Andy On Man's Best Friend
This segment was originally broadcast on February 26, 2006.
The following is a weekly 60 Minutes commentary by CBS News correspondent Andy Rooney.
Every year the Westminster Kennel Club holds the best dog show in the world in New York. There were 2,600 dogs entered this year, and we went to the show and talked to a lot of dogs and a lot of owners.
We liked the dogs best.
The actual judging takes place on the floor of Madison Square Garden. It's a lot more fun out back, where all the dogs are. I must have approached more than a hundred dogs, and I didn't meet one single mean dog.
They all seemed glad to see me. I wish you television viewers were this uncritical.
A lot of owners make fools of themselves over their dogs. They won't let them alone. They brush them for hours. It's not a tough life for a dog. The handlers do so much fooling around with them though that half the time you can't recognize what kind of dog it is.
Owners tie them up with little ribbons and, in general, make some of the dogs look ridiculous.
I kept thinking that maybe people should be kept away from dog shows. Just bring the dog and leave.
There were a lot of breeds I never heard of, too. Like the Egyptian Pharaoh Hound, the Irish Wolfhound, the Chesapeake Bay Retriever and others.
They're always looking for a lot of exotic breeds, like the Polish Lowland Sheepdog. One woman told me she went over to Poland to get hers four years ago,
Why would anyone go to Poland to get a dog? How do you say "Here Boy!" in Polish, anyway?
I grew up with an English bulldog — Gifford. We called him "Giffy".
The bulldogs weren't shown the day I was there. There was just one left in his cage.
The dogs don't seem to mind being cooped up. I think they like being where people can't get at them.
The winner was a dog named Rocky Top's Sundance Kid, known as "Rufus" around the house. They say he's a colored bull terrier. I know George Patton had one of these. I liked the dog better than I liked Patton.
Rufus seemed like a nice enough dog, but I don't know how they decided he was the best of all 2,600 dogs in the show.
I think dogs are more dependable. They make better friends than people make. Dogs don't disappoint you the way your people friends do.
By Andy Rooney