Wow. . 2014 may be the year of dreams. ..
We haven't been doing as much racing, but that's because we've been soo busy doing other things!
Mr Duckie has been on a roll this fall. He came back out after almsot 3 months off to go SBOS at Potomac Valley Borzoi Club's Specialty under Karen Dumke for yet another 5 point major, then the following day went BOB for a 4 point major. He now has all his majors, more champions defeated then you can shake a stick at and is sitting at 21 points towards his GCH. He also has picked up his first coursing point and is a 1/3 of the way towards his SGRC.
Sisters Nikki & Teela have been put up to mature bodily, but both have finished their GRCs with multiple meet wins and are also 1/3 of the way towards their SGRC. With Traveler finishing his GRC in August, means the entire litter has a performance title already.
Ziva came back out and ran with Duckie in open up in NJ, and ran the best I've seen her run in years since she was repeatedly attacked. No, she didn't beat him, but it gives me hope she can get those last 4 singles and 22 points towards her coursing titles(AKC & ASFA respectively). She is also looking absolutely positively lovely, hope to get her in the ring next year.
Jenny has continued her winning ways. After jamming a toe at a coursing event, I put her up for the fall, and instead, we're working on other titles.
She finished her Rally Novice in September, to become FC Mielikki Dir Shepard at Silkenswift SC, CGC, FCH, SGRCIV, BN, RN.
If she'd done her darn downs, we'd've been tied for 2nd out of 19 entries, but she gave me the infamous Jenny snooty look, so when we got back home, she went into Borzoi Down Boot camp, EVERYBODY in the house made her do downs. I was not having her pull that again. She downed at every doorway, to get in the car, etc. This little problem was really getting under my skin.
She went to a few more shows unfortunately being the only bitch, but did pick up an additional single, and then... I saw there was an OB trial in town . .said ok, I have a racemeet that weekend, I'll just go Saturday and we'll go to the trial on Sunday. Sent my entries in then woke up in the middle of the night going OMG!!! That's MY racemeet.
Too late, check cashed. . entries closed. .could just hope for the best. A small racemeet combined with a great group of people got us done in record time and we headed over to the event, and still had to wait 4 hrs.
After the weekend of running the racemeet , I was too exhausted to get nervous or worried when just before our turn, the GSD did his recall that ended in a playbow, a bark, and then a 5 min game of you cant' catch me, Made sure Jenny was not watching as the dog ran around and around and around, a great game of zoomies. . they finally got him caught, and then it was our turn.
All I wanted was to prove to myself we COULD do this. . all I asked for was a 170. . .unlike the nationals where _I_ gave up after I lost her on the about turn, I refused to allow myself to think "Oh well, we failed." Each exercise was it's own. . yes, I lost her on the about turn, YES she leaned against one of the stewards on the figure 8, BUT she did do a perfect happy heel on leash, she DID do an almost perfect sit for exam, she DID do a perfect recall, and although she decided to be a little butthead on the down, she DID down and kept her down, even when we came back to heel position. She was good enough, we didn't get a 170, we actually got a 181 1/2 and our very first ever, MY very first ever, CD Leg.
I walked out of that ring crying for joy, hugging the silly little black bitch.
Fall's winding down, but we do have one possibly two more weekends of racing, one weekend of dog shows, and a rally show. I'm already looking at future OB shows to look for that next leg :) She is an overachiever and I'm having a blast with her.
Showing posts with label LGRA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LGRA. Show all posts
Monday, November 17, 2014
Sunday, August 17, 2014
Wow, what a year
It's been so long since I've sat down and written a blog.
What a year it's been. . .Duckie was put up after the wonderful weekend in Ohio for a few months. PVBC's specialty brought him out again. Alas, his other mother and handler Kari was down in TX for the Samoyed national, so I had to hope I could do him justice. . Didn't expect much, he was barely 12 months old and yep,.he acted like a dork in sweeps, left me scratching my head as to why he hadn't done better, but by regular class time, he had his dancing shoes on.
Now, I had my knee wrapped tightly, I hadn't shown in oh, 15 months, and was making all sorts of prayers to whichever gods may be listening that I could do this. . .that boy did me proud, didn't step a food down wrong, won his competitive 12-18 month class. Took a deep breath outside the ring as we waited for Bred by and Open to go in, then back in for Winners dog. Boy can Duckie move out, and he moved away with the 5 point major with me at the end of the leash. Talk about exhilerating.
The bitches went in, my knee was feeling good, so crossed my fingers, time for Best of Breed, and darnit, I wanted Best of Winners.
Bonnie D. commented she had never seen me move a dog out so much, and boy did we, I refused to lose. Judge moved us and moved us, and the last go around, my knee gave out... when she pointed to us for BOW, I had tears of pain and joy on my face. We did it!!!! To add to the joy, Kari went Best of Breed at the Samoyed national :) Not my dog, but she is part of this ride with Duckie!
Granted, the rest of the day was miserable as my knee gave me all sorts of whatsfor for doing this! But I was so pleased with my gawky boy!
A few more single point shows for him where he was a goofy gawky dork, but he ended the year with 8 points one major.
OTOH, Bounce finished the year as a brand spanking new champion! A wonderful xmas present! The only Borzoi to finish her ring title (12 points) and be #1 LGRA Borzoi in the same year! Also the first Borzoi Champion bitch to be #1.
Duckie and Jenny went to NY in January, my boy picking up two BOBs, two singles and playing in the groups, Jenny adding yet another point. We've played too much on the coursing/racing field, and it was high time for her to actually enter the ring at almost 5 and we were preparing her for April, where Kari packed the two up and headed to the 2014 BCOA Nationals in NM with a van full of dogs, and I flew out, as I can't drive that far, and went to Las Vegas to visit family afterwards.
But just before we left, I entered Jenny in a rally show. .we'd been working, but I haven't done Rally since losing Gossip, I needed to prove I could do it again, without my best girl at my side. Also to prepare myself for the Nationals LOl Jenny was being a pill over her downs at that time, but we still walked away with a qualifying leg, if she'd done her down, we'd''ve tied for 3rd out of a huge class. She finished her SGRCIV that weekend! Only the third borzoi to do so!
Jenny was post season, so didn't have high hopes for her, but she tickled me pink with a 3rd out of a nice entry of Borzoi in LGRA, even better, Duckie tied with her :) He has never ran hand slipped, so was confused the first race, came in 2nd, but the next two he won with style. It was only his second race meet, so it pleased me immensely, and he came home with his first two LGRA points.
I had screwed up her coursing entry, so we took the next two days easy, then on to obedience/rally. . .sad to walk out of the OB ring and be told if she'd recalled, we'd've gone high in trial LOL but that's exactly what the judge told us. Oh well, it was a pleasure to do it, to prove I could do it. .alas in rally, Mom's ineptitude, caused us 20 points, but we did pick up our 2nd rally leg.
Duckie then went on to place in his nice Futurity class, as did his cousin Coal from the Dark litter. But the highlight came regular class days. Duckie had to go in open as he was 18 months 5 days old, and even as the youngest dog in his rather decent sized class, he made it down to the last 6, which is more than I expected the judge to do with him, didnt' think he was curvy enough amongst other things, but the judge found something he liked. Jenny, OTOH, in one of the biggest classes of the week, AND IMHO, the most competitive class in bitches, despite being Ambred, pulled out a 2nd place. Shocked me, and Kari turned to me and said we REALLY need to show this bitch.
I had a wonderful vacation with family I haven't seen in 6.5 yrs, wasn't long enough, but it was great. And then home and back to work. The week went fast and it was pack the car up and go to oval, where Duckie & Teela showed promising practices. I certed the two, or tried to: when her brother jumped over her to get to the inside, Teela decided to duck under the tape, so back to go with her, he on the other hand had a beautiful cert run. He nor his brother Traveler can compete with sisters Bounce & Shimmer for speed due to a 30-35 lb weight different, but they ran true and hard. Bounce won Sunday for 2 points, and finished her JOR. . fingers crossed she continues to run well to be my next ORC since Jenny nor Ziva seem to want to stay on the track :SIGH:
And then(yes, it was a very busy spring LOL) we headed to the show circuit in NJ where Kent Delaney gave Duckie his second major, a 4 pointer, leaving him one point to finish. The next day, he finished in style at BCDV's specialty, WD/BOW for another 4 pointer! I believe he's my youngest champion at 19 months, with quite limited showing.
We spent the rest of May, June & July running, with Duckie finishing his GRC quite quickly considering the entries in our area anymore, with a meet win over Shimmer & Jenny! He also got his QC and his first SC leg, he has to learn to maneuver that 93 lb body around the field, but I as very happy with the boy. Teela also got her cert, and will start running this fall.
But to top it off, Bounce finished her FC to become my first personal DC, finishing in four trials, with 3 5 point wins, AND then the next day a 5 point BIF win!
Jenny then went to camp, and acted like a twit, heeling for Kari in the ring due to our Obedience training, despite herself she picked up a 3 point major.
August brought cooler weathers and a desire to take a vacation again. Kari looked at the show schedule and we both decided let's go to WI!! Three breeder judges, including one that had specifically hunted me down at the Nationals last year to compliment me on 7 month old Duckie, and it was her last big judging assignment, so I wanted to show her what he had matured to!
Friday was way too early.Kari's Samoyed special was on at like 8:30, borzoi at 9, so it was a whirlwind day. Eli the Sammy won bred, then it as hurry up and groom the zoi, and head ring side. Glancing at the bitches, I turned to the owner of one particularly nice open bitch and told her breeder/owner "If I have to lose today, it better be your girl". She informed me she was pretty sure she was going o lose to Jenny. That alone made my day, as this is a breeder I have always respected in the breed. I was right, but Jenny did go RWB, so I was happy as I'd had no idea what to expect of this breeder judge. I hadn't shown to her in over a decade!
Kari handed me my girl and took Duckie in. At 22 months old, he was younger by a margin than every other special in the ring, so I didn't expect much, and when the judge pulled a rather nice specials bitch out and sent her to the front of the line, I was ok with it. All I'd hoped for for the weekend was an AOM at the specialty. The shock came when the judge came back to Kari and told her to go in front. OMG!! Yes, YES YES!! Duckie went BOB over a nice entry of specials for a 5 point major win! OMG!!
The day wasn't done. In a ring full of heavy hitters, Duckie put on his cleated dance shoes and moved out like a pro, to come away with a Group 3 under the first judge's husband!! Who the next day, in a special entry of 12 males, gave Duckie Select dog for his second 5 point major AFTER rewarding Jenny who was moving like a dream, her second major ALSO a 5 point major! WAHOOO!!!
Duckie ended the 2nd day with an AOM at the specialty. The lovely judge was so pleased to hear this was the puppy she'd fallen in love with at our Nationals, and thanked me for bringing him to her. I got a lot of compliments on both my kids that weekend, and it made the long trip and resulting week long illness for both Kari & I worth it. We're both still recovering from what we're referring to as Wisconsin cheesehead, but three majors, 15 points, and an AOM made it all worth it ;)
Jenny now needs 5 singles to be my next DC, Duckie has 10 points and 2 majors towards his Grandchampion, couldn't ask for a much better weekend!
