Skip before_filter in Rails
class Dog < Animal skip_before_filter :authenticate, :only => :showendSee ActionController::Filters::ClassMethods for more info on filters and inheritance.
The two answers given are half right. In order to avoid making all your dog actions open, you need to qualify the skip_before_filter to only apply to the 'show' action as follows:
class Dog < Animal skip_before_filter :authenticate, :only => :showend
For this you can use skip_before_filter
It's explained in the Rails API
In your example dogjust would have to contain
skip_before_filter :authenticate