Dragged my sorry butt out of bed at a way too early hour saturday, loaded up the car and headed up to NJ for coursing. . .in the last 10 yrs, the number of AKC trials in the area have dried up, with most of them being 3+ hrs a way. Hoping PVBC will become AKC approved in the next year and that we can find a field to hold AKC events at, as it gets expensive going to NJ, especially with price of gas, but the hotels are expensive also.
Got there, only to realise something: all my blankets were in the dryer. . .something I had thought of as I was packing the car, but it had slipped my mind. . they were all clean, but they were all 3 hrs away LOL. Thank heavens for two very sweet Borzoi people: Charles Greene & Karin Johnson who lent me blankets for Jenny. Another friend offered, but I could've fit Jenny & Bounce in the IW blanket they gave me LOL
Unlike recent AKC events, we had a nice solid major in Open with Ralph & Ariel's Jag and a friend of their's showed up with two more. Usually a dog had to go BOB to get a major, so it was really nice to see that many opens.
The day was gorgeous, clear sky, nice breeze. A little warm for Borzoi, but with the running water on the field, was able to hose Jenny off after her runs. The runs were gorgeous, especially been Karin's Jolie & Jenny.I haven't seen Jolie run before, but she is gorgeous standing or at a gallop. Very sweet girl too. The judging could've gone either way, but my little girl impressed the judge just a tad bit more to eek out the win. In fact, the judge came over to ask who she was, saying that when she came tearing down the field she just KNEW she had to be Bonnie's breeding. I corrected her that she was my breeding, but 3/4 Bonnie's bloodlines, and she nodded after being told the pedigree, saying she definitely ran like her pedigree said she should. She had an equally amazing BOB run, and ended up finishing her FC in four trails with four majors & Four BOBS. With the entries we've had around here, that's an amazing accomplishment
The BIF run unfortunatly was a fubar, when a SD was walked up to the line with us and was told by the owner that the dog 'better not do something stupid' . . .the dog interfered with Jenny :( Why people run dogs like that I have no clue.
Then it was time to QC the nutter, AKA Bounce. .I asked Charles' Junior handler for help, as I thought if she could handle Dillon, Bounce's bigger, keen as heck cousin(their grandfather's are the same: Mir), she could handle Bounce. . umm, she almost couldn't LOL Bounce lowers herself to the ground like a RR LOL My baby girl had an AMAZING QC run, not running like a puppy at all(she's 15.5 months) and the judge told me I was goign to have a lot of fun with her, just before she tried to rip my arm off to go after the bunny going thru the machine LOL I love my little nutter.
After hearing that there were only two borzoi entered for Sunday, I cancelled my hotel room to come home. Sunday was spent catching up on my sleep, then grooming, bathing dogs, and playing with Grins' youngest: Roo & Kanga (they're not mine, so not my names LOL). After almost 6 wks of 12 hrs day, sunday was a nice relaxing day LOL
Showing posts with label coursing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label coursing. Show all posts
Monday, April 16, 2012
Saturday, January 14, 2012
year of the little black bitch
To my internet stalker: you might want to skip this, you will find this boring, I'm using my right to brag :)
The title is how a friend termed this year. .. and it has been the year of the little black dog for me.
Eighteen months ago, I was looking to place said little black dog. . but when the only performance home that came up was not a home i wanted to place a dog in, Bonnie Dalzell convinced me to keep Jenny. . and I'm so glad she said "let's co own her" Who knew those would be words I'd be sitting here being thankful for.
I've had running dogs now for 11 yrs and had some nice dogs in that time. Obie was a great coursing dog, but he never could figure out the racing game, always holding back waiting for the bunny to turn, Gossip was a great racing dog, but plastic was not her forte. .she thought plastic was for pansies. Jenny's father wasn't something to sneeze at, but after he ran his back off, he was never able to achieve his potential, partly cuz his body never recovered from getting sooo sooo sick, but partly cuz I was afraid to run him if it was over 80.
But Jenny is a dog of a different class.
I knew she was keen: she'd had some very successful practices, but I had no idea what the next 9 months would bring when I took her out in March. .I'd been just looking to get the needed points to qualify for the International Invitational (II), nothing else. The II was close to home and I wanted to go since they were holding it during a reasonable part of the year, so was only hoping to get those 20 needed poitns.
The title is how a friend termed this year. .. and it has been the year of the little black dog for me.
Eighteen months ago, I was looking to place said little black dog. . but when the only performance home that came up was not a home i wanted to place a dog in, Bonnie Dalzell convinced me to keep Jenny. . and I'm so glad she said "let's co own her" Who knew those would be words I'd be sitting here being thankful for.
I've had running dogs now for 11 yrs and had some nice dogs in that time. Obie was a great coursing dog, but he never could figure out the racing game, always holding back waiting for the bunny to turn, Gossip was a great racing dog, but plastic was not her forte. .she thought plastic was for pansies. Jenny's father wasn't something to sneeze at, but after he ran his back off, he was never able to achieve his potential, partly cuz his body never recovered from getting sooo sooo sick, but partly cuz I was afraid to run him if it was over 80.But Jenny is a dog of a different class.
I knew she was keen: she'd had some very successful practices, but I had no idea what the next 9 months would bring when I took her out in March. .I'd been just looking to get the needed points to qualify for the International Invitational (II), nothing else. The II was close to home and I wanted to go since they were holding it during a reasonable part of the year, so was only hoping to get those 20 needed poitns.Not only did she get those points, she then went Best of Breed, nad then on to Best in Field at her very first ASFA trial(then came into season LOL). Few weeks post season, she went on to win BOB the 2nd day of the II, which tickled me pink to bring home that gorgeous Pyerun trophy.
Her next time out coursing was AKC, where she picked up three majors and then had a BEAUTIFUL BIF run with a really awesome whippet: they were stride for stride thru a number of turns and suddenly she put it into a different gear and blew him out of the water. She added a 2nd BIF ribbon to her trophy wall. .she then went to the Region 8 Invitational where she went BOB on both days, bringing home the G'kar memorial trophy and then not setting a food down wrong, came away with the Reg 8 Best in Event Plaque and the Alleghany Derby trophy and a new FCH title. Next time out, she won the Grand Prix cup, and then went down to win BOB at the REg 4 saturday trial . For 2011, she only ran at 9 ASFA trials, but should be ranked near the top 10. ASFA's much slower at getting rankings out than AKC or LGRA/NOTRA is.
Her next time out coursing was AKC, where she picked up three majors and then had a BEAUTIFUL BIF run with a really awesome whippet: they were stride for stride thru a number of turns and suddenly she put it into a different gear and blew him out of the water. She added a 2nd BIF ribbon to her trophy wall. .she then went to the Region 8 Invitational where she went BOB on both days, bringing home the G'kar memorial trophy and then not setting a food down wrong, came away with the Reg 8 Best in Event Plaque and the Alleghany Derby trophy and a new FCH title. Next time out, she won the Grand Prix cup, and then went down to win BOB at the REg 4 saturday trial . For 2011, she only ran at 9 ASFA trials, but should be ranked near the top 10. ASFA's much slower at getting rankings out than AKC or LGRA/NOTRA is.
She spent most of the spring racing, only being beaten by Doro post slump, and I was soooo looking forward to when she was back on her game to see those two go head to head. Unfortunately his untimely loss just before the fall season started put a kabosh on that, but her and Focus still had some exciting racing. She finished her GRC in the Spring, her SGRC early fall, and picked up a total of 47.50 NRC points for the year and is #1 LGRA Borzoi, #2 hound. . .I sure would've loved to've seen her run against Gossip. . .amongst other greats. .but she's holding her own. . .
Wish i could've gotten her to the AKC Coursing national as well as that she hadn't been in season for the BCOA National, and would've loved to've seen her run the grand national, but she's still young yet, so who knows what the future will bring :)
It's definitely been the year of my little black dog. Next year, we'll start Rally and work on finishing her LCM & FC, and even try Oval in between trips into the show ring. . :) I'm so very proud of her. . .
Wish i could've gotten her to the AKC Coursing national as well as that she hadn't been in season for the BCOA National, and would've loved to've seen her run the grand national, but she's still young yet, so who knows what the future will bring :)
It's definitely been the year of my little black dog. Next year, we'll start Rally and work on finishing her LCM & FC, and even try Oval in between trips into the show ring. . :) I'm so very proud of her. . .
So, Congrats to my little black dog: MBIF, BIE Mielikki Dir Shepard at SIlkenswift FCH, SGRC
Thursday, October 13, 2011
and the band moves on
Trying to keep myself busy so I don't dwell over Dei's illness. . .I've been enjoying running her daughter Jenny. .Jenny floats over the field, her movement is effortless as she glides. . it is truly beautiful to watch, even more so the way they had the Best in Event laid out for the Regional. . .the long straight away cut right in front of you and they were close enough you felt like you could touch them as they went by, and Jenny just coasted by like a ghost. I'm so glad Bonnie told me not to sell her. She is the more confident runner of the two girls, Ziva is soft and has a bullseye on her butt for a**hole boys, Jenny doesn't care. . and exudes confidence on the field and off the field.
She has also brought excitement back to the race track. . .since Gossip died, there have really not been close racing, but now she and her cousin Focus are reminiscent of Gossip & Focus's fueding. . it's a guess who comes across the line first, especially since with muzzles on, you have no clue which black face is which as they come barreling down the track at you. We've been joking Jenny's only been winning cuz her head is slightly longer, cuz it sometimes is Jenny literally by a 'nose'. . .those two are usually shoulder to shoulder, like an 8 legged canine version of Odin's Sleipnir, with Focus occasionally eeking out a race win, but not the meet win.
Bella's been coming out, now that she's learned to use her legs. I look forward to getting her out coursing next year. Unfortunately, she's inherited her mother's short seasons, but we'll squeeze as many events as we can in the 5.5 months she's not in season.
We tried GIbbs, unfortunately trying to find the right combo for a test dog scenario is hard. .either the dogs got a better break then him and he didn't get close enough to see, or he got the break and took off. .. we tried him, but he bounced off of Secret and i'm not sure if it was purposeful or not, so pulled him til I can figure out a way to set him up. . .
