You may all remember David and Elvis, the first contestants expelled from Canine Academy on CBS’ Greatest American Dog.

Well, it looks like they’re making news in the Big Apple where David threw Elvis a Bark Mitzvah party.

NEW YORK- A New York man says he is so proud of his dog that he decided to throw him a “Bark Mitzvah.”

The party resembled a birthday party or Bar Mitzvah and cost about $10,000 to throw.

The dog’s owner, David Best, describes Elvis as ” extremely handsome, he has a great personality and everyone loves him.”

Asked whether he thought the $10,000 price was too much, Best says that “you have to have a pet, a dog, to know what it is all about.”

Hey, if you got the cash I’m all for showering your pet with special things.  Of course that $10K could have helped a few rescue organizations make ends meet, but from what I saw of David on GAD, I’m sure he’s been donating to worthy causes too.

This week’s Greatest American Dog was a study in courage, not only for the dogs but for the owners.

We started out with the dog bone challenge. The simple task for the owners was to keep their pup in a small circle as an elephant came at them. Yeah that’s right, an elephant. I got a kick out of watching little Andrew as 9,000 pounds of pachyderm decscended on him.  He never flinched, not even when the elephant picked up the banana placed in the circle. Presley was the only other dog to pass the challenge by never moving out of the circle of trust.

This lead to a showdown between Andrew and Presley. They were both put in their respective circles while their owners were forced to stand with their backs to the elephant.  The elephant was then told to charge at the group. First dog to stand up…lost.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’d be too keen on having an elephant charge me from behind. Heck, I wouldn’t want one charging me from the front, either. But Laurie and Travis showed their courage. In the end the little guy Andrew, the Maltese, turned out to be the toughest of the bunch. Who’d a thunk it?

Once in the dog-bone suite, we got to see pictures of Laurie’s family and to share an emotional moment with her as she read the loving letter her husband had written her. Ahh, I love seeing the real America on TV!!

The best in show challenge this week consisted of getting the dogs, and owners, through a bit of an obstacle course. It was situated 20 feet off the ground consisting of three parts: Walking up a very steep ramp, a walk over a thin balance beam and then jumping off the platform while attached to a zip line.

JD and Galaxy were first up and knocked it out of the park. No problems at all, and in fact, watching Galaxy’s tail wagging as she was cruising down the zip line was hilarious.

Teresa and Leroy had no issues with the first two parts of the challenge, but when it was time to jump off the platform, Leroy had second thoughts. After a lot of coaxing, Leroy finally jumped.

Bill and Star were next. Bill chose the easier of the two ramps and managed to get through the first two phases without much issue. However, when it was time for Star to jump she failed to do it. I know Meatloaf says two out of three ain’t bad, but ain’t bad may not get it done tonight.

Travis and Presley were next and they managed to get through all three sections of the challenge. They did have issues with the initial sit/stay, but they performed the challenge completely.

Laurie and Andrew were the last to compete. Recipients of the leg up, training with a movie dog trainer, they tackled the challenge . I have to tell you, seeing Andrew going up that ramp was just hilarious. He was like Thomas the Train…I think I can, I think I can…as his feet just pitter pattered along. He made it up the ramp and over the narrow section of the platform without issue. When it came time to jump, our hero just wouldn’t do it.  Seeing this, Laurie cut it short and said they were done.

So who to send home. All the weak players are off the show, and I suspect this is going to get harder to do for the judges each week.

The judging came down to Bill and Star, Laurie and Andrew, and Travis and Presley. Based solely on this week’s challenge, Bill and Star were expelled. I know I was rooting for them so this is a big disappointment, but if I look at it objectively they were the poorest performers of the night.

One are of concern, Galaxy did hurt herself this week. She may have pulled or strained a muscle, but we’re not sure. Let’s all keep our paws crossed and hope she’s all better now.

I know there are a lot of disappointed Bill and Star supporters out there.  Bark away!!