What a year it's been. . .Duckie was put up after the wonderful weekend in Ohio for a few months. PVBC's specialty brought him out again. Alas, his other mother and handler Kari was down in TX for the Samoyed national, so I had to hope I could do him justice. . Didn't expect much, he was barely 12 months old and yep,.he acted like a dork in sweeps, left me scratching my head as to why he hadn't done better, but by regular class time, he had his dancing shoes on.
Now, I had my knee wrapped tightly, I hadn't shown in oh, 15 months, and was making all sorts of prayers to whichever gods may be listening that I could do this. . .that boy did me proud, didn't step a food down wrong, won his competitive 12-18 month class. Took a deep breath outside the ring as we waited for Bred by and Open to go in, then back in for Winners dog. Boy can Duckie move out, and he moved away with the 5 point major with me at the end of the leash. Talk about exhilerating.
The bitches went in, my knee was feeling good, so crossed my fingers, time for Best of Breed, and darnit, I wanted Best of Winners.
Bonnie D. commented she had never seen me move a dog out so much, and boy did we, I refused to lose. Judge moved us and moved us, and the last go around, my knee gave out... when she pointed to us for BOW, I had tears of pain and joy on my face. We did it!!!! To add to the joy, Kari went Best of Breed at the Samoyed national :) Not my dog, but she is part of this ride with Duckie!
Granted, the rest of the day was miserable as my knee gave me all sorts of whatsfor for doing this! But I was so pleased with my gawky boy!
A few more single point shows for him where he was a goofy gawky dork, but he ended the year with 8 points one major.
OTOH, Bounce finished the year as a brand spanking new champion! A wonderful xmas present! The only Borzoi to finish her ring title (12 points) and be #1 LGRA Borzoi in the same year! Also the first Borzoi Champion bitch to be #1.
Duckie and Jenny went to NY in January, my boy picking up two BOBs, two singles and playing in the groups, Jenny adding yet another point. We've played too much on the coursing/racing field, and it was high time for her to actually enter the ring at almost 5 and we were preparing her for April, where Kari packed the two up and headed to the 2014 BCOA Nationals in NM with a van full of dogs, and I flew out, as I can't drive that far, and went to Las Vegas to visit family afterwards.
But just before we left, I entered Jenny in a rally show. .we'd been working, but I haven't done Rally since losing Gossip, I needed to prove I could do it again, without my best girl at my side. Also to prepare myself for the Nationals LOl Jenny was being a pill over her downs at that time, but we still walked away with a qualifying leg, if she'd done her down, we'd''ve tied for 3rd out of a huge class. She finished her SGRCIV that weekend! Only the third borzoi to do so!
Jenny was post season, so didn't have high hopes for her, but she tickled me pink with a 3rd out of a nice entry of Borzoi in LGRA, even better, Duckie tied with her :) He has never ran hand slipped, so was confused the first race, came in 2nd, but the next two he won with style. It was only his second race meet, so it pleased me immensely, and he came home with his first two LGRA points.
I had screwed up her coursing entry, so we took the next two days easy, then on to obedience/rally. . .sad to walk out of the OB ring and be told if she'd recalled, we'd've gone high in trial LOL but that's exactly what the judge told us. Oh well, it was a pleasure to do it, to prove I could do it. .alas in rally, Mom's ineptitude, caused us 20 points, but we did pick up our 2nd rally leg.
Duckie then went on to place in his nice Futurity class, as did his cousin Coal from the Dark litter. But the highlight came regular class days. Duckie had to go in open as he was 18 months 5 days old, and even as the youngest dog in his rather decent sized class, he made it down to the last 6, which is more than I expected the judge to do with him, didnt' think he was curvy enough amongst other things, but the judge found something he liked. Jenny, OTOH, in one of the biggest classes of the week, AND IMHO, the most competitive class in bitches, despite being Ambred, pulled out a 2nd place. Shocked me, and Kari turned to me and said we REALLY need to show this bitch.
I had a wonderful vacation with family I haven't seen in 6.5 yrs, wasn't long enough, but it was great. And then home and back to work. The week went fast and it was pack the car up and go to oval, where Duckie & Teela showed promising practices. I certed the two, or tried to: when her brother jumped over her to get to the inside, Teela decided to duck under the tape, so back to go with her, he on the other hand had a beautiful cert run. He nor his brother Traveler can compete with sisters Bounce & Shimmer for speed due to a 30-35 lb weight different, but they ran true and hard. Bounce won Sunday for 2 points, and finished her JOR. . fingers crossed she continues to run well to be my next ORC since Jenny nor Ziva seem to want to stay on the track :SIGH:
And then(yes, it was a very busy spring LOL) we headed to the show circuit in NJ where Kent Delaney gave Duckie his second major, a 4 pointer, leaving him one point to finish. The next day, he finished in style at BCDV's specialty, WD/BOW for another 4 pointer! I believe he's my youngest champion at 19 months, with quite limited showing.
We spent the rest of May, June & July running, with Duckie finishing his GRC quite quickly considering the entries in our area anymore, with a meet win over Shimmer & Jenny! He also got his QC and his first SC leg, he has to learn to maneuver that 93 lb body around the field, but I as very happy with the boy. Teela also got her cert, and will start running this fall.
But to top it off, Bounce finished her FC to become my first personal DC, finishing in four trials, with 3 5 point wins, AND then the next day a 5 point BIF win!
Jenny then went to camp, and acted like a twit, heeling for Kari in the ring due to our Obedience training, despite herself she picked up a 3 point major.
August brought cooler weathers and a desire to take a vacation again. Kari looked at the show schedule and we both decided let's go to WI!! Three breeder judges, including one that had specifically hunted me down at the Nationals last year to compliment me on 7 month old Duckie, and it was her last big judging assignment, so I wanted to show her what he had matured to!
Friday was way too early.Kari's Samoyed special was on at like 8:30, borzoi at 9, so it was a whirlwind day. Eli the Sammy won bred, then it as hurry up and groom the zoi, and head ring side. Glancing at the bitches, I turned to the owner of one particularly nice open bitch and told her breeder/owner "If I have to lose today, it better be your girl". She informed me she was pretty sure she was going o lose to Jenny. That alone made my day, as this is a breeder I have always respected in the breed. I was right, but Jenny did go RWB, so I was happy as I'd had no idea what to expect of this breeder judge. I hadn't shown to her in over a decade!
Kari handed me my girl and took Duckie in. At 22 months old, he was younger by a margin than every other special in the ring, so I didn't expect much, and when the judge pulled a rather nice specials bitch out and sent her to the front of the line, I was ok with it. All I'd hoped for for the weekend was an AOM at the specialty. The shock came when the judge came back to Kari and told her to go in front. OMG!! Yes, YES YES!! Duckie went BOB over a nice entry of specials for a 5 point major win! OMG!!
The day wasn't done. In a ring full of heavy hitters, Duckie put on his cleated dance shoes and moved out like a pro, to come away with a Group 3 under the first judge's husband!! Who the next day, in a special entry of 12 males, gave Duckie Select dog for his second 5 point major AFTER rewarding Jenny who was moving like a dream, her second major ALSO a 5 point major! WAHOOO!!!
Duckie ended the 2nd day with an AOM at the specialty. The lovely judge was so pleased to hear this was the puppy she'd fallen in love with at our Nationals, and thanked me for bringing him to her. I got a lot of compliments on both my kids that weekend, and it made the long trip and resulting week long illness for both Kari & I worth it. We're both still recovering from what we're referring to as Wisconsin cheesehead, but three majors, 15 points, and an AOM made it all worth it ;)
Jenny now needs 5 singles to be my next DC, Duckie has 10 points and 2 majors towards his Grandchampion, couldn't ask for a much better weekend!
Ch Mielikki HiNote Secret Agent Man GRC at 22 months old, photo by Veni Harlan
Friday, June 10, 2011
A month like a roller coaster: can I get off now?
What a month, good and bad, up and down, just like a roller coaster at 6 Flag. . and one I'd've rather not've gone on
Friday, 5/13, wow, just got that when looking for the date, makes sense for how horrid this weekend started. I took Treasure to a cat specialist vet, who after examination, looking at his xrays, the blood work, and examing him, gave me a totally different diagnosis, and worse than Cancer.
At least with cancer chemo, or surgery can or MAY help, but not with Feline Infectious Peritonitis. .. that's a death sentence. . .incurable, so much unknown about this horrid diseaseshe drew 700cc's of fluid off Treasure's belly and he still was filled with this crap. . .I left him in her hands, with fear, as I lost Pandora last year when I boarded her when she wasn't feeling well. .. and I should've gone with my gut feeling, as he passed away Saturday night. . .if he hadn't been so bright eyed and talking with me Friday, I wouldn't've left him, but I didn't think he'd leave me so quick. . OTOH, not sure I could’ve handled him passing away on me in the hotel room and having had to figure out what to do with his little body or even waking up to him dead on my bed, so not sure which way was better, but it put a huge damper on the entire weekend. . .this new vet was very sweet and tried to comfort me, but nothing comforts me. He was my pillow buddy. He came into my life when I lost my Schatzi, thus his name Treasure the memories. . one of the meanings of Schatzi is treasure. .. and I was so hoping I'd have him at least as long as I had Schatzi(12 yrs), but it was only 8 years ago that I brought him home. And after the finally diagnosis, I was hoping to be able to cuddle him one last day, but it wasn't meant to be.
They just don't live long enough
Boy did this just put a whole barrel of ice water over the weekend. . .first vacation I'd had since last May, and i couldn't even really enjoy it. . .just like my LAST vacation!
But, I'm ahead of myself.
So, after dropping him off I packed the van with 7 dogs: Ziva, Jenny, Nacht, Focus, Wizard & Logan(RR) and then the brat, err secret, cuz I know she'd've driven everyone nuts all weekend. She's not a good house dog if i'm not in the house(paces), and is a PITA in the backyard at my ETA. .. yes, brat. Drove down to the field, staked out an area with my xpen and ez-up, and headed to the hotel.
Little did I know that the hotel I chose, I had to cross a ferry to get to. . .EEKS. . .it's not open all day, it closes sometime in the evening and doesn't open til 5. .but would they cross with just one vehicle on it? Unsure, and not wanting to get stuck there if they wouldn't, I had to map out a new path, chose a different hotel for Saturday, and tried to sleep. Ziva & Secret enjoyed the hotel room rights with both of them being good girls. Was in bed at like 10:30-11.
Couldn't sleep, tossed and turned, looked at the clock so many damn times, afraid of sleeping thru the alarm(roll call was 5:30 for those helping), saw it was 3, knew I had 45 minutes of sleep, and fell back asleep, next time I woke up, I glanced at the clock, it was 4:20, EEKS!!!!!! I had set the alarm for 3:45 pm, not AM. .. slammed everything into the van and took off. Got lost because the GPS kept trying to take me back to the damn ferry. . .not a good way to start the morning.
