Also featured were some nifty kiosk-style interactive computer screens with information.

Nice graphics.

Well lit, displayed trinkets from throughout history

[Hubley Manufacturing Company of Lancaster, PA manufactured these cast iron Boston Terrier doorstops and sold them door to door. Boston Terriers were America's most popular dog in the late 1930's]

 

 

 

This very static display of wolves seems a bit archaic and out of place compared with the more interactive, modern displays .

One also has to wonder - are they stuffed?

Who Let The Dogs Out?

The biggest problem with this whole show? There wasn't a dog to be found. Not outside, not inside, not anywhere. The most popular pet in the universe, man's best friend, and we did not see one actual live dog. It was as though we were looking at an exhibit about Martians and the possibility of them living in outer space. Here's what we think a Martian looks like. Here is a recreation of the Martian habitat. Martian food. Martian offspring.

 

Dressed in simple costumes, and fighting to remember their lines and song lyrics, the two performed a loosely pasted together story interspersed with facts about dogs. Reasons that dogs sniff each other, [they have scents glands 'back there'], how dogs can hear so well, and some other semi-fascinating facts.

The theme song, which we're still humming:

"You can depend on Man's best friend / He does it all/ When duty calls/ He'll never faulter / He'll never whine / He's Captain Canine."

You could feel the audience waiting for an actual dog to appear.

It never did.

After 15 excruciating minutes, we left the show, and continued on to a few other areas.

One exhibit was designed to give participants a "dog's-eye" view of of the world. Using expensive looking projection TV's and clear glass screens built close to the ground, visitors could sit and 'feel' like they were a dog. The kids I observed were less interested in watching Fido run through streams and dirt trails, and more interested in reaching into the mechanism and making shadow puppets in front of the screen. I'll bet the designer of that exhibit is pulling his hair out.

Another exhibit showed a statue of a dog digging through garbage, making a thin attempt at conservation, recycling, and keeping your trash cans closed. There was a short mention of spaying and neutering your dog, and then there was the exit. We got dogged out into the hallway, into the Dog Shop...

...which was nothing more than a small merchandise cart with a VERY limited supply of dog gifts. On a scale of 1-10, the shop was about a 1.5

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While it may have been designed with some flow in mind, the DOGS show never quite works.

In the first room, they showed an excavation of some ancient bones of a young boy lying on the ground with his dog. Next to that, a small turn-of-the-century photograph shows a dead boy being posed with his pet dog - a common practice so reads the description. Really? Where? Very disturbing. And sort of out of place. This is how you want to start your exhibit about Dogs?

 

Sure, it's easy to sit back and play the arm chair critic. But honestly. Exposition Park has a huge, grassy lawn right in front of the museum. Could they have a demonstration of those Frisbee catching dogs? Megan suggested a small scale dog show might be of interest.

How about the puppies that get trained to be seeing eye dogs? We saw a group of them and their trainers at a pumpkin patch last year. We pet them, and talked with their foster parent/trainers - it was really neat.

What about allowing visitors to bring their dogs? Sure, Jim. How many different law suits can we dream up just with that one notion? Dogs barking. Dogs fighting. Dog biting. An 87 year old law which states 'No Dogs May be Allowed in Public Buildings.' Okay, don't bring the dogs.

But it needs dogs. It would be like going to the Harrah's Automotive Collection and seeing only pictures of the cars. It doesn't work.

In fairness, Sunday, November 3rd, will feature something called DOGS Festival -- "dog-related activities for the whole family from working dog demonstration and mobile pet adoptions to dog crafts and games"

That's good. I would have scheduled activities each weekend. Certainly on opening day.

 

The admission to the museum allows a patron entry into all of the museum spaces. Along with the rooms filled with gems, dinosaur bones, historical relics, and mounted animals, we were also allowed to go into the other temporary exhibit Baseball As America which opened in this past September.

Although we're far from sports or baseball fans, we decided to check it out.

Continue to 'Baseball As America' exhibit