I Hung Out With Some of Westminster’s Top Dogs to Steal Their Beauty Secrets

But despite being elite athletes and beauty queens, these pups are still just pets, which I realized as I spent time with some top dogs (and their human handlers). Case in point: My interview with Monty at the Bernardins’ garage-turned-dog-salon was postponed because he’d eaten a rock. And Scotty, a tiny Pekingese mop-of-a-thing with a growing collection of trophies, gnawed on my shoelaces as I chatted with his handler, Don Sturz. (Sturz is also the president of the Westminster Kennel Club and current show chairman.)

In 16th-century Florence, Michelangelo used chisels and hammers to make David an enduring symbol of physical perfection. In 2025, the Bernardins of Connecticut used pin brushes and stripping knives to sculpt Monty into a champion. Dog handlers have a vast array of grooming tools to clean, primp, and zhuzh their dogs, and you may already have some of them in your bathroom cabinets. Here’s how they turn a dog into a star.

Canine cleansers

Back in the early 1970s, “we would make our own shampoo,” said two-time Best in Show winner David Fitzpatrick, who shows mostly Pekingese and Maltese dogs. “It was the pink dishwashing detergent, I think it was Lux or something, and we would mix that with glycerin and a little vinegar.”

But when I got a look at the shampoos handlers are using these days, I realized that some of them are nicer than my own bath products.

Sturz has four dogs, and for his two Pekingese (and their labor-intensive coats), he uses Isle of Dogs No. 10 shampoo because it doesn’t dry their hair out. “You don’t want anything that’s going to strip the coat. You want them to come out clean and full, but still have that kind of standoffish look to the coat,” he said. It contains evening primrose oil, which the company claims adds shine. At over $3 an ounce, it’s expensive, but it can be diluted 10 to 1 with water, which brings the price way down. For his Pekingese pack, Fitzpatrick also likes the Isle of Dogs No. 10 shampoo, as well as ones from #1 All Systems and Vellus (he currently has about eight Pekingese and four Maltese dogs).

Meanwhile, Sturz’s Frenchie, Emmitt, gets to use a general-purpose Day to Day Shampoo from Chris Christensen. Like many human versions, this shampoo is “enriched with vitamin E, colloidal oatmeal and natural botanical extracts,” according to the company. It can be diluted using 8 parts water to 1 part shampoo, but the company suggests a 4:1 ratio on its product page. Lola, Sturz’s bull terrier, gets to use the Chris Christensen White on White Shampoo. It can help brighten her white coat because it contains “an optic intensifying treatment” that removes yellow stains, according to the company. This is one of the more expensive options, and it cannot be diluted.

The Bernardins also use a variety of high-grade shampoos, but their secret weapon is way more basic. “Honestly, we wash [Monty’s] legs in Dawn dish soap,” Katie Bernadin said. “It works better than anything. … It just cuts the grease off of him. His face gets super disgusting, so we just rub his face with Dawn.”

According to Adam Bernardin, Dawn (especially Dawn Platinum) is a fixture for fancy dog-show folks — they’ll just never admit it. “They’ll tell you other things; 100% they use Dawn,” he said. But Monty always gets a “really good condition” afterward, Katie said. Their go-tos are Artero Keratin Vital Conditioner and Crown Royale Condition Plus Coat Conditioner.

I also spotted Pantene Pro-V Repair and Protect Conditioner in their cabinets. “We use it on the Setters, because they have long flowy hair and it really just coats that hair well,” Katie said. She said the smoothing conditioner doesn’t work for Monty, though, because of his wiry schnauzer coat. But maybe don’t try this hack at home: Human products like Dawn or Pantene aren’t formulated for animals.

After giving Monty a bath, the Bernardins “blast all the water off” of him with the K-9 II Hot Blower-Dryer. This $545 tool is expensive, but if you’re bathing dozens of dogs a week, like they are, it’s worth it.

After this professional-grade tool gets most of the water off, the Bernardins usually finish up with the retro-style Conair Pro Yellow Bird Hair Dryer.

Touch-ups and quick cleanups between baths

For smaller cleanups in between baths, Sturz refreshes his pups’ coats with the Chris Christensen Pro-Line Self Rinse Plus Shampoo. “It’s soapy, but it’s not so soapy that you have to rinse them out,” he said. “You can just dry it with a towel and brush.” It helps to freshen up your dog even when you’re not near a sink or tub (or, if you’re me and my dog, you’re just trying to postpone the trauma of bathtime).

