Pages

Monday, January 5, 2009

The Lost City of Caninopolis

Though this post will not illustrate this fact, I’ve learned that dog shows make for good people watching in addition to good dog watching. For whatever reason, weirdos seems to abound in greater numbers than they do at horse events or car events, these two being the other sort of show-and-tell powwows that I’ve attended. They weren’t all weirdos, of course. There were just more of them to see than if you had you gone to the liquidation sale on the other events center. Why should dog enthusiasts drive the weirdometer to excessive beeping and flashing? I don’t know and won’t attempt an answer here. But really — these people must have seen Best in Show, right? I mean, could there be a movie that they’d want to watch more? Shouldn’t they want to stray a little from the dog show nut stereotype? It boggles the mind.

While you roll these questions around, do remember to enjoy the dogs. (And if you’re so inclined, the rest of the dog show photos are posted at my Flickr account.)

324 184
sad-eyed irish wolfhound

324 146
flop-bodied mopdog

324 055
petulant paris hilton dog

324 051
sheep-looking — but not exactly sheepish — bedlington terrier

324 041
steely- and heterochromatic-eyed glarehound

324 040
tongue-lolling st. bernard

324 033
the best thing ever: a great dane in a playpen

324 027
life-contemplating french ennui spaniel

324 026
the great caledonian fluff-face dog

324 023
emotionally needy weimaraner

324 014
miniature ewok dog

The motivation for attending the show, by the way, was Patrick, the Irish Water Spaniel whom you might remember from the last dogorama blog post. He came, he showed, and he actually failed to conquer on the particular day these photos were taken. But he nonetheless enjoyed what I’m sure he thought was a post-competition victory lap on the lawn outside.

324 166

324 174

324 171

324 168

324 163

And please offer any theories about the dog show-weirdo correlation in the comment section below or — failing that — praise about the cuteness of the dogs.

3 comments:

  1. I like the "emotionally needy weimaraner" the best. It's like that dog from "Best in Show".

    ReplyDelete
  2. Agreed. And it just stood there, hugging its mom for a good ten minutes at least.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Better than "a great dane in a playpen" is "a great dane with antlers in a playpen." At least that's how it looks.

    Just a guess--dog show folk (like carny folk?) are all weird as deep down they realize they are totally inconsequential. It's all about the dog; it's not like they're jockeys or something. And a dog, however close to its standard, however spirited, can do anything.

    So, know you have a big performance coming up. Know there's nothing you can do to make it better or worse.

    Now you're dog show folk.

    ReplyDelete