'Greatest American Dog': [Insert dog pun involving famous artist here]
I'm gonna be straight with you guys right now: I'm coming from a happy "hour" that lasted more than three hours, and I'm a wee bit buzzed. Plus, I'm totally sleep-deprived from staying up late to watch gymnastics. My theory is that it'll make Greatest American Dog 100% more enjoyable. Either that, or I'll start sobbing halfway through about how adorable the dogs are, and how much I wish I had a puppy. Could go either way.
We rejoin the trainers as they discuss Brandy's ouster. Travis's reaction to her absence: "Who am I gonna make cry every day, and then cheer up every day?" Oh, Travis. I love you mostly for your awesome dog and your good looks, but the sense of humor definitely doesn't hurt. If it doesn't work out between you and Laura, call me! Sadly for my prospects with Travis, those two are totally in love. It's cute.
Dog Bone Challenge: "Doggy IQ," in which dogs have to figure out how to get to treats on the other side of a wall. Bella Starlet rocks it hardcore, and Beth Joy admits that Bella Starlet took an IQ test once that implied Bella was smarter than she was. You took the words right out of my mouth, sweetie. Galaxy is also very speedy, but Andrew fails completely. Laurie says he just isn't food motivated, but he also didn't respond to her "go get it" command, so it seems like she's making excuses a little. Star, though, is twice as fast as anyone else. Bill, very fairly, chooses to give the Dog Bone Suite to Teresa, who gave it up to him last week. Aww.
Best in Show Challenge: "Salvador Doggy," in which dogs must create a painting that represents the bond between owner and dog. They'll be judged on creativity of concept and use of tools. Huh. At first I wasn't sure it had too much to do with training ability, but there's actually a lot of creativity and skill involved in getting your dog to paint a set design, it turns out!
Teresa has the use of a dog art instructor, who helps her out a lot with the use of stencils. The judges like the technique and definition in the painting, and we don't see Teresa mention that Bill allowed her to use an instructor. Bill is really worried about the challenge, and chooses to keep it simple. The final painting isn't too cohesive, but is very meaningful (if grade school-style). The judges thought it was predictable, and weren't sure he used enough techniques.
Travis also uses stencils, and the final painting is really nice. Lots of good, solid color, and a great, meaningful theme. The judges like it, but again aren't feeling the technique variety. Geez, how many ways are there to get a dog to paint? Beth Joy makes a crazy outfit for Bella Starlet (surprise!) with sponge shapes on it to paint with, and improbably enough, it totally works. The nickname "Pawcasso," however, does not, nor does her technique of putting paint on Bella's paws. Bella gets upset and yelps a bit, though the final result is okay. The judges really like it, but the other contestants feel like she didn't "work through" Bella's paw issues so much as force Bella through.
Laura comes up with an over-ambitious concept, and has some serious trouble carrying it out. In fact, it's pretty much a mess. The judges think it "sucks," and Laura immediately throws Beth Joy under the bus for making Bella Starlet cry. On the one hand, fair enough, that seemed awful. On the other hand, your painting was terrible because you couldn't figure out how to get Preston to paint, Laura, and plenty of owners managed that without upsetting their dogs. The judges agree, and think she could have done better. Beth Joy throws down when they get backstage, but no one claws anyone's eyes out.
Laurie, on the other hand, seems to do a great job getting Andrew to paint. The painting, though, is more like a diagram. A very well-made diagram, but a diagram nonetheless. The judges agree that it's more of a poster than a painting. J.D. has a bit of trouble with his initial technique concept, but the final painting is so chaotic that it almost works for me. The judges, however, disagree. They dislike that the words he used turned out completely scrambled, despite the positive spin he tries to put on it.
Teresa and Leroy win the challenge for a painting that reflected their relationship and used great symbolism. The judges give Beth Joy a chance to defend herself, and she tearfully says that she'd never do anything to hurt Bella Starlet. Travis, of all people, backs her up. Yes! Travis and Laura are SO over. I totally have a shot now! The judges name Laura/Preston, J.D./Galaxy, and Laurie/Andrew as the weakest. Laura and Preston are out, unsurprisingly. I'm bummed, but only a little. She clearly has a great relationship with Preston, but definitely got less cool as the show continued.
For the record, the unsurprising verdict: The show is waaay more enjoyable after a few drinks and little sleep. But, it also does make me want a puppy of my very own.
Is Beth Joy growing on you at all? Do you think the challenges really showcase the owners' training abilities and dogs' talents?
I dislike Beth Joy more each week, although her little dog is pretty cute.
I was surprised Travis defended Beth Joy, until my husband said he probably is one of those guys who can't stand it when women cry, so he just takes the side of whoever is the most visibly upset.
