Exhibits, Shows and Displays

How do you feel about conformation dog shows?

Conformation dog shows like Westminister are very popular, but some people have compaired them to a beauty pageant for dogs and it is all based on who is on the end of the leash. I am asking this question to get the opinions of non-dog show people. The spectators and there feelings on Conformation dog shows.

Public Comments

1. uh i think you may have asked this quiestion too times because i just answered your other on so i think you should stop waisting you points like yay
2. I participate in herding and obedience trials with my dogs but I don't show and have no real desire to. That said, I think conformation serves a useful purpose but is taken one step too far. The competition for Best of Breed is a useful thing. I think it is a good idea to preserve the many distinct breeds of dogs (no, I don't think they're any better, smarter, etc. than mutts) and competition for Best of Breed serves to help encourage those interested in a particular breed to continue to perpetuate and refine the breed or breeds in which they have an interest. I do think that Best of Breed should be more all-encompassing. At present, the qualities that are judged are primarily the appearance and body structure of the dog, with maybe a little bit of the breed's attitude figuring in. Judging should also have a way to include methods to evaluate the temperament, instincts and intellect of the dog against the breed standard. There's no way, for instance, that a Border Collie should ever win Best of Breed if it doesn't know sheep from shinola! So it's an imperfect process, but a valuable one as far as it goes. The final Best of Show competiton, however, is the step too far. It is the very literal equivalent of comparing apples and oranges. By what measure do you determine that a chihuahua is a better chihuahua than a great dane is a great dane? I'm afraid that final step is all vanity and is a result of nothing more than our very human penchant for competition. The thing is, we'd never let it happen in, say, the Olympics. We wouldn't take all of the athletes after the events have been run and won and call one of them the Best Athlete, because we know that you simply can't judge a runner against a swimmer against a shot putter. So it should be with dogs. I'm not privy to the inner circle of conformation judging, so I don't know how much of the claim that it's not really about the dog but about the owner/breeder/handler is true. But I doubt that there's too much of that going on. The people deeply involved in this really are serious about the preservation and refinement of specific breeds and I think that any favoritism, which would obviously be detrimental to those goals, would not be tolerated well and would be quickly weeded out. Most of those claims undoubtedly arise from sour grapes of also-rans. Not saying it isn't possible, but highly doubting it's rampant. My wife and I enjoy watching the conformation shows, because it really is a delight to see such excellent examples of each and every breed trotting around. We do sigh a bit at the realization that the stunning looking golden retriever we're watching may well be dumb as a box of rocks. But we don't pay much attention to the final judging, other than to always hope that some godawful breed du jour doesn't win the Best in Show. Unfortunately, too often the currently popular breeds do win - not because it's a popularity contest, but simply because when you have, say 900 poodles entered because there are so many in the first place and 85 Canaan dogs because they're not a popular breed and so there are far fewer of them, chances are you're gonna find a more spectacular example of poodle than you are of Canaan dog. Stop the competiton at Best of Breed and add evaluations of temperament and competence and I'd be happy.