Calling all underdogs!
A Greenpoint bar will celebrate the new law allowing pooches into eateries and watering holes on Nov. 8 with a dog show that eschews pedigrees in favor of everyday mutts and mongrels.
“We want the kind of dog you’d like to sit down and have a beer with,” said Jamie Hook, who is organizing the Brooklyn Mutt Show at the Diamond on Franklin Street. “We don’t want a hoity-toity dog that puts on airs.”
The bar agreed to host the show before Gov. Cuomo signed off on the Dining with Dogs bill on Oct. 27, but the new law came as a welcome surprise to Hook, as he can now advertise the event without fear of catching the attention of health inspectors, so he decided to make it part of the party.
“We had no idea that this hilarious thing was going to happen with such force of kismet,” said Hook, who is bringing the show to Brooklyn after a successful test run at his Maine art center.
Owners can enter their flea bags into the contest for a $10 fee, which Hook says will go to the Brooklyn Animal Resource Coalition Shelter in Williamsburg.
A panel of judges — a vet, a rescue center volunteer, and a pet disco host — will then judge the mutt-testants on their “proletarian demeanor,” as well as smell, obedience, their how well they protect their owner against a cardboard burglar cutout, and self-control in the face of a urine-beckoning fire hydrant.
But the beauty of the contest is that there is no way to bark up the wrong tree, said Hook — the judges may view a pup who proudly pees on the hydrant just as favorably as a pooch who turns up his nose, and a hilariously disobedient dog would probably score higher than a well-trained fuddy-duddy, he said.
And because the pageant is ultimately about inclusivity, purebreds are still welcome to compete — so long as they have some quirk or defect that sets them apart from the stuffy Westminster Kennel Club crowd.
“If you have a German Shepherd that has bad hips, please enter them into the competition,” said Hook.
Brooklyn Mutt Show at the Diamond (43 Franklin St. near Calyer Street in Greenpoint, (718) 383–5030, www.thedi
