Stuff You Should KnowYou know those shows where people wearing sensible shoes jog dogs around in circles? They actually represent the pinnacle of a long and complex path to glory for dogs and their owners. Join Chuck and Josh as they peek inside the American dog show in this classic episode.
Hey, everybody, it's Josham. For this week's select, I've chosen our twenty twelve episode on dog shows. You know, I've always wondered what the deal is with dog shows? How do you compare a poodle to a Pekinese to a Parfa Geffen? I made that last one up regardless, it turns out there's a whole fascinating world going on beneath the surface of dog shows. And if you just sit back and enjoy this app, you'll learn all about it. Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always as Charles W Chuck Bryant. And that makes this stuff you should know.
The podcast indeed about dogs my favorite topic.
Yeah, that's one of them.
What else I don't know?
Dogs?
I'm one of those people that like dogs.
More than many humans.
Sure, so, as you know, and so you know, although dog shows I'm not real big on.
I love watching dog shows, yeah, I just I've never gotten into them. I know there's criticism, there's controversy, but.
I don't care about that. I just I'm kind of bored watching them.
I never get bored. It's almost like watching a fractal screensaver or something. It sucks me into that level of like just zoned altitude?
Is it point? Is it appointment television for you? Like? Do you make a point every February something?
I think? I think last year it was Valentine's Day?
Yeah, okay, it's early February.
Yeah. Last year when a little Pekinese one in Malachy, I think I remember seeing that dog. Look at that dog. It's faces mushed, but beyond cute. Look at that hair. So apparently, if you want to blow up the Twitter verse with angry tweets, you can talk politics, you can talk religion, or you can hold the Westminster Dog Show and selective best in show. People get pretty upset. Man, people went crazy last year.
So like, what like you commenting or just in the Twitter universe?
People on Twitter? Okay, yeah, no, I'm just a fan. I don't I don't don't tweeted during the show. No, no, no no. I live tweet very infrequently. It's it's tough on the thumbs, sure, but so Malichi, this little cute four year old Pekinese won Best in Show and people were really mad. They called it a mop cousin it Heraldo Rivera's mustache a wookie snooky for some reason, maybe just because it rhymes with wookie, and that's what they were going for. And they had just been watching Jersey Shore. Who knows that's silly, but Malichy is no slouch. It had won one hundred and fourteen Best in Show awards. Wow, only four years old, so this thing's been mopping up the competition. Yeah. Oh man, it just made myself shiver. Yeah, but people were crazy. They One guy said he was a fan of the Dalmatian. He said, I'm done with these dog shows, and I think that happens every year.
We can untill the next dog show exactly.
Yeah, there's a lot of people who feel very passionately about dog shows. There's plenty of people like me who love to just zone out and watch them. Sure, and then you know there's people who just don't know anything about them. And that's what we're here for today, to explain everything there is to know about how dog shows work.
That's right, and this will either be really interesting to you or you may just zone out like Josh does watching the Westminster Show.
You know, though, I don't think we've ever released an uninteresting episode. Maybe they have uninteresting titles. But you go on and you listen to it, it will interest you. I defy you right now. Stuff. You should know listeners who haven't listened to every single episode, so we'll call you the twenty eight percent. Yeah, to go out and find an episode that sounds boring in the title that you've not heard and listened to it, and I guarantee you you will find it interesting. It's the it's just that thing.
Yeah, one comes to mind. College football rankings interesting to me, but boy, our listeners are not into college football.
But was it for the most part boring? Was it really not interesting? There's nothing interesting in there.
I think if you're not into sports at all, then it was probably really boring.
Gotcha? But all right, well we'll avoid that one. Yeah, where the guaranteed is void.
But hey, if you're into sports, you'll love it.
No. I think on the other end, if you were into sports, it was like, well, you guys mess this up or you forgot this.
Yeah.
Wow. Oh and hey, by the way, congratulations we are now an award winning podcast. We got a stitchy is that what they're called.
That's what I made up.
Mark Marin had to call our names. He hosted these Stitchy Awards last night. Oh really Yeah, he won one himself for Best Episode.
Yeah, we nominated for that too, for we were one that I didn't think.
Was like an accidental intervention.
I mean that was okay, but I would have picked a different best Episode.
I think it was the sacrament bit that really led us into that. Yeah, sure on the toast. Yeah okay, So anyway, dog.
Shows, Yeah, conformation shows, not firmation confo r are what we're going to talk about for most of the show, and that is pure bread dogs competing against other purebread dogs, almost exclusively based on physical attributes.
Yeah, that's the Westminster Dog show that you see every year at Madison Square Garden. Yes, it's just yeah, what the dog looks like and basically its appearance, its body structure, and then to a lesser extent.
It's dude.
Yeah, it's attitude. It's a character.
Because that also what they're trying to do here. If you've ever watched a part of this and I love that this Uh who wrote this one? Jane McGrath, oh old Jane, I remember her. She wrote that, have you ever been channel surfing and come across one. I feel like a lot of people that is their entrance into the dog show world is they're flipping it around in February and they go, oh, yeah, that thing right where the Christopher Guest movie, Yeah mocked. I'll watch a few minutes of that, and I've done that, and I've always been like, I don't get it. How are they judging these other dogs against each other?
It's a very good question, and we're here to tell you how. Yeah, because you know, you this little Pekinese went up against things like Great Danes and Dalmatians and Doberman's and all that, and it still beat them all. And the way it did that is how they judge any kind of confirmation show. They judge the dog by the standards of its breed, and then the dog that most closely fits those idealized standards.
Yeah, whens these very specific register I'm gonna say registered standards.
Yeah. So let me give you an example. I was looking this up. There's a and the AKC has developed these standards from information taken from breeders. That's right, And they, for example, the Lakeland Terrier, one of the standards is its attitude, right, and it has the Lakeland terrier has quote a bold, gay and friendly with a confident cock of the walk attitude. So this is the kind of thing that the AKC sits around us. Yeah, basically.
I love that. In England they have different standards as the American Kennel Club and they have a different show called cruft C C R U F T S and theirs is a little bit different, but we'll get to that later.
Yeah, we'll talk about that in a little bit. For the most part, we're focused on Westminster and the AKC. So in addition to attitude, yeah, character traits, there's all those physical traits that the AKC has made tin on each breed. So for example, balance and not how well the dog stands up, although the gate is important. Yeah, if you talk like falls over, that's probably a bad sign. But yeah, it's yeah, it's not gonna win this year. Balance is what we would call symmetry for humans. It's you know, the overall proportions of its shape and size.
Yeah, like that Scottish terrier is really pretty except boy, look at those ears.
At the size of its butt.
Yeah, you're out, sorry, Scottie weight size, eyes and again eyes is size and shape and color. Yep, if you got that one wonky eye, forget about.
It unless you're an Australian shepherd.
Yeah, there are they supposed to have one.
I think they're supposed to have a blue and a brown and blue and a brown. Everyone I've seen has.
Yeah, but what does the AKC say.
I don't know. They don't care what sloves like you and I think the head shape.
Of course, ears, muzzle, whiskers.
Thickness of whiskers is oh really yeah, I would think they'd be an indicator of poor health.
What they had bad whiskers, thin whiskers.
Riddle whiskers. I think you you want nice stout whiskers like uh, the centimeter thick each. Okay, that's probably the standard for any breed. This is the JKAC.
Yeah, teeth. You always see them checking out the teeth. You don't want any kind of weird scissor bite or I guess certain breeds have the underbyite.
Yeah, a lot of them do. The breaker, ye old Cardie. Yeah.
Our own Jerry's dog, Charlie, I recently learned, has a bit of a little underbite and sometimes the lip will get hung and the little bottom teeth are just kind of jutted out there.
It's very cute.
It's very cute. You want to go over and like adjust the lip, so here you go.
Yeah. Most I like dogs that have like teeth sticking like cheeseus. Yeah, boxers too, right, Boxers, Pugs, Pekinese.
Oh did that one?
Yeah, they all have that. It's it's like brechial cardie. It's like anything with a smushed face usually has an underbite as well.
Okay, teeth, all right, we just said teeth, tail, I mean shoulders.
And these these dudes are feeling.
These judges are feeling these dogs as well, like muscle and bone, like they're trying to get under the fur. Yeah, to judge these things.
So one of the big things your dog has to learn very early on is to let strangers feel them up. Yeah, in all sorts of uncomfortable places.
Yeah, you don't want your dog snapping at this guy when he fondles your dog.
And if your dog snaps at the judge and then falls over, just go home.
It's all over. What they say invest In show. When the dog broke his gate, the one guy, so he might as well just take in a dump right there.
On the floor. Yeah, Michael McKean said that he's awesome. And then of course there's coat length and texture and color, and very much like thoroughbred horses, there's accepted colors for each breed. Yeah. You got a dog that's blue and it's supposed to be a golden retriever, you got problems.
Yeah, if you got a blue Retriever, you have many problems.
Although you could probably make some money taking it around the country taking an old timey circus.
Where you can't make money is by winning the Westminster Dog Show.
Yeah, that's a good point.
You would think that these these things offer like big cash prizes, but they don't. It is really about prestige and being one of those dog show people, like you know, wearing that ribbon and getting that trophy.
Sure, wearing sensible shoes and you know, learning to walk very fast.
That's rightly because your gate matters is a human right, you know.
So you put all this together right, and these judges know the standards for the breeds, and when they're looking at this these dogs, they're saying they're matching it up to their mental catalog they have. And then the ones that most closely matched the idealized version of the breed, like we said, wins boom, and that's how you get the little you know, loss of apso or the Pekinese that can beat out like a Great Dane or a German Shepherd or something like that. That's how they compare them.
Yeah, and that's only been going on since I say, only since nineteen oh seven. Previous to that, and this has been going on at Madison Square Garden and in New York City since eighteen seventy seven.
Yeah, they did all the time, big time.
They didn't have a best in Show at all until nineteen oh seven because they said, you know, how do we codify this right? And they did.
They figured it out.
And it's really Jane says, it sounds confusing, but once I spell it out, it's simple. But it's still a little confusing.
Yeah, it took me a couple of times to figure this out. There's just a lot of steps. She does a great job of explaining, and it's just there's a lot to it. So you want to explain this of the Westminster Dog Show, we should say is the pinnacle, the peak in the United States for any dog. But there's a long road ahead of it. Like we said, Alaki the winner of twenty twelve show had one hundred and fourteen best in shows under its belt.
Yeah, and Jane called it the super Bowl. I would say it's more like an All Star Game if the All Star Game counted for something very picky, you know, because it's all these all stars from the different breeds from all these shows, right making this final.
It's like the Little League World Series for dog.
Great, It's like the Chess. It's like Bobby what's his face Fisher? Fisher almost said, Bobby Riggs. Man, you guys like tennis.
Story who Bobby Riggs? Bobby Fisher?
Oh yeah, sad.
Did you ever see Searching for Bobby Fisher? It did. It was great movie. Here's Back. And then you know, of course that song One Night in Bangkok. Yeah, it's from a Broadway show and I can't remember what the Broadway show is, but it was based on Bobby Fisher in his life and how he moved to asing just evolved into madness. That song is about Bobby.
Fisher, and that was from a Broadway show as far as I know. Yes, And then the pop version was just re recorded by whoever that was.
Possibly by the original composers. But for the radio.
I thought one night in Bangkok was about you would think never mind, I was gonna bring up all you had to do was just in there. Yeah, it was a Gary glitter, That's what I was thinking.
Yeah, I don't think so. I think he got in trouble in Bangkok, if you know what I mean. He did, and he recently got in trouble with the whole Jimmy Seville. Oh yeah, he was part of that too, apparently, So gross man, what a sidetrack that was? So okay? To be a champion, right, this is what a dog gaime's for is to be a champion. That's right, Because if you're a champion, you get to add as a prefix to your name.
Yeah, like I would be then Chuck if I were a champion.
Dog, Yeah, you'd be Chi Chuck Cha Chuck.
All right, So let's walk everyone through this, right, yeah, all right. To be a champion, you got to get compile a certain number of points and you earn these points at different dog show competitions around the country that are not the Westminster Show.
Yeah, and from different judges.
Right, you got to get at least fifteen points from three different judges or at least two major wins from separate judges, and a major win is one where you can earn three, four or five points, and that's when you can get the.
Right as a.
Champion just for that little show though, right, or no, for the compilation of those shows.
Yeah, yeah, right, So.
When you get this, when you get to become a champion, and when you have I think it's fifteen points and two major wins from separate judges. Yes, you're right, you get to this point. Also, like you said, it's not Westminster, it's these little specialty shows. Sure, and I don't mean little to diminished, And I'm just saying compared to Westminster, they're much smaller. It's not on ESPN and there's specialty shows. Well, it's on the O Show. I'll bet these specialty shows are based on specific breeds, so you'll go to like the Chuaua Show or the Lakeland Terrier show. Right, and the dogs are separated between male and female. And we can say the B word in this one because it's what it's called.
That's my new band name, by the way, What Winter's bitch?
Okay, And the males and the females are then separated into six different classes. Yes, you've got the puppy class, the twelve to eighteen month old class novice. So those are dogs that are six months or older that haven't won any points yet, haven't won any first place prizes.
Yeah, so they can be a little older, but they're still rookies as far as the competition stage goes.
Right, and six months is the minimum age to compete in an AKC show. Yeah, below that, you're just there's no way. Yeah, they're too dumb, too unpredictable. Bread by exhibitor is a class of dogs where the person showing the dog is also the breeder. Yeah, and the breeder, by the way, is the owner of the dog's mother.
Right.
There's American bread, which is any dog born in the US, sure, USA, And then there's open. The open class is open to any dog, and this is the only class that any dog that's already become a champion can compete in. In the specialty show, oh they are Yeah, that's the only class open to the Oh okay, because they could just mop up all the other classes, they have to face any takers, Okay, in the open class.
That's a good way to put it. Yeah, So they divide it up by male and female. The males go first, and they, you know, inspect all the males as they do at any of the shows.
You know what that means, fondling. Yeah.
You give them the award ribbons first through fourth place, and you don't get any points at this point, though, the first place winners of the male class have to compete for the Winner's dog. The female's class compete for winner's bitch. You want to say it, I've said it twice now.
I don't want to say it. I find it difficult to say. Oh really, it's just the connotations are sure.
You know I've never used that word in like anger about someone.
That's it's a it's a very rough it's a terrible word. Yeah, And I don't. I don't.
I don't think that makes me a good person or anything. But there's just a couple of things that like, I wouldn't call my worst enemy, and that's one of them.
Gotcha, I don't have any enemies.
So what am I talking about?
So you've got the winner's dog and the Winner's bitch. Yep, and uh, this is this is the point where they start winning awards, winning points points. I mean I'm sorry. So this is all these different dogs have been weeded out by the different classes, and then there there you've got the out of all these six classes of the male, male version and the female version, you have winners, right. And then there's so this is where the points start being awarded. Then there's chances for more points in the same show. Any champion can come along and take the winners on for best in Show or best in breed.
Yes, and you can, and you compile extra points depending on how many dogs they beat out. So if you beat out a bunch of more dogs, you can turn up to five points.
Right, five to the most. And remember a major win is three, four or five points in a win. Yes, okay, So you can win some by being the winner's dog or the winner's bitch. You can the champions can take those guys on in the best of breed yep. And then between those two the winners bitch and the winner winn's dog, there's another walk off I guess, yeah, and they can win points whoever be two? And then there's the best of opposite sex.
Yeah, that was the best of winners, right, and then the best of opposite sex, which it says the best dog of the opposite sex of the best of breed.
Yes, so whichever dog, whether it's the Winter's dog, the winner's bitch, or any champion that took him on and won. Yeah, the best of breed. Say that's a male that wins, right, and there's another category for the winners that's females or vice versa, the opposite best of opposite. Basically, it's like, we got all these points sitting around, let's let's get rid of some good point. Or or it's like, did you ever go to camp and like run a race but your rant terribly, but you still got a ribbon that just said participant. Oh yeah, maybe it's like that.
That's like every race I ever ran that same here.
Basically I had a trophy once that just it was a sad face really Yeah, there's a baseball bag just kind of sitting at the foot of the kid with his head hung down frowning.
Yeah. I played church sports, so we didn't. They didn't do a lot of trophies, even in church leagues. Like the ultimate victor of the churchley got a trophy, but they weren't big on like ribbons and trophies.
The ultimate victor of the Church League, I would imagine his salvation.
Yeah, we all won. Okay, so then you've got your best of Breed winner and then that dog can then advance to a group show where all these best of Breed winners compete aka or AKC Westminster.
Right, So to make that point, when you are at a specialty show and you're aiming for Westminster, which I imagine every dog there is. Oh sure, you want to win best of Breed. You can win points and become a champion through winning other stuff like best of Opposite Sex, best of winners, winterers, dog winners, bitch right, Yes, but to move on to the next level, you have to win best of Breed of that show, and you have to win a bunch. I imagine that's right.
And at this point, half of our listeners are delighted in half their eyes are rolling back into their head.
Man, we just explain the heck out of that. I agree. So we're at.
Best in Show.
Yeah, the movie. That's such a good movie. If you've not seen Best in Show, the Christopher Guest film, yeah, just go out and see it right now. Yeah, just stop. I think it's streaming right now.
I'm sure it is.
Yeah, it's really good.
It's hard to pick out a favorite part of that movie, but the scene that always pops up to me is when Parker Posey is trying to get a replacement was it.
A b.
Well, there's a little be stuffed animal. She can't find it, and the guy's trying to help her. He's like, well, this is yellow and black and it was like a parrot or something. I can't remember at all, But she's just like my hero.
Yeah, that's great, she's very good. All right.
So a little bit on the AKC. There are several hundred dog breeds in the world, but the AKC only recognizes a little over one fifty, that's it. And they separate those into groups.
And yeah, the AKC loves categorizing, breaking putting dogs into categories and breaking them down and then putting them in new categories. Yeah, and that's what they do here.
And the poor dogs just like, what can I have a treat?
Can I get a bacon strip?
Or what squirrel? Okay, Sporting dogs is one. Obviously, these are dogs that are good for hunting, pointers, retrievers, setters, and spaniels.
Yeah, those are good dogs, great.
Dogs, hounds, beagles, bloodhounds, Docksn's I like.
Hounds except for the baying, the howling.
Or the howl.
Oh my god.
Yeah a beagle of you never heard like a beagle?
No, never had a beagle or that much.
They are loud and insistent, really insistent. Super cute puppies though, possibly the cutest puppies of any breed I think. Yeah, those and uh, oh man, what's the one I'm thinking of? The little puff balls. It's a it's an Asian dog.
The little puff balls Maltese like is it a little dog?
Yeah in the end, yeah, but like the puppies are little puff balls and they stay, they stay huffballs like oh Pomeranian. Yes, yeah, those are pretty cute puppy. Yeah.
They don't even look real. It looks like the squeeze them. It should make a little noise.
Right they do, they do, Yeah, but you don't want to do that. Okay.
Working dogs, we're talking Great Danes, Rottweiler, Saint Bernard's dogs who are hardy and they even you know, are used as working dogs like search and rescue stuff.
Like that, right, and then there's terriers that chase rats. Did they maybe even fight cobra or two. Those are little Schnauzers Scottish Terriers also known as Scotti's Yeah bull terriers, which you would recognize the Spuds Mackenzie. Yeah, man, those things are weird looking.
My buddy Clay has got a giant Schnauzer.
They're big.
Well, this thing is like six months old and he's already as big as my biggest dog.
Yeah, he's like just wait all you see.
His name is Bro. He's like, what do you see? Bro? At the end of this he's going to be enormous.
How big is he expected to get? Wait?
Wise, I don't know, but really big. He's awesome, very very fun dog. Just like for a dog to be that young and that big, they don't have control of their limbs yet. So Bro would just go running downstairs and just like face plant and then get up and you know with the happiest expression behind his little eyes that you can see like that. There.
What else Toy dogs?
Yeah, Chihuahua's, poodles, pugs, and how you pronounce it? I always said, shits is it cheesuhesu chesu? Non sporting dogs. I guess these are the intellects. This is a catch all breed. When you don't have unifying characteristics, which is kind of sad.
The one unifying characteristic is these dogs don't play.
They don't play bulldogs, Dalmatians, and the American Eskimo dog, which I've never heard of.
Yeah, it's basically like, we don't know what to do with you, guys, so we're going to put you in the non sporting dog and.
Then two more herding dogs like Australian shepherds and miscellaneous.
So remember we said that the AKC likes to classify people dogs. Yeah, and there's more breeds than it recognizes. This is a group that they you can't win points, you can't win any major awards, I believe. But if there's a breed that's starting to get more attention, there's more people breeding it. Yeah. It's like a part of the process of becoming recognized. You you start out in the miscellaneous group.
So that's pre recognition almost.
Yeah. Jeez, hey man, these people are keeping track of like this dogs, cocksturedness. I mean, they're there. They pay attention to.
Details, all right, So the best of breeds in each of the group are gonna compete in the group show, and then if you win that group show, then you compete in the ultimate I think we skip that part, which is the All Breed Show, and that's the All Star Game, the.
Super Bowl, that's Westminster.
The chess match, the Bobby Riggs versus Billy Jean King.
That's when a judge goes through each of these groups and picks out the best.
Yep right, seven groups because the eighth can't win, right, And.
They basically go through and say you're number one, you're number two, you're number three, number four, and all of a sudden that number one is the best in the show.
And the controversy erupts.
Twitter goes crazy.
I'm gonna have to pay attention this year.
It's yeah, it's fun to watch. Yeah, I've never watched it where I was like tense, Oh sure, but you know I've been like, oh that's great, or oh really, that's that's nothing.
I'm sure you find yourself rooting for certain dogs though, Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, there's always a dog. There's always at least one if they where you're just like I like that dog.
Yeah. All right, let's talk about the criticism of dog shows.
Yeah, because there's definitely plenty. Yeah, there it's out there.
One of the problems that certain groups have is that when you're talking pure bred dogs, you're talking about breeding. And myself and many others are against dog breeding because there's plenty of dogs out there for the taking.
Yeah, but they they're mutts.
So breeders basically breed these dogs to acquire these or to at least hold onto these attributes. Yeah, and that means inbreeding sometimes, and that means shorter life spans and disease and defects, birth defects.
Yeah, like tell Masons tend to suffer from blindness and German shepherd suffer from hip dysplasia. Yeah, and these these traits have become associated with the breed, these standards of the breed that the AKC maintains. Yeah, and it's kind of like, well, yeah, but if you want to have a dog that meets all these other criteria, it's also going to get dysplasia when it's six. Yeah. It's just part of inbreeding. It's narrowing of the gene pool.
And I've definitely noticed, and this isn't one hundred percent, of course, but all the dogs and people I've known who had dogs throughout the years, I've noticed more purebred dogs dying younger. Yeah than the mutts.
Well, supposedly they have a weaker immune system. Like remember I don't remember what episode it was, but we were talking about that experiment that people scent people use sense to detect an immune system different from yours, because when you put together your immune system and somebody else's immune system to reproduction, the kids should have a doubly great immune system.
Man, that was a long one fame ago.
Remember that, Yeah, it was I don't remember what episode it was, the smell maybe maybe so.
Yeah, So remember a few minutes ago we were talking about the miscellaneous category can eventually earn you status as an officially recognized breed. The American Border Collie Association, the ABCA really didn't want their dog to become recognized by the AKAC because they thought that meant well, once it's an official breed, then that means breeding will become more intense and these dogs, you know, will suffer from all these things that we just told you about.
Yeah, they specifically petition with the AKCS and don't recognize, don't recognize us in the AKC said we're going to recognize.
I don't think it was maliciously, but They're like, this is what we do, and we're going to recognize this dog as a breed.
No, they were like, had you not asked, we wouldn't know, but you did so sorry. Uh.
And Peta is also filed an official objection against tail docking, which is when they amputate you know, the tails.
So you had the little nub, Yeah, it's not as tails ears.
Oh yeah, cropping shit.
Yeah. There's a lot of breeds that have these unnatural attributes that you have to perform surgery on to get. Yeah, which is counterintuitive because you're talking about the idealized version of a breed. Yeah, why would you have to take some sort of technological step to yeah, to reach that ideal version. Like if it doesn't happen naturally, it seems really awful.
Yeah it does to me too, But I mean I don't even declaw my cats.
