NYC dog handlers reveal how they prepare for the Westminster Dog Show: ‘It’s a very emotionally-fueled sport’

The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is a three-day event — but preparing for the weekend is a year-round endeavor.

While the annual competition selects the hardest-working pooch as Best In Show — 2024’s champ will be chosen Tuesday at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows — there’s another rare breed in the mix: the breeder-owner-handlers working hard to make sure their canines shine.

Here are four humans behind the dogs who train just as hard as their pups.

“It’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of pressure. It’s so much stress and anxiety,” Jamie Goodrich, 41, from Central Square, New York, told The Post. “There’s not really an easy part, other than trusting your dog that it’s not gonna poop in the ring.”

As a “super proud” breeder-owner-handler, Goodrich has been showing her dogs for about 10 years — currently handling her 4-year-old Akita, Aero.

While she spends lots of time helping dogs form muscle memories and mental training, they also need sensory adaptation since there’s “so much going on.”