Fans and spectators at the 2018 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show are irrefutably fuming after a tiny cloud (bichon frise) by the name of Flynn took out the gong for Best In Show, nabbing the top dog spot from crowd favourite, a little pug named Biggie.
Here’s Biggie! #WKCDogShow pic.twitter.com/MqRJKOxZqW
— Westminster Dog Show (@WKCDOGS) February 13, 2018
According to AP, when the announcement was made that Flynn had won the annual event, the crowd fell into a “stunned silence” after chanting Biggie the Pug’s name.
It’s never going to end up being a good time when the underdog (so to speak) pips the favourite off the winner’s podium – or in this case, the dog pen – and theories abound as to why, exactly, people are so shirty about Flynn’s big win.
The 142nd #WKCDogShow Best in Show winner is Flynn the Bichon Frise! pic.twitter.com/syeNACZTAR
— Westminster Dog Show (@WKCDOGS) February 14, 2018
Knew the Bichon Frise had it (and what a good boy) but man did I want Biggie to take it home #Westminster #dogsaresports
— Katie Nolan (probably) (@katienolan) February 14, 2018
https://twitter.com/JamesHarden5/status/963636839243485184
https://twitter.com/LWOSJohnBava/status/963634893539463169
Dr Philip Muskin, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Centre, told Mashable:
I think we tend to invest ourselves in all sorts of things. Dogs being these creatures in whom we see ourselves in many ways, we attribute things to dogs that are just not there, but we wish to see those things there.
Muskin reckons that Biggie’s “cute little baby face“, common to all pugs, is what made the crowd go ga-ga for him – he reminds us of a little kid. And the bichon frise, he says – well… “It’s basically a cotton ball. There are a lot of features you can’t see in the dog.“
rude.
As for our inexplicable disappointment at Flynn’s victory, Muskin explains that we feel like our favourites “in some way represent us“.
If my choice loses, I’ve somehow lost. If my choice wins, I’ve somehow won.
Or we all just really, really love pugs a lot. Either way: congratulations, Flynn: the official best dog in America. Good boy.