So yeah, it's the way to go, That's the way I But I've.
Got crap all over my house.
It's cat scratched. But yeah. But the same time, you know Holly Fry of pop Stuff, uh uh, she was talking about how she lets her cats play on their iPad. Oh really, And I was like, you must have a serious scratch card because there's like cat playing apps on iPad. Oh wow, And she's like, well, I don't think we have a scratch card.
Well, when cats play around like that though usually don't have the claws out. They're usually just pawing around, you would hope. But yeah, I wouldn't put one on my iPad. No way. I put on the little sticky things they have, like clear tapets that you put on your couch arm. Yeah, and those are unsightly in collected hair and dust and just one of the things. If you're an animal owner with five animals in your house, it's hard to not live with some hair.
Do you have a rumba? Nah? You should probably get a rumba. It might change your life. Yeah.
I'm in love with my vacuum cleaner, so I feel like that would be cheating on LuxI.
Nice. Yeah, Okay, that's it. There's so what else was there? Oh? Joanan Goldberg had some words about breeding, especially with the AKC. He compares it to eugenics. Yeah, in fact, he thought it spurred the eugenics movement. Yeah, and we're like, oh wow, we have this really great dog and we should do this with humans. I'm tired of people with epilepsy. Let's just get rid of them. And of course you can go back and read or listen to is it legal to sterilize addicts? Yeah, that was episode basically was all about eugenics.
That's true, he also contends, and not really content. It's pretty obvious that it's a beauty pageant. They're focusing on these physical attributes and only the aesthetic matters in his opinion, and that's not something he says. You know what, if you want to judge a hunting dog, take it out hunting, right, and see how it does there. Because these jogs, these jogs, these dogs have jobs. You know, most dogs do have a job of some sort, right, and let's see how they do in their job.
Yeah, like that's how you would truly appreciate a breed, not just its looks. And you mentioned UK's crufts. Yea, the England England's Kennel Club runs crufts and they do have lots of agility and stuff like that. Apparently they're criticized for going too far the other way, right that they need to bring back more confirmation conformation, right, But yeah, if you if you go to England and you're into dogs, you're going to be very surprised because they're they're big show doesn't look anything like ours.
Yeah, those are the well we'll get in to agility trials. But is that what they have in there where you're running between the you're bobbing and weaving and going through the tunnels and.
Yeah, obedience stuff too. Yeah, and the AKC has these things, it's just not part of the big one, the Westminster show.
Right.
But Chuck, you would also probably appreciate England's Kennel Club maybe more than the AKC because they have something called scruffs. Yeah.
I want to see this televised.
It's basically the Cruffs for crossbreed dogs, non purebred dogs, and it's just adorable that they have this and they welcome anything pretty much. Yeah.
I mean, obviously you have to have your dog trained. You can't just walk up up the street. But as far as breeds go, you can enter your dog. The criteria are pretty wide open, and they just look for good temperament, good health, and good character, which I like.
Yeah.
So we talked about agility trials. These are sometimes separate competitions all together, right, and then, like you said in England incorporated into the Best in Show and that's where they're basically doing like a little obstacle course.
Which is adorable off leash. I mean, did you see this picture. That's the cutest picture ever in this article how dog shows work. Yeah, it's just a little terrier jumping over like a little post and he's got this look on his face like I'm gonna do it. He is gonna do it. He's got his tail up. Man, that's a cute picture.
And then obedience trials are basically taking commands from the handler, like you know, you got to be listening. Some of the commands are just vocal. Some of them you can't speak at all, and you're just using hand gestures and they're just seeing how well trained your dog.
Is, right, Yeah, that the dog can become the champion, which is the national obedience Champion, which has got to be kind of a dubious honor among dogs, like you're the most obedient dog in all the land. Yeah. It's kind of like Kurt Russell when he was like the star of Disney movies. It's like, hey, movie star, but you're also like this, you know, clean cut team. These are great. I remember those but even he distanced himself later He's like, no, I'm badter than this, I'm snake Pliskin exactly.
Yeah, I forgot about those early movies. Those were awesome. I was a big fan of those.
What was it The Kid with two White Shoes or something like that. They were really like vanilla. Yeah, they were pretty vanilla.
