Ron and Tillman are expelled on Greatest American Dog
This week’s episode of the Greatest American Dog was all about personality. And it was about the personality of the dogs, not the owners. I think that in itself could be another show.
The dog bone challenge was designed to find out how well the owners knew their own dog’s personality. The “take it” or “leave it” challenge had the owners predicting what their dog would do when presented with certain temptations. All nine teams competed at the same time.
The first item was a piece of steak. All of the owners said their dogs would take it, but Laurie and Andrew, Ron and Tillman, and Beth Joy and Bella Scarlet were eliminated because the owners were wrong about it. The next item was a stick. Star and Bill, Teresa and Leroy, Travis and Presley and Brandy and Beacon were eliminated in this round. The final round had Laura and Preston and JD and Galaxy going head to head for the golden bone. The dogs were shown a piece of tofu. JD said Galaxy would take it while Laura said Preston would not. Preston in fact ate the tofu and this gave JD and Galaxy the win and the luxury suite. The team that JD decided to send to the dog house: Travis and Presley. Travis really wasn’t too surprised but said that since he grew up on a ranch this was like going home to him.
The owners are told about the elimination challenge. They would be doing a photo shoot the next day and would have a word that they would have to represent in the photo. They selected the words randomly from a basket and this is who got what:
JD and Galaxy – sneaky
Bill and Star – stubborn
Beth Joy and Bella Scarlett – mischievous
Teresa and Leroy – angry
Laurie and Andrew – curious
Travis and Presley – joyous
Brandy and Beacon – loving
Laura and Preston – regal
Ron and Tillman – lazy
Bill was really worried because he said he wasn’t creative and this was out of his comfort zone. Teresa was really worried about getting Leroy to look angry so Laura told her about snarl bands – bands that are put in a dog’s mouth to hold back their lips and give them a really nasty look. Teresa said she would try to do it without hem bout if she had to resort to them she would.
The next day the owners go to the Miau Haus Photo Studio where they would have one hour with a professional photographer to capture the picture. It would be up to the owners to pick what photo to use, and the photographer gave no suggestions on posing or props. Surprising to Bill, he and Star were able to come up with a great idea for stubborn. Teresa had to resort to using the snarl bands to capture an angry picture, and Brandy breaks down because her Beacon really wasn’t in the mood to pose.
The team named best in show was JD and Galaxy. Their theme was sneaky and JD was able to use some rocks and dirt as props to get Galaxy looking like he was sneaking through the bushes. The judges liked it so much it will be featured in an upcoming issue of Dog Fancy magazine. The judges also really liked the pictures of Star, Andrew, and Bella Scarlett. They were split on the pictures of Travis and Presley.
The bottom three teams were Ron and Tillman, Brandy and Beacon, and Teresa and Leroy. The judges thought that the picture of Tillman was the worst photo of a bulldog they have ever seen and that Ron used little imagination to portray the idea of lazy in the photo. Brandy and Beacon’s picture was ambiguous. You couldn’t tell what the dog was trying to portray. One of the judges said it looked as if the dog was waiting for the next command and the picture showed obedience not loving. Teresa and Leroy were there because the judges were not pleased at all about her using the snarl bands. They were described as inhumane and potentially harmful for the dog.
In the end it was Ron and Tillman who were eliminated. Tillman, ever the skateboarder, gave the judges his own personal salute as he took his final pass after being expelled from the canine academy – he farted.
Some interesting dynamics were taking place. Brandy got very jealous when she watched Travis flirting with Laura, asking her if she had a boyfriend. And then at the end when Brandy and Travis were talking in the green room she was lamenting about her photo. Travis started to try and say something when she cuts in and says (it’s a quote – I played this back a few times on TiVo to make sure) “can we focus on me” and was really po’d that Travis didn’t talk only about her.
Personality. It isn’t just with the dogs in this house.
Read these other great entries