For all the  “Greatest American Dog” fans out there,  if you’ve ever wondered what Victoria Stilwell is thinking take a look at this this great interview by Christine Keith.

August 18, 2008

I spoke with trainer Victoria Stilwell about her experiences as a judge on CBS’ reality competition program, “Greatest American Dog.” My article based on this and other interviews is here.

Christie Keith: … I really like things I’ve seen you say in your writing and in your other interviews about the concept of “thinking dog.” Can you tell our readers a little bit of what that’s about?

Victoria Stilwell: Well, as a trainer I always like to get my clients, before they start training, to try and think what the world is like from a dog’s point of view.

I find so many people don’t even think about that. How is the environment that you have created around your dog affecting your dog both psychologically and physically?

I think when people take time to start thinking what must this be like from the point of view of the dog, I think they begin to understand their dogs. That’s the first key to understanding why your dog does things, why it responds to certain stimuli in certain way and what it’s thinking. We know so much more about our dogs now than we used to, from study and scientific research.

That’s why I always say it’s important to think dog. I think it makes you a better dog owner.

To read the full scoop on her thoughts on the photography competition, doggie dancing, the “infamous” snarl bands, and more hop on over to Pet Connection.

The anticipation for this week’s Greatest American Dog ran high amongst the Hoefinger clan. I don’t know if our dogs were more excited or Lisa and I.

Why the anticipation? It was puppy week!  Let me just say, if you like to see puppies frolicking about, this week did not disappoint. If you like to see two judges go at it, then you were in luck there too.

But first, to the dog bone challenge. Two teams, randomly selected, worked together to free one of the owners in a box. Basically one dog needed to ring a bell and the other dog had to climb into a pit and dig for a release lever.

Star (and Bill) and Presley (and Travis) managed to beat Andrew (and Lori) and Galaxy (and JD) by 12 seconds, doing it in a minute and a half. The last team Leroy (and Teresa) and Bella Starlet (and Beth Joy) failed to complete the competition. Unfortunately, they still released Beth Joy from the box to continue on to the next event.  Hold the mail, I’m just kidding! Read the rest of this entry »

So you think you and your best buddy have what it takes to be on Greatest American Dog?

I know I thought Bo and I were worthy after watching the first few episodes of the show, but this audition tape of Teresa and Leroy makes me think otherwise.

After watching this, it’s no wonder they’re still in the competition.

If you can’t see the video, click here to view it.

So last night the family sat down for another episode of Greatest American Dog. It produced a few cringe worthy moments, almost making me turn the channel. What can I say, I don’t deal with conflict very well. We’ll get to that shortly.

The dog bone challenge this week was an intelligence test; put some people food behind a wall and see how long it takes the contestants to figure out how to get at it.

It looked like Teresa and Leroy or JD and Galaxy were going to win with times of 15 seconds. Then whaddya know, Bill and Star came on the scene and totally destroyed that number, getting to the food in 8 seconds. Star knows what she likes, and she likes her people food!

Bill, reciprocating Teresa’s kind act of last week, gave her the dog bone suit and the leg up on this week’s Best in Show competition. People being nice to each other, we love to see that. Unfortunately, we weren’t going to see much more of it on this week’s show.

The Best in Show competition was focused on dog painting. Basically the contestants were given a blank canvas and they were tasked with creating a work of art that spoke to the relationship between the owner and their pup. The difficulty? Only the dog could paint the canvas.

All types of methods were crafted to let the inner Pawcaso’s (thanks Beth Joy) out. It ranged from stencils to sponges on feet and backs to peanut butter powered paint rollers. In the end some of the paintings were pretty good, albeit only if viewed through the prism of a six year old’s eyes. But hey, it’s canine’s painting!

