No audience, new venue, but Westminster dog show barks on

NEW YORK (AP) — There will be plenty of tradition, pup and circumstance at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show this weekend. But for the first time in its 145-year history, the storied canine competition is trading the buzz of the Big Apple for the airy grounds of a suburban riverfront estate. That’s one of many changes prompted by pandemic precautions. Because of coronavirus concerns, the show was rescheduled from its usual February dates and isn’t allowing in-person spectators. Human participants must be vaccinated or newly tested. And the sought-after best in show trophy will be awarded under a tent outside the Gothic-castle-style mansion at the Lyndhurst estate in Tarrytown, New York, not in the sports palace of Manhattan’s Madison Square Garden.