Somehow, despite my problem, I made it through the entire series of the Greatest American Dog. (Except for the couple of episodes I missed while on vacation, as I mentioned in my last Greatest American Dog commentary.)
A Dog is An Extension of The Owner
When they were trying to narrow it down from the final three to the final two, the judges were evaluating the owner as much as the dog. They were pretty critical of how the owners were with their dogs. As Laurie put it, it came down to a battle of the training methods. (Which again proves my suspicion they were looking more for the greatest American trainer than dog.)
They felt JD was too harsh with how he trained Galaxy. Not that he was abusive, but it was said that his training methods were akin to being “medieval.”
They accused Andrew of being too attached to Laurie and suffering from separation anxiety. (Which I don’t know if I agree with. I think Andrew is very attached to Laurie, but I thought it was cute he always went to look for her. It wasn’t like he cried and whined and carried on when she was out of sight. He simply wanted to be with his mom.)
Their criticism for Travis was that, while committed to his dog, he was still very green when it came to training and techniques. But there was no question he had one very smart pup in Presley, and that he’d done a great job with teaching him new things during the show.
Andrew the Mighty Maltese
The judges eliminated JD and Galaxy, then it was down to two dog/owner teams: Andrew and Laurie and Travis and Presley. As Allan Reznik put it, “Both are shining examples of what good owners should strive to be.”
But for a while I thought they were going to turn it into a competition of big breeds versus little breeds. They kept commenting on how impressive Andrew had done representing the small and toy breeds. How he might change large breed owners’ minds that little dogs are more than just frou frou dogs.
People really have those kinds of hang ups? No true dog lover I’ve ever met discriminates against a dog based on its size.
But let me stop dwelling on the negative and focus on something positive. Namely, the show’s ultimate outcome.
And the Winner Is…
Travis and Presley!
I didn’t know which way the judges would go, because, like I mentioned above, Andrew was as cute as he was impressive. Presley had tough competition.
But ultimately they saw something in Presley they liked just a little bit more.
So there you have it. A 16 month old Boxer baby nabbed the Greatest American Dog title.
This go around…
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