All For Show

I'm getting ready to take my new cube mate to her second dog show. I've never shown her, or any other dog, myself in a conformation ring. I'm into obedience tricks, not beauty pageants. But conformation is important for preservation of the breed, so I'm up for it. Oh, and none of my friends will be available to show the dog that weekend, so I'm just stuck learning how to do this scary new thing myself.

My instructor has been meeting with me privately on a regular basis. We had a lesson on Sunday, and I informed her that a friend had told me some disturbing things. I guess conformation people are nice to you until you start winning, and then they start cutting you down. My friend said, "They'll tell you the dog has a bad rear, or they'll tell you to consider getting a professional handler -- ANYTHING to cut you down." When I shared this with my instructor, she replied, "Well, when people tell me that my dog has a bad rear, I tell them theirs isn't so great either!" Of course, she was talking about the dog handlers, not the dogs, as dog handlers are notoriously frumpy and grossly overweight. I thought that was a pretty good response!

It got me thinking about Cube City, as everything does. When you start a new job and know nothing, people are nice to you. They want to show you around and make you feel welcome. They like that you know nothing. It makes them feel like they know something. It's when you start understanding what you're doing and making positive contributions that they turn mean and find ways to destroy you.

I don't understand this type of behavior, and of course not all people in Cube City or dog show rings are like this. I don't know if it's a competitive nature that brings out a mean streak or if people are just too insecure with themselves to be happy for you when you succeed. It seems like a big waste of energy to me. Maybe they just have something big stuck up their bad rears that needs to be surgically removed. I don't know, but I think it's all for show.