Frankie got to run, and he's going to be a ball. Such a sweet goober boy, he got away and was pouncing on the pieces of bunny that had fallen off on the track, pieces of plastic about a quarter wide, he then turned and saw me and the OH MOM!! Lightbulb came on. Ran him thru the box, and he wasn't bothered by it at all. We'll work on the box some more this weekend, and he'll go for his QC next month if luck is with me. . in no hurry, he's a year old, I've got 2.5 and almost 2 yr olds to run, but you definitely can tell who he's linebred on.
And then Ms Bounce. . who is a trip, and is constantly making me laugh. Put her in the box, before we got the door down, she was coming out from between her back legs. .. shut the door, she was facing forward, opened the front door, she was backwards LOL But she turned and was off like a bullet tearing off down the field. She is such a sweet easy going baby girl. She and Frankie remind me a lot of grins, so will have to take it easy with both of them
Otherwise trying to acclimate to the sudden drops in temperature. .we froze at the REgional first weekend in October, it was snowing on the way home. .. following weekend it's warm enough for shorts. . yep, fall is here in the mid atlantic region
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.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
longest 24 hrs ever
I have so many blogs started, just haven't finished them and posted them. .
Last week I endured 24 hrs of HELL. . .the longest 24 hrs ever.
Nacht needed 6 points going into the weekend. .unfortunately there's no other ASFA until the end of June, and I'm hoping she's in Europe by then. . who knows, been hoping she'd be in Europe for awhile. . .unfortunately there was a conflict, with LGRA put on by my friends. I felt obligated to support them, since they were in the front field. . .and was just going to not worry about the ASFA, and hope it was cool enough in June to run and that she'd be here.
A friend said they were going, and after thinking about it a bit, she had liked him and been very outgoing and friendly with him the last time she'd seen him, had let others slip and catch her, I didn't think anything of there being problems when i asked if he minded running her.
Unfortunately when I handed her off, even tho I thought I had packed everything, her brain stayed home. Her teenage hormones were taking up all the brain space. . (she was in season in April)
Now, she ran Saturday at LGRA, was fine with all sorts of people handling her, walking away, boxing her, etc, etc. . .so she MUST'VE had her brain then, but somewhere between Saturday evening and Sunday morning,she misplaced it. Maybe Gibbs borrowed it for the day, but I have never had a bitch become such a complete nincompoop during her 'slump' as Nacht did Sunday. . .and things that hadn't bothered her before then did, tho getting attacked by a basenji probably didn't start her day off(thankfully the bad dog came away with only tail feathers). I don't know exactly what happened, was told she acted spooked that day, and suddenly I had a missing dog. . .
ANd thus starts the worse 24 hrs EVER.
I wasn't there to see what happened after she decided to play keep away coming in for BOB, been told conflicting stories, so not going there. . what all stories agreedupon was she got away thru a gape in the fence.
I got the call on the way there, and that trip, which normally takes about an hour, felt like it took 3. . .when we got there, they showed us where she had disappeared into. A heavy thatch of overgrown woods in the middle of farmland. . not a huge batch of woods, a couple of acres with house and a paddock of whitetail deer. They'd already talked to the landowner, and so I went traipsing thru the woods.
Four hours of here puppy puppy puppy. . .stopping to sit in the AC for a bit and rehydrate and then go out again, my friends drove around, talked to people, gave out numbers, while I walked the woods. Wanted to make sure someone was on the outside in case she went out hte back or sides. . .
Four hours, not a sign of her, mind you, she was wearing her pink blanket, but not a sign, tripping over dead wood, vines, getting attacked by wild rose and berry bush thorns, brushing against who knows what?
Oh yeah, did I mention I was in shorts? I am so glad I started to wear tennies to events since I hurt my knee, more support. . so I at least had them on and not my crocs of last year. . .I left Sunday looking like a survivor of a battle of cats. . .and praying I hadn't walked into poison ivy. Unfortunately, I think I did.
We decided that she probably was collapsed somewhere in that mess. It was somewhere around 90 with high humidity, and she had on a heavy black fur coat. . .needing fliers to hand out, and unable to do much more as walking that area in the dark was a leg breaking opportunity, we headed home.
Got her microchip registered and went to findtoto.com.
This is a WONDERFUL website. You put the zipcode of the area the dog was lost in, and pick an option from 250 calls to 10000 neighbors to call in that area, and an automated phone will call everyone in that area they can get hold of and leave them a message with a description of the dog, your number, and other pertinant information. It is a wonderful tool, ended up being unneeded, but I know it has helped others bring their dogs back home.
Homeagain gives you a flyer and Bonnie ran that to kinkos as I was so exhausted and stressed I was dead on my feet and sick to my stomach. . part of that was probably I hadn't eaten anything since 11 that morning. . tried to sleep, didnt' happen, up early with plans to brush a bunch of dogs, take her bed and a bag of food over with the flyers and seed the area with food and hair into an empty paddock on the land owner's property when we get a call.
She was SPOTTED!! First sign of her since she'd slipped into the woods. Workers at a speedway about half a mile away from the woods, headed back towards the coursing fields, were trying to lure her in with water. I was ready to jump in the AC-less Neon but Jim convinced me to wait a few minutes until he got ready so we could go out in the Prius which has AC, glad I did, as by the end of the day we needed it. Less than 20 mins later on our way there, they called back to say she'd been caught.
When we got there and she saw me, she couldn't stop talking, moan moan moan moan, and then she went to Jim and did the same thing. Not sure if she was saying OMG You came back for me, or OMG, I promise NEVER EVER EVER to do that again. . .
Seems she stayed in the woods as far as we can tell all night Sunday, and then headed across the fields saturday morning. . the workers found her curled up under the ambulance with her coursign blanket tangled around her backlegs. Got her out of that and she took off to hide in the bathrooms which is where she was when my two friends who were at the field for the event got there.
She seems no worse for wear, not even her paws seem sore. She's started on metronidazole for giardia, just in case, and she enjoyed being a house dog for a week, making sure her stools are ok, as we had no idea what she may've eaten. She is now back in with her siblings.
Thank heavens it was really less than 24 hrs, she went missing about 1 pm Sunday, and was caught by 10 Monday. . but it was the longest 21 hours I've ever dealt with. . .other dogs I know of have been missing for anywhere from 4 days to never found again, or if found, dead on road, so I'm glad it was ONLY 21 hrs. . .but it was the most horrendous 21 hrs ever.
Putting her collar and leash on her put her brain back with her, cuz she was back to her normal self when we got out to thank people at the field. Didn't want to leave my side, but back to mooching people she wouldn't let touch her the day before. . evil child
She will not be going running for a few weeks, her coursing was crappy post season anyways, so it'll give her time to get over this slump and cement her brain back into her head.
THe adventure seemed to affect me longer than her, I had stomach upset for a few days, but we're both back to normal. . .silly little Nacht
Last week I endured 24 hrs of HELL. . .the longest 24 hrs ever.
Nacht needed 6 points going into the weekend. .unfortunately there's no other ASFA until the end of June, and I'm hoping she's in Europe by then. . who knows, been hoping she'd be in Europe for awhile. . .unfortunately there was a conflict, with LGRA put on by my friends. I felt obligated to support them, since they were in the front field. . .and was just going to not worry about the ASFA, and hope it was cool enough in June to run and that she'd be here.
A friend said they were going, and after thinking about it a bit, she had liked him and been very outgoing and friendly with him the last time she'd seen him, had let others slip and catch her, I didn't think anything of there being problems when i asked if he minded running her.
Unfortunately when I handed her off, even tho I thought I had packed everything, her brain stayed home. Her teenage hormones were taking up all the brain space. . (she was in season in April)
Now, she ran Saturday at LGRA, was fine with all sorts of people handling her, walking away, boxing her, etc, etc. . .so she MUST'VE had her brain then, but somewhere between Saturday evening and Sunday morning,she misplaced it. Maybe Gibbs borrowed it for the day, but I have never had a bitch become such a complete nincompoop during her 'slump' as Nacht did Sunday. . .and things that hadn't bothered her before then did, tho getting attacked by a basenji probably didn't start her day off(thankfully the bad dog came away with only tail feathers). I don't know exactly what happened, was told she acted spooked that day, and suddenly I had a missing dog. . .
ANd thus starts the worse 24 hrs EVER.
I wasn't there to see what happened after she decided to play keep away coming in for BOB, been told conflicting stories, so not going there. . what all stories agreedupon was she got away thru a gape in the fence.
I got the call on the way there, and that trip, which normally takes about an hour, felt like it took 3. . .when we got there, they showed us where she had disappeared into. A heavy thatch of overgrown woods in the middle of farmland. . not a huge batch of woods, a couple of acres with house and a paddock of whitetail deer. They'd already talked to the landowner, and so I went traipsing thru the woods.
Four hours of here puppy puppy puppy. . .stopping to sit in the AC for a bit and rehydrate and then go out again, my friends drove around, talked to people, gave out numbers, while I walked the woods. Wanted to make sure someone was on the outside in case she went out hte back or sides. . .
Four hours, not a sign of her, mind you, she was wearing her pink blanket, but not a sign, tripping over dead wood, vines, getting attacked by wild rose and berry bush thorns, brushing against who knows what?
Oh yeah, did I mention I was in shorts? I am so glad I started to wear tennies to events since I hurt my knee, more support. . so I at least had them on and not my crocs of last year. . .I left Sunday looking like a survivor of a battle of cats. . .and praying I hadn't walked into poison ivy. Unfortunately, I think I did.
We decided that she probably was collapsed somewhere in that mess. It was somewhere around 90 with high humidity, and she had on a heavy black fur coat. . .needing fliers to hand out, and unable to do much more as walking that area in the dark was a leg breaking opportunity, we headed home.
Got her microchip registered and went to findtoto.com.
This is a WONDERFUL website. You put the zipcode of the area the dog was lost in, and pick an option from 250 calls to 10000 neighbors to call in that area, and an automated phone will call everyone in that area they can get hold of and leave them a message with a description of the dog, your number, and other pertinant information. It is a wonderful tool, ended up being unneeded, but I know it has helped others bring their dogs back home.
