It’s the time of year when Alaskans proudly cheer, volunteer, and race in the annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Stretching 1,049 miles, the race features teams of 12 to 16 dogs, led by a musher. This year is the race’s 40th anniversary. Early this morning the first teams crossed the half-way point in the race.

Andy Angstman is a superfan of the Iditarod and a musher since childhood. He participated in the race in 2007. He joins us from Achorage, Alaska.

This week marks the 136th Annual Westminster Dog Show at Madison Square Garden. It's the biggest and longest-running, continuously held canine show in the country. Sarah Montague is a senior producer and the Westminster Dog Show correspondent for our co-producer WNYC. She's been covering the event for the past 12 years and tells us about the culture of America's most beloved dog show.

The Westminster dog show happened earlier this week. You had to be in New York for that. But Takeaway listeners all over the country flooded our site with dog pics when they entered our Smartest Dog contest. Now we have the results, thanks to our judge — veteran Westminster reporter, Sarah Montague, from our flagship station, WNYC.

Today the granddaddy of all dog shows — the Westminster Dog Show — kicks off. As you may know, it’s something of a beauty contest for dogs. And last year, we commemorated the event by asking listeners to submit pictures of their dogs for our cutest dog contest. But this year, we’re more interested in brains than looks. We’re asking you to send in pictures and videos of your dogs being brilliant. As she did last year, WNYC's Sarah Montague will judge your entries this week. And today we’re talking with two scientists who know a thing or two about canine intelligence.

A story published this week reports that Chinese archaeologists have found nearly-intact mummies of people who lived in a desolate desert in Northwestern China nearly 4,000 years ago. But they were not Chinese. DNA evidence from these long dead people shows that they were in fact of European descent. Also this week, geneticists announced that man's best friend split from the wolves about 15,000 years ago in the Middle East.

For show dogs, it all came down to last night's results. After weeks of grooming, pampering and prepping, the officials at the Westminster Dog Show declared Sadie, a four-year-old Scottish Terrier, the "Best in Show."

• BUSINESS TAKEOUT:  The Greek finance minister, George Papaconstantinou, is attempting to reassure the European Union that his country's deficit problems are largely under control, but New York Times finance reporter Louise Story tells us that not everybody is buying his story.
• SPORTS TAKEOUT: Ibrahim Abdul-Matin takes a look at some possible moves that could happen before Wednesday afternoon's NBA trade deadline.
• DOGS TAKEOUT: After more than a hundred submissions and several days of voting, the listeners' favorite was clear: a chihuahua named Benny, photographed looking anxious between a pair of Siamese cats.  We spoke with the owner and her mother about Benny and the advantages of looking scared in a competition.

Sarah Montague has a keen eye for dogs, and took some time before covering the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show for WNYC to pick eight of our many, many Takeaway Dog Show contestants and offer some trenchant commentary.

Today, the 134^th annual Westminster Kennel Club dog show begins.  173 breeds are competing for Best in Show, including three new breeds. What is it about our canine friends that we humans find so captivating? And have our doggie obsessions gone too far?

You may never feel like you get your money's worth at a hotel again. New York's Hotel Pennsylvania in midtown Manhattan serves as the lodging for the dogs who participate in the Westminster Dog Show. From the moment the four-legged animals enter the lobby, they are greeted with goodies ... and we don't mean doggie treats.

UPDATED: Sunday, 7:00 p.m.

As usually happens over the weekend, we've shifted the show around to follow the news.  The U.S. military offensive against the Taliban in Afghanistan ramped up significantly in the south, so we'll be talking with people on the ground there about how the move is playing out. Now that Monday's in sight, we're nailing down what will feature on our weekly agenda segment, and moving our planned piece on reliable car information forward from tomorrow to Tuesday. We'll be talking about danger in sports after a luge athlete from the former Soviet republic, Georgia, died after hitting a support pole on the luge track in Vancouver.  Two doctors will be joining us to talk about the myths and realities of autism spectrum disorders, and we're asking everyone to vote on our user-submitted Takeaway Dog Show!  (It turns out that our listeners who have dogs love them dearly and take excellent photos of them.)

The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show just wrapped up, and announcing the winner of The Takeaway's dog show! More than a hundred listeners sent photos of their dogs via Facebook and email and everyone else got the chance to vote. Now we have a winner: It's a chihuahua named Benny, submitted by Barbara Fullerton.

You can hear WNYC's resident dog expert, Sarah Montague, make some sharp observations about a few of the other contestants.

This week, New York City hosts the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, a showcase for best of the best of each breed of dog. But how breeders create those perfect dogs is the subject of much debate and a new documentary by our partners at the BBC is adding flames to the fire. In fact, their research was so provocative that it prompted big changes at the British Kennel Club. Producer Jemima Harrison joins us to explain why what makes for best in show could be the worst for dogs.

For more, turn to the BBC's report documenting how the methods used to produce breeds like the King Charles spaniel, boxers and pugs could cause debilitating inherited genetic problems for the dogs. Watch here.

Then to cheer yourself up a bit, watch this: