thinking ahead

hard part about planning out litters for the next few years, is crap happens.

And you're back to square one.

And it's a suck ass place to be.

But sometimes it fixes itself easily.

Emailed Wizard's owner about Dei. . he'd already said I could use the handsome Wiz, I adore this dog, he's very sweet and well mannered, and keen as hell. I still laugh at the memory of him grabbing the bunny at the end of a Notra trial and racing towards the box with it tryign to figure out how to get in so he could do it agian. THAT's what Dei needs. He's also handsome, moves nicely, and holds his tail low, beautiful head and feet. And same pedigree as Grins basically, so would be what I wanted.

Bonnie plans on using Grins at least one more time, even if this one takes, and I'm going to talk to her about getting one of those puppies instead of Criven's. . .I got Grins for a reason, and it would suck not to have something of his to move on with.

Just means back to square one with Gossip, but she's only 3.5, so not like it's imminent lOL

good to be a breeder

having a crappy, depressing moment in my life, depressed about Grins, depressed about Gossip and angry at myself for not having done the surgery earlier, even tho she's coming along well. Depressed that when the best Mir son that came along was offered to me, I couldn't keep him(tho if I knew I'd be placing Sage I would've), tho I am so damn thankful Nancy offered him to me.Have known her for 12 yrs now, longest friend I've had in Borzoi, and I appreciate her friendship, advice and just shoulder to lean on soo much. One of the best people there are in Borzoi, she really is.

Not to say Sammy isn't in a great home, he is, but that doesn't stop me from being jealous wishing i'd been able to keep him.

But, on to my point, with it being so depressing right now, it's so nice to get notes like these. .

"You'd never know that leg was ever broken, hes fast as a whippet and strong as an ox. Maui is loving and very sweet and laid back but likes his space. Dickie is like Loki and is ALWAYS stuck to me like glue..which means now I have TWO laying on my legs at night (workin on that blood clot for me! VBG) altho Dickie has been known to climb up and try to lay on my HEAD....and I never get to shower or pee in private."

And then from my sister who's had her borzoi one whole month lOL

"Anyways- sooooo.... When are you th inking of breeding Sage? *SNORT* I want one of her puppies!"

And then from Bob's mom

"He's doing great ! I've been dating a guy that has a 4 yr old black lab so he now has someone to play with.......... someone that can
"almost" keep up to him. :) He's been such a good dog to have...great with the kids. Although he does like to kill dumb rabbits that
get into his kennel once or twice a year :)"

Out of 41 puppies placed, only one went to a scumbag, two went to people who don't appreciate the gift I gave them. . but the rest of the owners are all gems. .
Makes you glad to be a breeder.

yet mroe depression

Grins has been visiting a Repro vet with a friend who wants to use him, unfortunately the quality of his spermies is not as high as it should be :(

I hope it's just he isn't used much(this would be his second litter and hes' 5.5), and that it'll improve when he goes back in on Monday. .. but this is so depressing, since I want to use him on Dei next year :(

Bad bad dogs & plans

Ever had a week where it felt like your dogs were out to kill you?

It's 5 wks post op for Gossip's toe, so I took her, alone, to the front pasture, knowing she wouldn't run full out, but that she would frolic. She did pretty much that, sticking to my side as I walked, moving occasionally out then cantering back to me. Only full out galloped a handful of times for about 100-200 ft, but I couldn't tell if she was gimpy because of the toe hurting or because of those damn wild roses in the pasture.

So I turned and headed back to the top of the hill, at which she opened up and ran to the gate, and the cantered back to me. Still looking good(and she's muscling up quickly, amazingly). I put on her leash, and we moved over to the agility equipment. The jumps have been taken down for the winter, as has the tunnel, but the dog walk and teeter are her two favs. . she zooms over the dog walk, zooms up the aframe. I tell her stay, go to the other side, and call her down.

Now, she usually comes down, twirls and wags her tail at me, sometimes sitting, this time, she took off.

I've got Asthma, and, humans are not made to go 35+ miles an hour, but I race after her, as she bolts towards the puppy yard where Boris & Peter are barking at her. Now, unlike most of Bonnie's dogs, Gossip thinks fence fighting means race your partner up and down the fence line, and that's what she did, while i watch, heart in my throat, terrified she was goign to tear off down the driveway towards the road, as she loops once, twice, three, four, and that's when I lost track. It felt like forever, but it wasn't long(the walk and this fiasco together was only 30 mins) before she comes trotting towards me, tongue hanging out, going boy, mom that was fun!!

