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

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 good and bad of puppy homes

I hate selling puppies to show homes.

This summer made me really hate it. This last litter seems to've brought the loons out of the woodwork, but the worse one was the last one.

She wanted me to guarantee the puppy would be showable. .I won't do that, I will state that the puppy at THAT POINT in time is show potential, and may remain that way IF the buyer will listen to me and give the puppy proper nutrition and excercise, both of which can ruin a puppy if done wrong, but I will not guarantee it. There are too many things that can happen. . .and boy can they go through some fugglies. . Gibbs went through it earlier this year and is coming back together, Bella is currently in the middle of some. . .people new to the breed don't understand that and flake out, or if they don't start winning first time in the ring, OMG, you sold me a dud. They have no patience for the puppy to grow up. . .This person has gone on to annoy a bunch of breeders. . glad I went with my gut and 'ran away!'

Yet, sometimes things happen, the lines connect just right, and you find a good one.

Day after I lost Gossip I got a call from Oregon. . .after dealing with the loons, it was so nice to get a nice, intelligent lady on the phone. I took pictures, I had Kari give her opinion, I gave her faults, and she was ok with eveyrthing. . she had fallen in love with Chrissy NKA Ava from her ad, and wanted her, and if she didn't turn out, that was fine, and whatever Ava wanted to do, Ava was goign to get a chance to do.

A home made in heaven.

This was the puppy I had such a problem getting shipped out last month. . but as soon as she got off the plane, she looked at Christine and said "I'm Home". .And Christine told me she was more than she had hoped for.

And every email or call I get from her mom is how much she loves her. . .

I don't think I'm going to regret this show home.

She went to her first show last week and was the only bitch, but the judge told her he was hard pressed not to give her the breed, but she was too young. . that's ok. . .she went in like she'd owned the place. And handled it with all sorts of finesse according to her mom, and then went on to a puppy Group IV, with that judge telling her that she would've been placed higher, but she was not as mature as they were. .that's ok, her mom is happy, and so am I :)

I'm looking forward to the show photo. . .this litter is much slower to mature than msot of the others I've had, is much more gawky at this age then the NCIS litter was. . .but the promise they've had will hopefully come to pass.

Now, sister Bella went to her first show away from Mom, and was a TWIT!!! She was always the perfect little lady for me, but she pushed every button poor Kari had and more LOL. She's came home to grow up, but will be taking roadtrips with Kari to get over the giant Snit she got into and learn to be the good little show dog.

Cousin Tony went to the greyhound track in Jacksonville for the first time. .. and ended up winning the last HP race. . considering he was running against Kyrie and Sammy who usually dominate the track down there, that's sayign something. He's learning to get his legs going in the right direction and once he stops fighting the box, he'll be good to go. THEY love him incredibly. . .he goes racing next month and then maybe see the coursing field this winter. :)

To round up the weekend, took three gals to get their eyes done. I'm happy to say Pickle Hill's Touchet at almost 12, Mielikki Prophet's Song GRC at almost 10, and Mielikki-Windhaven's Whispered Secret all (6)got clean bill of healths on their eyes. This gives Touchet the last test she needs for her CHIC, well she's had her eyes done before, but Bonnie misplaced the paperwork. . .

So other than Bella being a NITWIT, it was a nice weekend. . .got my 105 gallon tank setup, just need to get the sump acrylic redone, and I'll be setting that up :)

End of year, things are winding down. . thinking of starting Jenny or Ziva in OB this winter. .. maybe JOanie, my new co owned puppy with Bonnie. . .we'll see. . .next weekend is the last racing, then a weekend of coursing. . unfortunately Jenny hurt her shoulder so she's out for a few months. .. but Ziva will be out as will Nacht the end of month, so I can get her ready for her trip to Austria, her new mom is excited that she's so keen on the bunny

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

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 :)

the lgra/notra nationals

The LGRA/NOTRA nationals are over. . .

It was a very bittersweet nationals for me, and for two of my friends. . .T lost her promising basenji at the 2007 Nationals, he slipped his collar and was hit by a car :( Deb lost her Iggy last year, he got away from her and also was hit by a car. . .so lots of tears were shed for great friends gone too soon.

I took seven dogs with me. . .Ava flew out, which was a nightmare in and of itself. . .friend was supposed to ship her Saturday, didn't get there early enough saturday, so had to go back to my friend's that night, stay with her, get up, ship her out Sunday, which was a total nightmare. . .especially when i got lost in Newark. . .but Ava got to portland, is in her mama's hands, and promptly came into season LOL

Secret was along for the ride because she's stuck to me like rice, and some of Gossip's friends wanted to see her. . .other than forcing herself up front, between the captain chairs anyway she could, and when she couldn't, curling up on the nylon crate behind the chairs, she was a pretty good girl.

I had Focus for Bonnie, didn't expect anything really from her, she was in season end of july, so is just getting out of her slump, but since she was the only dog that was able to touch Gossip when she was 100%(and even then, it was only an occasional race she beat Gossip at), we entered her. Robin sent Ryder up for me to run, poor boy was out of shape due to the horridly hot summer they've had, John entered Wiard in Notra, we entered Reba in Notra, and I had my Ziva entered. DIdn't expect much from her, she is a baby still, the youngest by a year, but I was proud of her.

The weather was SOOO much better than last year's freezing rain, only thing i got this year vs a nasty cold last year, was wind chapped face/

Poor Ziva, she started the day in high point, but she tried her hardest, and came in 3rd behind much older and experienced dogs Bart(1) & Kyrie (2). She ran well for being the baby and still coming into her own, tieing for 5th and coming in 6th overall. Very pleased with her runs.

Ryder couldn't get his butt out of the box for 1st High Point and came in 4th, and that screwed him up for the rest of the day. . he placed 2nd behind the eventual BOS FTE winner Doro, and won his last race, to come in 5th(tied with Ziva)

Focus, as Gossip's pitch hitter, ran better than I'd hoped, and won all three races, to win the Nationals. . .I wish Gossip had been around, that was the only way the High Point races could've been better. . a huge ribbon and a trophy came home to Bonnie's delight.

What was extremely pleasing was 7 of the 8 top Borzoi went back to DC Silkenswift Blaze of CHaos(and more titles i cant' remember this am). . nice especially when I got wind of a nasty rumour that silkenswift dogs have horrid fronts and thus makes them slow LOL. .. 15 dogs running. . not bad at all. . .

