Update: Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show goes to a German Shorthaired Pointer named Carly Carlee. The dog’s handler (Michelle Ostermiller) had Best in Show last year as well, with a different dog, a pretty amazing feat in itself.
I thought about liveblogging the Westminster Kennel Club’s Dog Show but decided I had neither six hours to spare nor the knowledge to bring anything new to what the excellent commentator has to say.
But I have to weigh in here, because the Herding Group is now competing so select its representative for Best in Show.
The Herding Group is my favorite. I love dogs who love their jobs. We humans can learn some lessons in terms of finding pleasure in simple tasks done well and with enthusiasm. The herd dogs have all been bred to work, but more than that, to love their work, and to love pleasing their masters. As a rule, they’re tough, wiry, smart and can run all day.
They’re bored by inactivity; if you want to own a herding dog, you owe it to him or her to make a commitment to let it work every day.
One of my favorite breeds in this category is the Australian Cattle Dog (which, unfortunately, didn’t win Best of Group tonight; the Border Collie was the winner). You gotta like a dog whose roots can be traced directly back to the Australian Dingo. There’s a fascinating history of the breed on the ADC owners website. The breed is relatively new, compared to others which are literally thousands of years old, and thus its history is well documented. It’s an interesting look at the trial-and-error process of breeding a dog to do a very specific job, in this case the herding of cattle in the often brutal Australian outback. A bit of trivia: an Australian Cattle Dog appeared with Mel Gibson in Mad Max.
You can watch the Best of Breed judging for the Australian Cattle Dog via prerecorded video from the WKC’s website The winner is the one with the striped raccoon-looking tail, in case you can’t stick around for the whole thing.
Note: In case you’re wondering, Abbye couldn’t care less about the dog show. She thinks they exploit canines for no good reason.
*Post title is obligatory “Seinfeld” reference. But you knew that.
Obviously, by far, the great crowd favorite is the Golden Retreiver [Sporting Group] but the breed is so far ahead of the others in popularity that they are constantly discriminated against in the judging.
By the way Eric……there was a color picture of a cyclist on the front page of the MRT today. As I glanced at it, my first thought was……”well Eric’s publicist has done it again….press coverage”.
Wallace, I’m no longer consenting to single photos; it’s got to be a full section or nothing. I have my standards, you know.
The Golden was a awfully good looking dog, but I can’t argue with the ultimate champion. Even to my untrained eyes, when she struck that free pose in the finals, I knew it was all over but the, um, whining.
It’s a pity the WKC doesn’t have a general “Cutest In Show”.
Abbye would take the prize. She’s as cute as a button.
Any ideas why the lady in the pink dress has to hold “Carlee’s” tail up like that?
Any ideas why the lady in the pink dress has to hold “Carlee’s” tail up like that?
Pure showmanship. The handler’s job is to make the dog look as “attractive” (meaning, actually, “standards-compliant”) as possible, and to either draw the judge’s eye to the dog’s strong points or away from its weaker ones. This is appropriate behavior (up to a point) during most of the judging. However, at the end of each round, the dog is asked to “pose” on its own, with no touching allowed by the handler. That’s the point at which the dog stands or falls on its own merits. That’s the “free pose” I mentioned in the preceding comment…where Carlee did the equivalent of busting a move that wowed both the crowd and the judge, and — in my opinion — clinched Best in Show.