Westminster & Anthropocentrism
Lili ChinMy February trip to NYC was a first time for many things. It was my first Westminster show and my first time meeting many New Yorker friends in person as well as Chris Nelson (from Oregon) a dog show announcer who was a consultant on my Dogs of the World book.
Pictured L to R: Laura Osanitch, whom I first met on Facebook over 10 years ago through our shared interest in dog breeds. It was Laura who introduced me to the dog historian who advised me on my Dogs of the World poster series (which eventually led to the book). Annie Grossman is the author of How To Train Your Dog with Love and Science, and Pilley Bianchi, as Chaser the Border Collie's human sister, runs the Chaser Initiative and is the author of the award-winning For the Love of Dog. I have drawn all their dogs.
Laura and I had been to dog shows before. This was Annie's and Pilley's first ever dog show experience.
For those who have never been to a dog show...
This is a prestigious competitive event; a kind of beauty pageant. Dogs are judged by what they look like and how they move in the show ring. There are several stages. Breed judging comes first. Within each breed, a winner is picked as the individual who best conforms to their written AKC breed standard. The US has Westminster; the UK has Crufts, and there are smaller events scattered around the world. Westminster and Crufts are the big ones.
On that early Monday morning in freezing cold NYC, hundreds of breed judging events were taking place at the massive Javits Convention Center, which was packed with dogs and their people. Within the first half hour or so, we saw Salukis, Dobermans, Miniature American Shepherds, Pomeranians, Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Beauceron, Tervuren, and more.
Annie had many questions like:
- How do they get their (Bergamasco) coats looking like that?
- How can they judge "temperament" based on just a few minutes of the dog walking around the ring?
- What's with all the sparkles? (Sparkly suits were popular with handlers)
Annie switched into journalist mode and left us to interview different handlers around the room. You can read Annie's Substack here.
Pilley: "All the dogs are wearing choke collars."
Now, I have heard the argument that "show leads" (thin slip leads that sit high up on a dog's neck) are not the same as choke collars. I have been told that show leads are more like jewelry, less like metal chains, and are not meant for punishing with. However, I did a quick search for “show leads vs choke collars” to figure out what exactly was the difference, and found this on a trainer's page:
The beauty of the slip lead lies in its simplicity. When tension is applied to the lead (e.g., when the dog pulls), the noose tightens around the dog’s neck. When the tension is released, the noose loosens.
I can't believe they used the word "noose". Show/slip leads and choke collars have essentially the same aversive "controlling your dog" function. And I saw a lot of tight leashes and tugging.
Pilley left early and I got it. As this wasn't my first time at a dog show event, I was already emotionally prepared to see stuff that bothered me. Here in LA, I see prong collars on dogs ALL THE TIME, EVERYWHERE. It breaks my heart even though I know people are not intentionally wanting to hurt their dogs; they are following "tradition" and haven't been educated about humane teaching and handling methods. This dog show environment is no different; aversive handling is just more in your face because there are so many hundreds of dogs and humans packed together in one room.
I wanted to be here at the WKC Dog Show because I was particularly interested to see in real life the breeds I had drawn that I hadn't seen before. There is no other event where you could meet so many breeds. For example, I finally got to meet a Powderpuff Chinese Crested, Bracco Italiano, a Cirneco Dell'Etna, a Bearded Collie, and a Spanish Water Dog!
When I draw dogs, I am trying to capture and distill all the visual details from photos into something simple, iconic, and recognizable. Seeing purebred dogs in real life is a treat because photos can never totally capture their physicality, their sizes, and the textures of their coats. I also liked testing myself to see if I could correctly name the breeds. (I got a few wrong!)
In the Benching Area
Laura and I walked through rows upon rows of crates and tables. The hundreds of dogs stationed here were either being groomed (some had quite elaborate hairdo procedures) or were waiting for their ring event, or were simply waiting. This was the area for visitors to meet different breeds, talk to handlers, and for people in the purebred sport/business to network with each other.
One handler was brushing her Pomeranian who was lying belly-up on her lap like they were a small plush toy. A miserable-looking Papillon was wearing some kind of head gear and carried around to meet and greet people.
I heard that the benched dogs were required to stay in their spot all day even after their judging event.
Madison Square Garden: Best in Show
When all the "Best of Breeds" have been picked, judging for "Best of Group" takes place. The best dogs representing each Breed Group (7 dogs for 7 AKC groups - herding, sporting, non-sporting, working, toy, hound, and terrier) go on to be judged in the "Best In Show" finale event. The ultimate winner is the dog whom the judge believes to best represent their AKC breed standards. They are the supermodel of their breed so to speak.
So what was it like being at a live Best In Show event? (instead of watching this on TV?)
We were sitting really far away from the ring. There were screens absolutely everywhere, which made it feel like you didn't even need to look at the ring at all. A drone hovered above the ring and around the dogs to get us the close-ups.
Cons: Our seats were in very narrow rows that were complicated to get in and out of. The live event does NOT include the commentary that you hear on the TV broadcast! Four hours can feel like a very long time if you don't understand what you are seeing.
Pros: If you enjoy being in noisy crowded sporting events, this is what a WKC Best In Show event felt like! All around us, the audience cheered loudly and enthusiastically ("GO COOKIE! YOU CAN DO IT!"), people around us provided their own silly commentary. The best thing about this evening for me was having friends to share the experience with, and we - Laura, Annie, and I - discussed and shared personal dog stories throughout the show while eating overpriced stadium food.
Later in the week, I met someone who told me they went to Westminster at MSG alone and were very bored. Would I come again? Probably not. The couch at home is much more comfortable and you get way more commentary!