I totally thought Laura should have been booted off from the show. Even though everyone knew she would be booted off on episode six since words had spread the minute she got kicked off the show and was in isolation with the rest. Tabloids report things people!!! They have sources. But seeing as Laura is there only for the fame it's a good thing she is gone. She can't handle any confrontation and looks like a complete wuss idiot when being confronted. She likes to talk, talk talk about other peole but the minute you go to her to defend herself she rolls her eyes and looks scared and intimidated cause she can't take the heat. Good riddance to bad garbage...GOOD job judges!!!!!
I like the show, but saying a painting by a dog "sucks" is like critiquing the first painting by a blind 3-year old. A little harsh.
And no, Beth Joy has not grown on me. If I were her dog, I'd slap my paw across her face (quit dressing me up!)
I can't wait for the challenges to finally become 'real' dog-oriented events. Painting? Expessing emotions for the photographer? Who on erth comes up with those ideas? I hate the challengs completely - they are completely idiotic most of the time, and the only thing that gets me through the show is concenrating on watching the dogs and their relationships with their owners. All the dogs are adorable (yes, I'm a dog momma myself, and never yet met a dog I didn't like), and some are so much more funthen their humans. If I were to focus on the challenges, I'd turn the TV off after 5 minutes.
I think Travis was a moron for sticking his nose into the debate between Laura and Beth Joy. Granted Laura was a total ***** in how she behaved, but lets not forget that Beth Joy made Bella Star cry several times (that we saw), and then lied about it to the judges saying 'she HELPED her dog work through her issues". What a hypocrite. They both deserved to get kicked of. And it was very small of Theresa to not admit to the judges that this time Bill gave her the advantage (he had no qualms saying that and almost giving her credit fo their good performane last week). Shows you she is not even close to the cl*** of person Bill is. And I totlly love his relationship with Star. I hope they are the final winner.
I'm totally with Renata vis a vis the so-called "challenges". When CBS was promoting this show, they showed the actual physical events in which the dogs would compete, which is about as far from the actual nature of the show as you can get. Dancing with Doggies? Oh please! 'Painting' as an aspect of canine intelligence?
Get real! The find the meat competition last night was over in 15 minutes, leaving 45 minutes for the fluff piece. I was hoping for more and better before I watched an episode. This is just another so-called reality show based on the Survivor model that got old a long time ago.
I do think it would take a pretty smart dog to be able to learn what it takes to execute a painting, so i don't think it's a bad marker of dog intelligence, personally. I liked both challenges last night, much more than last week.
Overall, I just wish they'd stop trying to force feed us the formulaic reality plot and give us more dog stuff. It would have been really interesting to watch more of how they got their dogs to paint and how they came up with their 'concepts'. Also, Teresa's leg up trainer (Kirstin ?) who helped her with Leroy's painting was seriously hot and I don't understand why there wasn't a little more of THAT in the show last night.
I agree that Travis & Presley's painting was pretty amazing and I was really surprised. I definitely loved the cat drama between Beth Joy & Laura. Hilarious and seemed real enough, too. I dunno what they're gonna do next week, but if the challenges keep getting better, I'll probly watch but I am definitely getting sick of 18 minutes of dog stuff and 27 minutes of typical human reality show plot. Not the BEST call on CBS part.
So ridiculous that Laura is posting non-stop videos of her and travis on youtube. Gee, I wonder what she is trying to prove? All the publicity in the world will not work, she was kicked off of a bad not to be renewed channel 2 reality show. A taped reality show at that!!!
Yes, it is pretty pathetic to see the shameless promotion Laura does all over the internet. Everyone knows both her and Travis were late add ins to the show to fill the "hot girl" "hot guy" roles.
Well, I for one was totally blown away but appreciate Travis sticking up for Beth Joy (even though I can't stand her). He seems like a cl*** guy in my opinion. Bella Starlet's paws are sensitive, but it did not appear to me that she was being hurt, even though she sounded like it. The dogs are rightfully the stars in this show and it's fun to watch them, but as others have said, I think that the physicality is missing. I wanted to see dog tricks, not dancing and painting. It's more like how creative can you be with your dog rather than how well trained the dog is. Oh well, it's an hour of entertainment and with the lame TV that's on now that So You Think You Can Dance is off the air, it fills the void. Too bad they couldn't have been more true to their promos.
I would like to see either Travis or Bill win it all.
Oh, and it always seemed to me that Laura's "love" of Travis' dog was really fake. I'm sure she liked the dog, but she went overboard with it to try to impress Travis. Too bad - I started off liking her.