Didn't get to enjoy the awards banquet due to having to go back to Newark, which was a shame, as I know it was a lot of fun.

We'll ignore the nightmare of getting Ava on the plane, and judge right onto NOTRA nationals. . .I had 5 of the 10 dogs entered. . think I may've lost my mind when I offered to run dogs for people LOL.

Reba ran her little heart off, but was in line to get the turtle after an OC, DNF happened, and then it happened, she couldn't get thru the dogs in front of her, and she went OC :( A disappointment for her little junior handler Georgia, who had(with adult help), dressed & muzzled her, she then walked her to the box with very little help, Mr John helped her box her, and with help she caught her, where she walked her back and undressed her lOL. . SHe proved that a 5 yr old could run Reba. . only one time was Reba not polite, otherwise she was the perfect, calm, sweet angel.

Ziva suddenly stopped fighting me at the box, stopped sitting in the box, now if she could only learn to stick to the turns(I know, give her time!) She finished 6th and picked up her first ORC points(0.5), I was more pleased with her progress in getting over the scare she got last month from a rough handler than anything.

Focus ran nicely, but started running out of steam. . .she ended up placing a respectable 4th, the 2nd high scoring non ORC, she's still not doing turns like she will in a few more meets.

Wizard, wizard shocked the crap out of many people by almost beating Bartlby, who is almost unbeatable, the last race. . he was ahead of Bart, and at the last moment slowed down enough Bart caught up with him and he tied. . Hopefully John'll listen to me and excercise that boy. . .he ended up placing 2nd due to that last race, finishing the day as the high scoring non titled oval racing boy.

I was very pleased with the kids. .. had a wonderful day, wish I'd video'd that last race it was so freaking amazing to watch as the siblings duked it out, first Valkyrie, than Bart, and then Wizard. .the top 4 dogs of the meet were all littermates: Bart, Wizard, Valkyrie, Focus

It wasn't as horrid as I feared it would be. . yes, I did miss my girl, but I had fun due to great friends. . .

The EAST COAST ROCKED THE NATS!!!!

Dei is Done

As I stated, fall is here, the weather has been GORGEOUS!!!!! So gorgeous last weekend, that when Ms Dei, who hasn't really been interesting in going since she finished her GRC, asked to go, following me around, sticking to me like white on rice, jumping on top of dog houses begging to go. She didn't need to go, but I had room in the car and so I told her she could go, she could have her retirement party. She waggled so hard when I put the leash and collar on her, dragged me to the car, and snuggled in with her buddies

When we pulled up, she got out, quivering with joy, eyes constantly turned towards the track, tracking the bunny, but being oh such a lady like she is. She was just so happy to be there

Dei waiting patiently for her turn at the bunny, watching it go

When it was her turn, she stood so politely to be dressed, still watching the track, eyes lit with glee, looking towards me occasionally, but watching that track was her job that day. I handed her off to a friend, who she gladly greeted like they were a long lost buddy, and she walked down the track.

Dei heading to the box, look at that look on her face

Running first with Grins, then with Tipperary, she ran soo hard on that bunny, coming across the line with such happiness upon her little gray face, she isn't a grinner, but I swore she was smiling with happiness. The wonderful weather lead to a wonderful day for Ms Dei, who ran hard all three races, finishing as the turtle, and boy did she get a great turtle!

When the day was over, ribbons were awarded, it was announced this was her retirement race and people asked me why. I said because she'll be 10 in a few months, and nobody believed me. . ."She doesn't look it", "I thought she was Gossip's sister" were some of the comments, at which I smiled and todl them, no, she was Gossip's Aunt.

A celebratory burger was Dei's finish to the day, which she gladly wolfed down with glee. . .

Dei didn't start running until she was 6.5, but when it did click, she ran and ran hard, enjoying it. No, she wasn't the fastest dog on the field, but she finished by beating dogs younger than her by anywhere from 2-5 yrs just before she was 8.

I wanted her career to end on a high note. Dei ran hard, her body can still take it, but I'm beginning to worry about bone cancer. . I lost her brother to it, and her half brother had an accident on the field that revealed bone cancer, and I'd rather she be at home if something were to happen, then hours away and no idea where to go. She has nothign to prove, she's done her stint. . .but I let her have one last great day, and she ate up ALL the attention she got.

I could keep running her, but she ran in racing style. .nothing saddens me than to see veterans on the field who have the desire, but their body just cant' do it anymore. She finished in racing style, meaning galloping hard, no not fast anymore, but not anything that embarassed me. . .

So, Dei is done, she is now the grand old lady of the yard, beating up her puppies, harassing her nieces & nephews, and jsut being too damn cute. . .I hope that her youngness means I'll have her for many many more years. . .those dog houses she was jumping on top of? 3+ ft tall!

It's hard to retire them, but retiring them on a great day, IMHO, is the best way to go about it, and so, happy retirement to Mielikki Prophet's Song GRC. . .keep on trucking!

Fall has sprung

Fall season has commenced. Just about every weekend between now and middle of December you can find some sort of doggy event to attend, whatever you want, you can probably find something to do.

The last two weekends have been LGRA and it's been so much fun watchign Ziva & Tip 'grow' on the field.

Ziva continues to improve with each meet, she is now more like her mom than a wilting wall flower. . willing to solicite attention, sometimes bossingly LOL And boy does she WANT TO RUN. Soon as the blanket and muzzle are on, she's dragging her handler to the box, tho she does have this annoying habit of flipping over and trying to get her blanket off, for whatever reason. Last weekend, she threw a tantrum on me for not putting her in the box that was open, a bit improvement from back in June where she refused to box unless I picked her up and threw her in!

Ms Tipperary is also improving. When I'd started the cookie reward, she started slowing down coming over the finish line. . but something clicked in her little needle head this weekend, and she finished the last four races of the weekend in great running form. She's not as fast as some of her kennel mates, but she's becoming a lot of fun to run, happy go lucky, very silly, other than for the desire to think her fuzzy butt belongs in the front seat.

One of my favorte memories of two weekends ago was running the lure for the two Chart polski pups that are now entering the racing venue. .they're not much younger than Ziva and crew, but watching the two sibs and the way they are learnign to use their bodies was very interesting. . Maisie is already running like a little adult, while her big brother has no idea where his rear end is, and was very ungainly, but there were shadows of the powerhouse runner he's goign to be once he grows into his long legs.

