Natural History

“This dawg is terrific! A real winner!”

It’s that time of year.

The United States is having its big dog show Monday and Tuesday, and it will be watched.

And the laity will whine about why the Labrador isn’t Best in Show, because, um, aren’t they the best dog ever?

Then we’ll have a few  of the dog blogs writing a screed or two about how awful dog shows are.

This breed hasn’t been worked in a thousand years!

Dog show rings wreck our breeds!

And so on.

At one time, I would write these very same blog posts, but to be honest with you, I don’t see the point in them anymore.

In the grand scheme of North American dogdom, it really doesn’t matter what goes on with the major all-breed registries or the dog shows. Compared to what happens with the NFL, most Americans don’t care,  and they have never followed what the dog fanciers say.

You can make arguments all you want, but it isn’t going to change what the hardcore fancier wants to believe.

And the public is moving on. The AKC is a moribund institution that never really had that much support from American dog lovers.

So I’m to the point now of detente, but only because the horse is dead and continued flagellation isn’t going to get him moving any time soon.

I have more interesting things to think about than why people want to own a bulldog or participate in conformation shows.

When one is young, one can expend so much energy being angry that one forgets to think, and I think I can finally say I’m done being angry.

The dogs are going to be fine. If you think something is wrong, there will always be an alternative.

And there are more people who either bucking the system or operating outside of it than who are operating within it.

So I’m just going to chill the f*ck out.