Pine Island dog ranks in the top 10 at Westminster

(ABC 6 News) – A pup from Pine Island took part in the world renowned Westminster dog show recently. She not only participated but also placed among the top ten.

Ciara N Honeygait Belle of The Ball, or Belle for short, is a 4-year-old English Setter that recently competed in the 146th Westminster Dog Show, the second longest-running annual sporting event in America behind only the Kentucky Derby.

Van Jacobsen, one of Belle’s owners described her success saying, "She was awarded what is called a group first. She won the group, which is incredible. We were beyond ourselves."

Before getting a group first, Belle competed against 21 other English Setters where she won her breed, that allowed her to advance to the group round.
That group was for sporting dogs which were made up of breeds including golden retrievers, labrador retrievers, and cocker spaniels where Belle took top honors and advanced to the finale.

Even though she wasn’t quite the "top dog" at Westminster overall, she still made it to the top 7 out of 3,088 dogs. She’s also won a few other competitions of her own before getting to the final round on the Westminster.

Amanda Ciaravino, bred Belle and is one of her owners said, "It was a pretty awesome experience to do it from the very beginning. She’s my first bred by liter. She’s one of my babies and I couldn’t have been more proud of her. She gives me 110 percent every time she enters the show ring, but that night was extremely special for both of us."

As for the future, Amanda says she can see a litter of puppies and have lots of fun on the property with Belle and her English Setter friend Douglas. Both of them love the spotlight.

After what has been an eventful year of competitions for Belle, she is going to take a little bit of time to relax now that some of those competitions are finally over.