Last weekend Ms Ziva became Mielikki's LIason Officer Ziva David GRC, the first puppy to be titled in her litter, and Gossip continued making history by becoming the first Borzoi and only the 7th all breed SGRC5. Unfortunately, I screwed my knee up badly at the dog show yesterday and not sure how much more i'll be doing this fall, the MRI will tell

weekend from hell!

Ever had a weekend where you felt like the gods hated you?

That was a weekend last month

I was so looking forward to relaxing that weekend. Work had been a bitch, this is supposed to be our down time, NOT this year! The weather was going to be horrid, so was going to have one of my rare, quiet weekends. Gossip was away with Kari, so planned on working on finishing taking down my 55 and dealing with my salt water tank, maybe go see a movie.

Saturday morning at 4ish, my roommate knocks on my door telling me her hubby is
worried about Grins. .first thing that went thru my mind was OMG, how'd he
manage to overheat as an indoor dog?

Back story. . 5 yrs ago, Grins suffered a devastating condition called "Monday Morning Disease", or "running
your back off". It is caused (amongst other ways), by over exherting yourself. I thought he was in great shape, thus why I entered the "International Invitational", the premier event for ASFA, not realizing I had a dog who would push himself beyond his body's ability. I learned the hard way that weekend, that I have a dog who is beyond insane for the bunny, and who would not listen to his body when his body said enough. IOW, he runs like a Greyhound. Greyhounds can run themselves to death and I know he will, now.

At that point, I had no clue what kind of disaster I had, as every other dog I'd ran, would pull up if their body said stop.

In going into azoturia, he also caused himself to overheat, resulting in a week at the vet's, and a huge vet bill. Since then, I have been very careful with him in the heat, as he is, even at almost 8, a full speed ahead dog who will race up and down the fence line with his son, even in 90 degree weather, so he gets brought in the house and forced to be sedate.

I knew it was going to be horrid the day before so he became a house dog Friday night. When I went to bed at 10, he was fine, bouncing at the gate, Grinning at me. And next thing i know, I was racing down stairs to find out what was wrong with my dog.

I got to the dog kitchen, and he was sprawled out, stiff, head cocked sideways, legs straight out in front of him. Afraid he was seizuring, I did not touch him. A dog who's in the midst of a seizure can bite you, not meaning to, even the best behaved dog in the world, and so I was not going to put myself in danger. I knelt near his head, called his name, he wagged his tail. . ok, not a seizure.

Put a leash on him and tried to get him up, and this is where he scared me to death, he started spinning, like an alligator death roll. We got him calmed down, which he did almost immediately after I touched him and decided to get him to the ER, and ran to change clothes. When I came back down(no longer than 5 mins), he was up on his own, head tilted slightly, wagging his tail, leaning against Jim.

We put a harness on him, and rushed him to the vet, where after a thorough exam, a chem screen, cbc, tick panel, heartworm test, he was diganosed with more than likely having 'veteran vestibular disease'. . in fact, as they walked him away from me, the vet says he's normal, I said I know, but you should've seen him 45 mins ago.

When he gave me a grin coming back to me, I knew he was better. All signs of the incident were gone

The thought is he tried to get up, and when he couldn't, he panicked, and thus the rolling as he kept trying to get up, when hsi body failed to do as he wanted, he tried to get up, and it became a nasty circle. He's a muscular, active dog, while a dog not in as good of shape as him probably could not've done what he did. It was over and done with in about 20 mins, with the only residual affects is being very sore from slamming into the door frame.

A vet friend told us Vestibular disease that it's more common in the hotter months in his experience, and this has been one hot damn August.

We are keeping him in the house, not just the dog kitchen, he's behind me in an xpen right now. . .we are watching him closely, but he's back to normal antics. While it's hot, he will not be allowed outside unsupervised, and unfortunately, his time out unsupervised is going to be totally curtailed. Pack behaviour can be sparked by something like this, thankfully his old dog compatriots all ignored him. . .but if he'd been in a pen with a bunch of punky young dogs, he could've been hurt. Or worse.

It's hard to think of Grins as a veteran. . .but he is. . .from what I've learned, sometimes it never reoccurs, and I'm hoping he's that way. It was damn scary. . .

Then Sunday morning, got woke up at 5:30 by everything in my room shutting off. . 1800 customers, not even all in the same area of Baltimore, without electricity. . it's too damn hot for this crap, especially with two dogs we're watching closely(Grins' aunt is sick). Thankfully it only lasted 4 hrs, but omg, I was never so happy to jump in the shower and wash grime off of me as I was today.

The light at the end of the really bad weekend is that Gossip picked up another point under Virginia Lyne, who really really complimented her. Since Kari camped out in horridly crappy weather, including a tornado watch, 60 mph winds, i'm glad something good came otu of it.

Thankfully, the following weekend was nice, and calm, a beautiful practice with Gibbs & babies, and RELAXING. The heat broke last weekend(but it's making up for it this weekend).

First racemeet of the season this weekend, coursing next weekend & a show! Going to be busy!

Morphing into the butterfly

A continuation of my prior post.

Bringing out a young dog can be rather scary.

There's been a lot of nastiness after the finish line in recent meets, unfortunately, anything that happens after they cross the line is ok. .. a good owner will pull the dogs, a poor owner won't. . .I will pull a dog who comes across the line roaring at another dog. Hasnt' happened often, but it's something I can't stand. I know of dogs who were ruined by that type of behaviour.

Ziva & Jenny are soft, Ziva more than Jenny, so I had let them run practices alone, and with dogs I know are clean and bomb proof. . Jenny unfortunately came into season, but after learning to box, and doing a clean run with her father, I decided to enter Ziva into a meet. .

First meet, I entered dogs of Bonnie's and mine that I knew were clean, and took Wizard, and with each race, Ziva got more and more confident. . at first she was afraid of the box and not sure of strangers, wouldn't let anyone but me box her, or catch her. Made it real hard to run her, but we managed :)

Just as scary it is worrying about her getting a good experience, you worry about them not being naughty. Thankfully, she kept running clean, even when a strange dog was entered into the mix.

