Uno is still No. 1 at Westminster

All eyes will be on a beagle named Uno when he makes a triumphant return to New York on Monday and Tuesday.

He isn't even entered in the 133d Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, but he will be there for the last lap of a yearlong cross-country victory tour he made after winning the best-in-show trophy in 2008.

The little dog pranced and bayed and barked in the show ring last year, much to the delight of the Madison Square Garden audience whose members gave him a thunderous standing ovation. And Uno quickly captured the hearts of millions of people who watched him on television.

Champion K-Run's Park Me in First, as Uno is officially known in American Kennel Club dog-show circles, retired from the show ring after the big win. Then he hit the road for the "Beaglemania" tour as an ambassador for dogs in general and purebred dogs in particular. He earned his certification as an Angel on a Leash therapy dog, visiting wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and sick children at Ronald McDonald houses.

On his third birthday last May, Uno became the first Westminster best-in-show dog to visit the White House. He rode in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and threw out - well, fetched - the first pitch at two major-league baseball games.

"I think I have used every cell phone in America to take pictures of Uno with the people he met," said David Frei, Uno's traveling companion and the director of communications for the Westminster show. "It happened at every airport and everywhere we went - people asking me to take pictures of them with Uno."

Frei has hosted USA Network's live prime-time coverage of Westminster since 1990.

"Uno is very charming and very charismatic," he said. "In 20 years of announcing at Westminster, I have never seen a best-in-show winner captivate the public like this."

When Uno wasn't traveling, he lived on a 200-acre ranch in Austin, Texas, with owner Caroline Dowell. Uno logged many hours on airplanes, sitting in a seat next to Frei thanks to the dog-friendly policy of Midwest Airlines.

"He had his own airline ticket, with the name Uno Frei. He went through security screenings like all the other passengers," Frei said. "Sure enough, one day he was picked for extra screening," and airport personnel good-naturedly ran their hands over every inch of the dog's body.

A total of 2,522 dogs representing 170 breeds are entered in the show this year.

The USA Network will televise the show on Monday and Tuesday at 8 p.m., showing only the top dog from each breed competing in the group judging and best in show.