Look at how the breed is the poster [dog]child for this bottom shelf dog food:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/82328600@N00/2109352089

One day, lacking alternatives, I grabbed the canned dog food w/ the ugly Shepard mug on the label and attempted to give it to my Labrador.

He looked at the goop and he said “I’m not touchin’ that. That’s some poor people sh*t right there.”

So I mixed in some lunch meat.
He continued to ignore it before finally lamenting:
“I realize that we’re at different levels, you know, socioeconomically. America is such a caste-dominated nation.”

So then I hit him and said “enough talking dogs.”

Most Americans are slavish Anglophiles (and by extension, Scotophiles). We’re terrified of seeming ‘nouveau’, so we camouflage ourselves in Harris Tweed & galoshes & whatever else we’ve seen in the movies. (Think Yiddish/ Dress British.)

I’m currently a postgrad at a university where a disturbing number of the student body dress ‘aspirationally’. Which is not to say ‘well’ or ‘stylishly’ but rather in the finest tradition of dedicated fashion victims (red trousers? I mean… really? If a daughter of mine ever brought a chap back wearing red trousers it would be straight off to the nunnery) or more bizarrely, yet more often, like rural landlords of various sorts; wellies, tweed and body warmers. I suppose the intention is to look like they might rush off and start shooting pheasants at a moment’s notice, but after adjusting you realize it only serves to help identify the people rich and silly enough to buy a whole new wardrobe premised upon the mistaken belief that Scotland is some sort of rural hinterland. I’d like to say they were all Londoners, but a disturbing number seem to be American.

Since only those who suffer from chronic status-anxiety would think of dog breeds in such terms, I suppose that “aspirational breeds” are ANY breeds favored by your social-betters— monkey-see, monkey-do. You study the aristocracy, then ape their choices— Corgi, Dachshund, Pug, whatever.

Westminster might consider adding a new group– Non-sporting group… Hound group… Aspirational group…