The second weekend, with each race, she got better, to the point that last race Sunday, my Nancy boxed her and I pulled her off the bunny, yes, PULLED her off. I was soo happy to see that

Ziva ran and ran nicely. The shy butterfly she was the first day was gone, and she was much more outgoing and sure of herself, soliciting pets and scritches, this second fear period can be such a PITA, even throwing a tantrum if she was made to wait for her turn to box by the end of day Sunday LOL.

Just as it's scary to bring out a new dog, it's also exciting to watch them bloom and learn the game. She was very tuckered by the end of the weekend.

I feel more confident allowing her to run with other dogs, it'll still be handpicked who I allow her to run with for awhile. . Ariel's girls and Orleans, no problem, I've never seen those three run dirty at all, Mary M's, girls same thing. But there are some boys in the area that Ziva's going to have to get used to their screaming before I feel comfy allowing her to run with them. They've bothered Reba who's been doing this awhile. . and she won't run with dogs who don't play nice after the finish line, not til she's more sure of herself. If that means having to pull her, I will.

But I was so happy to see her in on the bunny, she allowed Gossip & First to kill the toy, she wanted the plastic.

Now it's to start from the beginning with Jenny, who's out of season next week. .we're probably out of racing til August due to the weather. .it'll be interesting to see hwo the two sisters run together, hopefully they'll run clean together!

Racing season has BEGUN!!

Oooh, sooo sore, but it's a happy sore. .. much better than the totally exhausted sore last month after shoveling snow LOL

First racemeet weekend of the season is over, done with and so very successful. The weather could NOT have been any nicer, tho I have a bit of wind burn going on, and possibly some sunburn LOL. It was warm enough the jacket came off. .

The thing with racemeets is, if you do it right, you WORK, and for grins, I took my pedometer with me and the total after the weekend was over 23 miles of walking! This field is great, but you park quite a bit away from the track, so it was A LOT of walking LOL.

Saturday Mr Tony went with us, made a lot of friends, and got some practice in running with both his daddy and cousin Reba, he doesn't quite have having his long coltish legs go in the same direction at the same time LOL but given time, i don't think he'll upset his new owner too much. He pleased me by allowing various strangers handslip him without a problem. He was a very tuckered puppy on the way home. At 12 months 3 days old, noway I was going to enter him for real, so he got his practices in and just smoozed with everyone. He's such a big dork of a puppy.

Gossip was ON fire. . .was wondering, she is 5.5, her time will soon be over with, but I was hoping not quite yet. . and she was SOO VERY DAMN HAPPY, you could see it in her eyes. . and back into rock hard shape, barely panting after each race, and a sh*t to get off the bunny. . .

Poor Reba got flattened by a big damn boy coming out of the box, and his and another boy's screaming really upset my sweet red head enough that she didn't even try to pass him. . this poor girl has had a walking bullseye on her butt, she's been attacked more than any dog I've ever ran, and so I pulled her for Sunday, I don't want a bad experience to ruin her desire to run. Don't think she got hurt, but maybe leary after being ran over. ..

First ran well, getting her back into shape after she had puppies last December, forgot what place she came in, but picked up .5 a point for her owner. I know her breeder Nancy is tickled Having puppies seem to've made her LESS stubborn, it was actually enjoyable to run her this weekend.

Sunday, it was Ziva & Gibbs turn. . .Gibbs is as socialble as his father, and as big of a dork as his father. . .my Basenji friend went orgasmic over his rear LOL What is it with people and my dogs rears? LOL She couldnt' believe the muscling on my 12 month 4 day old boy, he's got a wide load, and it is NOT fat. . .They both got a chance to smooze, and got some time listening to the box slam open. I didnt' practice them, as I want to get them coursing first, and that's what I did wrong with Gossip, did more racing before I tried her with coursing. .I really hope one of these two will chase plastic.

Sunday's racing was soooo AWESOME! I took Focus, Gossip & First, and Focus made Gossip work, 1st race, barely by a nose was it Gossip, second race was not quite as close, but third race she was on Gossip's hip. . .there were two other equally nice girls running, Padua & Mrs Peel that are going to make NE racing soemthing to watch this year! :) First was tired, and didn't place high enough to get points, but Ms Focus finished with a 2nd place out of 9, tickled her owner enough I got a texas longhorn dinner out of it :)

I had a blast, great camraderie, great running, great event. . I am sooo tired, that first few events of the year kicks your butt until you get back into the swing of things! Going to be a busy spring!

oooh, what a weekend

What a wunderbar weekend.

Had the entire weekend off for racing. Unfortunately, a number of my normal 'string' is in season(Focus & Dei) or out of racing for other reasons, so had to take a 'newbie'. . .Tipperary, a great granddaughter of my beloved Kyra. Tipp reminds me a lot of her half uncle Eros, and runs like he does, gangbusters, but once the bunny stops, she has no interest. Unlike him, she doesn't come to the handler when she's done, gave me a few scares this weekend, but we'll be working on that if she wants to go out running with me, and she likes the bunny, boxing well, breaking well as long as the box operator doesn't go in front of the box. If they do, she turns around in the stall to follow them. Silly red head. . .made a lot of friends, from human to iggy. . .Very very sweet girl. Her next event is PVBC's LGRA next week, should be a nice entry. She picked up 1 GRC point this weekend. Nope, didn't breed her, just enjoy running her

Gossip's slowly returning to normal running from post season slump, definitely was more herself this weekend, which pleased me completely. She picked up 4 NRC points, breaking the 100 NRC point mark, only the 2nd Borzoi to've done that.

Reba has been on fire(for her) these last two weeks. Last weekend she placed 3rd in an 8 borzoi meet to pick up 1.5 points towards her GRC, and this weekend she was 2nd both days for 2 more. She now lacks 2.5 points. . I am very pleased with Brooks red headed daughter. Plans are to get her out running on the coursing field next year, and Bonnie may have her out at shows. She is the world's sweetest, calmest little girl.

Brooks' twin son River went coursing and managed to pick up a 2nd major towards his FC. . now just some singles to go! So tickled for his mom/cobreeder!

Then to finish the day, we had some silly fun-ness. . .we have had some easy banter going back and forth between the owners of the 2007(me) and 2008(Fergie's mom) top girlie and both girls were raring to run again at the end of the day, so we ran them together LOL I actually heard someone say they expected Fergie to beat Gossip because of a BIF run she had done. . .but Fergie's pop stated it was Gossip, out of the box, pulilng away from the box and gone LOL Gossip was almost to the end of the run out before the RR got across the line and according to Fergie's mom, Gossip was still pulling away LOL It was great fun, and the girls enjoyed it immensely. Shows you really can't tell a thing about speed on a coursing field. LOL I'd love to see her run against the top greyhound, but alas, he's injured. I know he'd beat her butt, but it would be nice to see by how much. Wish Anne was still doing her speed study, I really would love to know how fast the spotted wonder is.

