Dog Shows in the Age of Dog Show Ridicule

I sometimes read something on a handheld device, send it to email, and forget it's there. Trolling through some old files while looking for something else, I came across this old gem from 2009: Bitch Please;  Dog shows in the age of dog show ridicule.

If you're looking to mock, a dog show is an easy target. You could note how many of these people pursuing perfection in dogs are themselves fairly overweight, and eat too many funnel cakes, and dress in a way that would kill any chance of a social life were they actually in high school. Spending time at the dog show, however, the group came less to resemble some kind of wacky subculture, and more just the culture. A common trait of Americans — blue and red, gay and straight, X and Y, whatever — is that they largely want to be good at something, to be recognized for doing at least one thing well, and maybe that's at the expense of everything else. Poetry writing, bass fishing, cooking, competitive eating, you name it. So you spend months or even years in triathlon training. You juggle Family Feud and reality TV and dog show gigs. You learn about breeds and how to groom and how to rub your dog in just the right family unfriendly way to make its tail stand straight up for judging.

I think this piece has it exactly right: these are just people with limited talents trying to get good at something. And yes, in order to get good at this something, they are willing to give up quite a lot -- money, time, time with family... and even the health of dogs.

This is the dark little secret of dog shows: they are not about dogs. A dog will not cross a room for a rosette, much less drive 300 miles across two states and spend two nights in a bad hotel for the privilege.
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