Homeagain gives you a flyer and Bonnie ran that to kinkos as I was so exhausted and stressed I was dead on my feet and sick to my stomach. . part of that was probably I hadn't eaten anything since 11 that morning. . tried to sleep, didnt' happen, up early with plans to brush a bunch of dogs, take her bed and a bag of food over with the flyers and seed the area with food and hair into an empty paddock on the land owner's property when we get a call.
She was SPOTTED!! First sign of her since she'd slipped into the woods. Workers at a speedway about half a mile away from the woods, headed back towards the coursing fields, were trying to lure her in with water. I was ready to jump in the AC-less Neon but Jim convinced me to wait a few minutes until he got ready so we could go out in the Prius which has AC, glad I did, as by the end of the day we needed it. Less than 20 mins later on our way there, they called back to say she'd been caught.
When we got there and she saw me, she couldn't stop talking, moan moan moan moan, and then she went to Jim and did the same thing. Not sure if she was saying OMG You came back for me, or OMG, I promise NEVER EVER EVER to do that again. . .
Seems she stayed in the woods as far as we can tell all night Sunday, and then headed across the fields saturday morning. . the workers found her curled up under the ambulance with her coursign blanket tangled around her backlegs. Got her out of that and she took off to hide in the bathrooms which is where she was when my two friends who were at the field for the event got there.
She seems no worse for wear, not even her paws seem sore. She's started on metronidazole for giardia, just in case, and she enjoyed being a house dog for a week, making sure her stools are ok, as we had no idea what she may've eaten. She is now back in with her siblings.
Thank heavens it was really less than 24 hrs, she went missing about 1 pm Sunday, and was caught by 10 Monday. . but it was the longest 21 hours I've ever dealt with. . .other dogs I know of have been missing for anywhere from 4 days to never found again, or if found, dead on road, so I'm glad it was ONLY 21 hrs. . .but it was the most horrendous 21 hrs ever.
Putting her collar and leash on her put her brain back with her, cuz she was back to her normal self when we got out to thank people at the field. Didn't want to leave my side, but back to mooching people she wouldn't let touch her the day before. . evil child
She will not be going running for a few weeks, her coursing was crappy post season anyways, so it'll give her time to get over this slump and cement her brain back into her head.
THe adventure seemed to affect me longer than her, I had stomach upset for a few days, but we're both back to normal. . .silly little Nacht
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
more fun in the mud
I don't remember coursing in such nasty weather as I've been doing lately. . .LOL. . weather in MD has been hit or miss, at least it's not gotten hot as fast as it did last year, still perfect weather for Zoi, even if it's miserable weather for us humans.
Saturday was horrid, with high winds, horridly cold rain. Borrowed the van which was like driving a sail boat with the way it handled the wind. Clouds were ripped across the angry grey sky, trees whipping around in the wind, thankfully not a lot of line problems. Put points on my friend's girl and Mr Wizard, and got a QC on a Mir granddaughter, and was never so happy as when we finally got on the road and started heading home. Lots of flooding, with a local dog show being cancelled due to it and the photos I saw of that were horrendous, show hall beyond flooded!
Parking was fun due to the field being soaked to the gills. . I left before a lot of people, so not sure if anyone got stuck LOL
Sunday started out with high winds and an overcast sky, but quickly changed to cleared skies and pretty nice weather.
Ziva proved she enjoyed the mud by putting on four spectacular runs. . not because I ran her for field, but becuase I handed her off to someone and in her thrashing, she managed to get loose while the 2nd course of FC's were running. Thankfully she was wearing the missing blanket(blue), and wasn't trailing her leash. As I walked off the field with her and Wizard, was told it was one of the best courses people had seen LOL. . Didn't make up for the fact I'd gone 11 years without a dog getting loose LOL After the BOB runoff, she was still raring to go, but I wasn't going to try her a 5th time LOL
After being attacked, she has taken to taking the bunny out to the judge where she feels safe to tear it apart. . I'm not sure if I'm happy about that or not LOL She doesn't run away when I go out to get her, she just doesn't want to be near the other dogs when she shreds her bunny ..turkey child. Many who knew her father told me they could tell she was sired by Grins LOL. Even after four runs, she was still raring to go, but I didn't tempt fate with having her run across the mudpits again. She did get a nice BOB win: 4 point major, with Wizard bringing home the 3 point major from the FC stake.
Unfortunately both my cert dogs came up with a 'hitch to their giddy up', but Charles offered his handsome Serrano who ran well with Miss Jenny, who now has her QC, taking a nose dive in a pool of water, and still getting up to tear across the field and kill her bunny
I sure did not enjoy putting those disgusting dogs in my car. . LOL.
the dogs were flatzois, jenny curled up in the front seat, head draped across my knee, Ziva in the backseat with her head draped over my arm .. not the most comfortable way to drive.
Looking at the next coursing event. . well, that's the II, am toying with the idea of going to some NOTRA, but also looking at AKC events, I have 4 Opens now, so strange to finally break that dry spell.
Unfortunately, Grins is probably retired from competition.. off and on neck problems just bouncing around the yard. . .he doesn't realise at 8.5, he should NOT stop on the top of his head. He'll get to cert dogs now and then and run at our practices, but he more than likely is never going to enter the coursing field again. . maybe NOTRA wont' be as hard on him .. we shall see.
This weekend is our supported entry. Ordered a new knee brace. First show that I've shown in since the knee went CRACK!!! last fall(9 months ago) hopefuly I'll be able to do this without collapsing. Brand new outfit(former outfit doesn't fit anymore!). Dei's in veterans, as I'm very proud of my 10.5 yr old, and Ms Nacht in 12-18, it hopefully will be fun!
Saturday was horrid, with high winds, horridly cold rain. Borrowed the van which was like driving a sail boat with the way it handled the wind. Clouds were ripped across the angry grey sky, trees whipping around in the wind, thankfully not a lot of line problems. Put points on my friend's girl and Mr Wizard, and got a QC on a Mir granddaughter, and was never so happy as when we finally got on the road and started heading home. Lots of flooding, with a local dog show being cancelled due to it and the photos I saw of that were horrendous, show hall beyond flooded!
Parking was fun due to the field being soaked to the gills. . I left before a lot of people, so not sure if anyone got stuck LOL
Sunday started out with high winds and an overcast sky, but quickly changed to cleared skies and pretty nice weather.
Ziva proved she enjoyed the mud by putting on four spectacular runs. . not because I ran her for field, but becuase I handed her off to someone and in her thrashing, she managed to get loose while the 2nd course of FC's were running. Thankfully she was wearing the missing blanket(blue), and wasn't trailing her leash. As I walked off the field with her and Wizard, was told it was one of the best courses people had seen LOL. . Didn't make up for the fact I'd gone 11 years without a dog getting loose LOL After the BOB runoff, she was still raring to go, but I wasn't going to try her a 5th time LOL
After being attacked, she has taken to taking the bunny out to the judge where she feels safe to tear it apart. . I'm not sure if I'm happy about that or not LOL She doesn't run away when I go out to get her, she just doesn't want to be near the other dogs when she shreds her bunny ..turkey child. Many who knew her father told me they could tell she was sired by Grins LOL. Even after four runs, she was still raring to go, but I didn't tempt fate with having her run across the mudpits again. She did get a nice BOB win: 4 point major, with Wizard bringing home the 3 point major from the FC stake.
Unfortunately both my cert dogs came up with a 'hitch to their giddy up', but Charles offered his handsome Serrano who ran well with Miss Jenny, who now has her QC, taking a nose dive in a pool of water, and still getting up to tear across the field and kill her bunny
I sure did not enjoy putting those disgusting dogs in my car. . LOL.
the dogs were flatzois, jenny curled up in the front seat, head draped across my knee, Ziva in the backseat with her head draped over my arm .. not the most comfortable way to drive.
Looking at the next coursing event. . well, that's the II, am toying with the idea of going to some NOTRA, but also looking at AKC events, I have 4 Opens now, so strange to finally break that dry spell.
Unfortunately, Grins is probably retired from competition.. off and on neck problems just bouncing around the yard. . .he doesn't realise at 8.5, he should NOT stop on the top of his head. He'll get to cert dogs now and then and run at our practices, but he more than likely is never going to enter the coursing field again. . maybe NOTRA wont' be as hard on him .. we shall see.
This weekend is our supported entry. Ordered a new knee brace. First show that I've shown in since the knee went CRACK!!! last fall(9 months ago) hopefuly I'll be able to do this without collapsing. Brand new outfit(former outfit doesn't fit anymore!). Dei's in veterans, as I'm very proud of my 10.5 yr old, and Ms Nacht in 12-18, it hopefully will be fun!
Monday, April 11, 2011
mudfest 2011!
OMG. . mudfest 2011 is over.
There was mud
There was water
There was more mud
There was fun
There was more mud :)
I was hoping after the light drizzle last week the field wouldnt' be so bad, but. . .it poured overnight. . and the field was soup. . dogs took nose dives, snorkeled, owners were covered with mud. Numerous hunt masters ended up with mud on their foreheads, I got thru that job clean, it was my own dog that gave me muddy glasses. . .thankfully, I didn't fall :) I remember vividly the year I ended up in the mud with Races standing on my chest looking at me LOL
Going to take me forever to get the mud off of everything, including my poor boots!!
I had a load of fun huntmastering, well until Dart the Greyhound caught the bunny at the far end of the field when the line broke. it took me 5+ minutes to undo the macrome he made out of the line. I truly have no clue WTH he did, but it was a huge mess. Had a few WOW stakes, one RR and one saluki that was just AWESOME.
Ziva proved to everyone that she truly is Grins' daughter by her behaviour at the starting line. . leaping in the air, lunging, almost pulling me into the mud. Unfortunately her first course on Saturday was horrid due to issues. . 1/3 of the way thru the course, someone's whippet got loose. . we traipsed across the field, got the dogs, started it, damn whippet got loose AGAIN. Ziva had bumped the other dog trying to get to the line, so I told her I'd hold her back so she couldn't do it again(she was yellow, he was pink). Hunt master Tally-ho'd, I'm holding a squirming, jumping, fighting Ziva, and the male didn't move, I finally let her loose, and he chased her across the field. When she pulled away, he cut the field, and cut her off, causing her to stop. She looked for me and he chased her across the field. . thankfully the judge did the right thing, but it just drives me nuts.
