TNT caught up with the Progressive Dog Club’s Event Chair, Tim Lehman, after the club’s 99th and 100th Toy Dog Shows, which were held in Midtown Manhattan on February 7 & 8, 2025. The New Yorker hotel proved to be an elegant and welcoming place for the exhibition of purebred dogs, where exhibitors were delighted to find two gorgeous rings for showcasing the nearly 300 top-tier Toys that were entered from across the country and around the world. The two-day event was supported by many fanciers from outside the Toy breeds as well, and plans are already underway to make next year’s shows a must-attend affair for anyone who delights in the presentation of diminutive dogs in grand style. We hope readers enjoy learning about Progressive’s triumphant return to the Big Apple and the club’s “progressive” focus on its future.
The simple answer is yes. My main objective was to have a warm, friendly, welcoming environment where everyone felt welcomed. And it was great having our President, Kathleen Kolbert, there, who turned 100 years old in March!
It was great to be back in New York. It’s an experience in and of itself for exhibitors to come into the city. Everyone absolutely loved it! Within a 20-block radius people could walk in any direction and have any of their needs met—and feel safe. New York was great to us, and it brought back the camaraderie of just being there together. I mean, I had most of my meals at the Tick Tock Diner where it was great seeing all your old buddies. I hope that people spread the word and even more come for next year’s shows.
The New Yorker hotel is a very beautiful venue and represented our special dog show well. The hotel is really easy to navigate, and I was happy with the size of the rings and completely thrilled with the flow. I was somewhat concerned beforehand about loading and unloading, and accessing the ballrooms, but it was all really quite a breeze. And let’s give credit where credit is due… the exhibitors were always respectful and mindful of the environment. Part of the reason everything ran smoothly was because the exhibitors were professional. Everyone handled it all beautifully.
One of the most exciting parts of the event for me was to have that much support on both days from people who stopped by to watch the Group. The quality in the ring was really exciting, of course, but to have so many of our friends and exhibitors stop in was also exciting. The Grand Ballroom was crowded and I just loved it! It was like the olden days of dogdom when everybody was ringside.
The entries were steep in the Specials rings, though we can definitely do better with the Class entries. We do have room for larger entries in each breed and I’m hoping we get even more Specialties next year to encourage larger entries now that people have scoped it out! The NOHS entries this year were very good, and I’d like to make it a goal for more Juniors to show a Toy dog at Progressive. We’re going to have our shows a little earlier next year, on January 30-31, 2026, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens.
You never know how space is going to fill up, but the ballrooms actually became more beautiful once they were filled with dogs and people. We had plenty of room on the mezzanine level too for grooming and vendors who had unique items for Toy dogs. I think we even could have one more vendor next year.
There was really only one issue and that was the temperature in the Grand Ballroom. We experienced hot, cold, and in between. Hopefully, next year it will be all in between!
The second century is our generation’s responsibility. When I was growing up, there were so many people I was in complete awe of… I worked for Peggy Hogg and looked up to Edd Biven, and so I understand that it can be so easy to say the Mrs. Clarks and the Jane Forsyths and the Mike Billings are gone and today’s judges or handlers are not like them. But I do wonder if today’s 15-year-olds are looking at people like us and holding us in esteem. When I was a kid, I was always intimidated to talk to those great people, and now that I’m older myself I realize how those people would have loved to talk to somebody under the age of 20, to help them along. Now, if there’s a younger person who is interested, I feel a responsibility to spend some time with them. With Progressive, we have newer, younger members who make up a great team. We’ve never had as many people from our club help to clean up after the show as we did this year. All the new people were there and we got it done in no time at all. It was great. The days of being a closed club, where you may think you don’t need new blood, so to speak, are over. We all have to be more welcoming.
