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Nabbing top-dog status at the National Dog Show can be a long, ruff journey.
But the crowning achievement is worth the nerve-racking buildup for a prized pooch’s handler — and maybe even the winner.
“The adrenaline just goes everywhere. You get butterflies, your stomach drops all the way down to your toes, and you kind of want to make sure you don’t look like a fool because you just want to jump up and down,” Daniel Martin exclusively told The Post after his black Belgian Sheepdog, Soleil, took home Best in Show last month.
“It’s a great feeling,” the 34-year-old from Princeton, North Carolina, said of taking the trophy alongside his 5½-year-old charge at the beloved contest, hosted by the Kennel Club of Philadelphia on Nov. 15 and 16.
Martin is even convinced that Soleil, whose name means “sun” in French, knows what is going on, too, when she’s striking a pose for the judges.
“She gets these looks in her eyes at these big events,” he said. “It’s like she can feel the crowd, and she knows they’re all watching her, and she wants to put on this big spectacle show.”
Soleil beat out nearly 2,000 other pups at the 24th annual competition — including both the No. 1 all-breed dog in the country and the top-winning Toy Group champ in history. It was also her seventh best in show title, a record for her breed.
“I feel very honored, very special, and it’s important for the breed,” added a proud Martin. “I love that I got to be a part of that.”
“Every show, I know that she’s capable of doing it, but you never know at these types of events because all the competition is just equally as nice,” he told The Post. “It all comes down to the judges on that day, and we just happened to get lucky.”
This year’s Best in Show judge, Charles L. Olvis of Lake Wales, Florida, who has previously owned a Belgian Sheepdog himself, said that Soleil was chosen because “she has dream breed type and moves beautifully. She has a gorgeous head and perfect tail set.”
“It was a bit of a surprise when Soleil made it to the final seven, but when they came into the ring for Best in Show, you knew she belonged,” commentator David Frei, who has co-hosted the show since it began in 2002, told The Post. “Then it wasn’t a surprise when she won. And Daniel did a great job handling.”
Martin and his wife, Amanda Giles, have handled dogs for about 15 years. They have only been with Soleil for a year, since the beginning of December 2024, but Martin has already appeared at more than 100 shows with her.
In that short amount of time, Martin never had any doubts that the pup was capable of taking home the top national prize — even if the final outcome was ultimately a shocker for him.
“I knew deep down she had it in her, but it really surprised me on such a great and big day like that,” he said.
Soleil was bred by co-owner Nancy May of Towanda, Kansas, and is also co-owned by Patricia Snow of Sapulpa, Oklahoma, and Constance and Timothy Jasinski of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. However, she now lives with Martin full-time, lying in Martin’s lap on the couch and otherwise sticking close as his “Velcro shadow.”
Don’t expect an early retirement or a life of leisure for Soleil, though.
The champ will be taking her talents to the AKC National Championship in Orlando, Florida, on Dec. 13 14, as well as the 150th Annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York City next February.