Unfortunately, she was the only open I took who run beautifully, but then, she's the only one I (or Bonnie) had who isn't recently out of season LOL I miss the days where I had nothing but boys to run. We will be working with Gibbs this spring in hopes that he'll be ready to run this fall, because running girls STINKS LOL My step dog is visiting while his dad is in China and he'll be out running with me this spring, working on his LCM. Saturday he won his FC stake of three with a runoff, Ziva forfeited BOB to him, and then he went on to win a nice BIF run, a really nice run. Sunday,
Daquiri & Reba went with us instead of Tip & Bella. Daquiri is Mir's granddaughter, so family :) beautiful bright red brindle girl that I could steal. Little tank girl. And my friend Erin & I had a blast holding the two squirming, jumping, twirling, happy girls who REALLY WANTED THAT FREAKIN bunny LOL Thankfully neither of us ended up in the mud, not that you could tell with all the mud I had from huntmastering!
Ziva pleased me to no end by suddenly coming in hard on the bunny, then she snatched the bunny off the line, went out to stand in front of the judge, and shredded it. He was laughing when I tromped out there to get her and when I said she was Grins' daughter, he started laughing more. The run between her and Daquiri was GORGEOUS. . Ziva's got a little advantage with being longer legs, but it was a beautiful run, wish there'd been a photographer.
Wizard won his stake, but slowed down considerably at the end and was obviously sore, so I forfeited breed to Ziva who was raring to go, she's in better shape, but we're working on that with Wiz, that's part of why he's with me, getting in shape for the II.
Unfortunately, in Ziva's BIF run, she was attacked by the saluki, I wasn't sure that's what I saw, until the LO and huntmaster said they saw it,(as did numerous people who came up to me from field side) unfortunately one judge thought Ziva just 'got in the way' of the saluki, the other didn't see it. . she slowed off the bunny after that, and if the other dog was near it, wouldn't get close. .frustrating. . will have to make sure she gets some good experience with nice salukis be fore we try again.
OTOH, it seems like she's gotten over being afraid of men after a large tall, gruff gentleman scared the crap out of her last fall chasing her and yelling at her at a race meet when she got away from him. She was being nudgy to anyone who got close, she's still soft, and I won't let someone like that handle her again, but so glad she was being pushy for ear scritches and attention, even if she does like to rip bunnies off the line:)
So, Ziva finished the weekend with her 2 1sts, Daquiri got 12 points and a 2nd, and Wizard his last placements towards his LCM. We head to AKC coursing this weekend, a bunch of QC's to do!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Spring is Sprung!
Spring is here
The grass is starting to turn green, the frogs are starting to sing at night, the mud is back LOL oh lord is the mud back
We’ve had some massive rains lately, with flooding happening. The puppy yard was so flooded I couldn’t’ see Tipperary’s tunnels to China, had to step where the puppies went to insure I didn’t’ disappear up to my knees in her holes.
Work is a bear, so between that and trying to make sure I can show some of my own dogs this year and rehabbing that knee, been very busy. After a bout of neck pains and then slicing his toe open, Mr Grins is bouncing off of walls as is poor Dei who started suffering neck pain from a neck injury as a young bitch. I'dmanaged to wean her off her previcox to 113.50mg previcox every 2-2.5 days,and now down to nothing after a month on it, and she's not yipped in two weeks. Granted she's been mostly housebound, so we shall see what happens after she goes out to play, tho preliminary 'tests' of playtime seems to be promising.
Grins & Secret & I have been doing some powerwalk/jogs, Secret particularily enjoys it, as she hunts the entire time, ears up in the air, eyes scanning the horizon. It debounces Grins, exhausts Secret & I, and all and all, we are enjoying ourselves. Taking it easy right now as I managed to rehurt the knee either doing those walks or when I slammed my knee into the ground boxing a silken windhound, but can't wait to start up again I'm missing having an agility dog and/or a rally dog, so am starting to work with the younger generations. . Gibbs & Jenny have a lot of food drive and want to please me soooo bad, Secret's food oriented, but not so eager to please LOL Worked her a bit on the agility equipment, but she is too focused on the food and not paying attention to what she's doing, and when she quits, she does it in an interesting way, just lets her body go loose and falls off of the dog walk LOL We'll keep working, hoping one of the bobsy twins will be a triathalon dog for 2014. . They are both co owned with Bonnie, so we will each be working one of them in obedience, I think we're going to have a lot of fun.
Otherwise we've been getting out, enjoying the spring air and enjoying the dogs. March has been a busy month.
First weekend was our first racemeet of the year, and the Holiday youngsters did me proud, running clean, learning how to box without a problem, handled everything including the high winds that made the barn and box rattle horribly. Nacht was FTE on Saturday and although the box door slamming shut scared her, she ran well, turtle for the day, but that's ok, it's a learning experience. Bella was FTE on Sunday, and again, ran well, started boxing like a pro, and was the turtle for the day Secret pleased me immensely. She was Nacht's test dog on Saturday and then i ran her alone for two practices, and she's learning to use her body, don't expect much from her at racing, due to her age, but as long as she's enjoying herself she can run.
I entered her Sunday as she'd had so much fun Saturday, she is starting to break better, tho she almost lost her first race to Reba, pulling a mirror of her sister at the very end of putting on the after burners and bolted by her at the very last minute. She also for the first time ever, lunged at the squawker, and yes, she got A LOT OF PRAISE for it! The last race of the day, she tried to bolt into Bella's box, which just made me SOOO VERY EXCITED!! to see her willing to box. LOL She ended up coming in 2nd in the meet for a point:) I was very pleased. Ms Nacht picked up a .5 point. I was very happy with how the girls first weekend went.
Sunday was a fun day, low in people, I'd pull the neon up to the box, we'd box the dogs, and I'd run the neon to the finish line to pick them up LOL whatever works. . .it helped get us done before the torrential downpour really hit, which it did thankfully after we'd packed up and headed home.
Now that I have dogs to course again(FOUR of them!), I've been also hitting the coursing field. First saturday,it was horrid, horrid mud, cold wind, was supposed to be in mid 50's, but sure the heck didn't feel like it. My friend's girl came up owie after her runs, and Ziva did not push herself like she's done before and was owie a day later :( Nacht ran like gangbusters. She picked up a 2nd out of 7 on Saturday running against her distant cousin(their father’s are halfbrothers by stardust), and 3rd out of 5 on Sunday, (she and the NBQ were the only two who'd ran both days), which included an awesome show of agility when she launched herself over a dog who fell in front of her. Ms Jenny wowed people at her cert run on Saturday and again for her runs on Sunday, she was gorgeous, reminding me a lot of daddy and her uncles Obie & Wings. She took 1st in her stake, than BOB, and then on to BIF with a nice run with a nice azawak and a RR. Her mama is appreciating the BIF bed she won very much LOL
She promptly came into season LOl
Next time out, Ms Nacht surprised the heck out of me, picked up both her firsts, 32 points, and is now sitting at 66 points and both 1sts. Edith's gotten some help on how to get her started in Austria, and I know she's going to have a blast when Ms Nacht gets over there. Nothing easier than a pretrained dog :)
It’s so nice to be back on the coursing field, even if it’s more boring than racing because there’s a lot of waiting around. .racing keeps you busy all day long, and has a lot less equipment malfunctions! We're taking it easy this weekend, going to do a practice if it's not too yucky, and get ready for coursing next weekend then a few weeks of specialties. Jenny is on her way to Kansas with Kari and last text I got, she was being a perfect little angel. SUcks she's in season, but she still gets to play good little show dog :) Hopefully she'll behave better in the ring than her dork brother last year. First time I've sent a dog to the Nationals without me myself going. .. it stinks :P
The grass is starting to turn green, the frogs are starting to sing at night, the mud is back LOL oh lord is the mud back
We’ve had some massive rains lately, with flooding happening. The puppy yard was so flooded I couldn’t’ see Tipperary’s tunnels to China, had to step where the puppies went to insure I didn’t’ disappear up to my knees in her holes.
Work is a bear, so between that and trying to make sure I can show some of my own dogs this year and rehabbing that knee, been very busy. After a bout of neck pains and then slicing his toe open, Mr Grins is bouncing off of walls as is poor Dei who started suffering neck pain from a neck injury as a young bitch. I'dmanaged to wean her off her previcox to 113.50mg previcox every 2-2.5 days,and now down to nothing after a month on it, and she's not yipped in two weeks. Granted she's been mostly housebound, so we shall see what happens after she goes out to play, tho preliminary 'tests' of playtime seems to be promising.
Grins & Secret & I have been doing some powerwalk/jogs, Secret particularily enjoys it, as she hunts the entire time, ears up in the air, eyes scanning the horizon. It debounces Grins, exhausts Secret & I, and all and all, we are enjoying ourselves. Taking it easy right now as I managed to rehurt the knee either doing those walks or when I slammed my knee into the ground boxing a silken windhound, but can't wait to start up again I'm missing having an agility dog and/or a rally dog, so am starting to work with the younger generations. . Gibbs & Jenny have a lot of food drive and want to please me soooo bad, Secret's food oriented, but not so eager to please LOL Worked her a bit on the agility equipment, but she is too focused on the food and not paying attention to what she's doing, and when she quits, she does it in an interesting way, just lets her body go loose and falls off of the dog walk LOL We'll keep working, hoping one of the bobsy twins will be a triathalon dog for 2014. . They are both co owned with Bonnie, so we will each be working one of them in obedience, I think we're going to have a lot of fun.
Otherwise we've been getting out, enjoying the spring air and enjoying the dogs. March has been a busy month.
First weekend was our first racemeet of the year, and the Holiday youngsters did me proud, running clean, learning how to box without a problem, handled everything including the high winds that made the barn and box rattle horribly. Nacht was FTE on Saturday and although the box door slamming shut scared her, she ran well, turtle for the day, but that's ok, it's a learning experience. Bella was FTE on Sunday, and again, ran well, started boxing like a pro, and was the turtle for the day Secret pleased me immensely. She was Nacht's test dog on Saturday and then i ran her alone for two practices, and she's learning to use her body, don't expect much from her at racing, due to her age, but as long as she's enjoying herself she can run.