She curled up in her copilot chair and fell asleep hanging off of it. . .didn't even want to rouse herself for her double cheeseburger til I held it for her LOL Geez. . .but it tired her out, which is what I wanted LOL Neither of us moved once we hit the bed, darn!

Came home, and Umbra made the end of the day, by eating KIBBLE!!! WEEHEE!!!! :) All and all, was a great weekend.

Training puppies

The last two weekends have been good ones. Weekend before last we had a practice in the front field, I was able to 'cert' a number of dogs, now knowing they will run clean, they can come with me. These included Crivens(Brother of Wizard), Bagheera(Touchet's nephew out of her half sister), and I was also able to run three of the four pups still here. The boys had blazing runs, completed an entire 400 yd course on full trusters, will running like babies, but lookd good. Ziva ran, not as nicely, but did come in for the kill and took off with the bunny LOL Seeing the two boys run, if John decides not to take Gibbs AKA Wizard Junior, he may stay here, he's a nice boy, and very keen, or I may keep Tony. . LOL that's all I need is another boy, but with Umbra dying, there's a spot to fill.

Then last weekend it was Jenny's turn. Soo, this is the first litter that has had the benefits of being near boxes. Anyone who races can probably tell you about that one(in my case two) dog they owned that was a sonovabitch, to get into a starting box. I SWEAR Races grew an extra set of paws, and his brother has managed to turn his big heavy ass around in the box numerous times. . their half nephew Carrot is JUST as bad, so this weekend, when I had extra room in the dog mobile for lil Ms Jenny to ride along. So off we went.

First thing in the morning, we walked around the box, with me rapping the metal door and top with my knuckles, if Jenny reacted, it was ignored, if she came up despite the noise, she was praised.

After everyone ran, with Tipperary putting in a nice FTE entry, she finished 5th I believe, but since she is very submissive and lacks confidence, the fact that she passed Grins in the last race made my day. She'll get it, and will be goign back out with me this weekend. Grins showed the youngens how to do it, and barely losing to a nice fast male (Lemans put on the speed last 2 lengths and passed Grins). He's still a PITA to get off the bunny, but as long as the boy wants to run, eh can run. Well, after that was all done, I went over to the box with my jackalure. Opened the back door, tossed the bunny in

Jenny looked at the stall, then up at me, stepped one step in, then two, grabbed the bunny and backed out. Now, normally you don't want them learning to back out, but since I was trying to get her to have confidence going in the box, I kept doing that. We went thru this a bunch of times, until she wasn't pausing to get the squawker.

THen it was hand her off to a stranger, open the front of the box, and head down the track. David Milne pointed her thru the stall and the Lure Operator(LO) bopped the bunny. Jenny wennt thru the box, looked around, a bit confused, until the LO bopped the bunny, then she took off like a bat out of hell. Even tho she overshot the bunny, she came back and attacked it. She then retrieved it all the way to the box so a friend's IW puppy could chase the bunny. I was so very very pleased with her! There was an adult Borzoi there who didn't handle his first run thru the box as nicely as she did!! I am so glad Bonnie co owns her, she's going to be a lot of fun, in the ring and on the field!

And to end a good day, she was a great puppy in the car, no chewing on anything, a littel grumbling cuz she's not used to sharing space yet, but otherwise, a very good traveling puppy. She won't get to go with me often, but they all will get exposure to BOnnie's box next month at PVBC. . .if it makes my life easier once they hit running age, why not?

LGRA nationals

It was cold, miserably, wet and chilled.

We had mud all over. Thick, icky, squishy, slippery mud.

But it was fun and worth it.

Despite the fact that in the last 8 wks, she'd had her toe amputated and came into season, Gossip did well. She tied for 4th with Comet, her cousin. She may've placed higher if she hadn't had the hard hard collision she had with another cousin named Sammy(Mir X FLyte). She got to the bunny a few lengths ahead of him, and he couldn't stop, t-boned her, flipping her a number of times before she came up, soaked to the skin in cold rain. Walked her out, put her in the car, and turned on the heat. They both seemed to be fine, but the next morning, they were both very sore. 1st race of the day, she lost to the eventual meet winner by a nose, 2nd she won, third she tied for Wizard. And since Wizard, as I've mentioned before, is my gage if she's doing well, usually isn't within smelling distance to her, something was 'off'. Will say she was NOT AT ALL impressed with the freezing rain. Considering I couldn't feel my toes nor the toe warmers I stuck in my boots, I gotta say I don't blame her.

Sunday she spent curled up in the car with Grins, happy not to come out in the rain.

Some nice high point racing, very little problems with dogs on the field, tho there were a few DQ's that weren't caught, unfortunately. I was at the box, and had to go get a hat, as with the rain, it was getting to be hard to tell if that was an IG at the finish line or a rain drop LOL

So, all and all, great weekend, made new friends, talked with old friends, got to see dogs I've only heard of but never seen. I really like Comet, a Mir grandson, may have to take Kani to him down the road. . .

Now to prepare for rally and Ziva's first dog show this weekend!

weekend pt 2 & puppy homes

This weather is CRAZY!!! I was freezing this morning. It's middle of July, and when I left for work, I tured on the heat. . lol.

Sunday went well, all three boys showed lure interest, with Tony being NUTSO fori t. . Also, very much like his namesake, he found the huge plate glass window of the business who let us use their field and had to preen himself. "Look at that VERY handsome puppy" LOL Gibbs was also keen on it, Timmy is like their mother, keen when it's moving, long as he runs clean, that's fine. Once it was dead, Eros nor Obie really had an interest in the plastic either.

Unlike the girls, the boy made the trip without a problem. .. no drooling, no puking, just Timmy tryign to take over the stick LOL That shoudl be Gibbs really :) Lots of compliments on the piranhas and I was very pleased with them.

Unfortunately, with it being a tiny meet(12 dogs, three each of four breeds), I spent all day on the ladder running the lure, so didn't get a chance to take photos of the puppies playing with the lure, but was very tickled.