Got the kids roll called, found the RR's handler for the day, and went back to finish setting up. .
Thankfully they had made sure to put Borzoi 1st in the running order, so we were on almost as soon as we started. I'm so thankful for the extra hands that were around(Sally marciszewski, CHuck Grabosky, Steph Parkers darling hubby, Chuck's father in law, Frances Burnes), since I was running 4 of the 6 opens(my three and Bonnie's girl) and thankfully only one of the 20 FChs!! LOl
The field was a challenging one, definitely showcased the dogs who had enduranced, very hilly, parts that you had to step out further on the field to see if you were short like me :) A number of dogs took tumbles with the 'ditches'. Jenny came back with her blanket wet, so I know she did, but didn't see it because of where she fell. Some amazing runs were ran. Some of the dogs took the scenic route over the hay bales, which was just so neat to watch. Soon as we were done, it was walk the dogs out, and head back to the field to do my huntmastering job for salukis.
Got done there, grabbed something to eat, and went to find friends terri & Susan, watched a few of the greyhound runs, and enjoyed the beautiful weather.
By the end of the day, all the walking made my knee hurt. . .I happened to've parked in BFE. I packed up everything but the EZup and the xpen, and went to move the van closer to awards so I could get on the road ASAP and not walk back and forth
Now, it hadn't rained all day, but the ground was soft. .. and it proved too soft for my cargo sized van, and when I threw the van in reverse, tires started spinning. Damnit.
Turned the wheel and tried to drive ahead a bit and throw it in reverse on fresh turf, same thing. Got out, but unfortunately the people who had parked next to me had really tied their xpen down, so no way I could just pull thru and keep going.
So, I went looking for Dean wright, who rounded up a bunch of men, and with their help pushing it, I backed that SOB up and out, and kept going til I was on asphalt, not wanting to park it anywhere it could get stuck again.
End of day results was Wizard won his flyte of 10, then best FCH(40 points), Jenny, Ziva, Nacht went 2,3,4th,(18, 12, 6 points) with Jenny & Nacht winning breeder stake. Mr Logan placed 4th in open for his mama(think she said there were 7 opens)
Headed back to the hotel, got there, asked for a 1st floor room as close to the parking area as possible because my knee was killng me. In fact, stepped out of the van and it gave out. They set me up, backed my van into a parking spot as close to the room as I could get, and went to my room, and my brain went WTF????
It took me a minute to process that the room was filthy, garbage on the dresser, bed not made, it hadn't been cleaned. Went back up front, walking, cuz I am not comfy backing that thing in and out, and was hoping that they'd set me up close to wehre I'd parked to make life easier on me. They apologized profusely, gave me another room, unfortunately, this one was not as easy to get to, had to traipse quite a bit to it, yeah, on the 1st floor, but the inner courtyard area, with no convenient parking.
Then, the dogs all went on strike, refusing to potty on leash, the youngsters all wanted to play and run: WTH? Didn't they realise they had ran their little butts off earlier???? Fed them, settled them down for the night, took Jenny & Secret back to the hotel room, with visions of a nice, long, hot as I could get it, bath in my head.
My vision was not to be, Jenny nor Secret would settle down and be good beddogs, so crawled into bed after I wasn't able to connect to the internet I paid for, and went to bed.
Up early once again and headed out, parked on a different area, downhill, and with Dean's help, got my Xpen & EZ up over to the van. And then the day began.
This field was challenging in a different way. With a lot of dips and hills, the bunny was out of sight for quite a bit of the course, and if the dogs zigged left and the bunny right, they could easily get unsighted. Numerous dogs throughout the day came back to their handlers after losing sight of the bunny.
After Prelims, I was waiting to huntmaster, when I got the call from the vet, letting me know my little man had passed away over night. Up until that point, it had been a wonderful, fun weekend with great old friends and making new friends.
I tried to put that aside to finish out the day, was hard. . .my animals are my family, and Treasure had a special spot in my heart. .. watching my girls run helped, especially silly Jenny. She started coming in on the bunny hard, sliding in to home, under the line, grabbing the bunny, reminding me in so many ways of her Uncle Obie & Daddy Grins. I was very pleased with my girls runs and Wizard as usual for me, ran really well. When the finals came in, it was Wizard 1st of 19 in FCh, Jenny 1st of 5 in Open, and a lovely bitch named Tory in Veterans. After the dust settled for the BOB runoff, Jenny was the breed winner for the day.
Jenny flying
Tho I didn't think she had a snowball's chance in hell of winning, I ran her for Best in Event. .I don't know if she'll ever get a chance, so WTH right? I was very pleased with her run, but could definitely see she was not in the shape the others were in. Considering she was just two weeks or so post season(Hell, all of them but Ziva were!), I was very happy with her run.
I put her up and watched the rest of the runs, and there were some awesome ones. The basenji Searsha able to keep up with her longer legged running mates, Sammy the black greyhounds beautiful course with his nice running stakemates, and even a really amazing run of Deerhounds.
End of Sunday resulted in Jenny BOB(40 points), Wizard 1st(40) points, Ziva 2nd(15 points), Focus 3rd(10 points), Nacht 4th(5 points), Wizard & FOcus winning Bonnie the breeder stake, and Jenny coming home with the awesome pyrun trophy :)
Didn't make up for a crappy day Sunday, but it made it slightly better.
Went out to dinner with a great group of people including Katie Kaltenborn & Shirri Peake, before heading home to crash.
The fields were gorgeous, the weather almost perfect, the field committee did a great job with the battery operated water sprayer, and the competitors for Borzoi as well as those I huntmastered for were WONDERFUL!! Saw some great runs and was in the perfect position especially Sunday to be able to enjoy them. Got to see some dogs run that I hadn't seen before and it was overall, a nice weekend barring Treasure's loss.
Jenny is getting better and better every run. . .the next time out was LGRA, and she won two meets over Focus, who has only ever been defeated by two dogs: Doro, and Gossip. .she would OCCASIONALLY eek out a race win, but never ever beat Gossip for the meet win, so I really am looking forward to this fall once she & Focus are over their post season slump.
Friday, 5/13, wow, just got that when looking for the date, makes sense for how horrid this weekend started. I took Treasure to a cat specialist vet, who after examination, looking at his xrays, the blood work, and examing him, gave me a totally different diagnosis, and worse than Cancer.
At least with cancer chemo, or surgery can or MAY help, but not with Feline Infectious Peritonitis. .. that's a death sentence. . .incurable, so much unknown about this horrid diseaseshe drew 700cc's of fluid off Treasure's belly and he still was filled with this crap. . .I left him in her hands, with fear, as I lost Pandora last year when I boarded her when she wasn't feeling well. .. and I should've gone with my gut feeling, as he passed away Saturday night. . .if he hadn't been so bright eyed and talking with me Friday, I wouldn't've left him, but I didn't think he'd leave me so quick. . OTOH, not sure I could’ve handled him passing away on me in the hotel room and having had to figure out what to do with his little body or even waking up to him dead on my bed, so not sure which way was better, but it put a huge damper on the entire weekend. . .this new vet was very sweet and tried to comfort me, but nothing comforts me. He was my pillow buddy. He came into my life when I lost my Schatzi, thus his name Treasure the memories. . one of the meanings of Schatzi is treasure. .. and I was so hoping I'd have him at least as long as I had Schatzi(12 yrs), but it was only 8 years ago that I brought him home. And after the finally diagnosis, I was hoping to be able to cuddle him one last day, but it wasn't meant to be.
They just don't live long enough
Boy did this just put a whole barrel of ice water over the weekend. . .first vacation I'd had since last May, and i couldn't even really enjoy it. . .just like my LAST vacation!
But, I'm ahead of myself.
So, after dropping him off I packed the van with 7 dogs: Ziva, Jenny, Nacht, Focus, Wizard & Logan(RR) and then the brat, err secret, cuz I know she'd've driven everyone nuts all weekend. She's not a good house dog if i'm not in the house(paces), and is a PITA in the backyard at my ETA. .. yes, brat. Drove down to the field, staked out an area with my xpen and ez-up, and headed to the hotel.
Little did I know that the hotel I chose, I had to cross a ferry to get to. . .EEKS. . .it's not open all day, it closes sometime in the evening and doesn't open til 5. .but would they cross with just one vehicle on it? Unsure, and not wanting to get stuck there if they wouldn't, I had to map out a new path, chose a different hotel for Saturday, and tried to sleep. Ziva & Secret enjoyed the hotel room rights with both of them being good girls. Was in bed at like 10:30-11.
Couldn't sleep, tossed and turned, looked at the clock so many damn times, afraid of sleeping thru the alarm(roll call was 5:30 for those helping), saw it was 3, knew I had 45 minutes of sleep, and fell back asleep, next time I woke up, I glanced at the clock, it was 4:20, EEKS!!!!!! I had set the alarm for 3:45 pm, not AM. .. slammed everything into the van and took off. Got lost because the GPS kept trying to take me back to the damn ferry. . .not a good way to start the morning.
Got the kids roll called, found the RR's handler for the day, and went back to finish setting up. .
Thankfully they had made sure to put Borzoi 1st in the running order, so we were on almost as soon as we started. I'm so thankful for the extra hands that were around(Sally marciszewski, CHuck Grabosky, Steph Parkers darling hubby, Chuck's father in law, Frances Burnes), since I was running 4 of the 6 opens(my three and Bonnie's girl) and thankfully only one of the 20 FChs!! LOl
The field was a challenging one, definitely showcased the dogs who had enduranced, very hilly, parts that you had to step out further on the field to see if you were short like me :) A number of dogs took tumbles with the 'ditches'. Jenny came back with her blanket wet, so I know she did, but didn't see it because of where she fell. Some amazing runs were ran. Some of the dogs took the scenic route over the hay bales, which was just so neat to watch. Soon as we were done, it was walk the dogs out, and head back to the field to do my huntmastering job for salukis.
Got done there, grabbed something to eat, and went to find friends terri & Susan, watched a few of the greyhound runs, and enjoyed the beautiful weather.
By the end of the day, all the walking made my knee hurt. . .I happened to've parked in BFE. I packed up everything but the EZup and the xpen, and went to move the van closer to awards so I could get on the road ASAP and not walk back and forth
Now, it hadn't rained all day, but the ground was soft. .. and it proved too soft for my cargo sized van, and when I threw the van in reverse, tires started spinning. Damnit.
Turned the wheel and tried to drive ahead a bit and throw it in reverse on fresh turf, same thing. Got out, but unfortunately the people who had parked next to me had really tied their xpen down, so no way I could just pull thru and keep going.
So, I went looking for Dean wright, who rounded up a bunch of men, and with their help pushing it, I backed that SOB up and out, and kept going til I was on asphalt, not wanting to park it anywhere it could get stuck again.
