Jinny Lu, a 6-year-old pug from California, won the 2026 World’s Ugliest Dog Competition at the Sonoma County Fair in the contest’s 50th year of operation. The competition encourages dog adoptions by highlighting “the imperfections that make all dogs special.”
By winning the contest, Jinny Lu’s owner earned $5,000, a trophy and a trip to New York for a live appearance on Today. The pup will also appear on limited-edition cans of Mug Root Beer.
According to her owner, Michelle Grady from Ukiah, California, Jinny Lu was adopted through Pug Rescue four years ago. Her biography also revealed that Jinny Lu was “found in a wooden box in freezing weather in the mountains of South Korea.”
“She absolutely loves competition, meeting everyone, and everything the event stands for,” said Grady in a statement.
“Jinny Lu has been going into elementary schools with some of her other rescue pug friends to teach kids about the importance of adopting pets. She has also brought joy to hospice patients and people in memory care facilities,” Mug Root Beer, the official sponsor of the event, stated in a press release.
During their appearance on Today, Grady said, “A lot of the time, she’s looking for things to get into. She loves purses. She loves mirrors.”
Jinny Lu was the runner-up in 2025
This year’s contest was the fourth time the pug had entered the World’s Ugliest Dog contest. NBC’s Gadi Schwartz, who served as a judge at the competition, said Jinny Lu got her vote this year because of her tongue as well as the “intricacies of Jinny Lu’s face.”
“You see, this eye is much larger than this eye,” Schwartz pointed out.
The runner-up this year was Pinky, a rosy-nosed albino Pomeranian Chihuahua mix, who won $3,000 and a trophy. While Otto, a Chihuahua mix with a cleft palate, took third place and received a plaque and $2,000. The champion in 2025 was a hairless English-French bulldog cross from Eugene, Oregon named Petunia.