke, which was ruled ineligible, officials said on Tuesday. Colton, a six-year-old member of a Belgian breed, was "excused" because of ownership eligibility requirements set by the American Kennel Club, competition officials said.

"These types of things happen at dog shows and the rules are such to maintain the integrity of the sport," they said in a statement. Six other dogs who won in the hounds, toys, herding, working, sporting and terrier canine groups were to compete for the "Best in Show" prize.

The event, now in its 143rd year, drew in a field of 2,800 dogs from all 50 U.S. states and 14 countries, including Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mexico and Russia. Judges picked the remaining three finalists on Tuesday before the main event. A Sussex spaniel named "Bean" won the sporting group, a boxer called "Wilma" won the working group and a wire named "King" won the terrier group.

Colton was one of four selected on Monday. The others were a longhaired dachshund named Burns who won the hound group; a Havanese named Bono who topped the toy group and a bouvier des Flandres named Baby Lars who led the herding group. "He just knows when to turn it on," Bono's handler, Taffe McFadden, said of her Havanese, the national dog breed of Cuba.

"You can’t train a dog for what goes on in the floor of the Garden," said McFadden of Acampo, California, whose husband Bill McFadden last year showed Flynn, the bichon frise adjudged the 'Best in Show' in 2018. Baby Lars, the bouvier des Flandres, is "very happy-go-lucky, he loves life," said his co-owner, Elaine Paquette.

His favorite activities are grabbing Paquette’s cell phone, the television remote at home in Maidstone, Ontario, and squeaky toys. The winner's circle is familiar territory for Burns' handler, Carlos Puig. In 1998, Puig showed the dog's great-grandfather, who was the first and only long-haired dachshund to win the hound group, until Burns matched his feat.

Colton's win among the non-sporting group, usually clinched by standard poodle and bichon frise dogs, was perhaps the biggest surprise in this year's show, held at New York's Madison Square Garden. The schipperke is a small but powerful breed with pointy ears and a double-layered coat that can shed water quickly.

(Please click link for Graphic http://tmsnrt.rs/2Bm1zCz) The Westminster Kennel Club's show is the second oldest U.S. sporting event, behind only the Kentucky Derby horse race.

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg Editing by Tom Brown and Clarence Fernandez)