Yeah. So over the years, we have a few little stats. The breed that has won the most the fox terrier thirteen times.
Not bad. Yeah.
The dog that has won the most was Champion Warren Remedy. It was a fox terrier who won three times in a row in the early nineteen hundreds, So that's pretty good.
Yeah. My favorite is the oldest dog to win, the eight year old Papion. Oh yeah, who won in nineteen ninety nine. Champion low Ticky Supernatural.
And the youngest ever was a rough Collie named Longed Loyalty of bell Haven and one on its ninth nine month birthday and nine months old. It's pretty young.
Makes Bro look like an idiot.
Bro is an idiot. He's lovable though.
I guess that's about it, right.
Yeah, I'm gonna watch this year. I'm gonna it's appointment TV for for me.
Now good, that is good. I think you'll like it. And then you go on to Twitter and register your anger or your happiness at the winter.
I will do so maybe I'll live tweet.
Your thumbs are gonna hurt.
I gotta get her Twitter log in. I don't even know it. Well, you're the Twitter master. I just leave that to you.
I will, I will, I'll email it team.
Okay.
And by the way, our Twitter handle is sysk podcast. Yeah I need that part. Okay. So, Chuck, if anybody wants to learn more about best in Show and dog shows and to see this adorable picture of this terrier jumping in midair, man, thank you picture. You can type in dog shows in the search bar at houstuffworks dot com. And since I said search bar in there, I imagine it's time for listener mail. But first, Chuck, I feel like we should wish everybody a happy new year. Yeah.
I hope you had a great twenty twelve.
And if it wasn't great, here's the better days. I had, very nice, very nice, Chuck, and I want to wish a very very happy birthday to my sweet and wonderful wife. You me. Happy birthday, baby, Happy birthday. It's very sweet, okay, listener mail, huh yes, okay.
All right, Josh, I'm gonna call this crying during music And this is from Angela in Columbus, Ohio. I should take up buck, guys. It's my family, My family.
Take go blue. Who's blue Michigan? Oh? Tough words, all right, guys.
Listening Chuck talk about his experience at Carnegie Hall made me want to share this story. I heard a story one day about a new musical based on a book, Wicked. And I know we all know this musical now about the Wizard of Oz.
Yeah.
Yeah, I had a soundtrack for about a year before I saw it, and I found out there was a Broadway Across America tour coming to Columbus, Ohio. My husband and I bought tickets, went with a group of friends. I've been listening to the soundtrack for about a year. As I said, so, I was really excited. So I'm watching the show, really enjoying it, getting swept up in the stage production and the acting. The music was better than I even thought it could be. And when they hit the main song Defying Gravity sung by Edina Menzel on the soundtrack, that's when it happened. I had a chuck moment and broke down, sobbing like a little baby. I don't know if I call that a chuck mummut. I mean, I'm sensitive, but that's pretty hilarious, all right, I'm weepy. The song itself is incredibly moving overall. There's a point in the middle where there's a break from the action, and before she hits the third verse, she says a few lines, turns the last line into this incredibly cathartic note, and takes off in flight. Sitting here, remember it, I'm actually choking up, and that's where I could no longer control myself all through the third verse, sobbing uncontrollably loud, gasping sobs. Both my husband and my brother in law offered me comfort, but I could not control myself. I cried through the end of the song and the house lights were coming up for an intermission. My husband gave me a hug, not really knowing why I was so moved, and I still can't say why. I was a mess and incredibly embarrassed, but it was a beautiful moment for this touching character who speaks to me ps and this from Angela and Columbus ps.
I feel a sense of strength and catharsis.
Also currently while listening to Shake It Out by Florence in the Machine.
Huh, well that was a specific email. Yeah, thanks for sharing your story. Was that person's name, Angela? Thanks a lot, Angela. We appreciate that. That's pretty cool. So what do you want to say?
I don't know dog show stories.
What do you think now? Yeah? Sure, dog show stories it is. If you want to get in touch with us about your dog show story, you can tweet to us. Remember it's s YSK podcast and of course we're on Facebook, Facebook, dot com, slash Stuff you Should Know and you can send us a good old fashioned email to stuff podcasts at iHeartRadio dot com. Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
