On Friday, we introduced you to Donna McDermott and her partner Terry Warnock who were headed from rural Washington state to New York City to show in Westminster for the first time. But they ran into problems with their travel plans. In the hours before her first appearance at the big show, McDermott describes what happened and her first reactions to hitting the big time with her Icelandic sheepdog Rassa.

 See more of our ongoing coverage the furry underbelly of the Westminster Dog Show.

Dog owners and handlers are busy making furry pieces of art out of their pooches, at the Westminster Dog show taking place at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Some owners claim that even a single stray hair can upset the look. They are prepping for the ring where dogs are judged from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday and Tuesday.

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Tummy, a Bichons Frises, get a final trim at the Westminster Dog Show on Monday, Feb. 14.

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Rod Connors, left, and Delana Severs put the finishing touches on Micah, a Standard Poodle from Niantic, Conn.

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The back of a Bearded Collie becomes art during grooming.

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A Poodle's back takes shape.

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Two-year-old Brigo-Doon, a Long Coat Chihuahua, weighed only 0.9oz at birth. His owner, Ken Stowell, fed her with a small plastic tube for the first two weeks.

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"Isn't he gorgeouse?" Dwight Eubanks of Atlanta, Georgia, asks about Coal, his Chinese Crested. "When he shows, he looks just like a pony."

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A handler shows a Borzois in the ring at the Westminster Dog Show, Monday, Feb. 14.

Westminster Dog Show judge Doug Johnson explains how judges evaluate dogs against the American Kennel Club standards. Johnson, from Bloomington, Ind., has bred two best-in-show winners, in 1996 and 2009. Heathers a Little Night Music, a bloodhound, poses for Johnson's explanation. Click below to play the video.

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Navigating the morning rush, Pat Martello, left, and Terry Jones carry Posh and Buster, a Havanese and Shih Tzu, across Seventh Ave. toward Madison Square Garden for the 135th Westminster Dog Show in New York City on Monday, February 14.

The Westminster Dog Show is underway! Go here for ongoing behind-the-scenes coverage of Westminster.

Approximately 2,500 dogs are arriving in NYC for the 135th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.  Hotels around the city are making accommodations for their furry guests' comfort, and on the city streets, there are more four-footed pedestrians than usual.

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Ed Casey from Boston walks his Pug, Cody on Sunday. Casey and Cody are sharing their hotel room with two other people and nine other dogs.

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Ilsa, a Bermese Mountain Dog from Kent, Connecticut, christens the crosswalk at West 37th St. and 7th Ave. just outside Madison Square Garden where tomorrow's Westminster Dog Show will take place.

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Trump, an 18-month-old Havanese from Southwick, Mass. checks out the potty-break area in the lower lobby of the Hotel Pennsylvania. "He is the goofiest, happiest dog," says his owner, Karen Duprat, "He makes me laugh all day with the stuff he does."

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Dougherty, a 10-year-old Chinese Crested from Raleigh, North Carolina, is a two-time veteran of Westminster.

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Chitawee's Jest in Case, also known as Casey, a French Bulldog from Southwest City, Missouri, chills out on the lap of his owner, Kathy Clayton, in the lobby of the Hotel Pennsylvania on Sunday, Feb. 13, the day before the start of the Westminster Dog Show. "He's not even two years old," Clayton says, "You can have a great show dog, but he can be a butt. This guy just loves everybody."

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Professional dog handler Polly Lamarine shares her room at another dog-friendly hotel with her Pug, Silvertown Dyn-O-Mite and nine other dogs. Lamarine has handled dogs in every Westminster Dog Show since 1965.

Check back Monday and Tuesday for our exclusive, behind-the-scenes coverage of the show.  

As part of our ongoing coverage of Westminster, watch the video below to meet the six new breeds that will be making their Westminster debuts in 2011 now that they have been recognized by the American Kennel Club. You'll see a Boykin Spaniel, a Bluetick Coonhound, a Redbone Coonhound, a Cane Corso, a Leonberger and Rassa, the Icelandic Sheepdog from Vashon Island, Wash., that we first introduced you to in the first entry in this series, here.

Dogs like Kol and Rassa, two energetic fur balls from a Vashon Island, Wash. farm, have never been seen before at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.  That’s because in the 135 year history of the competition, Icelandic Sheepdogs have never competed.  Kol and Rassa’s owners, Donna McDermott and her partner Terry Warnock are going to change that.  

McDermott and Warnock are packing up their dogs and leaving their farm on an island a ferry ride away from Seattle and heading for the Big Apple for their first Westminster experience.  "We've heard that it's crazy," Warnock says, "there are so many dogs and it's such a big dog show and it's in NYC and there's not really any outside area or places for the dogs to go run."

The women, both retired probation officers, stumbled into dog shows.  When Kol was a puppy, McDermott used to take her to work at a juvenile correction center in California.  "She was trained by the juvenile hall girls and we accidentally got into showing because we trained her to do tricks," McDermott recalls.   "Then they begged me to take her to a show, so I took her to a show and she won a little blue ribbon. So then I took her to another show and then I got the bug."

McDermott and Warnock say they have mixed feelings about the upcoming show. "I've never been to NYC so i'm actually a little nervous about, it," says McDermott. "We've heard there's just people everywhere you go and we'll be right down in Madison Square Garden.  We've heard when you go outside you kind of get mobbed and I think it's going to be a really fun adventure and I also think we'll be very happy to get back home."

Msnbc.com will be following Donna McDermott, Terry Warnock and their dogs Kol and Rassa as they arrive in NYC and head to the dog show.  We’ll also be filing regular updates from other stuff happening behind the scenes at Westminster right here in Photoblog.