By: Allen Huang

The ugliest dog in the world is Scooter, a Chinese Crested dog. Scooter is seven years old and hairless except for white, rough hair on his head. His rear legs twisted backward. For some reason, Scooter’s tongue hangs out of his mouth all of the time.

The World’s Ugliest Dog contest is an event that is held in Petaluma, California. The event has taken place for 50 years. It’s part of the Sonoma-Marin fair. The best part of the contest is the fact it’s essentially an adoption center for dogs.

As much as the event sounds like it’s making fun of dogs, it isn’t. The true goal of the contest is to celebrate the ugly dogs and how creatures can be so different.

Nowadays, Scooter has a good life as a dog celebrity, but he wasn’t always this comfortable. At a young age, Scooter was at risk of becoming completely disabled due to his rear legs. Fortunately for him, a volunteer trained Scooter to do a trick that not many dogs can do: walk on his front two legs. He can even jump to get on a curb.

Scooter gets tired after walking on two legs. He rests by just sitting on his bottom, almost like a bored human. He was given a cart that attaches to his rear end so he can move more easily.