I entered her Sunday as she'd had so much fun Saturday, she is starting to break better, tho she almost lost her first race to Reba, pulling a mirror of her sister at the very end of putting on the after burners and bolted by her at the very last minute. She also for the first time ever, lunged at the squawker, and yes, she got A LOT OF PRAISE for it! The last race of the day, she tried to bolt into Bella's box, which just made me SOOO VERY EXCITED!! to see her willing to box. LOL She ended up coming in 2nd in the meet for a point:) I was very pleased. Ms Nacht picked up a .5 point. I was very happy with how the girls first weekend went.
Sunday was a fun day, low in people, I'd pull the neon up to the box, we'd box the dogs, and I'd run the neon to the finish line to pick them up LOL whatever works. . .it helped get us done before the torrential downpour really hit, which it did thankfully after we'd packed up and headed home.
Now that I have dogs to course again(FOUR of them!), I've been also hitting the coursing field. First saturday,it was horrid, horrid mud, cold wind, was supposed to be in mid 50's, but sure the heck didn't feel like it. My friend's girl came up owie after her runs, and Ziva did not push herself like she's done before and was owie a day later :( Nacht ran like gangbusters. She picked up a 2nd out of 7 on Saturday running against her distant cousin(their father’s are halfbrothers by stardust), and 3rd out of 5 on Sunday, (she and the NBQ were the only two who'd ran both days), which included an awesome show of agility when she launched herself over a dog who fell in front of her. Ms Jenny wowed people at her cert run on Saturday and again for her runs on Sunday, she was gorgeous, reminding me a lot of daddy and her uncles Obie & Wings. She took 1st in her stake, than BOB, and then on to BIF with a nice run with a nice azawak and a RR. Her mama is appreciating the BIF bed she won very much LOL
She promptly came into season LOl
Next time out, Ms Nacht surprised the heck out of me, picked up both her firsts, 32 points, and is now sitting at 66 points and both 1sts. Edith's gotten some help on how to get her started in Austria, and I know she's going to have a blast when Ms Nacht gets over there. Nothing easier than a pretrained dog :)
It’s so nice to be back on the coursing field, even if it’s more boring than racing because there’s a lot of waiting around. .racing keeps you busy all day long, and has a lot less equipment malfunctions! We're taking it easy this weekend, going to do a practice if it's not too yucky, and get ready for coursing next weekend then a few weeks of specialties. Jenny is on her way to Kansas with Kari and last text I got, she was being a perfect little angel. SUcks she's in season, but she still gets to play good little show dog :) Hopefully she'll behave better in the ring than her dork brother last year. First time I've sent a dog to the Nationals without me myself going. .. it stinks :P
Monday, November 15, 2010
Fall's flying by
Geez, I keep getting behind on my blog. . .just no energy to do so. .
Fall is here, the temperatures are falling, the leaves are turning colours and the ground is littered with a multi coloured blanket. Mornings are crisp, frost starting to appear, and the dogs are full of piss & vinegar.
Events are starting to wind down up here. . .makes it easier for me to take it easy LOL. . knee is feeling better, but still protests now and then. . still trying to be good on it. . .so do not want to screw it up. .
Weekend before the LGRA/NOTRA nationals, I so needed a break, so I loaded up the car with Secret, Reba, Focus on Saturday, and Secret, Focus, Tipperary and my friend's boy Ryder on Sunday and headed out coursing. Forgot how much I hate early mornings. . .
Secret was there for socialization and to see if she had any interest in the plastic bunny. Been 4 1/5 years since I've seen her, can't remember if she showed interest, and friends wanted to meet her, so off we went.
We waited while Marie got ready with Focus' sister Kyrie, to see if she was interested in plastic, unfortunately, once it turned, Kyrie came back to her mom, but boy she sure looked good. Secret showed some interest, ears up, watching it, jumped a bit, but not anything extreme, but some. . .enough to excite me about putting up a practice in the front field.
Poor Reba's bad luck with idiot dogs moved from the race track onto the coursing field. .Prelims Saturday, she had a dog coursing her, she pulled away from him, but as they came in at the finish, he cut right in front of her, literally, causing her to fall when she clipped him, a hard roll, but thankfully she got up and kept running. . .poor little red head, she has the worst luck with dogs being bad against her. .. thankfully she no longer reacts to them, and keeps going. . second course was very uneventful(and he was removed from the field!), and she came out on top for two points. .making her halfway towards her FC. .. she ran out of steam for BOB runoff, I've gotta recondition her(And Ziva) for stamina/endurance. . .but we'll be hitting more coursing, so hopefully that'll help. As you can see, her roll was not very fun looking, but she took it in stride
I think I have these in the right order LOL
Fall is here, the temperatures are falling, the leaves are turning colours and the ground is littered with a multi coloured blanket. Mornings are crisp, frost starting to appear, and the dogs are full of piss & vinegar.
Events are starting to wind down up here. . .makes it easier for me to take it easy LOL. . knee is feeling better, but still protests now and then. . still trying to be good on it. . .so do not want to screw it up. .
Weekend before the LGRA/NOTRA nationals, I so needed a break, so I loaded up the car with Secret, Reba, Focus on Saturday, and Secret, Focus, Tipperary and my friend's boy Ryder on Sunday and headed out coursing. Forgot how much I hate early mornings. . .
Secret was there for socialization and to see if she had any interest in the plastic bunny. Been 4 1/5 years since I've seen her, can't remember if she showed interest, and friends wanted to meet her, so off we went.
We waited while Marie got ready with Focus' sister Kyrie, to see if she was interested in plastic, unfortunately, once it turned, Kyrie came back to her mom, but boy she sure looked good. Secret showed some interest, ears up, watching it, jumped a bit, but not anything extreme, but some. . .enough to excite me about putting up a practice in the front field.
Poor Reba's bad luck with idiot dogs moved from the race track onto the coursing field. .Prelims Saturday, she had a dog coursing her, she pulled away from him, but as they came in at the finish, he cut right in front of her, literally, causing her to fall when she clipped him, a hard roll, but thankfully she got up and kept running. . .poor little red head, she has the worst luck with dogs being bad against her. .. thankfully she no longer reacts to them, and keeps going. . second course was very uneventful(and he was removed from the field!), and she came out on top for two points. .making her halfway towards her FC. .. she ran out of steam for BOB runoff, I've gotta recondition her(And Ziva) for stamina/endurance. . .but we'll be hitting more coursing, so hopefully that'll help. As you can see, her roll was not very fun looking, but she took it in stride
I think I have these in the right order LOL
Trying to recover
Soooo nto happening
Trying not to roll over
Sliding with the flow
She is so unflapable anymore, she got up and kept going
Sunday was slightly warmer, but a beautiful day all day. Unfortunately, the same dog who was bad to Reba ran on Sunday, even tho I strongly suggested to his owner he should, and he was even naughtier with Ziva. .
You can kinda tell he's not on the bunny, but on her
Here he is, according to the judge, trying to bite her
Thankfully, Sunday's judge demanded the course ended just shortly into the run because he was trying to bite her. Ziva turned and started back to me, with the other dog in pursuit. The judge grabbed him by his blanket, and when Ziva saw that he couldn't get her, she ran back to shred all the bunnies off the line, pleasing me to no end.
Why? With a novice dog(This is her 2nd course), especially one of her age, you worry about bad things ruining them for running, she's very soft as I've mentioned before. I almost pulled her, but hoped that she'd be fast enough to pull away, and well, you have to find out sometime. They started the course from the beginning and she finished it gorgeously, even tho she ended up doing a somersault on her head trying to stop LOL. That was reminiscent of her daddy & uncle Obie.
Not bad for a baby learning to use her back and bodd
Ran Ryder for my good friend Robin and she was tickled beyodn belief when I called to say yeah, she needed to get him out. . .since he's a dog Bonnie's interested in, we were all pleased to see him run. Such a sweet goofy boy. . .He took a nose dive at the first turn, not expecting it to turn(as he's been doing mainly oval/straight racing), but got up and kept going.
Took Secret in hand and headed to the scoreboard, which was set up next to the starting line. . .which was a huge mistake, when the whippets took off, she tried to go with them, and almost ripped my arm off LOL
Ziva went on to win her stake, and again she petered out on the BOB run. . but she had an otherwise good day with good running dogs, so I was very pleased. .she also seems to've gotten thru that 2nd fear period, as very little bothered her. . .
Last weekend we had racing in the front field. Due to Bonnie working with Lou of Pickle Hill Borzoi to try and rehome the last of the dogs leaving his home after his lovely wife dying, I had no help, so took it easy. . .I felt I had to support MAIGC, as they are some of my favorite racing friends
So, Saturday Focus, Grins(who was feeling frisky and silly and BOUNCY), Reba, Tipperary and Ms Jenny ran. . .Jenny's pleasing me, her head's getting straight from teenage hormones, she's boxing well, and breaking well, and she placed a respectable 2nd behind ms Focus in the meet. Reba & Grins ended up tying, with poor Tipperary taking the turtle. Tipperary could not beat Grins for the life of her this weekend. It is truly interesting to see how season slumps affect bitches, some not so much, some a lot.
Ms Secret got to try the bunny, and the first try, was not so sure. . her Uncle John Jones had to give her a gentle nudge when the bunny started, and then she took off. Unfortunately, unlike her sister and papa, once it's done moving, she's done with it LOL We ran her with Reba for certification, and she ran clean, I was so pleased.
Sunday I had no help and with my bad knee, decided to run fewer dogs. . jenny won the meet, looking better and better each run, and Secret placed 2nd!!! She is not sure how to use her body as she's never coursed before, but everyone was tickled for me, no matter what box she came out of, she'd zip to the right rail LOL I don't expect much out of her, she is 6+, but it's nice to know she will run, and run clean(She passed Tipperary without a problem), for breeding purposes, if she had no desire to run, I wouldnt' breed her to anything but Grins nuts on the bunny. . .
My Tofu girl's(kani LOL) puppy Belle is STILL a nut on the bunny, she was standign on her hind legs watching the bunny come down the track, ears up, eyes wide, trembling in excitement tried to get between the slits of the box. Ran her through the open box and she looked soo good.
