We went to a dog show over the weekend. I earned a lot of compliments on my skillful handling of garbage bags. Apparently I have a gift in my ability to empty full trash cans, carry the bags to the dumpster, and fill up the cans with fresh bags. No one seemed to notice that I also expertly filled the soap dispensers in the ladies room, but I suspect that had anyone noticed, they would have seen that I executed this task with true excellence.

Everybody has to be good at something. Some people were so impressed by my garbage handling that they told me maybe I’ve found my niche. My true calling. My reason for being at dog agility.

So I can be the one taking out the trash.

I will say that Gustavo had a great jumpers run. Otterpop had 2 days of pretty good runs. She racked up a lot of Q’s. Of which I just don’t care. I only wish I could get her to run as fast and brilliantly as she runs everywhere else but in the show ring.

I wish this every time we go to a dog show.

If wishes were fishes, no one would ever need to eat donuts again.

Probably none of my dogs need to go to 3 days of dog shows. Gustavo actually thrived just doing a couple of runs, ones with mostly jumps and tunnels where all he had to do was follow me and run fast. He was so happy to play frisbee with me on the field and hang out and he seemed to have the swellest time of any of the dogs. He is going to just do jumpers and maybe an occasional snooker from now on. Maybe Otterpop needs to do the same thing, except she would only like to run tricky, twisty standard courses and gamblers. And I don’t know what poor Ruby needs to do.

Something spooked Ruby enough for her to claw her way out of her crate on the last day of the trial. Ruby doesn’t claw her way out of things, ever. She usually just sleeps away the day and snores blissfully. I thought she liked dog shows pretty swell too, until today. Her freakout happened right as I was stepping into a ring with Otterpop, and Ruby ended up tottering all blinky eyed through another ring looking for us. Drama ensued, ending with me not even being able to get Otterpop to step to the line in Team Snooker. We were both too worried about Ruby. Zero points. Not a good day, the team day.

There were some other dramatic moments. The last thing I need at dog agility is any drama. I do my best to avoid it in all areas of my life. And sometimes I can’t. Life goes on.

Today, I’m loving the grim irony that I take out the garbage at dog agility to help out the club, but also because it helps me afford dog agility. A means to an end. Except, it’s looking like the garbage is actually the thing that I’m getting good at. Every time I’m in charge of it, I get better and better. Learn some little tricks, buy the right amount of toilet paper, find the best sized poop bags on sale.

I thought I was stepping to the line with Otterpop just the same way I step up to that trash can. Smile on my face, relaxed, and ready for a great time. Actually, that’s way easier to do stepping to the line with the dogs than with the trash can. Sometimes the garbage stinks and has stickiness. I guess Otterpop does too, but I don’t mind so much. But our good results are with getting the trash into the dumpster instead of having fast runs. And I don’t care about garbage. Honestly, it’s disgusting. And people are assholes for sticking their cans into trash bags when the recycling bag is RIGHT THERE, PEOPLE.

Thing is, I don’t want to be a champion janitor. I am actually trying to be good at dog agility.