A red carpet ran the length of the Bay Breeze Park Pavilion, and one by one, dogs walked it like celebrities. A Bernese mountain dog came down the runway with a wooden barrel strapped under its chin, looking ready for an alpine rescue. A pit bull mix followed in a pinstripe suit with a white collar. A doodle arrived in the brown uniform and cap of a UPS driver, a cardboard parcel clamped in its costume paws, and worked the crowd on both sides.

The 25th annual Wildflowers Dog Show drew a heavy turnout, as it does every year, to the bayside pavilion in Barnegat…