And no limp. .tho today she's slightly off on that foot. . .but it's nothing obvious unless you're really looking for her

Argh, I wanted to kill her.

THEN, Grins.

Now, Grins has been visiting a beautiful older woman this week, but nothing was coming of their tryst, no matter how hard he tried, so they had a visit with a specialist and a turkey baster. His lovely lady lives at the top of the hill where Gossip currently resides, so when I come down that hill, Grins is all agiggle, thinking he's goign to get to visit his girl again. He's a bouncing, and a clacking, and a smiling, and just being a total nitwit. I go in, call him to me, check his teeth(Very little plague at 5.5 yrs old, I wonder if it's because of all that smiling and clacking he does), and then put food 1st in Umbra's bowl, then move over to Grins

As I bend down to put food in it, the idiot dog turns and wacks me, right in the eye, with his damn wagging tail . .

Don't know if you've ever been lashed with hundreds of hair across your eyeball, but it FREAKING HURTS!! OMG!! Does it hurt. sixty minutes later, and my eye is still watering maddly and hurting. . . and did he have the common decency to check on mom, nope, he had his head in the foodbucket, his lady love totally forgotten.

One more month til Touchet's due in season. . .haven't gotten into the excited anticipation yet, so worried that nothing will come out of this attempt. Hate to waste the money, but there's nothing on the East coast that tickles my fancy like this boy does.

OTOH, thinking of fall back plans, I still want a litter by Wings, and I have the possibiilty of leasing a lovely, unrelated, running girl. .. and I could do a dual sire litter, this one would be more expensive, as I'd do surgical and implant one boy in each horn of the girl's uterus to insure puppies from both.

::Sigh:: Wish I was rich and had a huge chunk of land. . so I could do these breedings I want, and not lose these boys.

VENTING

why oh why don't people look up references of people they sell or buy dogs from?

I mean, COME ON. . we're there to help YOU out, to help YOU not get screwed, why do people ignore this?

Case 1) Big name OB(Other breed) person sells a puppy to scumbag Borzoi breeder, then sells her two more, without bothering to check up on her, without bothering to call BCOA or NBRF to find out what kind of person she is. Now it looks seriously like there's been a falling out, why? I'm giong to assume cuz Scumbag bred her barely 1 yr old male OB to her older girl. . .typical of Scumbag Breeder. . .and if Big Name Breeder had asked around, she'd've been TOLD so.

Case 2) Breeder breeds to a dog I bred, without coming to me to ask what health problems/structural faults are behind him, has a large litter, and OMG, every single structural fault I could've told them would appear(Dam has the faults, and the sire's dam's line has the same faults) haev shown up in that litter. . .and I could've told them that. .if they'd asked. This same scenario plays on over and over and over. heck, even when you do ask, it sometimes will bite ya in the butt anyway, BTDT, but at least you ASKED!!!

Case 3) Breeder is contacted by a puppy buyer of mine, who speaks highly of me, but do they contact me to ask me about puppy buyer? No. Thankfully, this is a wonderful puppy buyer I'd recommend to the gods if need be, but you just never know.

Case 4) breeder sells a puppy to a buyer out of state, without asking friends if they know this person, or doing a homecheck. Puppy is returned a year later in horrid shape, so underexercised, because puppy'd been living in an itty bitty run, no proper excercise, lots of forced excercise(long walks).

Case 5) Buyer goes and buys a puppy from breeder X. . .without askign for referrals from people who've sold or purchased a dog from breeder, including a friend that had. When given people buyer NEEDS to talk to about the Breeder, refuses to. . .

and the list goes on. . .then there's the people who do ask for referrals and then go and buy the dog anyway, only to come back and go, I'm sorry, you told me so . .. ARGH

And there's the people you DO ask, who say nothing, even tho they know bad things, because they're afraid. Instead of sending you on to someone who CAN give you the truth, they clam up. .

COME ON PEOPLE. It's for the betterment of the dogs and the breed and to encourage new people to come into the breed. if they come in, get hooked up with a scumbag and get hurt, they may leave the breed, and sorry, just look at the recent BCOA letter, we NEED new blood. .

I have had two breeders ask me what's behind my dogs, one when she had an oops between two siblings, not before she bred to their sire, but at least she finally came and asked. And i've had numerous people, after they've been lubed, screwed & tattooed, tell me they wish they'd listened to me in the first place before dealing with a breeder.