Abbey has a home, YEAH!!!! She made a good impression, curling up in her mama's lap and just about falling asleep. Home comes highly highly recommended by a long time breeder in the breed, so I'm tickled, and IF Abbey decides to run, she'll run her. . heck, she may even show her, Abbey's showable, but I'm happy with a wonderful couch for her to sleep on.

Emma has moved in and taken over her household LOL And her owner is soo tickled, talking about running her and even trying her in agility. Couldn't ask for a better home, but I knew she would be, Sera had a nice life there.

So Ziva & Jenny are staying here, Jenny is available to a serious show/performance home. Ziva told me all along she was mine, and seeing how keen she is on the plastic as well as jackalure shows me that she knows more than I do :) I think I'm going to have fun with this little brindle girl, you can see the clogs moving in her little mind. . .she was a lot of people's favorite of the girls this weekend ;)

Waiting to see which of the boys John wants, but Bonnie's expressed interested in Tony De-Nose-Zo, so I'm excited :) I don't mind holding onto Jenny or Gibbs, they're both nice puppies!

Borzoi history

Eighteen months ago, Gossip was attacked at the LGRA Nationals and after that she was scared of black dogs and slow coming out of the box, even looking both ways to make sure no dog was coming for her. She also irrepairably sprained her outer toe on the show front side. . .after months of trying to rehab it, we opted to amputate it. .vet took off the first two knuckles. . not sure why he didn't remove the entire thing, but she became sound and able to run. She was apprehensive at first, and I wondered if she'd ever return to pre attack racing tenacity.

But she ran and ran well, slowly gaining her courage. . .and winning some nice big entries up here in the NE, until she reinjured that darn stump last November. . . she was off all winter, only to reinjure it in SC in Feb, not enough to be lame, but enough to be noticably off. . she'd come home owie, but be sound within a day

After consultation with my vet and one of her fans, a greyhound lady who's been doing this forever, we put her on a course of rimadyl and wrapped her foot, which except for the National where she wrenched in good because of the poor runout and leaping over the tape onto the concrete walk out(not any of the LGRA committee's fault), this has worked.

Sunday, Gossip made Borzoi history. She became the first Borzoi bitch to ever achieve the SGRCIII title. .she is now Mielikki-Windhaven's Petty Gossip, JC, CGC, RN, SGRCIII.

I am SOO proud of my girl. She's achieved all this in a little over two years. . .and despite money issues, car issues, and life issues.

She'll be 5 in September, but we'll keep running as long as she's having fun, and maybe we'll get that SGRCIV. Marie & I have some nice breedings in our head for her, and we hope she'll give us happy, speedy, silly puppies next year. The ride has been wonderful, including BOB at the 2007 BCOA LGRA and BOS at this years, unfortunately, she'll hopefully be in whelp for next year's nationals, or we'd be going then too. .darn pesky seasons :)

I really love this silly girl

What a weekend(Or I hate road trips LOL)

What a whirlwind 10 days

5/15 I picked up the Enterprise van. . I will say, this is not the most comfortable way to drive, but it was extremely convinient and when I do my next road trip, I'll be doing the same thing. Three Borzoi size crates fit in it, and I piled blankets behind the seat and two Borzoi slipped in there(tho Gossip stayed between the two seats most of the trip). I packed almost everything Friday night.

5/16 Put the boys(Grins, Wizard & Umbra) in their crates, finished packing the various stuff(cooler, suitcases, toiletries, etc), and then got the two girls (Gossip & Kani) in and headed out. Kani wasn't entered, but she's sooo darn submissive, I figured it would do her good to get the experience. She's looking so darn good I want to start showing her, just have to get her over being submissive. Left home about 10:30.

The ride was nice, sunny most of the way, t ho we did hit some torrential downpours in Western PA. . .I almost pulled over at a rest stop to work Gossip in the pouring rain, LOL. Got to the hotel about 8:15, walked the kids, and hit the sack.

Gossip says the best part about traveling is BED RIGHTS!! LOL. I don't have a bed big enough for her to snuggle at home, heck, it's barely big enough for 53 lbs of cats(and one of those cats is only 5 lbs) and me LOL. . .

Got up, walked the boys, and ran into two nice ladies with some nice youngens. Realised it was Deb Butler, who I've talked to for years on line, and her darling friend Karla Smith. Gossip REALLY wanted to play with I think it was Merlin LOL. . .She's 4.5 going on 4 months I swear. Packed up the kiddos and put the address of the field in the garmin and headed out. Gotta say, that Garmin has been the BEST Xmas present ever, I was not lost once this last week.

The field was gorgeous, lush green grass, rolling hills. .I knew Grins wasn't up to it. he's not had a lot of endurance since running his back off, but the weather was gorgeous, a bit on the cold side for me and my shorts & tank top at first(Thankyou Amy Sikula for lending me a jacket LOL), but perfect borzoi weather.

The entry was nice. .2 full stakes of Opens, 18 FCH, and 4 veterans. Poor wizard had his work cut out for him.

There were some amazing runs, and at the end, Grins' nephew Sagan had won his Open Stake A, Deb Butler's lovely girl Carina had one her Open Stake B, Wizard had tied three way for 2nd, and Grins had placed 2nd in Veterans behind a cousin. Wizard went on to win his runoff, giving him 70 points towards his LCM in 2 trials. . .boy John, you've got one special little goofy boy. Sagan won the runoff with Carina, and then went on to win the whole shebang in an AWESOME runoff. He's a nice boy, and one to watch out for. . .

Unfortunately Wizard's brother Bartleby had a huge brainfart and didn't place, but it was nice seeing him course.

I went back to the hotel, took a long hot bath, and Kani, Gossip & I crashed.

Up early Monday, headed to the host hotel. As we drove around the front, I heard the screaming of an albino peacock, and all I could think of was OMG, I hope that's not close to the racing LOL

There were two bad things, IMHO(Other than being a handslipped meet LOL) about where they decided the racing would be held.


1) you could not park near the track. Thankfully they allowed me to pull the van up to unload the xpen and set up the three dogs I was racing nearby. .with my asthma, I did not want to be traipsing back and forth.

2) The track could not be set up with adequate runout. . .from the finish line to a concrete path was only 50 yds. . .in fact, the entire 1st program high point race jumped the fence. Not Carol, Dawn or Tom's fault. If they'd known the problems caused by flooding, we may've been able to hold it on the same field as the coursing. . .

