Excluding what are known as companion dogs, like the Leonberger, most of the animals at the show were designed for a purpose that is no longer required of them. Dachshunds don’t hunt badgers, for the most part; schnauzers don’t rat. In Great Britain, foxhounds are legally barred from chasing foxes. Herding dogs, lacking flocks to shepherd, nip at kids’ heels in the park. Consider the fate of the otterhound, an ancient variety with a noble heritage which was once used in the U.K. to hunt river otters, which were prized for their thick fur and disliked by wealthy landowners because they ate fish in their stocked ponds. Otterhounds did their jobs well; as a result of hunting and environmental factors, otters were placed on a protected-species list in 1978. Now otterhounds are rarer than giant pandas. An otterhound named Fergus, whom I got down on the floor to hug, is one of only eight hundred left in the world. In this sense, Meet the Breeds was like a career fair for skilled workers whose skills aren’t needed in the modern era. One of the few dogs I met with an actual job was Flecka, a black Lab who is being trained by the N.Y.C. Department of Correction to sniff out contraband, including illicit electronics and narcotics, at juvenile-detention centers.