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.)

sad-eyed irish wolfhound


flop-bodied mopdog


petulant paris hilton dog


sheep-looking — but not exactly sheepish — bedlington terrier


steely- and heterochromatic-eyed glarehound


tongue-lolling st. bernard


the best thing ever: a great dane in a playpen


life-contemplating french ennui spaniel


the great caledonian fluff-face dog


emotionally needy weimaraner


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.

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.