Throughout the piece and until the very end, Orlean uses personification to describe Biff’s behaviors and gestures in a very hilarious yet intellectual way. For instance, when giving a close up description of Biff’s appearance, she writes “Someone once told me that he thought Biff looked a little bit like President Clinton. Bill’s face is his fortune.” Or on his hobbies, she writes, “What Biff likes most is food and sex. This makes him sound boorish, which he is not-he’s just elemental.”

She succeeds in personifying Biff as somewhat of a good looking workaholic, who follows a rigid schedule, exercises to maintain body weight, and soon to retire from successful career. Biff the person is egotistical, self-centered, and selfish, “He thinks he’s very important and special. and he doesn’t like to share.” He is always on a schedule, traveling to shows around the country almost every weekend of the year, and doing something that prepare him for the competitions. But we never get to see much of his animal side until the very end.

“He wanted to go out, so Tina opened the back door, and Biff ran into the back yard. After a few minutes, he noticed a ball on the lawn. The ball was slippery and a little too big to tit in his mouth, but he kept scrambling and trying to grab it. In the meantime, the Truesdales and I sat, stayed for a moment, fetched our­selves turkey sandwiches, and then curled up on the couch. Half an hour passed, and Riff was still happily pursuing the ball. He probably has a very short memory, but he acted as if it were the most fun he’d ever had.”

In this moment, Biff the dog gets to enjoy the simplicities of life that most dogs experience on a daily basis. Retirement seems to be a good thing for Biff; he deserves a break from his ridiculously busy life. It’s this last paragraph that actually triggers the whole point of the article: let a dog be a dog. In fact, this is the only time where Biff seems normal. Since the very beginning, Biff has always doing something on the schedule that his owners already plan ahead of time for him, which makes it seem so weird when he actually does something that’s dog-like. To a certain extent, the whole concept of Biff, or the concept of Truesdales’s show dog business in general, seems ridiculous. I mean, they’re dogs.