NEW YORK (AP) — Uno the beagle turned Madison Square Garden into his own big, green backyard.

He barked and bayed. He nipped at a newly printed sign. He tried to grab his leash. He took a flying leap at a piece of filet mignon.

"Snoopy would be proud," handler Aaron Wilkerson said Monday. "He was being his merry little hound self."

He also did something out of character: He became the first beagle to win the hound group at the Westminster Kennel Club show since 1939 — that's 483 years, in dog years.

The 15-inch-tall champion beat six highly ranked, highly coifed pooches for the title. "Everything he does is correct," said J. Donald Jones, the 75-year-old judge who bestowed the top prize for purebreds on the beagle. "This is a great dog."

Uno was the crowd favourite as he sauntered back and forth on the floor of Madison Square Garden, his tiny tail wagging.

"He's what a beagle is supposed to be," his Mr. Wilkerson, 29, told reporters as Uno bayed and barked. "A merry little hound."

There was no word on whether he might be hoping for a celebratory e-mail from Snoopy. Beagles are always among the most popular dogs in the country, yet Wilkerson was at a loss to explain why they've never done better here.

"I can't really say," he said. "All of them are just good."

A repeat standard poodle, a prize-winning Sealyham terrier and an Australian shepherd also locked up spots in the final ring. A perfectly trimmed toy poodle and a top Akita hoped to win their groups Tuesday.

They were among the 2,627 entries at this year's show, coming in 169 breeds and varieties. Included were four newly sanctioned types — the Tibetan mastiff, Beauceron, Swedish vallhund and Plott.

Also in the building: Patty Hearst and "How to Look Good Naked" reality show host Carson Kressley. Far, far removed from the days when her image as a machine gun-toting revolutionary captivated the world in, Patricia Hearst Shaw was in more genteel surroundings.

She was tending to Diva, petting her French bulldog's soft head on dogdom's biggest day.

"When people find out it's me, it's like it doesn't make sense," Shaw said. "The Frenchie people know me because I've been around. But others, they seemed surprised."

Shaw has been working with dogs for three years, and her first trip to Westminster was well worth it.

She came away with a red ribbon for Best of Opposite Sex — a male won the breed, and hers was judged the top female.

"It's overwhelming," she said.

Kressley, who formerly starred on "Queer Eye For The Straight Guy," had his hair "zhooshed" just like the dogs. He found himself looking at more than the pooches.

"I was mesmerised by the handlers' outfits," he said. "And they have to wear sensible shoes."

While Uno aimed at best in show, the precocious package of personality certainly deserved one title: noisiest in show.

"Ah-roo!" his howls echoed all over the arena. It didn't take much to get Uno going, either. A click of a spectator's pen, a wave of the judge's hand, any effort by Wilkerson to hush him. "Ah-roo!"

Though the Disney movie 'Underdog' was a big winner last year, a beagle is forever a long shot at the Garden.

To celebrate his triumph and satisfy the media crush, Uno appeared on NBC's 'Today' and ABC's 'Good Morning America', followed by lunch at Sardi's restaurant and a scheduled taping with David Letterman.

Beyond that, "I have no idea what the future holds," Kathy Weichert, one of Uno's four owners, said in a telephone interview.

Uno, who has won 33 best in shows, can become the most successful beagle in dog-show history by claiming eight more titles.

For now, he'll take time off after Westminster, skipping planned competitions in South Carolina and Florida.

"If you win Westminster, you don't want to go out and get beat," said Weichert, who works as an accounting associate for the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District. "You want to go out on top."

Weichert credits Wilkerson, who is based in Columbia, South Carolina, and has cared for Uno since he was six months old, for grooming him into a champion. What's with the baying?

"He's a talker ever since he was a baby," she said. "That is his personality. It makes him what he is."

Tri-coloured, with pleading, golden-brown eyes and a most playful nature, Uno wanted to break out of the Westminster doghouse.

His official name is K-Run's Park Me in First, and he topped 12 other entries in the 15-inch beagle category.

Beagles also come in the 13-inch variety, though both types can come from the same litter.

Beagles date back to the 1300s and were first bred as a hunting companion for small game, according to the Westminster club's Web site. They were imported to the colonial US and used for hunting rabbits. Asked if Jones had advice for new beagle owners, he recommended installing a fence in the backyard.

Like most dog shows, Westminster doesn't offer cash prizes. Top dogs may rack up annual expenses of hundreds of thousands of dollars as they compete in as many as 150 shows a year.

Uno, who turns three on May 5, has four owners paying his bills.

"Everyone does it for the love of the dogs and their own ego," said Beverly Wilson, a San Diego handler who brought three dogs to the event. "Best in show is like a Pulitzer Prize."

Spectators, who filled most of the seats in the lower levels of the Garden, included doggy devotees as well as the merely curious.

Columbia University senior Abby Broberg was sitting in the 12th row of the mezzanine with her friend David Spector.

"We saw the movie 'Best in Show' a couple of years ago," Broberg said early in the evening, referring to the Christopher Guest comedy.

"We're as interested in the people as the dogs," said Spector.

After just a few minutes observing the dogs running on the floor with their handlers and being gently manhandled by judges, they said they were engrossed. "It's strangely compelling," Spector said.

The annual Westminster show calls itself the second-oldest continually run sporting event in the US, one year younger than horse racing's Kentucky Derby.

At the Westminster club's first annual show in 1877 in the Hippodrome at Gilmore's Garden, 1,201 dogs were entered, according to the club's Web site. This year there were about 2,600 entries divided among 157 breeds.

Uno already has won 32 best in show titles and finished 2007 as the sixth-ranked show dog in the nation. He retreated to the safety of his crate after winning best of breed, complete with his favourite stuffed frog toy and a fluffy pillow sporting a Hollywood star.

Judge Ralph Lemcke picked Uno over 25 others in the hound group, praising his "soft expression" and the neat "brush on his tail."

In December, Uno won the hound group at the big AKC/Eukanuba show in Long Beach, Calif. The winner of that event, a Sealyham called Charmin, won the terrier group.

Charmin is "squeezably, wonderfully soft," co-owner and handler Margery Good said. He has a dark gray patch over his left eye and a tremendous pedigree — his brother is the top-winning dog in Canada. A standard poodle with white pompoms on his feet and tail won the nonsporting group for the second straight year. Merci was a clear pick for judge Michael Manning.

"Beautiful is beautiful," he said. "His personality went on for miles."

Deuce, a four-year-old Australian shepherd, won the herding group. She took a year off to have nine puppies and returned to the show ring last month.

Judge Stanley Saltzman said Deuce never missed a step, complimenting how she had "a lot of reach and drive in her stride."How will Wilkerson reward Uno for bringing overdue glory to beagles?

"Right now, he can have anything he wants," he said.