And that leads me to the next gripe. Why the HELL do people insist on buying baby puppies as show/performance dogs? Often times before you know if the testicles are there and going to stay, and many times before you even know what the bite is goign to be like. You can't tell what's going to be a performance dog until they're much older, and that is something I've learned from someone who's been doign this since the 70's, so I think her word is pretty much written in stone. And you have no clue on confirmation at this age either, I proved that with Beau, beautiful 8 wk old puppy, developed into a pet quality adult. .

I have bought 4 puppies at a young age, and had ONE turn out. The one I saw in the flesh. Rio was a giant, sweet, pet. PC was a midsized, sweet, pet, and Yanna was a wonderful sweet pet. . .none of them were show quality, none of them were real performance dogs (on plastic, yanna'd chase a squawker, but not plastic), and I bought/picked them all out at a young age(Rio-5-6ish wks, PC at 4 months, Yanna at 4-5 wks). You just can't tell. Oh wait, there was a fifth puppy I picked out, but didn't buy, she grew up to be gorgeous, and missing SIX teeth!!

Youngest I've sold a puppy to a MAYBE show home(they'd show him IF he turned out) was 10 wks, but they had to have that puppy when he was 2 wks old. Unfortunately, he didn't turn out, but did they learn? Nope, they've bought two more young puppies, but they're mainly a pet home will dabbles in performance/showing. . . I knew that unless he was vicious, or tried to bite a human, he wouldn't come back to me.

But most people who want show dogs, don't have room for 'just a pet' (nothing against just a pet, people, I've had a few of those myself, but currently don't have room for one that does nothing but take up space). . .so I don't understand the need to get a puppy as young as possible, I know what fuels the breeders. . .but the buyers just boggle my mind. I don't want my puppies coming back, so I refuse to sell to a for sure show home, they want a puppy younger than I'll let a show pup go, they can go elsewhere.

::SIGH:: it's as frustrating as the people who go to a show only breeder for a performance dog :P

Bone cancer

Sucks.
I hate having to call puppy buyers and say "Your puppy's "(Brother/Father) just died of bone cancer. . .::SIGH::

It's even worse because there's no test, no known inheritance, nada. It's a guessing game, and now I have it in two of the three ways I've bred.

Kyra, Rinka & Garrett, together at the bridge again

Garrett was a goober dog. Sweet, loving, a bit snarky over food, but adored his people. His previous home hated him and gave him to me. He came to me under socialized, under handled but sweet as can be. He'd never seen linoleum, didn't know how to act in the house. I'm not sure if he was ignored in his former home or what, but he acted like he'd never been out of his yard

In limited showing he picked up 5 points, and finished his Can Ch, he sired a litter for me, the twilight litter, giving me my very first BBE champion, and he sired a litter of two in Canada. Shortly after he came back from his stint in Canada, he almost died from a prostate infection. . .but I nursed him thru that, and then neutered him, and placed him in a wonderful pet home. His coat was hell to deal with (his nickname was Pig Pen) and the fear everytime a bitch came into season just made me think it was the best thing to do.

I got an email from his home the other day, that he'd been put down due to bone cancer in a rib. . .he would've been 9 this July. . .Such a sweet suckup boy. . .Emailed his sire's owner, and it looks like there's two, maybe three of the litter left, another sister died recently, haven't heard back from her owner what took her.

But, I'll take bone cancer over bloat. At least with bone cancer you have time with the dog, and if you're a good person, you take advantage of that time, spend a lot of time with your buddy, Obie went everywhere with me this time last year, he went to the Nationals with me, even when I was told I shouldn't do that to him, but he absolutely positively loved it. He schmoozed with all his buddies, I got to see him on the beach, watch him frolicking on three legs, and got to spend some good quality time with him. Losing him sucked no matter what, but at least I had the time

Bloat doesn't give you that. . if you're lucky, you catch bloat, but then you have to make the decision do you have $3000+ for emergency surgery that may or may not save your dog. If you're unlucky, you come home to a dead dog. . BTDT. . I'll take bone cancer, at least you get to say goodbye. . but they both suck giant turkey eggs.

And now I sit worried, looking at Umbra wondering if the cancer bomb will take Garrett's goober son away from me. . .hoping it won't happen. . .and trying to find a line I like that doesn't have cancer up close so I can take him to it, in hopes of continuing on with that litter. .unfortunately his first litter didn't nick like I'd hoped :( but that's the game of breeding.