End of day results was Wizard won his flyte of 10, then best FCH(40 points), Jenny, Ziva, Nacht went 2,3,4th,(18, 12, 6 points) with Jenny & Nacht winning breeder stake. Mr Logan placed 4th in open for his mama(think she said there were 7 opens)
Headed back to the hotel, got there, asked for a 1st floor room as close to the parking area as possible because my knee was killng me. In fact, stepped out of the van and it gave out. They set me up, backed my van into a parking spot as close to the room as I could get, and went to my room, and my brain went WTF????
It took me a minute to process that the room was filthy, garbage on the dresser, bed not made, it hadn't been cleaned. Went back up front, walking, cuz I am not comfy backing that thing in and out, and was hoping that they'd set me up close to wehre I'd parked to make life easier on me. They apologized profusely, gave me another room, unfortunately, this one was not as easy to get to, had to traipse quite a bit to it, yeah, on the 1st floor, but the inner courtyard area, with no convenient parking.
Then, the dogs all went on strike, refusing to potty on leash, the youngsters all wanted to play and run: WTH? Didn't they realise they had ran their little butts off earlier???? Fed them, settled them down for the night, took Jenny & Secret back to the hotel room, with visions of a nice, long, hot as I could get it, bath in my head.
My vision was not to be, Jenny nor Secret would settle down and be good beddogs, so crawled into bed after I wasn't able to connect to the internet I paid for, and went to bed.
Up early once again and headed out, parked on a different area, downhill, and with Dean's help, got my Xpen & EZ up over to the van. And then the day began.
This field was challenging in a different way. With a lot of dips and hills, the bunny was out of sight for quite a bit of the course, and if the dogs zigged left and the bunny right, they could easily get unsighted. Numerous dogs throughout the day came back to their handlers after losing sight of the bunny.
After Prelims, I was waiting to huntmaster, when I got the call from the vet, letting me know my little man had passed away over night. Up until that point, it had been a wonderful, fun weekend with great old friends and making new friends.
I tried to put that aside to finish out the day, was hard. . .my animals are my family, and Treasure had a special spot in my heart. .. watching my girls run helped, especially silly Jenny. She started coming in on the bunny hard, sliding in to home, under the line, grabbing the bunny, reminding me in so many ways of her Uncle Obie & Daddy Grins. I was very pleased with my girls runs and Wizard as usual for me, ran really well. When the finals came in, it was Wizard 1st of 19 in FCh, Jenny 1st of 5 in Open, and a lovely bitch named Tory in Veterans. After the dust settled for the BOB runoff, Jenny was the breed winner for the day.
Jenny flying
Tho I didn't think she had a snowball's chance in hell of winning, I ran her for Best in Event. .I don't know if she'll ever get a chance, so WTH right? I was very pleased with her run, but could definitely see she was not in the shape the others were in. Considering she was just two weeks or so post season(Hell, all of them but Ziva were!), I was very happy with her run.
I put her up and watched the rest of the runs, and there were some awesome ones. The basenji Searsha able to keep up with her longer legged running mates, Sammy the black greyhounds beautiful course with his nice running stakemates, and even a really amazing run of Deerhounds.
End of Sunday resulted in Jenny BOB(40 points), Wizard 1st(40) points, Ziva 2nd(15 points), Focus 3rd(10 points), Nacht 4th(5 points), Wizard & FOcus winning Bonnie the breeder stake, and Jenny coming home with the awesome pyrun trophy :)
Didn't make up for a crappy day Sunday, but it made it slightly better.
Went out to dinner with a great group of people including Katie Kaltenborn & Shirri Peake, before heading home to crash.
The fields were gorgeous, the weather almost perfect, the field committee did a great job with the battery operated water sprayer, and the competitors for Borzoi as well as those I huntmastered for were WONDERFUL!! Saw some great runs and was in the perfect position especially Sunday to be able to enjoy them. Got to see some dogs run that I hadn't seen before and it was overall, a nice weekend barring Treasure's loss.
Jenny is getting better and better every run. . .the next time out was LGRA, and she won two meets over Focus, who has only ever been defeated by two dogs: Doro, and Gossip. .she would OCCASIONALLY eek out a race win, but never ever beat Gossip for the meet win, so I really am looking forward to this fall once she & Focus are over their post season slump.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
the lgra/notra nationals
The LGRA/NOTRA nationals are over. . .
It was a very bittersweet nationals for me, and for two of my friends. . .T lost her promising basenji at the 2007 Nationals, he slipped his collar and was hit by a car :( Deb lost her Iggy last year, he got away from her and also was hit by a car. . .so lots of tears were shed for great friends gone too soon.
I took seven dogs with me. . .Ava flew out, which was a nightmare in and of itself. . .friend was supposed to ship her Saturday, didn't get there early enough saturday, so had to go back to my friend's that night, stay with her, get up, ship her out Sunday, which was a total nightmare. . .especially when i got lost in Newark. . .but Ava got to portland, is in her mama's hands, and promptly came into season LOL
Secret was along for the ride because she's stuck to me like rice, and some of Gossip's friends wanted to see her. . .other than forcing herself up front, between the captain chairs anyway she could, and when she couldn't, curling up on the nylon crate behind the chairs, she was a pretty good girl.
I had Focus for Bonnie, didn't expect anything really from her, she was in season end of july, so is just getting out of her slump, but since she was the only dog that was able to touch Gossip when she was 100%(and even then, it was only an occasional race she beat Gossip at), we entered her. Robin sent Ryder up for me to run, poor boy was out of shape due to the horridly hot summer they've had, John entered Wiard in Notra, we entered Reba in Notra, and I had my Ziva entered. DIdn't expect much from her, she is a baby still, the youngest by a year, but I was proud of her.
The weather was SOOO much better than last year's freezing rain, only thing i got this year vs a nasty cold last year, was wind chapped face/
Poor Ziva, she started the day in high point, but she tried her hardest, and came in 3rd behind much older and experienced dogs Bart(1) & Kyrie (2). She ran well for being the baby and still coming into her own, tieing for 5th and coming in 6th overall. Very pleased with her runs.
Ryder couldn't get his butt out of the box for 1st High Point and came in 4th, and that screwed him up for the rest of the day. . he placed 2nd behind the eventual BOS FTE winner Doro, and won his last race, to come in 5th(tied with Ziva)
Focus, as Gossip's pitch hitter, ran better than I'd hoped, and won all three races, to win the Nationals. . .I wish Gossip had been around, that was the only way the High Point races could've been better. . a huge ribbon and a trophy came home to Bonnie's delight.
What was extremely pleasing was 7 of the 8 top Borzoi went back to DC Silkenswift Blaze of CHaos(and more titles i cant' remember this am). . nice especially when I got wind of a nasty rumour that silkenswift dogs have horrid fronts and thus makes them slow LOL. .. 15 dogs running. . not bad at all. . .
Didn't get to enjoy the awards banquet due to having to go back to Newark, which was a shame, as I know it was a lot of fun.
We'll ignore the nightmare of getting Ava on the plane, and judge right onto NOTRA nationals. . .I had 5 of the 10 dogs entered. . think I may've lost my mind when I offered to run dogs for people LOL.
Reba ran her little heart off, but was in line to get the turtle after an OC, DNF happened, and then it happened, she couldn't get thru the dogs in front of her, and she went OC :( A disappointment for her little junior handler Georgia, who had(with adult help), dressed & muzzled her, she then walked her to the box with very little help, Mr John helped her box her, and with help she caught her, where she walked her back and undressed her lOL. . SHe proved that a 5 yr old could run Reba. . only one time was Reba not polite, otherwise she was the perfect, calm, sweet angel.
Ziva suddenly stopped fighting me at the box, stopped sitting in the box, now if she could only learn to stick to the turns(I know, give her time!) She finished 6th and picked up her first ORC points(0.5), I was more pleased with her progress in getting over the scare she got last month from a rough handler than anything.
Focus ran nicely, but started running out of steam. . .she ended up placing a respectable 4th, the 2nd high scoring non ORC, she's still not doing turns like she will in a few more meets.
Wizard, wizard shocked the crap out of many people by almost beating Bartlby, who is almost unbeatable, the last race. . he was ahead of Bart, and at the last moment slowed down enough Bart caught up with him and he tied. . Hopefully John'll listen to me and excercise that boy. . .he ended up placing 2nd due to that last race, finishing the day as the high scoring non titled oval racing boy.
I was very pleased with the kids. .. had a wonderful day, wish I'd video'd that last race it was so freaking amazing to watch as the siblings duked it out, first Valkyrie, than Bart, and then Wizard. .the top 4 dogs of the meet were all littermates: Bart, Wizard, Valkyrie, Focus
It wasn't as horrid as I feared it would be. . yes, I did miss my girl, but I had fun due to great friends. . .
The EAST COAST ROCKED THE NATS!!!!
It was a very bittersweet nationals for me, and for two of my friends. . .T lost her promising basenji at the 2007 Nationals, he slipped his collar and was hit by a car :( Deb lost her Iggy last year, he got away from her and also was hit by a car. . .so lots of tears were shed for great friends gone too soon.
I took seven dogs with me. . .Ava flew out, which was a nightmare in and of itself. . .friend was supposed to ship her Saturday, didn't get there early enough saturday, so had to go back to my friend's that night, stay with her, get up, ship her out Sunday, which was a total nightmare. . .especially when i got lost in Newark. . .but Ava got to portland, is in her mama's hands, and promptly came into season LOL
Secret was along for the ride because she's stuck to me like rice, and some of Gossip's friends wanted to see her. . .other than forcing herself up front, between the captain chairs anyway she could, and when she couldn't, curling up on the nylon crate behind the chairs, she was a pretty good girl.
I had Focus for Bonnie, didn't expect anything really from her, she was in season end of july, so is just getting out of her slump, but since she was the only dog that was able to touch Gossip when she was 100%(and even then, it was only an occasional race she beat Gossip at), we entered her. Robin sent Ryder up for me to run, poor boy was out of shape due to the horridly hot summer they've had, John entered Wiard in Notra, we entered Reba in Notra, and I had my Ziva entered. DIdn't expect much from her, she is a baby still, the youngest by a year, but I was proud of her.
The weather was SOOO much better than last year's freezing rain, only thing i got this year vs a nasty cold last year, was wind chapped face/
Poor Ziva, she started the day in high point, but she tried her hardest, and came in 3rd behind much older and experienced dogs Bart(1) & Kyrie (2). She ran well for being the baby and still coming into her own, tieing for 5th and coming in 6th overall. Very pleased with her runs.
Ryder couldn't get his butt out of the box for 1st High Point and came in 4th, and that screwed him up for the rest of the day. . he placed 2nd behind the eventual BOS FTE winner Doro, and won his last race, to come in 5th(tied with Ziva)
Focus, as Gossip's pitch hitter, ran better than I'd hoped, and won all three races, to win the Nationals. . .I wish Gossip had been around, that was the only way the High Point races could've been better. . a huge ribbon and a trophy came home to Bonnie's delight.
What was extremely pleasing was 7 of the 8 top Borzoi went back to DC Silkenswift Blaze of CHaos(and more titles i cant' remember this am). . nice especially when I got wind of a nasty rumour that silkenswift dogs have horrid fronts and thus makes them slow LOL. .. 15 dogs running. . not bad at all. . .