Anyway, helped Dawn Hall with the board, it was nice brushup before running PVBC's first meet this last weekend.

It was some nice racing. . .only one problem with the dogs, one problem with someone who thought they had to scream like freaking tarzan to get their dog to race. . .I caught, so didn't get to see the start, but Gossip's handler Carol told me she got boxed in by the three boys in the 1st race, but made up most of the difference to come in 2nd behind Bartleby. She beat Bart by a few lengths 2nd race, and then got a bad handslip the last race. Poor Carol kept apologizing and i kept telling her it's one of the reasons I hate handslipped meets, nor was I upset. .it happens in handslip meets.



Heck, we had one dog start the race backwards because he freaked out over being held by a stranger. She made up most of the difference, finishing right behind Bartleby. . . she placed 2nd to his 1st, and BOS to his BOB out of 26 racers, nothing to sneeze at, and we'll eventually be able to see them race on even turf, I'll make sure to handslip my own dog next time LOL Tho I screwed THAT up in February LOL. I love Jamie & Bart, so am happy for them. Gossip picked up 4 of the needed 6.5 poitns for her SGRCIII.

Unfortunately, the sudden stopping made her owie on that amputated toe. . that last knuckle IS coming off the 9th. . two different peopel who OFC asked me why I didn't take it all off the 1st time. . because I trusted my vet, never having had a toe injury.

I got LOTS of compliments on my speckled girl(and one snide "don't you know the saluki nationals arent' for a few months?")

Head back to a new hotel. . my cost at Motel 6 for all 5 days, was less than one night at the host hotel with 4 dogs would've cost me. .and even the smaller rooms (@140.00ish a night) weren't all that and a bag of chips for that price, my motel 6 room was nicer LOL. I collapsed on the bed, only waking up when the sunburnt back of my legs got chillled. Ordered Pizza for Gossip & I(yes, she's spoiled), walked the kiddos and collapsed.

Got up, checked to see how Owie Gossip was, headed out for Rally.


My good girl, who's been soooo good at Class, lost her brain LOL. . she became fixated belong belief with a toy in Paula Moore's bag, and this is a dog who had no interest in toys 15 months ago. . .She decided she was in agility, and leapt the chain fence to go check otu the toy. . .if they'd used the XXXX fencing all the way around she
may've done better, but we had fun. .and I hadn't truly expected anything of our first time in RA. We'll practice more this summer, and I will be using her squawker as distractions LOL and try again this fall. Saw some nice work, and got some good hints from June Mitchell(think that's right, Riju borzoi), as well as Amelia Finkelstein.

As we were waiting, answered some questions from a nice gentleman in a wheelchair and his girlfriend. Surprisingly, Kani had no problem with the wheelchair, and in fact, crawled in his lap and was happy as can be(see picture below lOL)


Caught up with Pat, helped her unpack, ran back to the hotel(only bad part about not staying on site), dressed for the futurity, and headed back.

The best part of the rental was being able to leave the dogs in it, opened the backdoors and put a tarp over it to keep the sun out, faced the rear into the nice breeze we had all week, and the dogs stayed comfortable. . .

Saw some nice puppies, including this adorable little Duri daughter that R Lynn had. . Sparky made you want to scoop her up and kiss her sweet face. Stayed most of the night, but when I misplaced the rental keys(after already misplacing my camera, I found both thank the heavens), called it a night and headed back after penciling Umbra in
for bathing the next day.

Got up and was at the showgrounds by 8:30. . i love the raised bathtubs, wish I'd had a way to get it home, I'd've bought raffle tickets for the one. . .they are wonderful, put Umbra in the crate to dry, and went to watch the sweeps.

I took 2500 photos of mostly sweeps. . my Nikon is WONDERFUL, got lots of good photos of various dogs sidegait. . .trying to edit it to put them up somewhere. A light touch, and it takes multiple photos in sequence. I'm still dealing with the learning curve, but did get some GOOD photos.

Saw a number of nice puppies, many of them go back to Virago, who definitely stamps his get with a beautiful head. All three of Rlynn's Duri pups I saw were scumptious, Anne Midgarden had some gorgeous pups too, I saw a number of puppies I could've stuffed in my van and took home. And the double Kyra descendent Tom Golcher had is just too darn cute.

Ran back to check on Umbra to find out he had an accident, he was refusing to eat, and had icky poohs. Raced him over to wash him again, used Carol Enz's blow dryer(thankyou carol) to blow him out, and Pat groomed him up. And then we went down to watch Veterans.


The sad thing about Veterans is, I remember many of them as youngens. Burni was in 12-18 with Races & Wings back in 02, I remember Gala in I think it was the 6-9 class the year I went to Detroit, and I remember Virago as a gawky teenager up at GNY. . .Almost all of the vets looked great for their age.

Except for one, who should've been home on the couch. . I know his owners are proud of him, but the poor boy couldn't get around the ring. . .if you want everyone to see him, put him in the companion parade. . .he'll now be remembered for the poor dog who couldn't make it around the ring vs the dog in his prime. .this is the 2nd time I've seen a veteran who shouldn't be in the ring be put in the ring, the last time was the Centennial . .everyone'll remember that dog as the limping veteran(who won despite the limp, makes me respect Gerda Kennedy, NOT, but then, she put up a number of lame dogs that day)
instead of the gorgeous dog I saw in his prime. . .there just comse a time when you have to realise your best buddy is old, and leave him on the couch. I felt sooooo very very bad for this old guy. When/if Umbra gets to that point, he will stay home and just be handsome for me.

Umbra showed beautiful for Aunti Pat, tho he did keep an eye on me, he didn't do anything, but look gorgeous, didn't expect Katie to like him. Just proud of my boy. . .he's gotten gray in the face, but moved nicely, and his coat is looking lovely. . .even if it was still slightly damp from the 2nd bath LOL. He'll be out in fall specialties
as long as he's raring to go. . .

Pat had to go out to the Steele's for grooming of her boy who went on to WD/BOW, which just blew her away :) So I had a nice, fun, quiet dinner with Tom Golcher, talking dogs and Germany, and how we miss a good german meal :)

I had to leave Thursday to head home, not enough vacation, and PVBC's event was this weekend. Stopped in Pittsburgh to visit Grandma Dorothy, my step dad's mom, haven't seen her in a few years, Pittsburgh was just not dooable from Syracuse, but found out that it's definitely dooable from Baltimore. She sent me home quickly tho, Thursday was the hottest day of the week and she was worried aobut the dogs. .they were fine, but for a dog hater LOL she was worried.

