Otterpop's Special Kentucky TSD Edition-Global fashion trends from the 2010 USDAA Cynosport World Games.

Uh oh. Look who spotted me ringside. It's Susan Garrett, fashion police. I got scared and tried to run, but she got me. While I did have the hat right, I forgot my doctor's mask. Everyone who's Anyone is sporting one of these at this year's Nationals. You don't even have to be Canadian.


Luckily, Susan Garrett and me are total agility pals, and instead of fining me, she gave me my own doctor's mask. Also because I'm pretty sure I still owe her money. She was probably just all, whatever. Give Laura the mask. I also had a pressing straight line/serpentine arm question about Team Standard. Whew. Good thing I ran into her. Thanks, Susan Garrett!


Here's our agility pal, Judge Dave. Dave hails from Northern California. He will still call your contacts even if he's your friend because he is a fair and honest judge. Usually we just call him Dave but this week, we're calling him Sir. Dave, I mean Sir, is wearing pants the color of dust. I would say, if you are coming here to watch any of the big finals, where you will not be seeing Otterpop in the Performance Grand Prix cut off since she just missed the cut off after a clean but second too slow time in today's semi-final, you would want to wear things the color of dust. Because you are going to be well coated in dust if you sit and watch a bunch of runs.


Here's our agility pal Leslie. Hopefully I'm not on Leslie's shit list, because I am not working any rings at this dog show. At our dog shows in California, sometimes I work nearly every class. Leslie knows this, because she's in charge of scheduling the workers at those too. At this one, I'm very busy wandering around with my camera, taking notes, or touring Louisville or relaxing in our luxury motel or running around in forests and parks. Leslie's job is to find every single worker to work all the ring jobs all week. This is very hard. Leslie is doing a bang-up job, and hasn't come after me once. Thanks, Leslie, Sorry! She's wearing a shirt the color of dust, for the same reason as Sir Dave. Also she is draped in fluorescent orange robes of silk, because she must have been promised a Queen-ship of a country somewhere to take on the volunteer coordinator job.


This is our friend Barbara and her dog Emma. They're from Portland, Oregon. Emma is a Bossie. Barbara helps keep me calm before my runs. She's gone to these dog shows like a million times. She's wearing the special grey shirt we were supposed to wear for Grand Prix semi-finals. I didn't know till just before I went into the ring that I was a lucky recipient of such a fancy shirt, so I just wore my lucky wolf shirt. Which wasn't lucky enough to give us a fast enough time to make the cutoffs for the finals. Not that I'm obsessing on that or anything. But now I'm all thinking, what if I was wearing the special shirt? Would Otterpop have speeded up that one second? A tighter turn? Faster a-frame? I think I needed the shirt.


There's our friend Kelly, and one of her dogs, Tucker, in her sporty shorts. Kelly comes from Indiana, which, for the geographically lame, is a state that actually touches Kentucky, so she is used to this kind of dust. She was my babysitter of not missing walk-thrus the first day, then she graduated me. Kelly's running 3 dogs, you have to be very organized to run multiple dogs of multiple sizes at this dog show. Kelly is willing to risk the dusty knees to wear the sporty shorts. She would probably counsel you though, be prepared to walk around with dusty butt prints on your ass if you sit down anywhere in the big arena. If Kelly had a crummy run like me and Otterpop's Team Standard, Kelly would still be smiling. We are going to try to be more like Kelly.


Here's our friend Amanda posing for her fashion photo in the clean library area of the dog show. Amanda has a VERY cute border collie named Tika, and drove down from Ohio, another state that touches Kentucky, for the dog show. This photo was taken on the first day of the dog show, so she has a really bright blue shirt. I saw her today though. She looked dusty and her shirt had turned dust color. She also looked very happy though. I think she must be doing a great job with Tika at the Nationals. I kind of have a feeling that Amanda wouldn't be cranky after a Team Standard run that was not one of her favorite runs ever. She would probably just brush it off and move on and try to learn something from the effort. Although I bet she had a great Team Standard with Tika.

Somehow I missed any photos of the Japanese teams. They TOTALLY beat the US in dog agility fashion, hands down. I will try to take some notes. I talked to couple of the handlers from Japan, but we didn't get too far past, Great Run. We will work on this tomorow. We will work on a lot of things tomorrow. I think mostly those getting off the startline nerves, so that Otterpop doesn't come off the startline again, and give me that look, and just be all, Whatever. And that if she does, I can get us back on track, and just be a little more, Whatever. I'm just going to wear something dusty.