National Dog Show 2022 winner: French bulldog Winston is best in show. Here’s his NFL connection.

Perry Payson grabbed Winston, his French bulldog, took him in his arms and swung him around.

The crowd went absolutely nuts.

Winston, a 3-year-old, cream-colored Frenchie, had just been named best in show at the National Dog Show.

He is the first French bulldog to win the title since the show became part of NBC’s Thanksgiving Day lineup in 2002.

And if he looks familiar, there’s a good reason.

The dog was reserve best in show, or first runner-up, at the 2022 Westminster Kennel Club dog show in June (Trumpet the bloodhound won best in show). Winston came into the competition ranked No. 1 all-breed canine in America.

The Frenchie’s win was especially fitting for a day that’s also known for football.

Winston, who won the National Dog Show’s nonsporting group, is co-owned by a group of people including NFL player Morgan Fox. The defensive end for the Los Angeles Chargers raised Winston as a puppy. The dog’s competition name is GCHP Fox Canyon’s I Won The War at Goldshield.

Payson, the handler, who lives in Bixby, Oklahoma, is also Winston’s breeder and another co-owner.

“I never heard the crowd so animated and so loud,” Wayne Ferguson, announcer of the show and president of the Kennel Club of Philadelphia, tells NJ Advance Media.

“They’re an amazing little team,” he says of Payson and Winston.

The kennel club hosts the National Dog Show at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania, which is recorded and broadcast annually for an audience of millions after the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. This year the competition took place Nov. 19.

The winning French bulldog now has 78 career best-in-shows.

“I get excited every time and so does Winston,” Payson said at the Pennsylvania event.

He took the dog into the crowd so people could pet him, “which we’ve never ever seen in 21 years,” says Ferguson, 81, who lives in Broadway, Warren County. “He walked over to the people and they were just like touching a movie star. We just had never seen anything quite like that. It was an explosion of applause.”

French bulldogs have surged in popularity over the last few years. Frenchies were the No. 2 breed in the United States in 2021 and 2020, second to Labrador retrievers, which have held the No. 1 spot since 1991, according to American Kennel Club registrations for purebred dogs.

“I remember when the Frenchies were probably about 67th,” Ferguson says.

Winston did his part to make the breed see more years at the top of the list.

“He is a showdog with personality and beauty and a perfect fit for the breed,” said Vicki Seiler-Cushman, the best in show judge, in a statement. “He has a razzle dazzle that says ‘I am here to win tonight.’ You can just tell that he can also go home and be the perfect pet.”

Ferguson says the National Dog Show hosted the most breeds in its history this year — 196 of a possible 210 breeds and varieties, for a total of 1,800 dogs, which marks a comeback after entries had to be cut for safety earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, Claire, a Scottish deerhound from Virginia, became the first dog to win best in show at the National Dog Show in consecutive years after previously winning in 2020.

Dogs compete in seven groups to qualify for best in show — toy, nonsporting, sporting, working, terrier, hound and herding.

Here are the other 2022 National Dog Show winners:

• The honor of reserve best in show — first runner-up — at the National Dog Show went to winner of the toy group — Cooper, an English toy spaniel handled by Christopher Keith of Dallas, Texas.
• Winner of the sporting group: Sloane, an Irish water spaniel from Hamden, Connecticut.
• Winner of the terrier group: Trouble, an American Staffordshire terrier from St. Augustine, Florida.

• Winner of the working group: Reus the Italian Stallion, an Alaskan Malamute from Wisconsin by way of Palermo, Italy.
• Winner of the hound group: Nate, a treeing Walker coonhound from Somerset, Kentucky.
• Winner of the herding group: River, a German shepherd from Woodstock, Georgia, who also won the herding group at the 2022 Westminster Kennel Club dog show.

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Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com and followed at @AmyKup on Twitter.