Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show 2015: Start Time, Live Stream and TV Schedule

You may think the NFL, NBA and MLB have long, rich traditions, but few American sporting events can hold a candle to the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

2015 will see the 139th edition of this highly regarded display of the best canines have to offer. The evening finals will be held at Madison Square Garden in New York, while the daytime judging will be held at Piers 92 and 94, per the official website.

Westminster is essentially the premier dog show in the United States, perhaps only rivaled by the National Dog Show presented by the Kennel Club of Philadelphia.

With the 2015 NBA All-Star festivities taking place in New York City on Valentine's Day weekend, the Big Apple is undoubtedly the place to be for sports this February.

All eyes will be on the well-groomed pooches strutting their stuff during the course of the event, many with dreams—OK, it's their respective owners' dreams, but bear with me—of being named Best in Show.

There are multiple ways to catch the action at WKC 2015. In this digital age, anyone can fetch a laptop or tablet and dial up the live stream, or follow along with the requisite television coverage. Here is a look at the main television and live stream information for this event.

Date	Event	Time (ET)	TV	Live Stream
Feb. 15	Masters Agility Championship	12 p.m. - 2 p.m.	Fox Sports 1	N/A
Feb. 16	All Breed Dog Show	8 p.m. - 11 p.m.	CNBC	WKCLive.com
Feb. 17	All Breed Dog Show	8 p.m. - 11 p.m.	USA Network	WKCLive.com

Note: A full list of replay coverage, pre-event live streams and more can be found at WestminsterKennelClub.org. Live streams can be found here.

In 2014, it was a female Fox Terrier nicknamed Sky who won Best in Show. There are awards for the ideal dog from each breed/group, but national recognition is reserved for the dog that is judged to be the finest representative of its kind, over any other.

Mary Altaffer/Associated Press

As a whole, the spry, rambunctious terriers tend to fare well at this event, but they won't be judged until Tuesday, according to the WKC website. On Monday, the show is dedicated to toy, hound non-sporting and herding groups of dogs.

With nearly 200 breeds eligible to compete at Westminster, trying to suss out which canine will end up with the top prize might seem like a fool's errand. According to PennLive.com's Barbara Miller, a Portuguese Water Dog named Matisse might be the top dog to watch in this one:

"

Matisse (Claircreek Impression de Matisse) is the top winning Portuguese Water Dog of all time, and is currently ranked number one dog of all breeds, including his breed and all working dogs, said Milan Lint, who owns him with Peggy Helming of Flemington, N.J.

[...]

Under handling of his owners, Matisse finished his Canadian championship at six months of age, and his American championship at eight months. After winning "best in sweeps" at Nationals with his breeder Donna Gottdenker, Matisse was placed under the care of handler Michael Scott "to grow up both mentally and physically," say his owners.

"

No doubt, that is an impressive resume, but it may be presumptuous to call any dog a favorite heading into this esteemed competition.

The Westminster Dog Show now has an interesting prelude to the big event in the Masters Agility Championship, which pits dogs against each other in various agility-based athletic competitions. This year, a Border Collie named Tex won the fast-growing competition, per Jennifer Peltz of the Associated Press.

This portion of the weekend program has proven to be hugely popular, with the number of competitors growing by 45 percent in just the second year of the event, per Peltz.

It appears to be a fine addition to the Westminster roster of events, which shows no signs of slowing down in prestige or importance in the very particular world of dog shows.

Lest anyone believe that this event is a truly American phenomenon important only to a very specific group of people, Ben Walker of the AP (h/t ABCNews.com) demonstrated in his roundup of far-flung fans tuning into the show through new media proves it is anything but a strange American affair.