Wagsgiving: Relax before the big meal and football games — watch the National Dog Show

It’s that time of year: the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, turkey and all the fixings — and the dog show.

Wait, not football? That’s right. Hang on to the remote from noon to 2 p.m. so you can watch the National Dog Show, says co-host David Frei. Frei, with John O’Hurley, has introduced viewers to top dogs since the show was first broadcast in 2002 to an audience of more than 20 million — a number that has only grown since then.

The National Dog Show was inspired by the 2000 film “Best in Show,” which spoofed purebred dog shows. That film’s fictional “Mayflower” competition was modeled on the famed Westminster Kennel Club show.

Jon Miller, president of acquisitions and partnerships for NBC Sports, rented the movie in 2001 to watch with his neighbors. The next day, he pitched the idea of a major dog show airing on Thanksgiving Day following the Macy’s parade. The movie took place in Philadelphia, so televising the Philadelphia Kennel Club’s annual dog show — which dates to 1879, making it one of the longest-running sporting events around, and takes place just before Thanksgiving — was a no-brainer.

And a dog show is something the whole family can enjoy watching. While most of us can’t relate to somebody draining a 60-foot putt or scoring 48 points in a basketball game, plenty of us have dogs sitting next to us on the sofa, and it’s easy to picture them in the show ring, having a good time and impressing the audience, Frei says.

Whether you’re a dog show newbie or an experienced spectator, Frei has some advice for how to watch the show, which this year has entries from 199 of the 212 American Kennel Club-recognized dog breeds and varieties, totaling nearly 2,000 dogs.

First, don’t expect to see each and every breed. It just can’t be done in the two-hour time slot. “We keep track of which breeds have been on and try to spread it around a little bit each year, but out of the 212 breeds and varieties, we may show 50 of them,” he says. Even his own breed — he lives with a cavalier King Charles spaniel named True Dat — hasn’t made an appearance since 2018.

Expect to see popular dogs such as golden retrievers; unusual-looking dogs such as heavily wrinkled Neapolitan mastiffs or corded komondors; and maybe dogs who do something cute in their group competition, who have a great human interest story such as saving their family from a fire or who belong to a breed with an interesting background. One of the unusual breeds entered this year is the sloughi, a sighthound that originated in Northern Africa.

Bear in mind that a breed’s appearance may once have had a functional reason. The easy example, Frei says, is the standard poodle, which was once a water retriever in Germany. The fancy clips seen in the show ring are glorified versions of the puffs of hair left around the hunting dogs’ joints to help them stay warm when they were in the water retrieving ducks. (Modern hunters who’ve taken poodles back to their roots simply keep those curly coats trimmed to about an inch all over the body.)

The Philadelphia Kennel Club event is the last remaining “benched” show, meaning that when the dogs aren’t strutting their stuff in the ring, they are in specific areas throughout the day so their adoring fans can see them up close and personal. Even if you can’t attend the actual show, you may catch glimpses of benched dogs during the two-hour broadcast.

Last but not least, whether they are Chihuahuas or Irish wolfhounds, every dog entered is just as much a top athlete, both physically and mentally, as any football player, so settle back and enjoy the game. May the best dog win!

By Kim Campbell Thornton

Do you have a pet question? Send it to askpetconnection@gmail.com or visit Facebook.com/DrMartyBecker. Pet Connection is produced by veterinarian Dr. Marty Becker, journalist Kim Campbell Thornton, and dog trainer/behavior consultant Mikkel Becker. ©2023 Andrews McMeel Syndication

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Pet Connection: National Dog Show presented every Thanksgiving