Newman Lake dog wins best of breed at Westminster

Pancho won his class, but he almost had a chance to win it all.

Pancho, an American Staffordshire terrier from Newman Lake breeders Ed and Karen Thomason, won the Best of Breed competition Tuesday at the prestigious Westminster Kennel Club dog show in New York City.

But Pancho also finished second overall in the Terrier Group behind King, a fox terrier. King then went on to the final competition and won the top overall prize of Best in Show.

Efforts to reach the Thomasons, who own Alpine Falls Kennel, on Wednesday were not immediately successful.

According to their website, the Thomasons founded the kennel in 2004.

“We always breed for ourselves first,” they say on the website. “We expect our dogs to be able to perform any tasks we ask of them: confirmation shows, obedience, agility, weight pull or just being couch potatoes.”