Your dog can't talk and tell you what they think of being shown. I am pretty sure if your dog took you to a show and started evaluating you on your looks and abilities you might not be so comfortable with it. You can exercise your dogs brain without subjecting them to being judged. And yeah when your hobby is to take advantage of another living being it's not the most appealing to me.
You don't show the dog for its amusement. I just think it's degrading and I am glad less and less people are doing it. Like I said that is just my opinion.
I do not show Cavaliers but I have been to shows. I find a couple of problems because at the shows I've been to, I can not say that these Cavaliers were miserable. In fact they seemed extremely happy. The problem is when people read statements about showing Cavaliers sometimes one can miss some of the possitives. One thing like Sins and Holly said, it is important for breeders to evaluate and make decisions based on others. Like I say I'm not a breeder but from reading websites on buying a Cavalier, they say this is extremely important.
I went to a seminar on breed standard and one important thing the judges look at is if they are wagging there tail. I don't know how one can teach that but wagging tails always made me think they were happy. In fact the description of Cavaliers has a big importance of their temperment and general gay temperment.
This is from the two breed clubs in the USA
http://www.ckcsc.org/ckcsc/ckcsc_inc.nsf/Founded-1954/standard.html
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General:
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An active, graceful, well-balanced dog, very gay and free in action; fearless and sporting in character, yet at the same time gentle and affectionate.
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It is important to remember that a dog can have one or more of the faults listed in the Standard, in moderation, and still be an over-all typical, gay elegant Cavalier. On the other hand, bad temper or meanness are not to be tolerated and shall be considered disqualifying faults. It is the typical gay temperament, combined with true elegance and "royal" appearance, which are of paramount importance in the breed."
and
http://ackcsc.org/Club-Info/breed-standard.html
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GENERAL APPEARANCE
The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is an active, graceful, well-balanced toy spaniel, very gay and free in action; fearless and sporting in character, yet at the same time gentle and affectionate. It is this typical gay temperament, combined with true elegance and royal appearance which are of paramount importance in the breed. Natural appearance with no trimming, sculpting or artificial alteration is essential to breed type.
TEMPERAMENT
Gay, friendly, non-aggressive with no tendency towards nervousness or shyness. Bad temper, shyness and meanness are not to be tolerated and are to be so severely penalized as to effectively remove the specimen from competition."
Also like Holly said, besides Confirmation there are different types of competions. Agility, Rally, Obedience, and my favorite Freestyle. I love the video of the girl dancing with a Cavalier. I think one person got 2nd place at Crufts last year?