World's Ugliest Dog Contest

Chinese Crested owned by actor Dane Andrew of Sunnyvale, California, won the title in 2002 and is now in “The Ring of Champions”.

Rascal was so ugly that Jay Leno put him on The Tonight Show before he had ever even won, and he was cast in four horror movies, seen on The View, Last Call with Carson Daly, and The Insider.

Most of the competitors in the competition were also Chinese Crested, because the breed can exhibit exaggerated traits like a mohawk, bug eyes, and a long, wagging tongue.

[13] Pabst, a boxer mix owned by Miles Egstad of Citrus Heights, California, won the 2009 World's Ugliest Dog competition; Miss Ellie, a blind 16-year-old Chinese Crested Hairless, won in the pedigree category; Pabst beat her in a run-off for the overall title.

[15] Princess Abby, a chihuahua with "a hunched and peculiar walk due to that her back legs are longer than her front (which allows her to have moments of bipedalism), a missing eye, and mismatched ears", won the 2010 contest out of a field of 25 dogs.

Yoda, a previously abandoned 14-year-old Chinese Crested-Chihuahua mix with a malformed nose, "short tufts of hair, protruding tongue, and long, seemingly hairless legs", won the 2011 contest.

[20] The 2012 winner was Mugly, an 8-year-old Chinese Crested with a short snout, beady eyes, and several unkempt white whiskers, owned by Bev Nicholson of Peterborough, England.

In 2013 Walle, a four-year-old "huge-headed, duck-footed mix of beagle, boxer and basset hound" from Chico, California, beat 29 other contenders to win the contest after being entered at the last minute.

[23] The 2014 contest was won by Peanut (alternately named Opossum), a 2-year-old mutt believed to be a mix of Chihuahua and Shih Tzu.

In contrast to most of the contestants, Peanut's physical deformities, which include deformed lips and eyelids (which give the dog the appearance of a perpetual growl) and significant loss of hair, were a result of being abused as a puppy; owner Holly Chandler of Greenville, North Carolina rescued the dog from an animal hospital.

[24] Quasi Modo, a 10-year-old mutt with Dutch Shepherd and pit bull lineage, won the 2015 contest, narrowly beating two Chinese Crested/Chihuahua mixes.

[2] Martha, a 3-year-old Neapolitan Mastiff owned by Shirley Dawn Zindler of Sebastopol, California, won the 2017 contest.

Happy Face, a 17-year-old hairless Chinese Crested-Chihuahua mix who was adopted from a shelter in Arizona after being rescued from a hoarder's house, won the 2022 competition.

[30][31] The 2023 competition winner was Scooter, a seven-year-old Chinese Crested with reversed hind legs who uses a mobility cart.

[34] Wild Thang, whose prominent features include extremely long and unkempt hair, has competed in the competition five times; surviving distemper at a young age caused his teeth not to grow in, so that his tongue protrudes.

In 2011, the contest was the subject of an hour-long indie documentary entitled Worst in Show, produced by Don Lewis and John Beck.