And show dogs are not immune to the daily battle with schmutz. Sturz’s “little secret weapons” are Furbliss wipes, which he keeps on hand to clean his dogs’ feet after walks, to wipe their butts as needed, and for other random messes. “Our bull terrier has an affinity for rubbing up against car tires when she goes for a walk,” he said.

Brushes fit for a winner

Handlers typically have several types of brushes for each dog, but the pin brush is the “workhorse” of the lot, especially for long-haired breeds, according to Sturz. These brushes usually have metal bristles, and they sometimes feature nubs on the ends to protect the dog’s skin.

When you’re picking a pin brush for your pup, it’s key to find the right size bristles. “You want pins that are long enough to get into the base of the coat,” he said. When he brushes Scotty, Sturz typically starts on the ends and works his way to the base of the dog’s coat.

The Maxipin is one of Sturz’s favorite pin brushes, and he said it was recommended to him by Fitzpatrick, who was Scotty’s breeder (Fitzpatrick’s 2021 winner, Wasabi, is Scotty’s dad). Fitzpatrick, who’s an expert on all things Pekingese, told me the Maxipin brush is efficient and gentle because its soft pins help preserve the coat. “You wanna try to save every hair for show and not break it all off,” he said.

But brushes are specific to the dog and their coat texture, and each one has different uses. For last-minute touch-ups in the ring, Sturz usually uses Vellus’s oblong pin brush because it has stiffer pins, which he said can lift, mold, and shape the hair. Fitzpatrick is also a fan of the Vellus brush. “They last forever,” he said.

When I visited the Bernardins, there were piles of brushes and combs, each one designed to address the needs of the different breeds they work with. But they told me that their favorite brushes are made by Bass. Monty’s pin brush — a beat-up Bass Elite Grande, complete with duct tape on the back of the head — was still in rotation. This particular model is actually marketed for humans, but the company makes dog-specific brushes as well.

Sturz also turns to a human brush when he wants to put a shine on dogs with shorter coats. He’s a fan of the beloved (and over-$200) Mason Pearson boar-bristle brushes for finishing. (My wife also uses this brush, and my editor does too.) Sturz said he removes dead fur first with a rubber-rippled hound glove, like this one from Petmate. (My wife and my editor do not do this.)

“For a short-coated dog, even if it’s not a show dog, that’s a great way to keep their coat healthy and keep shedding down in the house. If you get the hair out, then it’s not on your couch,” he said.

Don’t brush them dry

Whether your brush is fancy or basic, it’s important to get a dog’s fur a little bit wet before you start, Sturz said. “If you’re going to brush a dog, it’s always good to brush moist hair rather than dry hair. And it also helps hair flying around because there’s no static, so more of it is getting caught on the brush,” he said. Therefore you’ll need a good squirt bottle.

Although “most of them are junk,” according to Adam, the spray bottle the Bernadins do like is from Chemical Guys, a brand primarily geared toward car maintenance. But these sturdy plastic bottles “hold up really well” when used for dog grooming, too. “If I drop them, they’re not gonna break,” Katie said.

Buzzers, scissors, and stripping knives each have their purpose

For coat trims, the Bernardins like Artero Spektra hair clippers. And when it comes to scissors and thinning shears, they said they use whatever works. But Geib is another brand they often turn to.

When he was consistently showing, Monty’s eyebrows and legs got trimmed with scissors, which kept those parts softer, but “everything else was pulled” with stripping knives, Katie said. This helped to keep the desired rougher texture on his course, wiry coat. “It would be soft and fluffy if I cut it,” Adam said, and that would deviate from the breed standard.

As with every other product we discussed, the Bernardins had a huge assortment of stripping knives to accommodate different dogs. But for Monty they favored the Artero Stripping Knife Thinner (P334).

Combs are great — especially on small dogs — for getting debris out of sensitive areas or hard-to-reach spots like the face, feet, groin, and armpits, Fitzpatrick said. They’re also helpful for detangling knots. Both Fitzpatrick and Sturz like the combs from Chris Christensen, which makes a wide variety of specialized grooming products.

“You don’t wanna be going at the face with a brush, you know, around the eyes and everything, because you might injure the dog,” Fitzpatrick said. Since combs give you more control than brushes, they’re “very good for different parts of the dog,” he said.

Show dogs are pets, too

Now that Monty is retired, his routine isn’t quite as rigorous as he settles into civilian life. Meanwhile, Scotty’s star is on the rise, and he shows all the promise of having an illustrious career ahead.

But even show dogs are still dogs. And, if you ask me, all dogs are perfect, whether they use an expensive specialized shampoo or regular old dish soap.

This article was edited by Catherine Kast and Maxine Builder.