Didn't get to enjoy the awards banquet due to having to go back to Newark, which was a shame, as I know it was a lot of fun.
We'll ignore the nightmare of getting Ava on the plane, and judge right onto NOTRA nationals. . .I had 5 of the 10 dogs entered. . think I may've lost my mind when I offered to run dogs for people LOL.
Reba ran her little heart off, but was in line to get the turtle after an OC, DNF happened, and then it happened, she couldn't get thru the dogs in front of her, and she went OC :( A disappointment for her little junior handler Georgia, who had(with adult help), dressed & muzzled her, she then walked her to the box with very little help, Mr John helped her box her, and with help she caught her, where she walked her back and undressed her lOL. . SHe proved that a 5 yr old could run Reba. . only one time was Reba not polite, otherwise she was the perfect, calm, sweet angel.
Ziva suddenly stopped fighting me at the box, stopped sitting in the box, now if she could only learn to stick to the turns(I know, give her time!) She finished 6th and picked up her first ORC points(0.5), I was more pleased with her progress in getting over the scare she got last month from a rough handler than anything.
Focus ran nicely, but started running out of steam. . .she ended up placing a respectable 4th, the 2nd high scoring non ORC, she's still not doing turns like she will in a few more meets.
Wizard, wizard shocked the crap out of many people by almost beating Bartlby, who is almost unbeatable, the last race. . he was ahead of Bart, and at the last moment slowed down enough Bart caught up with him and he tied. . Hopefully John'll listen to me and excercise that boy. . .he ended up placing 2nd due to that last race, finishing the day as the high scoring non titled oval racing boy.
I was very pleased with the kids. .. had a wonderful day, wish I'd video'd that last race it was so freaking amazing to watch as the siblings duked it out, first Valkyrie, than Bart, and then Wizard. .the top 4 dogs of the meet were all littermates: Bart, Wizard, Valkyrie, Focus
It wasn't as horrid as I feared it would be. . yes, I did miss my girl, but I had fun due to great friends. . .
The EAST COAST ROCKED THE NATS!!!!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
PVBC's spring event
Photo by Jim Saklad
Oh what a weekend, so GLAD it's over!
Weather once again did not cooperate for PVBC's event. Sunday was miserable cold, but we got done before it rained, got everything packed up, INCLUDING the box(that was the easiest box loading I've ever witnessed), but it was COLD!!! And the wind didn't help.
One thing I did this time around, was 'hire' a 10 yr old. . a contractor that is working on Bonnie's house has a sweet boy who agreed to come out and run the bunny down the track in exchange for donations. We ran about 16 races, with an additional handful of practices on Saturday, and maybe the same number of runs Sunday with the large number of practices we did, and he made a nice sum from all the donations he was given(over $60). We've already booked him and another young friend of his for May. If you do racing, you know that one of hte hardest things to do is to get someone to walk the bunny back down the track. This worked out WONDERFULLY. His mom also thanked us, cuz it tired him out LOL. He enjoys the dogs, comes over to help socialize the piranhas every other week or so, they LOVE him. And I just got told tonite that he is soooo raring to come back, as he made enough money to buy himself a new Wii game lOL I love that enthusiasm
Unlike in December, just about everything went right and I started training my friend Mary McQuade on how to be race secretary. That helped a lot. She's a doll, and I'm so glad she came. I just had to worry about checking the board(she did it perfectly!) and run the lure. I'll be working on getting a number of club members trained, a lot less stressful if I know i have someone to help out!
Only problem we had was wind and the bunny, one high point race, the wind managed to throw the bunny off the track and Gossip shattered the post holding up the tape, scary shattered, she could've impaled herself on the broken piece. She was a bit sore from hitting that, and thus was house bound(not that she cares, means big fluffy beds, not getting rained on, she's all for that). fora few days, but is back to normal :) Otherwise the box, the equipment all ran well, the field was perfect, not too hard, not to soft. . .tho the bunny was hard to see on the wintered grass, thus the white bag that helped lift it off the field. Other than one obnoxious person who refused to run her dogs unless all other dogs were off the 8 acre pasture, everyone was great.
We had 13 starter Borzoi on Saturday, unfortunately 3 of them decided to be BAD. . .I feel bad for their owners, two of them are newbies to the racetrack, and it sucks when one day your dog'll run clean, next time you run 'em they're world class D***heads. . .but we had two NICE running FTE Borzoi, with the pretty white Bianca taking home the NICE Borzoi turtle (I didn't get a pic of it, but this turtle was NICE, nice enough her owner was bragging about it the next day at an ASFA trial LOL!) and Lori Miller's handsome Ryker placing nicely in the meet, not nice enough to get points yet, but he's learning strategy and it was his first weekend of being boxed. I really like him, he's a beautiful Teine bred black & tan. Top honours went to Gossip, but she had to earn it, then Padua to finish!(Congrats Ariel!), then a three way tie between Serrano, Dillon & First. LOL
Sunday was a much smaller meet, but unfortunately the bad luck for naughty Borzoi rolled into Sunday, and one girl decided she didn't like to be ahead, and turned to cheer on her cousin. .what's sad is she ran clean the first two races. . she kept weaving in front of Tipperary back and forth like she was cheering her on. Dingdong. . .Gossip won the meet, Ms First came in 2nd for 2 GRC points, and finished . . .was sooo tired Sunday night nothing was making sense. Tipperary was third, Surya, oh lord, images of his great uncle Races come to mind. . he's been boxed before, he's been raced before, but OMG!! Each time he was boxed, he got worse, and worse, to the point, third race he was a Paddock Scratch because we couldn't get him in. Having had to do that with Eros, I SOOO understand the frustration. . .
We had a number of nice practice runs with Surya's brother Yuri, Sciroccos' son Cayenne getting in a number of practices. Yuri cert'd with Grins ,and Cayenne'll come back out to play next time we have a practice. I was too tired to bring my monsters down by the time we were done.
We were so thankful for everyone who came out to help, even if they didn't have a dog in the race. Those hands are what makes a meet happen. Tho it does get frustrating when local Club people who are less than 10 mins away don't come out to help.
Grins got to certify a number of dogs this weekend, and enjoyed every bit of it. .from a deerhound to numerous Borzoi. . and when we quit yesterday, he was still raring to go. His eye has just about completely healed up! He'll be out next month to Cert' his kids for coursing!
So all and all, a successful weekend, but I am so glad I took this weekend off, had planned on going to RI, but changed my mind. The flooding made me glad I changed my mind, OTOH, it's nice not having anythign planned but birthday dinner and a movie, and maybe, just maybe, going to get First and the pups ASFA certified this weekend.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
PVBC
Weather has been pretty mild lately, so I thought we'd have the perfect weekend for PVBC's year end event. . not.
End of last week resulted in plummetting of weather, and then the worry became of is the ground going to be too frozen? Walked the field Friday, seemed fine, but we lost 10+ borzoi entries due to weather in their home area. . we had had entries from Massachusetts on down to SC, to MI. . .
So I truly expected a smallish Borzoi entry, but we started with 12. . .nice entry. . .especially considering the (then) undefeated Ms Peel was running. We also had an entry entry of FTE Afghans, an entry of Pharoahs, and a little but fun entry of RR.
But the morning started off with, what could go wrong, went wrong. . .had problems with the box(was fixed, thanks to Francis Byrnes!), had problem with the lure machine(PVBC's machine is now offically labeled as broke, it was 'checked' this fall, alas, they did not check with an actual line). THank heavens my machine was at the top of the hill and in working order
After all said and done, we got started, and ran 19 races in just over 3 hrs, not bad at all, considering the vast majority of people enhtered were FTES in their own right. Unfortunately, we had a mishandle the 1st program 1st race of Zois, with the wrong zoi being boxed, but otherwise, everything ran smoothly. This was unfortunate for Tip, cuz it looked like she finally got it, oh well, there's always next time
The slight incline was telling on the dogs tho. We are going to work the zoi running uphill, as Gossip definitely slowed down, but when you're conditioned to run on a straight field vs a field with an incline, well let's just say I know how she felt lOL I was sore beyond belief.
It was so much fun to watch all the races, I had a great view as lure operator. . .in coursing, most fields do not have long enough straights to see a dog truly open up, and watching Gossip & Mrs peel push each other the entire way the last two races(and end up tieing for the day), watching the RR Savana open up, it was a great day. . everyone threw in their weight(thank heavens with a small meet)
We had two people who came out JUSt to help us, thank heavens for their help! One owns a Kyra grandbaby, another has an older dog from Bonnie and is now interested in getting a running dawg. Her older boy had a nice run and then trotted back with the bunny in tow to the box lOL If only we could teach all dogs to do so.
It was great to see three fTE afghans run, and they ran clean, I think at least one of the owners is hooked and will be out again.
The point winner stuffed stockings were a great hit, which I thought they'd be.
1. Mrs Peel 19 3 NRC points
2. Gossip 19 3 NRC Points
3. Lemans 12 3 grc 1 nrc
4. Indigo 11 0.667 GRC
5. Reba 11 0.667 GRC
6 Kula (and high scoring FTE) 11 0.667 GRC
7. Padua-9
8. Kintaro 9 Turtle
10 Ivana-2 scr 3
11. Tipperary 0 scr 1
12. Julia 0. scr 1
Unfortunaely, had to cancel today, cuz weather SUCKED
End of last week resulted in plummetting of weather, and then the worry became of is the ground going to be too frozen? Walked the field Friday, seemed fine, but we lost 10+ borzoi entries due to weather in their home area. . we had had entries from Massachusetts on down to SC, to MI. . .
So I truly expected a smallish Borzoi entry, but we started with 12. . .nice entry. . .especially considering the (then) undefeated Ms Peel was running. We also had an entry entry of FTE Afghans, an entry of Pharoahs, and a little but fun entry of RR.
But the morning started off with, what could go wrong, went wrong. . .had problems with the box(was fixed, thanks to Francis Byrnes!), had problem with the lure machine(PVBC's machine is now offically labeled as broke, it was 'checked' this fall, alas, they did not check with an actual line). THank heavens my machine was at the top of the hill and in working order
After all said and done, we got started, and ran 19 races in just over 3 hrs, not bad at all, considering the vast majority of people enhtered were FTES in their own right. Unfortunately, we had a mishandle the 1st program 1st race of Zois, with the wrong zoi being boxed, but otherwise, everything ran smoothly. This was unfortunate for Tip, cuz it looked like she finally got it, oh well, there's always next time
The slight incline was telling on the dogs tho. We are going to work the zoi running uphill, as Gossip definitely slowed down, but when you're conditioned to run on a straight field vs a field with an incline, well let's just say I know how she felt lOL I was sore beyond belief.
It was so much fun to watch all the races, I had a great view as lure operator. . .in coursing, most fields do not have long enough straights to see a dog truly open up, and watching Gossip & Mrs peel push each other the entire way the last two races(and end up tieing for the day), watching the RR Savana open up, it was a great day. . everyone threw in their weight(thank heavens with a small meet)
We had two people who came out JUSt to help us, thank heavens for their help! One owns a Kyra grandbaby, another has an older dog from Bonnie and is now interested in getting a running dawg. Her older boy had a nice run and then trotted back with the bunny in tow to the box lOL If only we could teach all dogs to do so.
