Exclusive | Meet Monty, the giant schnauzer who made Westminster history as 2025 Best in Show dog: I knew he was special when he was a baby

There’s a new top dog at Westminster.And Monty the giant schnauzer, who made history with his Best in Show win at the 149th Annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on Feb.11, knew it when it happened.Monty’s owner and handler, Katie Bernardin, told The Post that she started to tear up when her dog was named the winner at Madison Square Garden.There was “no doubt in [her] mind” that her four-legged friend knew he won at the moment — though she said she noticed Monty’s demeanor changed from excited to concerned after seeing her crying.“I never cry — that’s not an emotion that he’s used to,” Bernardin, who lives in Chaplin, Connecticut, said.

“You can see in the video he’s looking at me, like, ‘What’s wrong? I thought we won.'”The 5-year-old pup competed against a field of 2,500 show dogs of over 200 different breeds and made history as the first-ever giant schnauzer to win Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.“You never go there thinking you’re going to go Best in Show; you just go and you hope for the best,” Bernardin, 39, said.“There are no words to truly describe how proud and honored I am that he gets to be a part of Westminster history.”Monty has competed in more than 100 dog shows this past year alone with Bernardin, who is both his owner and handler — a rarity in dog competitions.“For it to be my own dog that I believe in and watched grow up, it was crazy to see it all unfold,” she said.

“I knew he was special when he was a baby.”“I still have a hard time believing it actually happened,” Bernardin laughed.“Even though the ribbon is sitting in my kitchen, I just look at it and think, ‘There’s no way.'”This was Monty’s third win for the Working Group at Westminster, but it’s the first time the group — bred to assist mankind and known for being intelligent, strong, watchful and alert — has won the top spot since 2004, ending the longest drought for any group in the competiti...