This weekend was a 'down' weekend. . there was racing within driving distance, but my get up and go get up and left. . .so I scheduled a practice for RAW(Racing at the WEdge) for Saturday
Again, we couldn't've been blessed with better weather: 60 degrees, the tank top and capris came out for the day. It was a nice, easy course, basically an odd shaped diamond, about 500 yds...We had 27+ dogs show up, Borzoi, Whippets, Afghans, a CHinese Crested, Border Terriers, a Podengo and a Dutch shepherd. All but one of the Borzoi ran(she ran, just back to mom as fast as she can LOL), and the CC, One BT, and the dutch shepherd all got nice runs in.
I was very pleased to see Jenny run a nice, clean run with Ms Focus, poor Focus, got put in the test dog position LOL Then Kari's little girl Brandy got a nice clean run first alone and then with Ms Focus, two new opens for us next spring! Weehee!!!! Tolian, Brandy's brother, came out to play and got a nice run in.
And then it was Secret's turn. . .now again, Secret hasnt' seen a bunny in 5 yrs. . .I whipped it beneath her nose from behind and she took off, made the first turn, got to the 2nd turn, stopped to smell. SOMETHING at that corner kept interrupting dgos to sniff, quickly I flipped the lure, ripped it back under her nose, she came tearing back towards me after it, I flipped it again and took her back around, she made the fourth pully and said I've had enough LOL Need to work on her recall some LOL But I was tickled to see her run.
Then I got a learning experience. I run the lure for all breeds at LGRA BUT NGA greyhounds, I don't feel comfy at this point in time in running it for them. . .but I have never ran it for coursing, which is a different horse, and never ran it for a whippet. Damn Linda Day's whiplet caught the bunny before the first pully LOL I learned to keep it further away, and had a great time.
All three of the Kani puppies got in AWESOME runs, even Aurora, who I wasn't sure was goign to run. Hopefully Nacht's European Owner will get her out, because she is hot for that bunny, we'll be getting ehr cert and get her to events before she goes home. .. cant' believe they're almost a year old.
Grins got to be test dog for another dog who's been 'iffy', unfortunately the other dog fought his muzzle and thus we weren't able to tell for sure if he'd run clean, he got hormonal at the finish, strutting up to Grins, ears up, head high, tail up. Grins was Grins, oblivious to that sh*t, because there were two bunnies to destroy and damnit, he was going to kill them!!! LOL
All and all, we ahd a very successful first practice for RAW. . as they left, I was asked when the next one was LOL .. dang I hadn't recovered from the first one yet LOL but I scheduled a new one for next month already, and can't wait to do it again.
This was the first time I've done it all myself. .usually I set up the field, and someone else runs the lure, but it was a very educational day for me, and I can't wait to do it again!
I will be working on recall with Ms Secret so she can try again. . walking her down in that front field did NOT do my poor knee any good. . .thankfully she wasn't the only snot, one of the afghans did the same lOL
May go up to an ASFA event and learn FTS work, we'll see what the energy is like this weekend :)
Took Secret in hand and headed to the scoreboard, which was set up next to the starting line. . .which was a huge mistake, when the whippets took off, she tried to go with them, and almost ripped my arm off LOL
Ziva went on to win her stake, and again she petered out on the BOB run. . but she had an otherwise good day with good running dogs, so I was very pleased. .she also seems to've gotten thru that 2nd fear period, as very little bothered her. . .
Last weekend we had racing in the front field. Due to Bonnie working with Lou of Pickle Hill Borzoi to try and rehome the last of the dogs leaving his home after his lovely wife dying, I had no help, so took it easy. . .I felt I had to support MAIGC, as they are some of my favorite racing friends
So, Saturday Focus, Grins(who was feeling frisky and silly and BOUNCY), Reba, Tipperary and Ms Jenny ran. . .Jenny's pleasing me, her head's getting straight from teenage hormones, she's boxing well, and breaking well, and she placed a respectable 2nd behind ms Focus in the meet. Reba & Grins ended up tying, with poor Tipperary taking the turtle. Tipperary could not beat Grins for the life of her this weekend. It is truly interesting to see how season slumps affect bitches, some not so much, some a lot.
Ms Secret got to try the bunny, and the first try, was not so sure. . her Uncle John Jones had to give her a gentle nudge when the bunny started, and then she took off. Unfortunately, unlike her sister and papa, once it's done moving, she's done with it LOL We ran her with Reba for certification, and she ran clean, I was so pleased.
Sunday I had no help and with my bad knee, decided to run fewer dogs. . jenny won the meet, looking better and better each run, and Secret placed 2nd!!! She is not sure how to use her body as she's never coursed before, but everyone was tickled for me, no matter what box she came out of, she'd zip to the right rail LOL I don't expect much out of her, she is 6+, but it's nice to know she will run, and run clean(She passed Tipperary without a problem), for breeding purposes, if she had no desire to run, I wouldnt' breed her to anything but Grins nuts on the bunny. . .
My Tofu girl's(kani LOL) puppy Belle is STILL a nut on the bunny, she was standign on her hind legs watching the bunny come down the track, ears up, eyes wide, trembling in excitement tried to get between the slits of the box. Ran her through the open box and she looked soo good.
This weekend was a 'down' weekend. . there was racing within driving distance, but my get up and go get up and left. . .so I scheduled a practice for RAW(Racing at the WEdge) for Saturday
Again, we couldn't've been blessed with better weather: 60 degrees, the tank top and capris came out for the day. It was a nice, easy course, basically an odd shaped diamond, about 500 yds...We had 27+ dogs show up, Borzoi, Whippets, Afghans, a CHinese Crested, Border Terriers, a Podengo and a Dutch shepherd. All but one of the Borzoi ran(she ran, just back to mom as fast as she can LOL), and the CC, One BT, and the dutch shepherd all got nice runs in.
I was very pleased to see Jenny run a nice, clean run with Ms Focus, poor Focus, got put in the test dog position LOL Then Kari's little girl Brandy got a nice clean run first alone and then with Ms Focus, two new opens for us next spring! Weehee!!!! Tolian, Brandy's brother, came out to play and got a nice run in.
And then it was Secret's turn. . .now again, Secret hasnt' seen a bunny in 5 yrs. . .I whipped it beneath her nose from behind and she took off, made the first turn, got to the 2nd turn, stopped to smell. SOMETHING at that corner kept interrupting dgos to sniff, quickly I flipped the lure, ripped it back under her nose, she came tearing back towards me after it, I flipped it again and took her back around, she made the fourth pully and said I've had enough LOL Need to work on her recall some LOL But I was tickled to see her run.
Then I got a learning experience. I run the lure for all breeds at LGRA BUT NGA greyhounds, I don't feel comfy at this point in time in running it for them. . .but I have never ran it for coursing, which is a different horse, and never ran it for a whippet. Damn Linda Day's whiplet caught the bunny before the first pully LOL I learned to keep it further away, and had a great time.
All three of the Kani puppies got in AWESOME runs, even Aurora, who I wasn't sure was goign to run. Hopefully Nacht's European Owner will get her out, because she is hot for that bunny, we'll be getting ehr cert and get her to events before she goes home. .. cant' believe they're almost a year old.
Grins got to be test dog for another dog who's been 'iffy', unfortunately the other dog fought his muzzle and thus we weren't able to tell for sure if he'd run clean, he got hormonal at the finish, strutting up to Grins, ears up, head high, tail up. Grins was Grins, oblivious to that sh*t, because there were two bunnies to destroy and damnit, he was going to kill them!!! LOL
All and all, we ahd a very successful first practice for RAW. . as they left, I was asked when the next one was LOL .. dang I hadn't recovered from the first one yet LOL but I scheduled a new one for next month already, and can't wait to do it again.
This was the first time I've done it all myself. .usually I set up the field, and someone else runs the lure, but it was a very educational day for me, and I can't wait to do it again!
I will be working on recall with Ms Secret so she can try again. . walking her down in that front field did NOT do my poor knee any good. . .thankfully she wasn't the only snot, one of the afghans did the same lOL
May go up to an ASFA event and learn FTS work, we'll see what the energy is like this weekend :)
Friday, July 23, 2010
Practice!
As I'm attempting to stay cool in the horridly hot weather we are receiving, I thought I might catch up on my blog :)
Last weekend I packed Ziva, Reba (Mielikki-Mandolin's Pahu Pahu JC GRC), First (Celeritas Bellatrix of Silkenswift GRC), Gibbs(dork boy extra-ordinaire) and Aurora & Bella in my friend's van, and headed up to NJ for a QC/JC/Practice. The club was holding the QC/JC's early, unlike the local club who does it after the event, thus making it the hottest part of the day for a young dog, and it was our first chance to do so, so I really wanted to get out and see.
Got there about 8:30 and it was already getting warm. Ugh, set the xpen up for the babies, left the other dogs in the AC car and waited our turn.
AKC changed rules earlier this year for entering Open. Originally, all you had to do is get your JC(Junior Courser) and you could run in the regular event, even tho they did recommend you practice with other dogs. Unfortunately, there were people who thought JC meant they were ok to run in Open, and jumped the part about practice runs to make sure your dogs ran clean. I personally have made sure to have an ASFA Cert paperwork in hand before ever running in open, but not everyone was as conscientious. The QC(Qualifying Courser) is essentially the same as the Asfa Cert, and makes people get that practice run in before running open.
So, poor Reba got to be the QC dog for both Ziva & First, everything else we have is too old or in season LOL She handled it well, even tho she's in her slump from her season. She's a good silly red head.
I wasn't sure if Ziva would run, but she shocked me. Her practice we'd had last spring hadn't been quite as good as I'd hoped, but her QC run was really nice, even with Reba playing field cheater, she totally ignored her, and kept going. She's back to being a bit unsure with another dog, but I'll just make sure to run her with some known clean dogs for awhile, and definitely not Lemans or Serrano who scream LOL She is soo much like her mother in softness.
First's run was brilliant, and she will do her breeder proud if she runs like she did. THe judge was very complimentary of both the girls.
Gibbs had quite a decent JC run. I chose a JC with him, as he suffers ADHD right now. Silly, happy, dorkie as hell puppy, his brain doesn't stay on one subject for longer than a few seconds. He needs some focusing work, and will continue running by himself for awhile.
