Crufts Dog Show Judges on Alert for Competitors in Makeup

Mar 12th 2010

Judges at Crufts, the world's largest dog show, are on high alert this year for canine competitors whose looks have been enhanced with cosmetics, reports the (U.K.) Telegraph. We're not talking blue eyeshadow or contouring blush, but the use of products such as hair removal creams and color dyes.

"Although competition rules do not specifically ban the use of cosmetics and other beauty treatments on dogs, they do forbid anything that alters an animal's appearance during dog shows, to gain extra marks from judges, who award prizes for entries that best match the 'ideal' characteristics of each breed," reports the Telegraph. Dog owners who show hairless Chinese crested dogs have been suspected of using "female depilatory creams" to rid their champion canines of excess hair. Owners of other breeds have been suspected of using lipstick, eyeliner and Clearasil acne cream.

The notion of using makeup on dogs is so strange that it's led one British veterinarian, Peter Wedderburn, to wonder, "What's next, dope testing?" "It seems bizarre to me that it happens at all: if showing dogs is about celebrating the health and vigor of animals, what does it matter if there's an occasional tuft of hair in the wrong place?" Wedderburn asks.