The Westminster Dog Show is where purebreds are shampooed, trimmed and blown dry, where they're hand-fed steak, dressed in bowties and followed around endlessly, but Maverick is an exception. He was found on Craigslist.

"He was a rescue that was abused and neglected and in terrible shape," Maverick's owner, Dan Stallings, told ABC News.

Five months after rescuing Maverick, Stallings started entering him in shows, and Maverick started winning, making it to the biggest stage of all.

(WATCH the video on YouTube — or read the story from ABC)