Damnit, I miss my Obie :( And I know Lisa misses Garrett

Wowza

So, my favorite little black boy Wizard kicked some royal ass yesterday, I know John is in HEAVEN. His brother Bartelby did the same thing in Ohio yesterday, they both picked up 40 points. I am so darn tickled for their owners(and the breeder Bonnie)

Can't wait to get brother Criven's out this spring, but more importantly can't wait to get Gossip back out :) Few more weeks. I allowed her to race up and down the fence line earlier, and she was a little owie on it, but not bad.

YEAH!!!

doubting yourself

Have been set on my breeding plans for the next few years, and then get to doubting myself

Should I breed Dei to Grins or Wizard?
Should I breed Gossip to Grins or Wizard?
Should I breed Touchet to Grins or her current Studmuffin to be? Bonnie's making me doubt it, since it has to be chilled AI. . .::SIGH:: Wish I could convince his owner to let him come stay here for awhile this spring. . Fudgebucket.

Good day!!!

So, I dragged my sorry ass out of bed early yesterday, meaning to get breakfast cooked, car unpacked and repacked, feed the dogs, and get out of here by 7ish

Yeah, RIGHT! I should know better. I didn't get out of here til 7:40. . .couldn't find my damn bloody muzzles!! ARGH! Still can't, but that's another story.

Go to get da girls(it was going to be a girls day out) and find A.M. with his nose up reba's twat, I knew it, knew as soon as I entered her, she'd come into season(she's a month late, brat). So, with regret, I put her up (she's so easy and nice to run, cuz she's so damn calm and sane), and get her Uncle Eros, who is not calm or sane LOL. . and Dei & Whirlwind and put them in my car.

OK, that wasn't smart, it's a neon, oh well, Dei curls up in the front seat, whirlwind in the back, and Eros sits up the entire 90 minute trip.

Get there, Borzoi Bob is there with Eros' son(as big of an ass as his father) and his lovely veteran Maya. . it was going to be a veterans day, Masquerade was there to see if he'd run clean at this since he was a turkey at coursing now.

First race, OMG, I wanted to kill Eros. He refused the box, but Mom's a bigger bitch than he was, and I was not going to let him get away with it. By the time I got his big ass in that box, my arms hurt I was shaking, and he went in screaming the entire time. The operator checked the muzzles, all facing forward, pop goes the box, where's Eros?

This 100 lb borzoi had managed to turn himself around in the box, and instead of backing back out, he managed to turn himself back around and still cross the finish line 2nd of 3. .amazing. Regardless, I pulled him, I can not deal with that with my asthma, he has gotten worse each time he's gone out, we're going to get the box down and work his ass in the box some more

Second race, i was so tickled with Dei. Last fall she'd ripped her dewclaw out at this track, and the next event out, it was still owie, and she got bumped, and yelped and then rode the bitch who hit her's ass the entire way down telling her how rude it was.

Yesterday, I watched Maya ride her ass growling at her, not enough to get a DQ, but bordering but Dei kept going, she ignored her, and that tickled me more than anything that happened yesterday.

Same race, Masquerade, proving he's as big of an ass as his father, managed to break his muzzle while in the box. As I was not willing to trust Bonnie's muzzle on that dog, he was pulled.

Last race, Whirlwind decided she hated her muzzle more than she wanted the bunny, and DNF. . .silly grey girl!

End of race results
Best in Meet, Best Veteran 1. Dei 2-2
2. Maya 1-1

I was going to take some dogs to practice today and Grins, but Bonnie's van's caliper blew up, so it'll be a smaller entry, that's ok Gossip can go and schmooze with her adoring public and pound the bunny a bit(no running yet!)

show people can be so damn stupid

Grrr . .why do people get hung up over stupid cosmetic faults. . .they can have no problem with dogs with faults that affect the ability to run, will rave over a dog that is not properly put togother, but can't get over the fact a dog has GASP slate grey pigment. can you tell the difference in this text? Nope, just like a slate grey pigment dog you often can't tell the different from a black pigment

It seems like show only people always forget the last paragraph of the standard, when they nitpit dogs for having small, non performance related faults. .. forget what my friend calls them, but I call them Novice problems, as any one can pick out a dog with missing teeth(well, almost anyone anyway LOL), or missing pigment, or gay tail, it takes a lot more knowledge to pick out a dog with an improper front or movement. . .

Anyway, the most important part of the standard when looking at it as one piece, imho is

Any deviation from the above described dog must be penalized to the extent of the deviation keeping in mind the importance of the contribution of the various features toward the basic original purpose of the breed.

Now, would someone please explain to me how slate grey pigment affects the original purpose of the breed. Oh yeah, it DOESN'T!!!

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I just don't understand some days.

