St. James's Park Dog Walk

I snapped this pic during a recent visit to London when I needed yet another dog fix! Here, a woman walks her two dogs at St. James's Park near Buckingham Palace. Dogs are welcome in the Royal Parks with just a few guidelines.

Newest AKC/Eukanuba National Champion: London the Standard Poodle!

I spent last week at the AKC/Eukanuba National Championship dog show, and all the fluffing, puffing and strutting culminated last night with the Best in Show competition. Top honors and $50,000 in prize money went to GCH CH Jaset's Satisfaction, a Standard Poodle known as London, owned by Beth Harris, Michele Molnar and Jamie Danburg of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

It was a spectacular event, all the way around. The AKC/National Championship joined a range of canine sporting events all under one roof, including the AKC Agility Invitational, the AKC National Obedience Invitational and AKC Juniors competition in showmanship, agility and obedience.

After the event we got to hobnob with London and his owners and handlers, and I had the chance to hold the ENORMOUS Best in Show ribbon...

It's almost as big as I am! Wow!

But even more impressive is how lovely and friendly London and his entire team are. London's owner Beth Harris says that London actually paces himself during the year by taking time off and enjoying his down time. He has his own Facebook page where it says he enjoys fetching Frisbees, playing with squeaky toys, swimming and chewing on bones ... sounds familiar! And you can find him on Twitter too, at @London_S_Poodle.

Here, London gives us a big smile in the show ring after he was crowned.

We also enjoyed watching the AKC Agility and Obedience Invitationals as well as the Eukanuba World Challenge and the junior competitions. Check out results from all the competitions here and on akc.org.

Nearly 5,000 dogs competed for more than $225,000 in prize money. The AKC/Eukanuba National Championship will be telecast on ABC on Saturday, Feb. 4, 2012. Stay tuned about details of a viewing party on Twitter party where we'll get to relive all the excitement!