War on Terror? Who Cares?:Terrier Wins Best in Show at Westminster

[subgenius]

While all you people were distracted by certain "important" events abroad, truly significant historical events occurred right here at home:

Terrier Wins Best in Show at Westminster
Call it revenge or retribution or whatever. The dog most insiders thought would win America's most important show last year has finally won it, a year late.


The dog is Ch. Torums Scarf Michael, the 6 1/2-year English-bred Kerry blue terrier known as Mick. The show is the Westminster Kennel Club's two-day extravaganza at Madison Square Garden.
...
The best-in-show judge, Irene Bivin of Fort Worth, needed only 17 minutes to make her choice. Early in the judging, she instructed Mick's handler, Bill McFadden of Acampo, Calif., to "let him stand." McFaddden relaxed his grip on the leash. The dog stopped in place, with his head high and front legs straight down. His hind legs were angled back, as if frozen in concrete.

Later, Bivin again requested a loose leash to see how the dog would react. It was another case of freeze frame. Mick plainly meant business, and the crowd of 15,000 showed its appreciation and maybe awe.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/12/sports/othersports/12DOGS.html
Now that is high drama! This was in the sports section!!??
Here's the little cutie:

[subgenius]

And the runner-up:

[KillerBob]

I liked Dallas the German Shepherd better. And he was just as good, if not better at striking a pose.

They were all beautiful dogs, though. I wouldn't have wanted to have to choose.

[Ian Osborne]

The winner resembles a sculpture made of lavatory brushes and the runner-up looks table-ready. Who decides what makes a 'perfect' dog anyway?

[Tmy]

If that's the best in show then its official..........the terreirists have won!!!

[subgenius]

Originally posted by Tmy
If that's the best in show then its official..........the terreirists have won!!!
:D

[Ian Osborne]

Originally posted by Tmy
If that's the best in show then its official..........the terreirists have won!!!

No wonder America's going to the dogs! :D

[subgenius]

Originally posted by Ian Osborne
The winner resembles a sculpture made of lavatory brushes and the runner-up looks table-ready. Who decides what makes a 'perfect' dog anyway?
Of course the "runner-up" is just my idea of a sick joke.

[subgenius]

Originally posted by Ian Osborne
Who decides what makes a 'perfect' dog anyway?
The Westminster Kennel Club, obviously.;)

[subgenius]

Originally posted by Ian Osborne
The winner resembles a sculpture made of lavatory brushes and the runner-up looks table-ready. Who decides what makes a 'perfect' dog anyway?


"Knowing very little about the process here, I was surprised to learn that dogs are judged according to Platonic standards, derived from a book of breeds; they are not compared to one another or evaluated by subjective criteria of beauty. A sage—one for each breed—is designated master of the form. He or she inspects each entrant for its resemblance to the drafted ideal. Finally, a super-sage (this year it was Mrs. Irene Bivin of Fort Worth, Texas), selects the Best in Show. This whole "sporting event," as it's deemed, is the second-oldest such spectacle in the United States (the first is the Kentucky Derby). Dating from 1877, the Westminster Kennel Club makes little effort to distance itself from tendentious ideology about the perfectibility of man and beast. But why get dour?
......
As the bred and brushed dogs—who looked more like Lucasfilm productions than mammals—made their grim rounds, my mind drifted to Stephen Budiansky's incendiary thesis that dogs are always pretending; that they don't love us at all. As wolves exploiting an ecological niche, they just know very, very well how to fake it. ("Dogs belong to that select group of con artists at the very top of the profession, the ones who pick our pockets clean and leave us smiling about it," he wrote in the July 1999 Atlantic Monthly. "Dogs take from the rich, they take from the poor, and they keep it all.")
http://slate.msn.com/id/2078514/

[Voob]

Was Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog (http://www.insultcomicdog.com/) there again?

[subgenius]

Originally posted by Voob
Was Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog (http://www.insultcomicdog.com/) there again?
I saw him there on Conan one year humping the contestants with their owners looking on in horror. Nearly fell off the couch laughing.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Damn, it was a male dog who one. :(

There goes my chance to say "Damn, that's one fine looking bitch", and not get in trouble for it.

[subgenius]

Feb. 13 — A key piece of the information leading to recent terror alerts was fabricated, according to two senior law enforcement officials in Washington and New York.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/US/terror030213_falsealarm.html
Sure glad I went to the Dog Show.:p

[pgwenthold]

Originally posted by subgenius



"Knowing very little about the process here, I was surprised to learn that dogs are judged according to Platonic standards, derived from a book of breeds; they are not compared to one another or evaluated by subjective criteria of beauty.

It's not clear that this is actually done, though. Look back over the history of the the Westminster. How often has the English Bulldog, not one of the "pretty" dogs, ever won it's group? How often has a poodle won?

I quit watching Westminster this year after the standard friggin poodle won the non-sporting group, AGAIN.

Something is wrong there. If it was really platonic standards, then we should expect a more or less random distribution of winners. But the poodles tend to win, groups and even best of show, far more often than they should. Tells me one of a few things:

1) They are not being judged objectively against the standards of their breed
2) The breed standards are unfair; either the standards for the poodle are too easy, or those for the others are too hard to meet.
3) Something I think could be a problem is that the method of judge selection perpetuates the thing. Judges are selected from previous winners, which were more stylistic, so they are best qualified to handle the stylistic aspects. How many judges have a lot of experience judging bulldogs or boston terriers (my favorites)?

I think the AKC needs to look into this to level the playing field.

By all accounts, the Kerry Blue should have won last year already. In the end, the "perfect" dog can win out, but not without some major politicking.