Hotel Goes to the Dogs but for One Week Only as Westminster Show Gets Underway

When the dog show comes to Madison Square Garden, the building right across the street turns into Canine Central.

That’s the Hotel Pennsylvania, which holds 900 rooms for show people and houses up to 1,000 dogs.

“It’s very, very, very busy,” said Geraldine Fasolino, the hotel’s director of housekeeping. “It’s very challenging.”

Especially for a hotel that does not allow dogs at any other time.

Judging began Monday at the 125th Westminster Kennel Club competition, the country’s most prestigious dog show. The show’s 2,500 entries came in 158 breeds and varieties, and the best-in-show trophy will be presented Tuesday night.

In the meantime, there are dogs to groom and feed and pamper.

The hotel’s dry cleaning bill this week? About $12,000, normally the total for a month. Laundry costs? Perhaps $19,000.

That’s to cover the extra towels for grooming and additional linens for sleeping. Hair dryers are provided for the dogs, of course.

Those are amenities Donna Bolte of Baltimore appreciates. Like most owners, she treats her pooches more like children than animals.

Bolte brought four dogs--a champion Lowchen and St. Bernard, along with a Rottweiler and a Shar-Pei--to stay with her in one room.

“Some will sleep in crates and some will sleep in the beds,” she said.

Three dogs from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., were up for the show, but Manhattan was a little too cold and noisy at first for the trio of English bulldogs.

“Last night, there was a lot of barking and growling,” owner-handler Carolyn Martin said. “The sirens, the church bells and car horns bothered them. We’re heading out right now to Kmart to buy one of those sound machines, the kind that plays rivers and birds and wind. They need their rest.”

Fasolino will triple her staff of housekeepers this week and recently bought a new, lemon-scented antibacterial disinfectant, just in case.

There are added air fresheners in the lobby, where the IAMS and Eukanubia pet-food companies have set up booths.

Exercise areas with sawdust were set up on each floor for dogs who do not want to take a late-night walk on 7th Avenue. Extra cleanup people will patrol the outside of the hotel too.

“I like dogs, and my daughter, Felicia, wants to adopt one,” Fasolino said. “But if I smell dog this week in the lobby, then I haven’t done my job and I’m livid.”