Two Dog Crew: Best In Show Part 1

This weekend I went to a dog show. For those of you who are unfamiliar with these events, the highlight of a show is the conformation ring, where only one out of one thousand seven hundred dogs is selected for Best in Show. But of course, my favorite events are obedience, followed by agility, which I will show you in a separate post.

When you walk into a show venue, this is what you see... Rings sectioned off by two-foot fences.

And crates. Hundreds and hundreds of crates. It's the safest place for a dog to be, what with all the thousands of other dogs in attendance. One dog is bound to get the stink-eye from another one, and BAM! you have yourself a dog fight. Also, it's a safe place to leave your dog while you go do whatever it is that humans do preferably without their four-legged companion in tow. Like, going to the bathroom.

For all intents and purposes, in conformation a dog is selected by how well his/her physical structure conforms with the American Kennel Club standards. I don't know much about this, so visit the American Kennel Club for details. Preacher, for instance, is a near perfect representation of the Doberman Pinscher.

That's my Preacher Man!

Handlers (the people who show the dogs in the ring) will fuss, and fuss, and fuss just to get the dog to stack up just right, so that the judge can do her/his thing. (Another separate post on judging.)