So let’s talk about the controversy from last night. When Beth Joy was creating her masterpiece, she put Bella Starlet’s paws into a paint pan. Don’t worry, all paint was canine friendly. It was made apparent that Bella Starlet has issues with anyone touching her front paws and she made a yelping sound. This happened several times, prompting others to look over to see what was going on. From a distance it appeared the dog was being forced to do something it didn’t want to, but I leave that judgement up to Beth Joy who would know better than anyone if this was the case. There’s no doubt she loves Bella Starlet more than anything in the world.

Enter Laura and Preston. I don’t know why they were up against the clock when everyone else seemed to have been done, but their painting wasn’t very good. I forget what it was supposed to represent but it just looked like a few paint cans had been tipped over. Yup, Bo could have done that.

When Laura was pressed on why it was so bad by the judges, she indicated she only worked Preston up to his limit and wasn’t willing to push him past it…unlike others in the competition. Yikes! The judges asked who, and Laura backed the bus over Beth Joy.

Next thing you know, Travis pipes up and supports Beth Joy. Not the greatest move if you’re looking to have a relationship with the accuser. Then, while the judges were making their decision, a confrontation occurred between Beth Joy and Laura. This is the point I wanted to change the channel. This is not why I’m watch the show.

So in the end we had the bottom three…JD and Galaxy, Laurie and Andrew and Laura and Preston. Based on the paintings it wasn’t hard to see who to expel. Bye, bye Laura and Preston.

A couple of highlights from last night, at least for me:

-  Star holding a pretzel in her mouth until Bill finished reading the ingredients on the package to make sure it was OK for her to eat it.

-  There was a quick shot of Leroy on the bed sleeping with his tongue out. Gets me every time.

-  Galaxy showing how good he is at catching frisbees and Presley showing how good he is at attacking doggie beds.

-  The dogs with paint on their faces.

-  Travis admitting he has commitment issues to the judges and then pushing his budding romance with Laura away by siding with Beth Joy.

It was nice to see a bit more dog action than what we’ve seen in the past. Hopefully they’ll concentrate on that more than the human issues going forward.

Hey, next week we get to see puppies in action!!  Puppies on camera!!!  Yeah, can’t wait.

I know you have opinions…let us hear ‘em.

Greatest American Dog continues it’s journey in selecting America’s greatest dog tonight at 8ET/7CT.

Take a break from the Olympics and watch your favorite canines compete for the gold, doggie bone gold to be exact.

Tonight’s competition is focused on painting, and with Michael Phelps busy at the Olympics, it’s anydog’s opportunity to win.

If you want to get to know each of the contestants a little bit better, don’t forget to check out their Dogster page. There’s also a lot happening on the Greatest American Dog Fan Club group, so make sure to check it out

Enjoy the show and we’ll do a recap tomorrow.

Spoiler Alert…West Coasters stop reading until you see the show.

How does it feel American dog lovers? You know what I’m talking about. That’s right, I’m typing about this week’s Greatest American Dog show and the outcome.

After last week’s travesty, the judges did themselves proud this week.  I don’t mean to be, uhmm, mean but everybody’s favorite boo hoo girl was asked to take the last lap. But more on that later.

The show started off with a little competition where the contestants were asked to walk across a thin platform. Unfortunately it wasn’t the human contestants.  At first glance it appeared this could be a dangerous event, but after going back to the videotape I decided the distance from platform to mud was pretty small, plus the beam was carpeted.  It was a blue berber if you really need to know.

Surprisingly only two teams made it across; Teresa and Leroy in 5 seconds and Bill and Star in 16 seconds. In a very sweet move, Teresa gave Bill the Dog Bone Suite even though she won the event. She realized Bill missed his family, and one of the perks of getting the suite is getting to have pictures of your family surround you. It was very nice and touching.

The main contest was for each of the teams to choreograph a dance routine. There were some really cute routines most notably Lori and Andrew’s and Bill and Star’s. On the down side there were some truly embarrassing routines as well. Brandy and Beacon were a train wreck as were Laura and Preston. I thought Beth Joy grabbing Bella Starlet’s paws and walking around with her during the competition should have put them in the bottom three. Is it me or do others think this dancing thing probably goes on in their house every Saturday night?

