Getting your dog groomed isn’t too weird. If you have a breed with long hair, or if your pooch just likes to get into gross situations, you’re probably acquainted with a groomer. However, because humans are the way they are, you shouldn’t be too surprised when some people take dog grooming to a strange new level.

And we mean really, really strange.

Behold the craft of creative dog grooming, in which dogs — who are hopefully blissfully ignorant of the whole thing — are dyed and styled to resemble, well, anything. As you can see here, people have styled these dogs to look like everything from the cast of the Muppets to an undersea scene, along with other pop culture favorites.

Hershey, Pennsylvania, is home to the largest creative grooming competition in the U.S. It is at the competition where owners turn their dogs into walking pieces of art. The human competitors can spend months developing and honing their designs, using water-based vegetable dyes — non-permanent and non-toxic — and a variety of styling tools to transform their dogs. They’ll also use props and perform short skits during the competition, doing anything to wow the judges.

The most popular breed used to inflict perform these mind-boggling makeovers is the poodle, thanks to its thick, sculptable fur. Many humans see this craft as no different from creating a sculpture from wood or stone, and spend hours perfecting the details of their designs. Much of the transformation from dog to art piece actually happens in front of the judges, so the competitors must showcase their skills live.

http://youtu.be/Xr9za9nBxdQ

There’s no word about how the dogs feel about all this, but the people who partake in these competitions do treat their dogs with utmost care and compassion. Perhaps being dyed rainbow for a few days is a decent trade-off.