NEW YORK — Sleek and aerodynamic, Whiskey the whippet is dashing through the dog show world.

He’s among the fastest breed of pooches on the planet, and his rise has been rapid: Coming off big wins televised on Thanksgiving Day and New Year’s Day, he’ll now try for dogdom’s Triple Crown starting Monday at the Westminster Kennel Club.

“He does his best at these high-profile rings,” owner-breeder-handler Justin Smithey said. “He knows how to turn it off, lay down and wait till it’s his turn. And then he just goes.”

There are more than 2,800 entries this year, including popular Biggie the pug, a Lhasa apso from Hawaii who surfs with his owner and the nation’s No. 1-ranked qualifier last year, Grant the black cocker spaniel.

They come in 203 breeds and varieties, with the grand basset griffon Vendeen and the Nederlandse kooikerhondje ready to make their debuts on the green carpet of Madison Square Garden.

Similar to greyhounds but smaller, whippets have tremendous acceleration and can sprint at 35 mph and up.

Whiskey has already won the National Dog Show and the prized American Kennel Club National Competition. Only Sadie the Scottish terrier in 2010 and Sky the wire fox terrier in 2014 have taken those two and Westminster.

Smithey, from Sugar Valley, Georgia, wants his 3-year-old with a champion’s name of Pinnacle Tennessee Whiskey to become the second whippet to win best in show here. In 1964, Courtenay Fleetfoot of Pennyworth triumphed.

“There are 30 other whippets that would like to do the same thing,” he said.

Among them is Whiskey’s littermate, sister Bourbon. Last year at Westminster, Whiskey won best of breed and finished fourth in the hound group; Bourbon also was honored.

“They are big buds,” Smithey said.