Then I got the babies out.
Aurora's going to make someone a great dog, she is not afraid of anything, went right up to the RR puppy who was bigger than her and play bowed, bounced off his head, and didn't get worried when an older pup joined in. She thought the entire crowd was there for her. She shmoozed, made lots of friends and jsut had a grand old time.
Bella's more suspicious, not afraid, but not willing to jump in without looking. By the end of the day, both girls were play bowing to one of Fergie's puppies and having a lot of fun. They met everything from a young litter of RR, to whippets, to RR of all shapes and sizes and age
Then we got to the line, and my sweet little Bella, who has been perfect on leash, became a little hellion, radar ears came up, she lunged at the end of the harness and was just raring to get the bunny. I had no clue if any of these pups would run, as Mom is a tofu dog, she has no desire to chase anything I've tried her on, but Bella was channeling her grandfather Brooks(DC Mandolin-Mielikki's the Dance SC, CD) and WANTED THAT GOSHDARN BUNNY!!!!
I handed Aurora off and slipped Bella, who took off like a bat out of hell, tearing down to the pully, where the bunny stopped, as they're flipping it around, she is bouncing off of it, tearing at it, having a great time, to the point they had to carefully start it to bring back, as she was refusing to let off of it LOL. I truly hope she keeps than enthusiasm and grows up to her potential, as she looks like she's going to be a fun dog.
Handed a very unhappy Bella off and slipped Aurora, who took off also, but when the bunny stopped and didn't move right away, she came back to me. Not a bad thing, Great Uncle Eros is the same way, it's only fun when it moves, but we'll keep working on focus with her.
Put them in the car, where everyone promptly flaked out, and left. I was gone by 11, and it was too darn hot by even then.
Unfortunately, no pics as we rushed thru it all to get done before the heat, but hopefully next time!
Was going to head out coursing this weekend to get Jenny's QC, run Ziva(I hope to have her pointed for the NLCC), but with a heat index of almost 110 expected tomorrow, temps over 90 on Sunday, we will be staying home!
Last weekend I packed Ziva, Reba (Mielikki-Mandolin's Pahu Pahu JC GRC), First (Celeritas Bellatrix of Silkenswift GRC), Gibbs(dork boy extra-ordinaire) and Aurora & Bella in my friend's van, and headed up to NJ for a QC/JC/Practice. The club was holding the QC/JC's early, unlike the local club who does it after the event, thus making it the hottest part of the day for a young dog, and it was our first chance to do so, so I really wanted to get out and see.
Got there about 8:30 and it was already getting warm. Ugh, set the xpen up for the babies, left the other dogs in the AC car and waited our turn.
AKC changed rules earlier this year for entering Open. Originally, all you had to do is get your JC(Junior Courser) and you could run in the regular event, even tho they did recommend you practice with other dogs. Unfortunately, there were people who thought JC meant they were ok to run in Open, and jumped the part about practice runs to make sure your dogs ran clean. I personally have made sure to have an ASFA Cert paperwork in hand before ever running in open, but not everyone was as conscientious. The QC(Qualifying Courser) is essentially the same as the Asfa Cert, and makes people get that practice run in before running open.
So, poor Reba got to be the QC dog for both Ziva & First, everything else we have is too old or in season LOL She handled it well, even tho she's in her slump from her season. She's a good silly red head.
I wasn't sure if Ziva would run, but she shocked me. Her practice we'd had last spring hadn't been quite as good as I'd hoped, but her QC run was really nice, even with Reba playing field cheater, she totally ignored her, and kept going. She's back to being a bit unsure with another dog, but I'll just make sure to run her with some known clean dogs for awhile, and definitely not Lemans or Serrano who scream LOL She is soo much like her mother in softness.
First's run was brilliant, and she will do her breeder proud if she runs like she did. THe judge was very complimentary of both the girls.
Gibbs had quite a decent JC run. I chose a JC with him, as he suffers ADHD right now. Silly, happy, dorkie as hell puppy, his brain doesn't stay on one subject for longer than a few seconds. He needs some focusing work, and will continue running by himself for awhile.
Then I got the babies out.
Aurora's going to make someone a great dog, she is not afraid of anything, went right up to the RR puppy who was bigger than her and play bowed, bounced off his head, and didn't get worried when an older pup joined in. She thought the entire crowd was there for her. She shmoozed, made lots of friends and jsut had a grand old time.
Bella's more suspicious, not afraid, but not willing to jump in without looking. By the end of the day, both girls were play bowing to one of Fergie's puppies and having a lot of fun. They met everything from a young litter of RR, to whippets, to RR of all shapes and sizes and age
Then we got to the line, and my sweet little Bella, who has been perfect on leash, became a little hellion, radar ears came up, she lunged at the end of the harness and was just raring to get the bunny. I had no clue if any of these pups would run, as Mom is a tofu dog, she has no desire to chase anything I've tried her on, but Bella was channeling her grandfather Brooks(DC Mandolin-Mielikki's the Dance SC, CD) and WANTED THAT GOSHDARN BUNNY!!!!
I handed Aurora off and slipped Bella, who took off like a bat out of hell, tearing down to the pully, where the bunny stopped, as they're flipping it around, she is bouncing off of it, tearing at it, having a great time, to the point they had to carefully start it to bring back, as she was refusing to let off of it LOL. I truly hope she keeps than enthusiasm and grows up to her potential, as she looks like she's going to be a fun dog.
Handed a very unhappy Bella off and slipped Aurora, who took off also, but when the bunny stopped and didn't move right away, she came back to me. Not a bad thing, Great Uncle Eros is the same way, it's only fun when it moves, but we'll keep working on focus with her.
Put them in the car, where everyone promptly flaked out, and left. I was gone by 11, and it was too darn hot by even then.
Unfortunately, no pics as we rushed thru it all to get done before the heat, but hopefully next time!
Was going to head out coursing this weekend to get Jenny's QC, run Ziva(I hope to have her pointed for the NLCC), but with a heat index of almost 110 expected tomorrow, temps over 90 on Sunday, we will be staying home!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Reba
What a day. . .I decided on a whim, last minute really Saturday night, to go coursing Sunday. The weather was unusually nice and the puppies needed to get out. So, I got up early, packed up Reba (Mielikki-Mandolin Pahu Pahu JC) & three of the babies and headed out to Hanover. Gibbs & Abbey were in a crate, while Timothy curled up in the backseat with cousin Reba. . she was such a good good girl, a wonderful Auntie to these babies. In fact, as I pulled into Hanover, I looked back and found him draped across her, SOUND asleep.
This is one of the few times I miss having the Explorer. It is much harder to travel with puppies in the Neon than the Explorer. Setting up was. . fun, to say the least LOL
Clicked Timothy on the harness and wandered over to give my entry. Harnesses are DA BOMB in leash breaking, I have not had the hysterics, flailing, screaming, nothing with the harnesses. They did balk walking over the driveway, but considering my feet balked LOL that gravel is not conduit to kindness to feet.
The three babies were sooo good, getting used to the noises of the big RVs, meeting new dogs, for some reason, they all liked the Pharoah Nanu, but Gibbs was sure not sure what to do with Robin's IW Claires' big feet. Claire was playbowing and stomping. LOL Considering her head may weigh as much as they do LOL
Reba had a nice day, winning her open stake, then running off against Serrano, the Kazan son out this way that has been burning up the field. She won BOB to my delight and I decided since the weather was actually VERY decent for mid June, to run for BIF. To my surprise and delight, she won that too :) Her first AKC event, she picked up a nice 5 point major as well as a beautiful ribbon and a huge bed that I gave to her cousin Gossip :) (Gossip's my bed dog, and her bed was looking pretty horrid, not as comfy anymore, Reba's not a house dog, would love to be one tho LOL).
Reba's daddy Brooks got his first points at his first AKC event with a BIF win too, so it's a nice win. . . She is my fourth Bred by BIF (Brooks, Obie, Eros are the other three).
Bonnie was tickled, see, I don't own Reba, I cobred her :) She's Bonnie's silly little red head. I'm taking her out because I have nothing that courses at this point, well, nothign competitive. Hopefully one of these babies will change that, but we won't know til next year.
So, means I'll have to get her out some more :) Might even start Rally with her, she's a fun little girl to work with, sometimes regret letting Bonnie have her. :) but at least I'm close enough to steal her LOL
This is one of the few times I miss having the Explorer. It is much harder to travel with puppies in the Neon than the Explorer. Setting up was. . fun, to say the least LOL
Clicked Timothy on the harness and wandered over to give my entry. Harnesses are DA BOMB in leash breaking, I have not had the hysterics, flailing, screaming, nothing with the harnesses. They did balk walking over the driveway, but considering my feet balked LOL that gravel is not conduit to kindness to feet.
The three babies were sooo good, getting used to the noises of the big RVs, meeting new dogs, for some reason, they all liked the Pharoah Nanu, but Gibbs was sure not sure what to do with Robin's IW Claires' big feet. Claire was playbowing and stomping. LOL Considering her head may weigh as much as they do LOL
Reba had a nice day, winning her open stake, then running off against Serrano, the Kazan son out this way that has been burning up the field. She won BOB to my delight and I decided since the weather was actually VERY decent for mid June, to run for BIF. To my surprise and delight, she won that too :) Her first AKC event, she picked up a nice 5 point major as well as a beautiful ribbon and a huge bed that I gave to her cousin Gossip :) (Gossip's my bed dog, and her bed was looking pretty horrid, not as comfy anymore, Reba's not a house dog, would love to be one tho LOL).
Reba's daddy Brooks got his first points at his first AKC event with a BIF win too, so it's a nice win. . . She is my fourth Bred by BIF (Brooks, Obie, Eros are the other three).
Bonnie was tickled, see, I don't own Reba, I cobred her :) She's Bonnie's silly little red head. I'm taking her out because I have nothing that courses at this point, well, nothign competitive. Hopefully one of these babies will change that, but we won't know til next year.