In the end it was a no brainer because nothing was going to pry the last lap leash out of Brandy’s hand this week.

As far as controversy goes, there really wasn’t anything of note from the judging.

I’m still looking for more interaction with the dogs. Which reminds me…if you haven’t seen the video of the doggie dance routine shown at the bottom of this page, then you’re in for a treat!

Until next week…Stay!

If you don’t see the video, please click here.

Greatest American Dog moved to the Wednesday night time slot and the outcome was a bit controversial.

The dog bone challenge seemed easy enough last night. The owners had to predict if their fuzzy partner would take or leave an item placed on a plate six feet in front of them. This included steaks, sticks and tofu. In the end JD and Galaxy won and Travis and Presley sent to the dog house.

But the excitement in the show didn’t really start until the main event of last night’s show, centering around a one hour photo shoot with a professional animal photographer. The kink in the tail with this challenge was that each contestant had to select a word from a hat (i.e. love, curious, lazy, angry, etc.) that they had to have their prized pet capture on film.

There were some truly clever ideas. My favorite was Andrew peering through the telescope out at the world/universe, however it was Galaxy who won best in show for his portrayal of the word sneaky.

So the show came down to the worst three: Ron and Tillman exhibiting lazy, Brandy and Beacon showing love and Teresa and Leroy displaying the toughest word of the night, angry.

First the Tillman photo. Sure Ron was lazy and didn’t put any thought into his photo shoot, but if there was ever a dog made for the word lazy, it’s Tillman. I thought the picture was adorable and captured the word nicely, but then again I’m pretty lazy myself. The judge’s comment that this was the worst picture of a bulldog ever was totally unwarranted.

Brandy and Beacon had the word love, and I gotta be honest, the picture she chose wasn’t very good. It was Beacon sitting, looking up. If it was the word begging, it may have worked. If it were the words sit or stay it would have worked. But this picture for the word love? Not so much.

Leroy’s picture of an angry dog was marvelous, however let’s talk about the way in which it was obtained. Teresa, his owner, put snarl bands (i.e. a rubber band thingy) around his upper snout to make him look like he was growling. He did not appreciate having this done to him as evidenced by his reaction. This, coupled with the fact Teresa just annoyed the heck out of him throughout the shoot to get him to be angry made it difficult to watch. She did, however, get a great picture out of it.

So who should go? I thought Teresa and Leroy should go. The question I asked myself was, “Does the end justify the means?” In my book the answer is no. In the judges book the answer appears to be yes.

Since the judges were going strictly on the outcome of the pictures then surely Brandy and Beacon would be judged off, right? Not so, they chose Ron and Tillman to take the last lap! Granted, Tillman wasn’t very good at any of the events but he was a blast to watch. I’m certainly going to miss seeing him and his down to earth owner.

I think this was a mistake, but hey I’m just a dog loving blogger. Let’s just hope next week they’re going to let one of the annoying people hit the road. You all know who they are!

Note to the producers of the show: I want to see more dog. Outside of Tillman farting in the pool, was there any non-human action caught on camera? Get in there and re-edit the footage. Bag the human stuff and add the dog stuff. While I’m ranting…we don’t need a ten minute intro recapping everything that happened the previous week.

That said, I’ll still be back next Wednesday to watch more.

I know you have opinions…please keep sharing them below!

Greatest American Dog has switched nights from Thursdays to Wednesdays but remaining in the 8ET/7CT slot.  Hopefully that won’t affect your ability to view this week’s episode, number four in the series.

We’re down to nine contestants, and their relatively hairless owners. So who’s going to be taking the last lap tonight? Give me a second while I ask the dog in the sky to do all of us a favor, “Please, please have it be one of the annoying humans.”

Don’t forget to check out each contestants’ Dogster page and make sure to join the Greatest American Dog Fan Club to find out all the latest and greatest info.

Enjoy and we’ll do a recap tomorrow.