T.H.I.F

Yeah, it's the weekend, the end of the week from hell
Work suxs, it's boring, I'm overworked and underpaid. never thought I'd miss ACS, but I miss their pay schedule. Nothing like getting paid what you put into something. If you slacked off and dicked around, you got paid accordingly, if you busted your ass, you got paid accordingly. It used to infuriate me to know thatp eople right off the street made what I was making due to inflation, as well as the fact that those who didn't do their job did, when I left, I was averaging $3 more than the average for the office. .

It was also nice to be able to work from home, wish they'd allowed me to continue doing so when I moved.

Anyway, the season has started!!! Gossip can go and schmoooooooooooooooooze. . she wont' be able to run til this time next month, 8 wks post op, but next weekend at least she can start playing in the small puppy yard.

Now just waiting to see if the surgery screwed with her season. It did with one of Bonnie's dogs, took Esme 3 months to come into season. .

So, this week all weekend Racing, next weekend is ASFA, friend John is so excited, he's got Wizard and is chomping on the bit to get him out running. Wizard's a nice boy, and reminds me of cousin Grins in someways, and his owner is a trip LOL I remember being so excited about my 1st running dog, granted, John's got a much better one lOL

Then off one weekend, and then back for AKC. Need to get Reba going on her titles and work on Eros' LCM/LCX. John's offered to help get them out LOL, I think he'll do better with Reba, Eros is too much dog lOl

Life

Life is currently depressing, dealing with the can't be an ex soon enough, who says he's not demanding anything from me, but the court papers say otherwise. . hmm, maybe he's still smoking the wacky weed he was so happy to get back into and can't comprehend the paperwork he signed.

Gossip starts swimming again tomorrow, two weeks of that, and then she should be cleared to going into restricted excercise in the large run at the top of the hill. I will be sOO DARN GLAD!!! She is driving me bonkers LOL I love her, I really do, but she's an ADHD dog. . she is going to be so pissed when we go racing this weekend and she can't go.

Planning her first real show next month, hopefully she, nor Kani-banana will be too horrid, and hopefully Sage won't be horrid for my sister out in Vegas at her first show . .who knows, dogs always make asses out of you when you least expect it.

Finally, lgra verdict

“as you are aware, two protests were submitted questioning the outcome of the Borzoi meet at the LGRA nationals, held 10/6/07. A number of egregious violations of the rules were documented, including, but not limited to, the following which direction affect the Borzoi meet:
-Paddock scratched hound was changed to “DNF” and redrawn, altering the draw in violation of sec 4.1.2
-Hound which refused to box was not reported immediately to the Race committee as required. .
-race in which a hound and two people were on the track between the start & finish line was not rerun
-race in which a racer catches or passes the lure or any part of the lure between the start and finish must either be rerun or the points split among all hounds
-absence of finish & foul judge forms resulting in the use of torn scraps of paper as small as 1” X 3” and lack the minimum info required to adequately assess the outcome of each race.
-Incorrect hound recorded by Race Sec as DNF altered all subsequent draws, possibly due to incorrect interpretation of the results
-fouls were called but were not recorded, in part due to missing but required info (BS in my eyes)
-Results posted in a manner that did not allow exhibitors to verify the outcome of previous races & correctness of the draw prior to the start of each program
-final meet results never submitted in violation of sec. . .

Additional violations of the LGRA rules were reported for other breeds, but only two protests were ultimately filed. Both protests were for the Borzoi meet, alleging that the outcome was so altered by the violations as to render the results meaningless.

Both protests have been upheld and the results of the Borzoi meet will therefore be invalidated. The NRD & LGRA board of Gov carefully considered all aspects of this action and determined that to maintain the integrity of the Grading Guide and your hounds’ records this is a necessary action.

Prior to reaching this decision, a thorough & lengthy investigation was conducted. The NRD personally contacted each Borzoi exhibitor in attendance, all members of the race Committee, the foul judges for each Borzoi race and as many officials as could be identified. Statements were also considered from exhibitors who expressed concern over the outcome of the Borzoi meet following direct observations of individual Borzoi races and/or handling of the scoreboard.

The Borzoi scores & points earned at the BCOSW meet on 10/6/07 will be removed from each hound’s records. The BCOSW has been instructed to refund all Borzoi entry fees for this meet

Definitely a picture worth a 1000 words, none of them nice LOL

At last, it's done, 4.5 months later, but it's done. I wish I could get back all the money I wasted on this endeavour, but the $50 I'll get back is $50 more than I have now LOL

Now on to get her back into shape to start this year anew.