At the Westminster Dog Show: Wiener Dogs Are Top Guns

Meet Emma Jean Stephenson, of Beaver Falls, Penn. Ms. Stephenson has been in the dog-showing business for 48 years, breeding and showing Dachshunds (longhair, smooth, and wiry)—many, she said, who end up with New York City owners.

Behind her was one of her dogs, Gunner (Ch. E.J’s Gunner’s Grandson), who didn’t seem to be the least bit perturbed by the noise and din of the back room.

He is indeed the grandson of one of Ms. Stephenson’s champions dogs, E.J.’s Top Gun.

“He was named after the Top Gun movie,” she said. “I like Tom Cruise.”

All the dogs that have followed have been named after various characters of that movie: there’s been a Goose (!) and even a Charlie, after Kelly McGillis.

Ms. Stephenson has also judged the Dachshunds group at the National Dog Show three different times. “But this is the Superbowl for us,” she said of Westminster. “It’s very special.”