Greatest American Dog, Revisited

So you already know that I am somewhat of a reality show junkie and that I admit to watching The Greatest American Dog, which runs on Wednesday nights on CBS. This week's episode, however, has me rethinking my infatuation with the show.

We are down to a handful of owners and dogs and the competition is starting to heat up. However the challenge that the producers concocted for the show this week was too "breed" intensive to be, in my opinion, a fair challenge.

It went something like this: three adorable golden retriever puppies (and you wonder why I like this show?) were released into a "bonding" area to "acclimate" with each dog still in the competition. When they were used to each other, the owner of the dog in the competition went to the end of a maze made out of hedges and called his/her dog. The object was for the dog in the show to lead the three puppies out of the maze to find the owner.

Well, for a herding dog, like Leroy, the Australian Shepherd who won the competition in a dazzling display, this was a no-brainer. Bred to "herd," Leroy relied on his instinct to gather up the pups and get them to their final destination. But for a toy dog like the Maltese Andrew, this was a joke. How on earth could this dog be expected to accomplish this feat? It simply is not in his realm of comprehension. Same for the boxer Presley who, the judges scolded was "too focused on his owner and not enough on the puppies." Well of course he could care less about the puppies, since he was not bred to round them up.

There was an interesting spat between judges Victoria Stillwell and Wendy Diamond about the training techniques one contestant used--one thought they were too "dominance-based;" the other thought they were "brilliant,"--followed by a made-for-TV-apology that was totally unbelievable, but instead of fighting amongst themselves, the judges should be devising challenges that do not rely on instinct and truly level the playing field between breeds.

Don't ask me what these are. But all I know is that Amos, who is not to be confused with a "trained competitor," would have nosed those puppies out of the maze in record time because he too is a herding dog, while Phoebe probably would have ignored them en route to find me and perhaps, food.

And who is to say that they are not both Great American Dogs?