(lighthearted music) (lighthearted music continues) - [Host] Could I have Australian terrier #8, please.

(lighthearted music continues) - Fred Matuszewski is my husband.

He's an architect, and he has his dog, Mickey, who is an Australian terrier.

No, leave it.

Not your business.

(person laughs) No, not your business.

(car honks) Leave it.

Thank you.

Ah-ah.

And then we have Bridget, who is my dog, and she's a Glen of Imaal terrier.

Good girls.

It's more than just a beauty pageant.

When you have a dog that ends up going through all the dog showing, they're checking it against the standards for that breed.

And out of that, you end up with dogs that would be the best for reproducing.

You know, I'm boyfriend shopping.

(wondrous choral music) It is a very subjective sport.

When you go to a baseball game, if somebody hits a home run, it's a home run.

In this sport, you will have a judge who looks at a group of dogs, and they'll decide, "Yeah, this one may have that fault, that one has that, but I like this one better."

They are looking at each individual dog, and comparing it against the American Kennel Club, AKC standards for that breed.

Diet, exercise, nutrition, grooming, training for what to do in the show, the behavior within the show ring.

Because when you go into the show ring, there's protocol.

So you go in, you know that you're first going to stack your dog, the judge will come along, kind of look, then they'll tell you to go around.

In our case, both of these dogs are dogs that go onto the table.

As you put them on the table, you learn, put the front feet right at the edge of the table, because that way the dog is less likely to be moving around.

There's everything from, "What's the distance across the top of the head, what's the shape of it?

What's the distance from the set of the eyes versus the nose?"

So they're checking all of these things out.

They'll tell you, "Show me the teeth."

Then the judge runs their hands down the dog, feeling for the height to the length.

Each judge is trained on and tested on each breed, before they can go and judge them.

We usually try to bathe them the night before, have the car pretty much packed.

You're hauling a lot of stuff, so you have to think about the location you're going to.

Do I wanna take the trolley?

Or do I wanna take collapsible crates that I'm going to set up?

Oh, you are so handsome.

It's almost like, if you've ever gone camping, you develop relationships with different people, you get to know a lot of the same people, because you're usually from the same district area, and you're traveling around to the same shows.

So you get to see friends or faces that are familiar.

I'm in envy of a lot of the people who come to shows, because I do have a partner who's interested in it, and has the same passion.

And we've had people ask us, "Is it tough when both of you go into the ring at the same time?"

It's like, "No".

The only thing we have to watch is, that we can never have Bridget walking behind Mickey, 'cause then she wants to run up to her and play.

It's about them.

And that you're all having fun.

If you're not having fun, don't do it.

(Linda chuckles) (lighthearted surf rock music)