It was great to see three fTE afghans run, and they ran clean, I think at least one of the owners is hooked and will be out again.
The point winner stuffed stockings were a great hit, which I thought they'd be.
1. Mrs Peel 19 3 NRC points
2. Gossip 19 3 NRC Points
3. Lemans 12 3 grc 1 nrc
4. Indigo 11 0.667 GRC
5. Reba 11 0.667 GRC
6 Kula (and high scoring FTE) 11 0.667 GRC
7. Padua-9
8. Kintaro 9 Turtle
10 Ivana-2 scr 3
11. Tipperary 0 scr 1
12. Julia 0. scr 1
Unfortunaely, had to cancel today, cuz weather SUCKED
Monday, November 3, 2008
Maigc redux & AKC's stupidity
Whomever said dogs are good for your health, never tried to box an obstinate Borzoi.
All I can say is oh my aching back.
But boy were there some nice races
With Bonnie’s blessing, took three of her up and coming kiddos racing with me: Focus & Carrot, littermates to Wizard & Bartleby that’s been doing so well, and First, littermate to Sammy who’s been burning up the Southeast. Was going to take Bagheera, but he's such a moose, he takes up waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much room in the Zoimobile.
The girls were WONDERFUL, although First is very pigheaded when she doesn’t want to do something(like go in the car, go in the xpen, listen to me. .LOL), boxed decently(none of them saw the box before this weekend), ran really well. Were really good girls.
Carrot didn’t break well first race, but 2nd he was great, and showed some awesome promising speed, unfortunately he tied with First when it came time to redo the board and since she was in highpoint, she stayed there, as I wanted to see him run against Gossip. And this is when stubborn with a capital S came thru when he refused to box, backed out with such force he threw me to the ground, on my back. . ouch. . .took both “Old John*” & I to box the little sucker, and he ended up in there backwards. . .you don’t let them learn they can win. . .they’ll fight harder next time, learned that one with Eros. . box opened, and he lost the race because he took his time coming out, he did finish the race, which is good, but little bugger has got to learn to box better. .amazing two of his siblings have boxed fine, just not him. Losing that race cost him his points and earned him the turtle. .brat child.
Unfortunately Lil John* wasn’t able to drag his butt out of bed to go with us. . John, if you’re having this much trouble now in your 20s, you’re in trouble when you’re in your 40s LOL. Will have to steal Wizard the next time I go out to make sure he gets to run LOL. I want good competition at the races! :) If it means taking great young dogs with me, so be it!
Oatlands is a great place to hold an event, too bad the cost of renting it is inhibitive($400 a weekend). MAIGC lost money big time this weekend. I feel so bad for Terri, she tries so hard, but club members have to step in. .if they’d been able to hold in in Nj, they’d’ve had a bigger entry.
Met some lovely people this weekend, Beth with Mokie(what a hairball!), and a number of Iggy people who have now joined Gossip’s fan base LOL. . .Obie had his people, but it’s amazing how many people Gossip’s won over to the breed. Even got the email from one lady as there’s yet another OB group in town, who runs rally/Agility fun matches once a month, wahoo!! J Gossip & I have things to do this winter. . .
Haven’t heard the results for NOTRA Nationals, but did get the LGRA one, five of the top 6 Borzoi went back to Obie’s brother Mir, all six went back to Blaze. Unfortunately Sammy hurt himself and so was his Mom and thus was pulled from Notra. He placed a respectable 3rd in LGRA tho. Sounds like it was MUCH better ran than last year’s event. Next year’s’ll be out this way, and I can’t wait!
Was told that AKC was doing away with Veterans stake, and been trying to find that out. Search of AKC's website has found nothing. if they do that, they're cutting off their nose to spite their face. . and going to cost themselves and clubs money. . push judges to give more NQ's in all stakes, and make the rules harder so that those who revel in playing with the loopholes can't, but don't take away Veterans. .they'll just use a different stake to play their stupid little piss ass games in. Dropped them a note, but haven't heard back from that either. . thing this big, if it's true, you'd think it'd've hit one of the lists, but it's been ssshhh.
Well, that's it, quiet week, may take First coursing this weekend, Reba's lame. . we'll see. . .:P
*it’s not an insult. .we have three Johns at some events, so we’ve labeled them Old John, Big John & little John LOL to differentiate between them when they are all there. Gets too confusing when they all turn and go what!?!?! LOL
All I can say is oh my aching back.
But boy were there some nice races
With Bonnie’s blessing, took three of her up and coming kiddos racing with me: Focus & Carrot, littermates to Wizard & Bartleby that’s been doing so well, and First, littermate to Sammy who’s been burning up the Southeast. Was going to take Bagheera, but he's such a moose, he takes up waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much room in the Zoimobile.
The girls were WONDERFUL, although First is very pigheaded when she doesn’t want to do something(like go in the car, go in the xpen, listen to me. .LOL), boxed decently(none of them saw the box before this weekend), ran really well. Were really good girls.
Carrot didn’t break well first race, but 2nd he was great, and showed some awesome promising speed, unfortunately he tied with First when it came time to redo the board and since she was in highpoint, she stayed there, as I wanted to see him run against Gossip. And this is when stubborn with a capital S came thru when he refused to box, backed out with such force he threw me to the ground, on my back. . ouch. . .took both “Old John*” & I to box the little sucker, and he ended up in there backwards. . .you don’t let them learn they can win. . .they’ll fight harder next time, learned that one with Eros. . box opened, and he lost the race because he took his time coming out, he did finish the race, which is good, but little bugger has got to learn to box better. .amazing two of his siblings have boxed fine, just not him. Losing that race cost him his points and earned him the turtle. .brat child.
Unfortunately Lil John* wasn’t able to drag his butt out of bed to go with us. . John, if you’re having this much trouble now in your 20s, you’re in trouble when you’re in your 40s LOL. Will have to steal Wizard the next time I go out to make sure he gets to run LOL. I want good competition at the races! :) If it means taking great young dogs with me, so be it!
Oatlands is a great place to hold an event, too bad the cost of renting it is inhibitive($400 a weekend). MAIGC lost money big time this weekend. I feel so bad for Terri, she tries so hard, but club members have to step in. .if they’d been able to hold in in Nj, they’d’ve had a bigger entry.
Met some lovely people this weekend, Beth with Mokie(what a hairball!), and a number of Iggy people who have now joined Gossip’s fan base LOL. . .Obie had his people, but it’s amazing how many people Gossip’s won over to the breed. Even got the email from one lady as there’s yet another OB group in town, who runs rally/Agility fun matches once a month, wahoo!! J Gossip & I have things to do this winter. . .
Haven’t heard the results for NOTRA Nationals, but did get the LGRA one, five of the top 6 Borzoi went back to Obie’s brother Mir, all six went back to Blaze. Unfortunately Sammy hurt himself and so was his Mom and thus was pulled from Notra. He placed a respectable 3rd in LGRA tho. Sounds like it was MUCH better ran than last year’s event. Next year’s’ll be out this way, and I can’t wait!
Was told that AKC was doing away with Veterans stake, and been trying to find that out. Search of AKC's website has found nothing. if they do that, they're cutting off their nose to spite their face. . and going to cost themselves and clubs money. . push judges to give more NQ's in all stakes, and make the rules harder so that those who revel in playing with the loopholes can't, but don't take away Veterans. .they'll just use a different stake to play their stupid little piss ass games in. Dropped them a note, but haven't heard back from that either. . thing this big, if it's true, you'd think it'd've hit one of the lists, but it's been ssshhh.
Well, that's it, quiet week, may take First coursing this weekend, Reba's lame. . we'll see. . .:P
*it’s not an insult. .we have three Johns at some events, so we’ve labeled them Old John, Big John & little John LOL to differentiate between them when they are all there. Gets too confusing when they all turn and go what!?!?! LOL
Saturday, November 1, 2008
The weekend
Wrote this last night, and forgot to post
Brrr, where did fall go? WE keep bouncing between summer (warm and sunny) and winter(cold & rainy). Makes for miserable people, that’s for sure.
Looking to be a nice weekend, small meet, but nice entry. Trying to get Jim to come down with HIS dawg(Tipp), but he finds straights boring. At least with a small meet, I can get in lots of box breaking, Bagheera & First are going, FTE’s, and taking Eros to work box with him. . .maybe I can get him where he’ll stop fighting the box. Would be nice. . getting him into shape to hit the coursing field some this winter. And working with Grins on rally stuff. . he’s such a DORK!!!!!!
Watching Snoopy & Jammin fight it out for #1 is so exciting, and the sportsmanship between the two owners is wonderful . . They cheer each other on, may the best dog win. . .it’s going to come down to the finish line this year with those two. . .both nice dogs, so have a hard time cheering one on over the other. Would love to see a ‘match’ race with Gossip & Jammin, just to see how much he beat her by. . .problem with her is the head games she likes to play LOL. I’ll only go as fast as I have to go, and not an iota more. .drives Karen & Michelle nuts when they’re running the lure. . .OTOH, means she’s a smart dog. Can’t wait to see how Bagheera & First rate next to her, and next time it’ll be Focus & Carrot and maybe Tip, she can be such a pita to catch, so not sure I want to take her.
Unfortunately the dog I had wanted to breed Gossip to is out. . .won’t go into it here, but he’s no longer with us. Damn. . .so back to the drawing board. Thankfully got a long list of Boys I like, just have to widdle ‘em down with Marie.
Brrr, where did fall go? WE keep bouncing between summer (warm and sunny) and winter(cold & rainy). Makes for miserable people, that’s for sure.
Looking to be a nice weekend, small meet, but nice entry. Trying to get Jim to come down with HIS dawg(Tipp), but he finds straights boring. At least with a small meet, I can get in lots of box breaking, Bagheera & First are going, FTE’s, and taking Eros to work box with him. . .maybe I can get him where he’ll stop fighting the box. Would be nice. . getting him into shape to hit the coursing field some this winter. And working with Grins on rally stuff. . he’s such a DORK!!!!!!
Watching Snoopy & Jammin fight it out for #1 is so exciting, and the sportsmanship between the two owners is wonderful . . They cheer each other on, may the best dog win. . .it’s going to come down to the finish line this year with those two. . .both nice dogs, so have a hard time cheering one on over the other. Would love to see a ‘match’ race with Gossip & Jammin, just to see how much he beat her by. . .problem with her is the head games she likes to play LOL. I’ll only go as fast as I have to go, and not an iota more. .drives Karen & Michelle nuts when they’re running the lure. . .OTOH, means she’s a smart dog. Can’t wait to see how Bagheera & First rate next to her, and next time it’ll be Focus & Carrot and maybe Tip, she can be such a pita to catch, so not sure I want to take her.
