With more than 2,000 canine candidates for blue ribbons to be judged, the annual bench show of the Westminster Kennel Club will begin in Madison Square Garden this morning at 9 o'clock and continue until Friday. The show this year will be the largest and most important, both in point of numbers and general excellence of the dogs exhibited, that has ever been held in this country.

From early yesterday morning until long after midnight the receiving clerk was kept busy, and at that hour there remained a score of exhibits yet to be heard from. James Mortimer, the Secretary of the club, said that the cause of the delay was the recent snowstorm and that the shippers who sent dogs from the West had all reported delays along the route.

An important feature of the show in past years has been the many fine animals that have been sent over from Europe to compete. The classes in which the chief importations have been noticed this year are bulldogs and bull terriers. Frank H. Croker and Richard Croker, Jr., are the owners of the kennel, and their dogs are fine specimens. They will, however, be put in classes against the champions of last season, as well as a lot of splendid youngsters that have been bred in this country.

The largest single exhibit comes from the Swiss Mountain Kennels of Philadelphia, and includes thirty-two entries. Among them are field spaniels, cocker spaniels, Skye terriers, Pomeranians, Blenheim spaniels and ruby spaniels. The sporting spaniel classes have the largest number of contestants, and the judges must inspect 201 of them before the ribbons are awarded.

Among the best-known exhibitors this year are Frank J. Gould, with St. Bernards; John L. Arden and Guy Standing, with bull terriers; W. Gould Brokaw, with pointers: T. D. N. [sic] Cardeza of Philadelphia, with Great Danes; J. Pierpont Morgan, with collies; W. G. Rockefeller and J. L. Kernochan, with beagles; Miss Amy C. Gillig, with French bulldogs, and L. & W. Rutherford, with fox terriers.