Thoughts to follow
Annie, Laura, Pilley and I had chatted about our thoughts and feelings post-Westminster. This blog post is a brain dump of my own thoughts.
The majority of dogs in our world do not live as pets, do not go through these any of these rituals, nor are they even purebred.
The majority of dogs in our world do not live as pets, do not go through these any of these rituals, nor are they even purebred.
Westminster (Crufts too) is a rare niche subculture that gives people something to do with their dogs that is glamorous, community-building across state and country borders, and shines a huge spotlight on a certain type of human-dog relationship. If you want an insider view, I recommend Tommy Tomlinson's Dog Land (book) and Susan Orlean's Show Dog (article). The Best In Show movie is also kind of accurate.
I was more interested in the dogs themselves. Were these dogs comfortable? Happy? Were they stressed? Were they habituated to these rituals from a young age? Were they as excited about this day as their humans were?
At the Javits Center, most of the dogs I saw seemed relaxed. They didn’t seem “unhappy”.
What immediately comes to mind is a pedigree cat show I attended for the first time 2 years ago where most of the benched cats appeared to be asleep in their carriers. Cat behaviorists have taught us that the appearance of sleeping could be a sign of shutting down rather than true relaxation. (See Kitty Language page 134) What would you do if you had no choice?
The lack of doggie freedom at dog shows is hard to ignore. In what is already a highly unnatural context where hundreds of dogs are packed together in one room and expected to "be fine", to stay close to their humans and not wander off sniffing or toileting, I saw too many dogs wearing tight high collars attached to short tight leashes who were being tugged quite forcefully. There were gentle human handlers too but way more “leash pullers”. Occasionally, I noticed a dog with a tightly-clamped-down low tail (Doggie Language page 111) walking around the ring.
Later on in the week, I came across a IG video (which I can't find now) of a handler talking about her Old English Sheepdog at the WKC show. This woman was clearly proud of her dog but she was also speaking in a jokey-sarcastic tone about how much her dog disapproved of these activities. She rolled her eyes as she mentioned her dog's frequent "lip licking". (see Doggie Language p62) Super cringey video.
There is an IG post by ethologist Anushree Thamanna summing up a study by Weber, Lund, Forkman, McPeake, Meyer, and Sandøe on how dog training methods correlate with how people view dogs as a species. Or vice versa: How one's ethical orientation towards animals correlates with handling and training approaches.
"Training choices aren’t neutral. They reflect how we position animals, and what we believe we’re entitled to do to them." - Anushree Thamanna.
[The 4 ethical orientations are also described in Dr Zazie Todd's blog post; the Venn diagramming is by me. ]
According to the Weber study which was conducted in a few Western countries, people who see dogs as property to be managed and controlled, that is, people who prioritize human needs & comfort over their dogs' needs and comfort (what they label Anthropocentrism) are more likely to use physical corrections, aka choke/pinch/shock collars. They are more likely to value obedience over how their dogs are feeling.
People who see dogs as sentient and social beings deserving of agency and of being understood are less likely to use physical corrections. These are my people. We try to be more astute and compassionate listeners. We say animals have rights to be themselves and to behave as they do because 1. Behavior is functional, 2. Dogs have their own umwelt.
People who see dogs as sentient and social beings deserving of agency and of being understood are less likely to use physical corrections. These are my people. We try to be more astute and compassionate listeners. We say animals have rights to be themselves and to behave as they do because 1. Behavior is functional, 2. Dogs have their own umwelt.
Dogs don't live in our world. They live in their own. - Vanessa, @spicydogsbehaviour
I would add that culture and education have a lot to do with where one sits on the Anthropocentric <--> Animal Rights spectrum, and we can change.
A purebred dog show is a highly anthropocentric environment for dogs, even though on the surface it looks like the dogs are the important ones being adored and pampered and that this scene is for them.
In the dog show context, dogs are seen as valuable property. These dogs are symbolic of something that humans created and treasure: "breeds". The culture of purebred competition celebrates the power and skill of human beings to mold dog's bodies and temperaments, to write and market their histories, to micromanage how their dogs adapt themselves our society, and to judge and reward a dog's value in terms of human-created standards for them. This is not to say that humans don’t love their dogs or don't care about their welfare, but that care is going to be shaped by anthropocentrism.
Worth reading: Game Mechanics and Animal Fancies
Within a very anthropocentric mindset (and there are different degrees of anthropomorphism) natural dog body language/dog communication is almost irrelevant. What matters is that dogs look and move according to established ideas around how different breeds should look and move as decided by humans because "humans know best." A conformation event is about people's obsessions with dogs, not about the feelings, thoughts, desires and skills of individual dogs. It never has been.
Penny, the Doberman Pinscher (Working Group) won Best in Show. Penny was statuesque and extremely focused, serious, and undistracted in her movements. She was very attentive to and in-sync with her handler. Personally, I liked Cota the Chesapeake Bay Retriever (Sporting Group) and Zaida the Afghan Hound (Hound Group) because these dogs moved with so much bounce and exuberance.
Penny's win has reignited the welfare issue around the AKC's Doberman breed standards - the cropped ears and docked tail being painful and archaic requirements, in a time when the rest of the world has banned these cosmetic standards.
Laura also pointed out that Dobermans don't live long due to DCM/Dilated Cardiomyopathy. I am not going to write about health issues. Read about the Doberman Diversity Project.
As mentioned in my book, breed standards are not set in stone even though people get very attached to them. Standards are changeable and they have changed over the years and across national borders. All it takes is for a group of people to care enough, choose to let go of past traditions, rewrite the standards, and take a step away from the anthropocentric box.
To be continued…
To be continued…