Unfortunately the dog I had wanted to breed Gossip to is out. . .won’t go into it here, but he’s no longer with us. Damn. . .so back to the drawing board. Thankfully got a long list of Boys I like, just have to widdle ‘em down with Marie.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
We survived, LGRA & Agility
Well, Hanna's gone and blown herself out. . .it wasn't anywhere near as bad as was expected, heck, I had worse wind storms in NY. . .lots of rain, winds picked up here and there. . lots of torrential rains, but nothing too bad. Doesn't mean I wasn't glad we kenneled all the dogs for fear of trees coming down. . was nice not to have to worry about them, and made feeding them all so much easier.
Granted, as soon as Hanna was over with, we lost electricity LOL No flickers during the storm, only happened once she was gone. . figures. .told Bonnie that if we were going to be without power for 24 hrs again, I was DEFINITELY going racing.
Unfortunately a number of people didn't show up. . was looking forward to Wizard going head to head with Gossip now that he has his speed, and Orleans & Pia were signed up to come. . oh well, maybe next week. . I did get to see Gossip run against another dog I've been waiting to see: Serrano. Serrano is sired by Kazan, a nice running german bred male, sired by a son of Blaze, Kazan was a force to be reckoned with when he was younger, think he won the BCOA Nationals twice, as well as the LGRA nationals. .I'd wanted to run Gossip against him back in 2006, but that's when my life was in the toilet and the car was undependable. . anyway, Serrano's been running more focus on the plastic, and thus he's come back to LGRA to try it out.
He's grown up nicely, definitely shows his swedish part of the pedigree(short on leg long on body).
He didn't live up to his papa's speed, but he comported himself rather well. . .He'll get some more once he squeezes out of the box like Gossip & Grins do. He still breaks slower. ..but even his owner admitted he didn't have Gossip's speed. . .
I boxed Gossip & Grins the last race, and stepped back to watch. . it's amazing how they come out of the box, Grins came out 1-1 1/5 lengths ahead of Gossip, but she dropped it low to the ground and just set off the afterburners and each stride took her further and further away. It was awesome to watch. . .I usually catch as I can get both off without a problem, but it's so nice to watch them break from the box. Going to have to remember my camera this weekend and video it, it was just aweinspiring to watch her do it. Was like watching a Mustang and Lambergini take off, the Mustang getting off the line first, and the Lambergini dropping it a gear to take off around the other car LOL
Dei told me in no uncertain terms she's had enough of Racing, after running clean despite when other dogs were nasty in the last year, when another dog bumped into her (same dog mentioned above who wasn't running quite clean), she told him off. . oh well. . .she likes to race, in fact, lunged at the bunny yesterday when they bopped it, but oh well . .she can stay home. . next week is Tip or Kolya's turn. Sunday's looking to have a 16 Borzoi entry, wowza! Should be some nice running.
And Grins did well for a 6 yr old boy, coming in 2nd to only Gossip the entire meet for another 1.5 points towards his SGRC. .he's going to get his clock cleaned this coming weekend tho. . with Novel, Pia, Orleans & Wizard
While I was at the meet, was talking to a RR lady about agility, and this basenji person butts in. This woman is annoying, she thinks she knows everything, and it's her way or no way. She started telling me how I needed to train weaves. . told her what I was doing was working, and she kept going. .finally told her that she doesn't understand, training a Basenji to do weaves is TOTALLY different than training a Borzoi. She got indignant, told me she'd put Master Agility titles on dogs, she THINKS she knows what she's doing. Told her good for her, I respect that, but the fact a basenji doesn't have the problems Borzoi do doing weaves means that it's goign to take a different training strategy. Hell, by the time Gossip's tailbone gets to the 1st weave, her head has to be weaving thru the third. And she stomped off. .
This woman drives me nuts. She had a fit at one meet because someone's dogs were howling, and OMG, my dogs cant' run if someone's HOWLING! She also has to tell you hwo to do EVERYTHING. I was running the box at a meet earlier this year and as soon as she came up she started telling me how to do it. If she told me once she told me a dozen times in the 90 seconds before I put the dogs in the box, that i HAD to shake the lure for her old fart of a dog, as he got confused and needed to hear the sound to know which way to go. . .by the time I had them in the box, I as ready to throttle her, and I reached for the box mechanism before I realised it and before I could stop, she was protesting that I HAD to shake the bunny, I turned around and told her I knew that, but I couldn't THINK with all her damn yapping. The foul judge about fell out of his chair laughing, as he has the same opinion I do. . .GODS!!!!
Onto tormenting your borzoi LOLAfter Gossip's idiocy at Agilty class last week, with her refusing to do the tunnel, I set one up in the hallway to my bedroom. . so she has to do the tunnel to go to bed and to get up in the morning. .and now i have her jackalure on the lunge whip. . that'll make her do it even faster and I can rip it out from under her nose and make her come back thru LOL
Granted, as soon as Hanna was over with, we lost electricity LOL No flickers during the storm, only happened once she was gone. . figures. .told Bonnie that if we were going to be without power for 24 hrs again, I was DEFINITELY going racing.
Unfortunately a number of people didn't show up. . was looking forward to Wizard going head to head with Gossip now that he has his speed, and Orleans & Pia were signed up to come. . oh well, maybe next week. . I did get to see Gossip run against another dog I've been waiting to see: Serrano. Serrano is sired by Kazan, a nice running german bred male, sired by a son of Blaze, Kazan was a force to be reckoned with when he was younger, think he won the BCOA Nationals twice, as well as the LGRA nationals. .I'd wanted to run Gossip against him back in 2006, but that's when my life was in the toilet and the car was undependable. . anyway, Serrano's been running more focus on the plastic, and thus he's come back to LGRA to try it out.
He's grown up nicely, definitely shows his swedish part of the pedigree(short on leg long on body).
He didn't live up to his papa's speed, but he comported himself rather well. . .He'll get some more once he squeezes out of the box like Gossip & Grins do. He still breaks slower. ..but even his owner admitted he didn't have Gossip's speed. . .
I boxed Gossip & Grins the last race, and stepped back to watch. . it's amazing how they come out of the box, Grins came out 1-1 1/5 lengths ahead of Gossip, but she dropped it low to the ground and just set off the afterburners and each stride took her further and further away. It was awesome to watch. . .I usually catch as I can get both off without a problem, but it's so nice to watch them break from the box. Going to have to remember my camera this weekend and video it, it was just aweinspiring to watch her do it. Was like watching a Mustang and Lambergini take off, the Mustang getting off the line first, and the Lambergini dropping it a gear to take off around the other car LOL
Dei told me in no uncertain terms she's had enough of Racing, after running clean despite when other dogs were nasty in the last year, when another dog bumped into her (same dog mentioned above who wasn't running quite clean), she told him off. . oh well. . .she likes to race, in fact, lunged at the bunny yesterday when they bopped it, but oh well . .she can stay home. . next week is Tip or Kolya's turn. Sunday's looking to have a 16 Borzoi entry, wowza! Should be some nice running.
And Grins did well for a 6 yr old boy, coming in 2nd to only Gossip the entire meet for another 1.5 points towards his SGRC. .he's going to get his clock cleaned this coming weekend tho. . with Novel, Pia, Orleans & Wizard
While I was at the meet, was talking to a RR lady about agility, and this basenji person butts in. This woman is annoying, she thinks she knows everything, and it's her way or no way. She started telling me how I needed to train weaves. . told her what I was doing was working, and she kept going. .finally told her that she doesn't understand, training a Basenji to do weaves is TOTALLY different than training a Borzoi. She got indignant, told me she'd put Master Agility titles on dogs, she THINKS she knows what she's doing. Told her good for her, I respect that, but the fact a basenji doesn't have the problems Borzoi do doing weaves means that it's goign to take a different training strategy. Hell, by the time Gossip's tailbone gets to the 1st weave, her head has to be weaving thru the third. And she stomped off. .
This woman drives me nuts. She had a fit at one meet because someone's dogs were howling, and OMG, my dogs cant' run if someone's HOWLING! She also has to tell you hwo to do EVERYTHING. I was running the box at a meet earlier this year and as soon as she came up she started telling me how to do it. If she told me once she told me a dozen times in the 90 seconds before I put the dogs in the box, that i HAD to shake the lure for her old fart of a dog, as he got confused and needed to hear the sound to know which way to go. . .by the time I had them in the box, I as ready to throttle her, and I reached for the box mechanism before I realised it and before I could stop, she was protesting that I HAD to shake the bunny, I turned around and told her I knew that, but I couldn't THINK with all her damn yapping. The foul judge about fell out of his chair laughing, as he has the same opinion I do. . .GODS!!!!
Onto tormenting your borzoi LOLAfter Gossip's idiocy at Agilty class last week, with her refusing to do the tunnel, I set one up in the hallway to my bedroom. . so she has to do the tunnel to go to bed and to get up in the morning. .and now i have her jackalure on the lunge whip. . that'll make her do it even faster and I can rip it out from under her nose and make her come back thru LOL
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
LGRA nats
don't you hate when the world seems to conspire against ya?
I've been hoping to go to the LGRA/NOTRA nationals all year. .. but the $1300 vet bill in June, now the vet bills with the thyroid kitty(and no, I'm not putting her down, her quality of life is healthy, she's just on meds and CBC checks for the rest of her life), on top of having to take more time off to go home for xmas(not that i'm complaining) which resulted in no extra time off, I couldn't figure out how to drive. . It'd be four days off just for driving time as it was.
Oh, wait Vanessa was going. . so I could always give her gas money and she'd take Gossip, she'd already told me she could. . no problem, oh damn, Vanessa's girl came into season early and now she's got puppies in the oven, due that week. . ok, Wiz's Dad was all gungho to go with his boy, oh damn, he's going back to school and doesn't know what's going on time wise, and he's got the same issue I have, an old car, would it make it? My neon has less miles on it, but it's still 11 yrs old. .
Then one of her fans said she might be able to take her, as she could use the help with gas. . she decided not to go, the entry for her breed SUXS and is not worth spending $1000 to get there(THAT I understand). And it seems nobody else is going from the NE. .
Damn
I even went so far as to think of flying down. I want to see friends I haven't seen in YEARS,and run her against Nitro & Tornado, but it just ain't going to happen. Even if I could afford to fly her down, I'm worried the airlines in dallas, who are known for being pricks won't let her fly home in a 500. And unlike other people, when I say I can't afford something, I can't afford it, and I CAN'T afford to ship her in a 700. It was pushing her to give someone gas to drive her there and fly down to run her. Not that it's really worth it to spend all that money for one day, as i don't know if she'll even run NOTRA
Oh well. . it'll make her detractors happy.
Oh well, the local event may be decent size with at least one person coming from WAY out of the area
Good news is she's still doing well with our Rally, hope to have myself sure enough to try her for a leg in November, she's also slowly gathering speed in agility, and loves to work. She's a white & brindle border collie :)
And Good news Pandora has gained back about 8 oz's since she was diagnosed with thyroid disease. . considering she was down to under 6 lbs, that's a GOOD thing.
