F&FFF: Who's a Pretty Dog Then?

For Feline and Furball (with Feathers) Friday:

Pepper and Cayenne - which one is prettier? It's hard to say. Partly it;s a matter of personal preference. Some people prefer long-haired dogs, some short-haired. But still, there are probably conventional standards of beauty for dogs. Does one of my dogs measure up better than the other?

The dogs themselves don;t care, of course, although they certainly compete for attention, especially Cayenne with here "aren't I cute? Pet me!" antics. And it's hardly one of the Great Questions of Our time.

The question arises because yesterday Pepper was professionally groomed for the first time in the year we've had her. The groomer had nothing but good things to say about her behavior, which surprised and pleased me. She is, after all, the standoffish one of the two dogs.

Of course she came away from her wash and brush-out with silky, fluffy fur. We think she looks terrific, and for the first time I noticed substle variations of beige and tan in her markings.

On the other hand, Cayenne can be pretty darn cute! And she's the one who gets most of the attention at the dog park. Is it the bandannas? Or the fact that she approaches people for attention, as Pepper does not?

All in all, I think Pepper is probably prettier, and Cayenne is considerably cuter. How's that for a diplomatic answer?

Karen

Update: shortly after posting this entry, I took the dogs with me to Fort Lowell where I took pictures for the Round Robin entry I'll be posting a few hours after this update (i.e., sometime Saturday morning). From there we went to the dog park, where Pepper was almost immediately attacked by another dog, twice, with no obvious provocation. The other dog's owner claims that it never attacks other dogs, but "these things happen." I found no blood on Pepper, but the other owner saw blood in her dog's mouth, which means that Pepper was in fact injured, although you can;t tell through the fur. She's now all muddy and matted, scarely more than 24 hours after a rather expensive grooming, and I hurt my finger trying to pull the other dog off her. Lovely. Pepper is not acting particularly hurt, but I'll have to bathe her, and use Betadine with the shampoo to help prevent infection.