Don’t Let Your Kids Watch Show Dogs

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It’s very rare that I get involved with posts surrounding a movie negatively. I realize that people are very opinionated online and sometimes things are blown way out of proportion. However, this morning something caught my eye and after investigating further, I can honestly say Don’t Let Your Kids Watch Show Dogs!

I’ll explain more below…

Don’t Let Your Kids Watch Show Dogs

Show Dogs is a movie that has recently released in theaters (May 25th in the UK). The movie is described as:

“After a failed attempt to recover a stolen baby panda, police dog Max reluctantly teams up with a human FBI agent named Frank. A hot tip leads Max and Frank to Las Vegas for the world’s most exclusive dog show. To find the panda, Max goes under cover as a contestant to get the lowdown from his fellow canines. With help from their new friends, the crime-fighting duo must now foil another kidnapping plot and rescue other valuable animals from a gang of greedy smugglers.”

If that doesn’t seem innocent enough, here is the official trailer.

Looks cute, right? My boys sure thought so! But what the trailer doesn’t show you is that there is a hidden (well, not so hidden during the show) disturbing message.

Blogger, Terina from Macaroni Kid was invited along with her family, to see an advanced screening of the movie. She explains that while the movie was cute and funny in some parts, in one particular scene, the movie took a turn for the worst…

What could have been solely a fun movie for kids that would get my highest recommendation is damaged by a dark and disturbing message hidden, not so subtly between the fluffy dogs and glamorous parties of the show dog lifestyle.  As part of any dog show, contestants are judged on their abilities and physical attributes.  One part, in particular, is the inspection of the dog’s private parts.

And that isn’t all. The movie goes on to show just how uncomfortable the dog, Max is with this process and how his partner basically coaches him through it, telling him to go to his “happy place” during the private part inspection.

Here is how Terina explained it…

Since the inspection of the private parts will happen in the finals, Frank touches Max’s private parts to get him use to it.  Of course, Max doesn’t like it and snaps at Frank for him to stop.  Max is then told by the former champion, who has been through the process before, that he needs to go to his “zen place” while it happens so he can get through it.  More attempts are made by Frank to touch Max’s private parts, but Max is still having trouble letting it happen and keeps snapping at him.

Um, what?

Since when does this need to be highlighted in a KIDS SHOW? I get if they went into the competition aspects of being neatly groomed, pretty, well-behaved, etc. but come on, private part inspection? Even if that is really part of a pet competition couldn’t they have left that out?

The problem here is this: we are basically teaching our kids that IF they really want to win something (in this case the competition) they have to just deal with it and go to their happy place during such incident.

No. No. That is just not okay.

Apparently, this is referred to as”grooming” by predators.

If our kids are seeing this message in a movie they thought was so cute and innocent, why would they think any differently if someone were to try to touch them inappropriately?

Like I said, I don’t often get involved with this type of internet talk but this time, it seems to have gone too far.

I know I won’t be allowing my kids to see this show along with many other parents. I don’t think my kids will be missing anything. Despite the dark hidden message in this movie, the movie has received HORRIBLE reviews.

What do you think? Is this something you’ll be taking your kids to see?

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2 Comments

  1. I also haven’t seen the movie, but examining a dog’s testicles in a show is indeed actually part of showing. I’m not sure how much of this is just pearl clutching of someone who doesn’t know anything about showing dogs, how much is the people who wrote this film leaning this about dogs, and finding it funny and a lowbrow attempt at humor.

    This said, I don’t know how it’s handled in the movie, but I’m betting it’s not as nefarious as the article writer makes it out to be.

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