Cleaned out the trunk of the car tonite, will clean out the front so I can fit four dogs in it. Chantilly & Juls are going with me this weekend to see if Chantily'll run and get Juls boxbroke. She's my borrowed running dog for coursing since I dn't have an open. LOL. And she'll hit oval & LGRA as I do this fall. She's a sweet pretty girl, and I can't wait for Bonnie to breed her, as she will produce some gorgeous babies. Both these last things help make up for not being able to go to BFE to the LGRA nats.
I've been hoping to go to the LGRA/NOTRA nationals all year. .. but the $1300 vet bill in June, now the vet bills with the thyroid kitty(and no, I'm not putting her down, her quality of life is healthy, she's just on meds and CBC checks for the rest of her life), on top of having to take more time off to go home for xmas(not that i'm complaining) which resulted in no extra time off, I couldn't figure out how to drive. . It'd be four days off just for driving time as it was.
Oh, wait Vanessa was going. . so I could always give her gas money and she'd take Gossip, she'd already told me she could. . no problem, oh damn, Vanessa's girl came into season early and now she's got puppies in the oven, due that week. . ok, Wiz's Dad was all gungho to go with his boy, oh damn, he's going back to school and doesn't know what's going on time wise, and he's got the same issue I have, an old car, would it make it? My neon has less miles on it, but it's still 11 yrs old. .
Then one of her fans said she might be able to take her, as she could use the help with gas. . she decided not to go, the entry for her breed SUXS and is not worth spending $1000 to get there(THAT I understand). And it seems nobody else is going from the NE. .
Damn
I even went so far as to think of flying down. I want to see friends I haven't seen in YEARS,and run her against Nitro & Tornado, but it just ain't going to happen. Even if I could afford to fly her down, I'm worried the airlines in dallas, who are known for being pricks won't let her fly home in a 500. And unlike other people, when I say I can't afford something, I can't afford it, and I CAN'T afford to ship her in a 700. It was pushing her to give someone gas to drive her there and fly down to run her. Not that it's really worth it to spend all that money for one day, as i don't know if she'll even run NOTRA
Oh well. . it'll make her detractors happy.
Oh well, the local event may be decent size with at least one person coming from WAY out of the area
Good news is she's still doing well with our Rally, hope to have myself sure enough to try her for a leg in November, she's also slowly gathering speed in agility, and loves to work. She's a white & brindle border collie :)
And Good news Pandora has gained back about 8 oz's since she was diagnosed with thyroid disease. . considering she was down to under 6 lbs, that's a GOOD thing.
Cleaned out the trunk of the car tonite, will clean out the front so I can fit four dogs in it. Chantilly & Juls are going with me this weekend to see if Chantily'll run and get Juls boxbroke. She's my borrowed running dog for coursing since I dn't have an open. LOL. And she'll hit oval & LGRA as I do this fall. She's a sweet pretty girl, and I can't wait for Bonnie to breed her, as she will produce some gorgeous babies. Both these last things help make up for not being able to go to BFE to the LGRA nats.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Gossip
So, Gossip went racing with her Uncle john: THANKYOU JOHN!!! I love the fact there are people in the area (well and out of the area too, but they can't help me out if I can't go LOL0 who believe in my girl as much as I do.
He called at 1, and I though her winning streak may finally be broken. She's been in 21 meets (that's 63 races) and only lost one race, but today one of Vanessa's fast girls(Indigo or maybe Novel, john wasn't sure LOL) beat Gossip the 2nd race. It is about the time she'd be having puppies if I'd bred her back in April, and some dogs go into a funk and go off their stride. She didn't last year, but she was also in rock hard shape, this year with being down 7 months, she wasn't so rock hard. Oh well, every record has to be broken, right? That's what they're there for, to be broken. And couldn't pick a better dog to beat her, Indigo's a pretty little thing, and Novel is Grin's daughter. .
Anywhooo, didn't hear from him, didn't hear from him. This is the first (and so far only) time I've let someone else take one of my personal dogs running, so I was nervous anyway. . .images of her having hurt herself, overheating, something happening to wizard, car accident on 95, you name it, it went thru my mind.
And then i get a call from John, he's 30 mins from here, and not to worry, Gossip pulled a win on the third race to win the meet LOl
22 race meets and only lost 2 races, not bad, not bad.
She's currently zonked out somehwere. . .
He called at 1, and I though her winning streak may finally be broken. She's been in 21 meets (that's 63 races) and only lost one race, but today one of Vanessa's fast girls(Indigo or maybe Novel, john wasn't sure LOL) beat Gossip the 2nd race. It is about the time she'd be having puppies if I'd bred her back in April, and some dogs go into a funk and go off their stride. She didn't last year, but she was also in rock hard shape, this year with being down 7 months, she wasn't so rock hard. Oh well, every record has to be broken, right? That's what they're there for, to be broken. And couldn't pick a better dog to beat her, Indigo's a pretty little thing, and Novel is Grin's daughter. .
Anywhooo, didn't hear from him, didn't hear from him. This is the first (and so far only) time I've let someone else take one of my personal dogs running, so I was nervous anyway. . .images of her having hurt herself, overheating, something happening to wizard, car accident on 95, you name it, it went thru my mind.
And then i get a call from John, he's 30 mins from here, and not to worry, Gossip pulled a win on the third race to win the meet LOl
22 race meets and only lost 2 races, not bad, not bad.
She's currently zonked out somehwere. . .
Friday, April 11, 2008
jealousy
Is such a lovely thing, isn't it?
Someone sent me a link to a breeder i do not respect(for a wide variety of reasons including being two faced), where she is ranting over my ad that Gossip finished her SGRC undefeated.
She fails to understand that she did it beating most dogs younger than her. .yep, I took some of my older guys who run out, because they enjoy it and in hopes of finishing a title or two on them. Dei's suddenly started running and beating dogs younger than her, so why not take her out?
She also fails to understand I take out what I'm told to take out. I've begged Bonnie to send some of her young dogs out, she doesn't want to, she has no respect for straight racing unfortunately. Hopefully she'll let me take Surya out this year, the youngsters won't go out until they've seen the coursing field.
Gods, this woman is so hypocritical, she has no problem with her buddy running around with 8 dogs, getting an SORC3 on a dog by running him with dogs 8-10+ yrs of age(same buddy got her dogs asses kicked by Izzy & Grins when we showed up when she had a huge entry), and pulling a number of the dogs after the first race, just putting them in for points. The same buddy enters ten dogs in open and pulling everyone of them but the one she wants to win, but that's her BUDDY, but she gets her panties in a bind when I take three of my dogs racing.
I don't pull my dogs unless it's too hot, which I did a couple of times last fall, when the day started nice and got too warm for Grins. If it hadn't, he'd've kept running.
I have no idea what her freaking problem is. .. my good friend says she's jealous, and worried, she's held top Borzoi in LGRA for the last few years, and Gossip's got a chance of taking that away.
Gossip has ran against all comers, older and younger. She's stupid if she can't see that, but oh wait, she's the reason(partially) that Gossip got named Gossip, cuz she and her friends were slandering the entire litter, because they were 1/4 shefaro, and 1/2 pickle hill. They even tried to ruin a puppysale for me.
Even more hypocritical, NOW she has a 1/2 pickle hill bitch, talk about IRONIC!!
I'm so glad the entries in the NE have gotten bigger again. She's beat some fast dogs, from Casino, to Cal, to Una, to Izzy, to Raven, to Wizard, to Jojo, to Novel, to Grins, to oh what is that little tri's name that is from Massachusetts, damn, can't think of her name, oh, Orleans! None of them to sniffle at, all of them fast dogs. All of them, even the one bred by this idiot, are nice dogs. And all but maybe Casino & Grins are younger than Gossip.
But hey, ya know what, I can just grin and smile, as her #1 dog isn't undefeated, no matter what his fan club tried to spread up in the NE a few years back. Wings beat him the 1st time out, or she could probably say the same damn thing.
But then, from what I was told she doesn't like racing anymore, because dogs growl at the end and her oh so soft weenie dogs were put off by it and she packed her bags up at one event and went home because of it.
If she truly thinks Gossip's crap, put her money where her mouth is, but since at least two of her good friends say otherwise about Gossip, maybe she should listen!!!
Hope Gossip will run the oval next weekend!
Someone sent me a link to a breeder i do not respect(for a wide variety of reasons including being two faced), where she is ranting over my ad that Gossip finished her SGRC undefeated.
She fails to understand that she did it beating most dogs younger than her. .yep, I took some of my older guys who run out, because they enjoy it and in hopes of finishing a title or two on them. Dei's suddenly started running and beating dogs younger than her, so why not take her out?
She also fails to understand I take out what I'm told to take out. I've begged Bonnie to send some of her young dogs out, she doesn't want to, she has no respect for straight racing unfortunately. Hopefully she'll let me take Surya out this year, the youngsters won't go out until they've seen the coursing field.
Gods, this woman is so hypocritical, she has no problem with her buddy running around with 8 dogs, getting an SORC3 on a dog by running him with dogs 8-10+ yrs of age(same buddy got her dogs asses kicked by Izzy & Grins when we showed up when she had a huge entry), and pulling a number of the dogs after the first race, just putting them in for points. The same buddy enters ten dogs in open and pulling everyone of them but the one she wants to win, but that's her BUDDY, but she gets her panties in a bind when I take three of my dogs racing.
I don't pull my dogs unless it's too hot, which I did a couple of times last fall, when the day started nice and got too warm for Grins. If it hadn't, he'd've kept running.
I have no idea what her freaking problem is. .. my good friend says she's jealous, and worried, she's held top Borzoi in LGRA for the last few years, and Gossip's got a chance of taking that away.
Gossip has ran against all comers, older and younger. She's stupid if she can't see that, but oh wait, she's the reason(partially) that Gossip got named Gossip, cuz she and her friends were slandering the entire litter, because they were 1/4 shefaro, and 1/2 pickle hill. They even tried to ruin a puppysale for me.
Even more hypocritical, NOW she has a 1/2 pickle hill bitch, talk about IRONIC!!
I'm so glad the entries in the NE have gotten bigger again. She's beat some fast dogs, from Casino, to Cal, to Una, to Izzy, to Raven, to Wizard, to Jojo, to Novel, to Grins, to oh what is that little tri's name that is from Massachusetts, damn, can't think of her name, oh, Orleans! None of them to sniffle at, all of them fast dogs. All of them, even the one bred by this idiot, are nice dogs. And all but maybe Casino & Grins are younger than Gossip.
But hey, ya know what, I can just grin and smile, as her #1 dog isn't undefeated, no matter what his fan club tried to spread up in the NE a few years back. Wings beat him the 1st time out, or she could probably say the same damn thing.
But then, from what I was told she doesn't like racing anymore, because dogs growl at the end and her oh so soft weenie dogs were put off by it and she packed her bags up at one event and went home because of it.
If she truly thinks Gossip's crap, put her money where her mouth is, but since at least two of her good friends say otherwise about Gossip, maybe she should listen!!!
Hope Gossip will run the oval next weekend!
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