As it happens more often than not, while I’m taking a closer look at a particular topic or subject, I come across things I know nothing about. Zip, zero, zed, zilch. Sometimes I’m lucky enough to enter into one of those Charles Kuralt-style On the Road adventures. The man TIME called “the laureate of the common man” roamed the back roads and byways of America in a motor home for 20 years, finding stories in small towns across the country. Kuralt was one of those who believe that if you travel on Interstate Highways from one coast to another, you won’t see anything but the same cluster of gas stations, restaurants, and hotels the entire way.
CBS News archive has this to say of one of Charles Kuralt’s hour-long shows, Unforgettable People:
“You’ll witness a car that runs on corn cobs, stand next to the world’s largest ball of string, and meet more than a dozen colorful and spirited American families and working people, from the Kentucky tobacco farmer who was shamed into becoming a world-class croquet player to the country’s most inspiring bicycle repairman!”
What Do You Know About Dog Dancing?
The story I found along my travels off the beaten path was at the Fédération Cynologique Internationale
I had to look up cynology because it’s not in most English-speaking dictionaries. I thought briefly that it might have something to do with cygnus, but that’s a swan and a constellation also known as the Northern Cross. I learned cynology is a Greek word for the study of dogs, especially in regard to their natural history.
The Fédération Cynologique Internationale (FCI) is based in Belgium
It is the umbrella organization of the red-tape world of pedigreed dogs, registries, kennel clubs, breeders, and show judges in 100 member countries around the world. The Fédération recognizes more than 350 breeds. The American Kennel Club (AKC) recognizes 200. Could the FCI possibly have 150 more distinct breeds?
Each of FCI’s hundreds of breeds are “the property of a specific country”
Each “owner” country sets the standards for its breed with detailed descriptions of how to identify the ideal type. With 100 sets of rules, it’s easy for me to see that 150 more breeds isn’t that many more after all.
Many of us have seen bits and pieces of the annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in Madison Square Garden. Prettied-up and cosseted dog beauty contests they may be, but the variety of breeds and classes is quite something. The Best-in-Breed dogs I like best never win Best in Show.
While wandering around its website, I found the FCI includes Dog Dancing events in its international shows
You may know about Dog Dancing, but it’s new to me, so I took a closer look at what the FCI has to say about it. Among other things, I found that the official judging standards for Dog Dancing are available as free and easily downloadable PDFs. So I did.
Dog dancing is not the same as dancing dogs
A more accurate name for dog dancing would by dog and handler dancing together. As a pair, they dance in choreographed performances set to themes and music.
Judging standards are broken into four categories: Presentation, Content, Artistic Interpretation, and the combo category of Partnership and Well-being, which seem different enough to be considered as Categories Four and Five
The maximum number of points that can be awarded is 30, split between four categories. Thirty is not evenly divisible by four, so I wondered how the points were allocated. Here’s what I found.
Category #1 is Presentation. The maximum score for all the elements in the category is 9 points and includes such definitions of the ideal performance as:
- The dog and the handler are constantly attentive to each other, both enjoying working together.
- Every move of the dog and handler appears easy and effortless.
- Hand signals must be a part of the team’s choreography.
- The team performs its routine fluently from start to finish, executing every well-defined move from a clear beginning to a controlled ending.
Category #2 is Content. The maximum score is also 9 points.
- The handler’s moves must never attract more attention than the dog.
- The team is required to use as much of the show ring as possible, varying the shapes and patterns of its movements, using all areas of the ring equally.
- The routine should be interesting but none of the moves should used disproportionately.
- The team executes a variety of stationary and moving tricks, speeds, directions, and positions of the dog relative to the handler.
- When several elements are combined into the final move, the routine is considered to be more difficult than a single element. This sounds to me like how gymnastics, diving, skating and other activities are judged — the tougher the routine, the more it’s worth.
- Transitions and links between individual moves should be smooth and without hesitation. The definition here seems to mirror the ease and effortlessness emphasized in Category #1.
Seems straightforward, except for how Categories #1 and #2 have fewer points to split than items that have to be rated. So far there has been no indication of how to make that loaves-and-fishes thing work.
Category #3 is Artistic Interpretation. This is the third of three categories with a maximum score of 9 points.
Visualizing someone else’s concept is one mighty tricky thing to do. It includes the overall theme of performances with story and dance themes. Here’s how FCI’s rules define visualization of concept:
“The emotional journey of the routine should reflect the music and carry the Dog Dancing Judges through the story even without previous background information. The Dog Dancing Judge does not judge whether he knows or likes a certain theme – they judge whether the concept was interpreted.”
As Ron Popeil and Billy Mays used to say, “But wait, there’s more!”
Also defined as areas to judge are:
- The interplay of the choreography, music, concept, theme, and highlights.
- Music that suits the dog’s pace and pattern of movement and is well-chosen to reflect the dog’s temperament and character.
- Synchronization of the team’s movement with the music.
- The handler’s movements should enhance the dog’s performance (again an overlap, this time with “The handler’s moves must never attract more attention than the dog, Category #2).
Category #4 is Partnership and Well-being. This category is worth a maximum of only 3 points.
- The atmosphere is one of true companionship and mutual respect.
- The performance emphasizes the qualities of the dog, presenting its physical and mental characteristics in the best possible light.
Those two were about Partnership (#4a?). The next three are about the Well-being (health and safety) of the dog (#4b?)
- Do no physical or mental harm to the dog.
- Ensure the dog’s safety at all times.
- It is important that the Dog Dancing Judges be able to differentiate between a happily over-excited dog and a dog that is over-excited because it’s distressed.
There are a few rules about props, but no indication of how many points can be awarded or deducted when judging
- Any physical object brought into the show ring is deemed to be a prop.
- Handlers with too many props to carry may enlist the aid of two helpers to bring in the props before and remove them after.
- There is a two-minute limit for setting up and removing props.
The liveliest part of the FCI download is the list of things that disqualify teams, end the performances immediately, and remove any points they may have been awarded
- The handler or dog are not the same the ones on the team entry form.
- Bringing food into the ring.
- Failing to inform the organizers that “the bitch has come into season.”
Those are Dog Dancing misdemeanors. Here are a few Dog Dancing felonies:
- You lose control of your dog.
- Your dog attacks a person or another dog.
- Failed drug tests. No mention of whether this is applies to dog or handler.
- And of course, the dog urinates or defecates in the ring. Again, no mention of the handler’s rules.
- Excessive barking. A few barks are allowed. Some people think a few is two or three while others think a few is three or four. Whatever the limit established by the judge, penalties increase in direct proportion with the barks. No mention of yelps or yips.
And now, a choreographed performance
Here’s a link to the routine done by the Canadian team of Jen and Daiquiri at the 2022 FCI Freestyle Dog Dancing Championship. It is an interpretive enactment of Dolly Parton’s Crackerjack. It’s about 4 minutes long and has some remarkable moments.
What Do You Know About Dog Dancing? was written by David Allan Van Nostrand
Bonus
This would make for a really interesting a.i. experiment. First, video everything. Feed examples with the judges’ subjective ratings into the machine until it has learned enough to make judging a quantitative process rather than the qualitative process it is now. It would democratize the process, judging all equally. That is, if enough of the right data were loaded into the program on every micro-measurement. I think we’d have to start with a list of all the judging points, prioritize them, then weight them. Real stat-head fun.