So, means I'll have to get her out some more :) Might even start Rally with her, she's a fun little girl to work with, sometimes regret letting Bonnie have her. :) but at least I'm close enough to steal her LOL
Monday, December 1, 2008
Hanover
All Borzoi in the NE (and a number from Ohio) went to hanover for coursing this weekend, so that's where we went. .racing alone isn't fun. . but this weekend made me miss Obie again. . he was a great dog, because he could do anything, might not've been THE fastest, but he was competitive in everything He did.
It made me realise I miss coursing, i love racing, but coursing is my first love. Racing you can't watch your dogs run from anywhere really but front and behind. . .I really wish Gossip loved plastic as much as she loves her jack-a-lure. . hopefully the puppies I have planned for her will get both parents speed, but papa's desire to chase anything, as I miss having a competitive all around dog, but that won't even give me a coursing dog until late 2010 anyway ::SIGH::
Grins had fun, Grins had a blast, he looked good, and I got compliments on how nice he looked by people who knew him in his prime, but he is still a veteran FCH, he didn't do BAD, there was only a point spread between the Open-FC-Veteran runoff, so he's a competitive veteran, but he's still a veteran. . He was a PITA as always to get off the bunny(A racing muzzle is going in my bag), and loved every minute of it, returned to his screaming like a giant hairy whippet days. . .but he's not competitive against the hot young opens and some of the FC. . .
Damn I miss coursing. . John does not realise how lucky he is with his Wizard. Wiz can do anything. . and does it quite well. .hopefully that'll pass on quite nicely to his puppies. . .but again, that won't give me a running dog til sometime in 2010. . blah.
Glad the performance season's almost over. . .
It made me realise I miss coursing, i love racing, but coursing is my first love. Racing you can't watch your dogs run from anywhere really but front and behind. . .I really wish Gossip loved plastic as much as she loves her jack-a-lure. . hopefully the puppies I have planned for her will get both parents speed, but papa's desire to chase anything, as I miss having a competitive all around dog, but that won't even give me a coursing dog until late 2010 anyway ::SIGH::
Grins had fun, Grins had a blast, he looked good, and I got compliments on how nice he looked by people who knew him in his prime, but he is still a veteran FCH, he didn't do BAD, there was only a point spread between the Open-FC-Veteran runoff, so he's a competitive veteran, but he's still a veteran. . He was a PITA as always to get off the bunny(A racing muzzle is going in my bag), and loved every minute of it, returned to his screaming like a giant hairy whippet days. . .but he's not competitive against the hot young opens and some of the FC. . .
Damn I miss coursing. . John does not realise how lucky he is with his Wizard. Wiz can do anything. . and does it quite well. .hopefully that'll pass on quite nicely to his puppies. . .but again, that won't give me a running dog til sometime in 2010. . blah.
Glad the performance season's almost over. . .
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Channeling Pyerun
So, took dogs coursing this weekend, was a HUGE event, with 23 Borzoi each day. Ran Focus for Bonnie yesterday, and she placed 2nd in a full+ stake of open Borzoi. Boy, I miss having a keen, fast young dog to run. And she's a nice dog to deal with.
Today, Bonnie went with me, and I entered Grins in Veterans, and First was entered in her JC. It was muddy and cold, and disgusting, perfect Borzoi running weather.
Grins had a BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAST!!! The LO who saw him when he was young said he looked really good, and he did, keen, on the bunny, not much cutting. He changed that in Finals, by catching the bunny after cutting across the field. LOL
Focus came away with a 5 point 1st place in another full Open, pleasing Bonnie pink, picking up 8 points in 2 days of running. So we ran for BOB with the FC stake. . and Grins showed he was channeling Pyrerun with a twist. He caught the bunny, he restarted the BOB runoff THREE times. . .damn dog, LOL. . .he doesn't just catch it, he catches it behind his molars. THREE times today he outsmarted the LO LOL. He didn't win BOB(That went to dear Focus), but the Judge said if there'd been a column for outsmarting the LO, he'd've gotten the extra points LOL
Too bad Wiz wasn't there JOHN!! LOL
Today, Bonnie went with me, and I entered Grins in Veterans, and First was entered in her JC. It was muddy and cold, and disgusting, perfect Borzoi running weather.
Grins had a BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAST!!! The LO who saw him when he was young said he looked really good, and he did, keen, on the bunny, not much cutting. He changed that in Finals, by catching the bunny after cutting across the field. LOL
Focus came away with a 5 point 1st place in another full Open, pleasing Bonnie pink, picking up 8 points in 2 days of running. So we ran for BOB with the FC stake. . and Grins showed he was channeling Pyrerun with a twist. He caught the bunny, he restarted the BOB runoff THREE times. . .damn dog, LOL. . .he doesn't just catch it, he catches it behind his molars. THREE times today he outsmarted the LO LOL. He didn't win BOB(That went to dear Focus), but the Judge said if there'd been a column for outsmarting the LO, he'd've gotten the extra points LOL
Too bad Wiz wasn't there JOHN!! LOL
Monday, April 14, 2008
Nice damn weekend
Whahoo.
Unfortunately I let my cell die last night LOL (I was busy introducing Mr Wiz to his lady to be) Otherwise I know Ms Nancy would’ve called me with this WONDERFUL news
Sammy, a Kyra grandpuppy, my pick puppy out of Nancy’s B litter in fact, picked up a BIF win this weekend. I know his owner is flying on cloud 9. She’s wanted a great running dog since Wings retired, and she’s got one. I am so glad I was able to connect those two(nancy & Robin) when I couldn’t take Mr Sammy-man
I told his future wife to be(Kani), she didn’t care LOL. She’s in that young(2.5) teenager brain stage, what EVER LOL
Mr River went coursing and picked up some more points towards his FCH. I can’t wait to see what his puppies are like, if they have his silly goofy temperament, I know the breeder will be ecstatic! And she was able to see the LIE that was spread about him running dirty was just that, and since she’s been doing this quite a long time, I think she knows what the hell she’s talking about.
And Ms Gossip continues to heal. She actually PLAYED with Mr Wizard last night, or at least, tried to get him to play LOL HE was exhausted after his first full weekend of coursing. She spent most of the weekend in the big yards playing, came up a little lame, but seems to be fine this morning. Every boy seems to be interested in her butt, I wish she’d come into season damnit!! My luck, she’ll wait til the middle of the spring racing.
ARGH.
Unfortunately I let my cell die last night LOL (I was busy introducing Mr Wiz to his lady to be) Otherwise I know Ms Nancy would’ve called me with this WONDERFUL news
Sammy, a Kyra grandpuppy, my pick puppy out of Nancy’s B litter in fact, picked up a BIF win this weekend. I know his owner is flying on cloud 9. She’s wanted a great running dog since Wings retired, and she’s got one. I am so glad I was able to connect those two(nancy & Robin) when I couldn’t take Mr Sammy-man
I told his future wife to be(Kani), she didn’t care LOL. She’s in that young(2.5) teenager brain stage, what EVER LOL
Mr River went coursing and picked up some more points towards his FCH. I can’t wait to see what his puppies are like, if they have his silly goofy temperament, I know the breeder will be ecstatic! And she was able to see the LIE that was spread about him running dirty was just that, and since she’s been doing this quite a long time, I think she knows what the hell she’s talking about.
And Ms Gossip continues to heal. She actually PLAYED with Mr Wizard last night, or at least, tried to get him to play LOL HE was exhausted after his first full weekend of coursing. She spent most of the weekend in the big yards playing, came up a little lame, but seems to be fine this morning. Every boy seems to be interested in her butt, I wish she’d come into season damnit!! My luck, she’ll wait til the middle of the spring racing.
ARGH.
Friday, March 14, 2008
T.H.I.F
Yeah, it's the weekend, the end of the week from hell
Work suxs, it's boring, I'm overworked and underpaid. never thought I'd miss ACS, but I miss their pay schedule. Nothing like getting paid what you put into something. If you slacked off and dicked around, you got paid accordingly, if you busted your ass, you got paid accordingly. It used to infuriate me to know thatp eople right off the street made what I was making due to inflation, as well as the fact that those who didn't do their job did, when I left, I was averaging $3 more than the average for the office. .
It was also nice to be able to work from home, wish they'd allowed me to continue doing so when I moved.
Anyway, the season has started!!! Gossip can go and schmoooooooooooooooooze. . she wont' be able to run til this time next month, 8 wks post op, but next weekend at least she can start playing in the small puppy yard.
Now just waiting to see if the surgery screwed with her season. It did with one of Bonnie's dogs, took Esme 3 months to come into season. .
So, this week all weekend Racing, next weekend is ASFA, friend John is so excited, he's got Wizard and is chomping on the bit to get him out running. Wizard's a nice boy, and reminds me of cousin Grins in someways, and his owner is a trip LOL I remember being so excited about my 1st running dog, granted, John's got a much better one lOL
Then off one weekend, and then back for AKC. Need to get Reba going on her titles and work on Eros' LCM/LCX. John's offered to help get them out LOL, I think he'll do better with Reba, Eros is too much dog lOl
Work suxs, it's boring, I'm overworked and underpaid. never thought I'd miss ACS, but I miss their pay schedule. Nothing like getting paid what you put into something. If you slacked off and dicked around, you got paid accordingly, if you busted your ass, you got paid accordingly. It used to infuriate me to know thatp eople right off the street made what I was making due to inflation, as well as the fact that those who didn't do their job did, when I left, I was averaging $3 more than the average for the office. .
It was also nice to be able to work from home, wish they'd allowed me to continue doing so when I moved.
Anyway, the season has started!!! Gossip can go and schmoooooooooooooooooze. . she wont' be able to run til this time next month, 8 wks post op, but next weekend at least she can start playing in the small puppy yard.
Now just waiting to see if the surgery screwed with her season. It did with one of Bonnie's dogs, took Esme 3 months to come into season. .
So, this week all weekend Racing, next weekend is ASFA, friend John is so excited, he's got Wizard and is chomping on the bit to get him out running. Wizard's a nice boy, and reminds me of cousin Grins in someways, and his owner is a trip LOL I remember being so excited about my 1st running dog, granted, John's got a much better one lOL
Then off one weekend, and then back for AKC. Need to get Reba going on her titles and work on Eros' LCM/LCX. John's offered to help get them out LOL, I think he'll do better with Reba, Eros is too much dog lOl
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