Intergrooming Is The The Anti-Crufts
Crufts is a funny business isn’t it? Lots of dogs all groomed to high heaven and proud people who care more about their dog than their own personal hygiene. I have nothing against dog shows per se. People do what they like and that’s the wonderful thing about humans: we can find pleasure wherever we search thoroughly. Who would have thought that slowly modifying a species via our own brand of doggy eugenics, would yield such a fascinating panorama of real life freak beasts.
Apparently it was around 15,000 years ago when we first started getting friendly with wolves. We’ll never know when or why exactly of course, but you can see the sense in training a powerful killing machine to work on your behalf. The wolves benefited from the scraps humans left behind, so the wolves that were tamest and smallest would get closest to the humans. So it’s thought that they probably domesticated themselves to a certain extent. And of course the humans benefited from the protection and early warning the wolves would give them from other beasts and strangers. They may have also been used for warmth, there’s an old Australian Aboriginal term for a particularly cold night: “three dog night”. Whoever that primeval human was that first decided to pet a man-eater would not have seen this coming though. Intergrooming, short for intensive grooming, is exactly what you’d expect. It’s dog nuts going nuts on their mutts. Do what you like I say.
These shots are from Intergroom’s Creative challenge competition, in America of course. Although this is clearly a niche they managed to attract 3000 competitors. One day I pray it will overtake the stuffy atmos of Crufts. Let your creative bent go wild…. The leader of the intergroom pack is a lady called Angela Crump, she has won $1500 as prize money for clipping and coloring the fur of a dog to make it look like a grieving angel after abandoning her original showstopper when her mother died a few days before the competition. Enjoy these nutters handiwork….
Good hey?
