Jinny Lu already knew what it was like to lose. She tried three times and three times went home without a crown, until on August 14, 2026, in Santa Rosa, California, someone finally looked at that endless tongue and those crooked ears and said: this is the winner.
She is 6 years old; Michelle Grady rescued her four years ago through a pug shelter, and her great talent—according to her own official biography—is sneaking onto kitchen chairs and sticking her tongue into other people’s food plates without anyone seeing her. With such unconvincing credentials, she took home the $5,000 first prize and beat Pinky, an albino chihuahua, and Otto, who had to settle for second and third place.
The contest marked 50 years of rewarding exactly this: dogs no one would choose for a profile picture, but that someone decided to love anyway. Jinny Lu will now be the face of a can of MUG Root Beer, so the next time you buy a soda, that tongue that made her famous might smile at you.
