Greatest American Dog

**Logan** · 08-01-2008, 05:15 PM

Karen, I agree with you 100%. You know, I don't know a lot, but one thing I know is that it is not hard to make an English Bulldog look lazy! LOL!! I have tons of lazy pictures of Mack, in fact, those are about the only pictures I have of Mack. The guy could have picked a better pose of Tillman for sure. But Mack and I were ticked off when Tillman was let go. I don't even know these human names, but I love all the dogs. I was most annoyed with the Schnauzer's human and the human belonging to Leroy. I will agree, too, that "angry" is not an emotion that one wants to force in their dog! OMG, I have enough of problem with that at home, trying to control it with my two boys. Why in the world would anyone want to make their dog look angry?? Just the tactics of the owner were enough for me to want to boot her off and steal her dog.

**shais_mom** · 08-01-2008, 10:16 PM

I dunno - it was suggested by Preston's owner for her to use them, ultimately her decision of course. But was it underhanded for her to suggest them? Was there an ulterior motive? Who knows?!
Anger probably wasn't the greatest emotion to use, but all I would have to do is withhold a tennis ball from Keegan to get her to show it when she is barking rapidly at me. I thought Leroy's owner deserved the bite she got - I don't think the photographer was thrilled with her either. But will I stop watching it b/c of that choice, no, I don't stop watching ER b/c they hang xrays upside down and I know better.

**sparks19** · 08-01-2008, 11:18 PM

You know... although it's easy for me to say since I have nothing at stake... but if I got "Angry" as my word I would have just taken regular pictures of my dogs being themselves and when they asked me to explain I would simply tell them that ANGER is not a display I encourage in my dogs and even though it might cost me the contest I will not compromise my dog or my belief that he has NO NEED to display anger. I would tell them that while my dog is very obedient ANGER is not something I teach him to display unless it is a natural feeling that he experiences and I will NOT cause that real feeling to occur.

Now if I could get Beezer barking I could get the picture but it is not something I want to encourage. the contest is only for a few weeks. making my dog FEEL REAL anger to show it in a picture could last forever.

**momoffuzzyfaces** · 08-02-2008, 11:56 AM

My dogs used to look angry when I would brush the hair between their eyes the wrong way. I would have tried that. A dog can look angry without snarling, like ears back, barking etc. I would bite any one who came at me with a vacuum cleaner hose too!!!

**sparks19** · 08-07-2008, 12:09 PM

Did you guys watch last night?

AWWWWWWWW did anyone else tear up when Theresa gave up her win so that Bill could have the dogbone suite and have pictures of his wife and children and grandchildren? That was so incredibly sweet and selfless.

I just love bill and Star. they are by far my favorites. He just seems like such a good man. He seems like the type of guy who has never met a stranger

and his dance was so funny. they were great

I am SOOOOOOOOOO glad Brandy is gone. THANK THE LORD because I really am not sure I could have stood one more week of her "woe is me" act lol

JD is starting to get on my nerves too. I mean yes his dog is VERY obedient and they obviously have an amazing bond but does anyone else get the feeling that it's more about JD himself than his dog? he just gives off the impression that he's the best and while he is definitely better than most I don't think he is that far ahead of some of the other competition. he just seems so arrogant and I don't like that.

That one judge too with the dog drives me nuts. It's like she is trying to be the Simon cowell of dogs hahaha. Rarely do I ever hear her say anything constructive. she just finds the silliest little things to pick on. I like that male judge though lol he makes me laugh sometimes

**momoffuzzyfaces** · 08-07-2008, 12:16 PM

I agree with your entire post!!!

You summed up how I felt about the entire show rather nicely! How did you get into my brain?

I do feel sorry for the dog Beacon though. Poor thing has to go home with Brandy!

**Karen** · 08-07-2008, 12:57 PM

I think Beacon does love Brandy, but likes her better when she's not in stressed-out training mode. Brandy just isn't a good dog trainer, but she does love Beacon, even if she doesn't understand her, poor thing. I am glad for both of their sakes that they went home. And I thought that Bill and Star and JD and Galaxy had better routines than Andy and his owner. I liked Teresa a whole lot more after she gave the Dog Bone Suite to Bill.

**ParNone** · 08-07-2008, 01:21 PM

I love this show. My fave is, of course Bill from Texas, with Star. He totally gets it and it shows with the bond he has with Star.

Of the performances last night, Bill and Star's rock-a-billy and JD and Galaxy's hip hop, were my faves, but I understood why they gave the win to the Maltese. I wonder why they didn't give the same consideration to training difficulties with the Jack Russell. Apparently they've never had terriers.

As to the photoshoot from the previous week, I think there's some misunderstanding of what was expected. They weren't suppose to be doing things to the dog to make the dog feel the emotion they were given, i.e. rile the dog up until he's angry. They were suppose to be creative and train the dog to do something that would represent the emotion. Star wasn't being "stubborn", she was actually being obedient. Bill put her in a sit-stay, while he tugged on the leash and she stayed sitting, like he asked, but it looks like "stubborn" in the photograph.

Personally I would have hated to get word "lazy" having Collies. To get them to not be alert in that type of situation would have been really hard. I would have wanted the word "love" I think. I would have chosen a red background, then I would have had Oz balancing a Hershey's Kiss on his nose.

Par...