On the ride, I got a call that Sage's son Payton placed 2nd in his Ambred class! :)

Got home about 9, unloaded the dogs and the necessary items and did some paperwork for the meet, and crashed hard. Got up, went to work, thank heavens for short summer fridays, and went home to finish paperwork, turn in the van, and buy what items I needed for the meet.

Saturday nothing went right, took longer to finish packing the car, got stuck in a parking lot on 95 due to everyone going to the beach, and then realised that what I had ordered was NOT what I had gotten for the jackalure. .so we had to make due: we gutted Grins' giant dayglow caterpillar and stuffed the jackalure in that LOL SOme duck tape and we had a different kind of bunny LOL

LOL, the dogs seemed to like this more. Not sure what it was about the giant day glo orange caterpillar, but they all seemed to run harder for it LOL

Once the meet started, it ran well. We had 31 dogs on Saturday and 26 on Sunday, not a huge meet, but a nice size one for a holiday weekend where there's coursing in the area. And a nice beginning meet for me. . .Sunday went much smoother, and thank heavens I had Monday off to recooperate and do paperwork. AND catch up on my sleep LOL

So PVBC is now 'official'. . .we'll be holding another event later this year, and work on getting NOTRA approved next year hopefully. It's a lot of work, but was worth it :)

Payton also went on to win his Ambred class at the MBC I guess supported entry on Sunday :) nice 1st national for his owner :)

Gossip's now .5 from becoming the first SGRCIII bitch in borzoi history.

And I am BEAT LOL

Umbra, looking for Mom
Kani, happy as can be
Gossip
COME ON MOM!

updates updates

Been so damn busy this month it's not funny.

haven't had time to stop and think, let alone updates here.

Lots going on, lots lots lots.

I went out to dinner with three good friends for chinese last week, and one of our rituals is to ask your neighbour’s fortune cookie a question. Sometimes they make absolutely no sense, sometimes they hit home.

Sooo, I asked Jim's cookie if Gossip would ever get her RA

The answer?

“You love challenge”

I about fell out of my chair laughing my butt off LOL

Unfortunately, our offical training is off right now, as we have BABIES!! 7 beautiful bouncing baby borzoi. . 4 girls in varying shades of formal colour: 2 brindles, one looks to be a dark brindle like her uncle Obie was, and one a sandy/cream brindle, and two dressed in black, and three boys in gorgeous tuxedos: two reds and one black.

They're growing like weeds, even the little girl who was really tiny (8ozs) has caught up with her sibs. Dei says she's had enough and has already started sleeping outside the box. . oh well, she's in trouble when they start climbing over with her LOl The biggest weighs in over 3 lbs already. .big boy. They are getting to the fun stage :) Gossip wants to play with them soooooooooooo bad. .


Week after we went to camden, the babies came. . it was the easiest darn whelping EVER. . .started at just before 3 am, was done at 7:20. . . was at work by 9:30. . .and she's been an absolute good mama. .wonder if her antics on jumping off and on dog houses is what helped it be sooo easy. ..

They are lovely, with lots of flashy chrome, not many got Mama's wide blaze, which I'm happy about, I hate it. .she has a pretty head, but that blaze ruines it when combined with the shorten mask. . and looks like they're going to have pretty heads :) I've already got some baby agility equipment planned for their pen, as I have at least one home who wants an agility dog :) heck, got homes waiting for most of them as it is, so I'm tickled pink

Took a few days to figure out what colours they were, even Bonnie wasn't sure if they were dominant black or tris, but they're definitely dominant black, so either Grins or Wizard are daddy of those three. .or maybe BOTH :)

PVBC has been given the nod to become a LGRA club, which has a bunch of us tickled pink. We'll be holding out first event 5/25/09. Hopefully with this, we'll get back into holding other events. Was told at one time PVBC held coursing events, so here's hoping. Sooooo much to do between now and then. To encourage Borzoi entries to come out, we've decided to hold Borzoi nonboxed. . but with high encouragement for Borzoi people to work with the box'll that'll be there. Hopefully we can get more people out running again :)

late update on racing last month

Well, Gossip's winning streak ended in February . .if I'd known just how bad a post season slump would hit her, we wouldn't've gone. When you go head to head with new dogs, you want to be on the top of your game, but she's managed to schedule her seasons around the 'null' type of the year, so I had absolutely no inkling just how bad they can be. She's the first truly competitive bitch I've ever had..

Saturday her performance wasn't bad. . wasn't her normal performance, but I put that off to being in a vehicle for 24 hour. Yeah, she got out for potty breaks, but it's not the same as spreading out on a soft bed. . .she placed 3rd of 20. . first official loss in her career. . .I wasn't disappointed, the top two dogs are fast dogs. . I did wonder if her lack of 'zing' was because she was 9 wks post season, but ya know, I've never considered her undefeatable, I've always known there'd come a dog who'd beat her. .it's happened to every dog out there. .Just ask any of her fans that have stated nobody can beat her, I've given them a tongue lashing for doing so LOL

I was just VERY happy that she ran clean. . a lot of top Borzoi don't run clean once they start getting beaten. I went down there knowing there was a possiblity of her being beat. it happened, we go on.

Saturday, she slept on the hotel room bed. . like the dead, not like her. . .and she wasn't as up as usually, mopey. . .not sick, just blah. And then Sunday, she got beat by Wizard. .

Wizard is a good boy, he's a decently fast boy, but he is not Gossip fast. . .he hasn't gotten close enough to touch her tail before. .. and he beat her by quite a few lengths. I've ran this girl probably close to 100 races, and she's never ran as 'bad' as she did this weekend.

First thing out of all experience peoples mouths was "when was she in season last?" told them, "Oooooooooooooh, that's it!"

Yep, if I'd bred her, she'd be due the following week. . .them damn fake puppies. LOL

Talking to Bonnie, post season slumps don't affect coursing bitches as much as it does racing bitches, and in fact, there has been research done at the University of Pennsylvania on racing sled dogs and the impact seasons have on their performance. I would love to get my hands on that research. All bitches go into a false pregnancy, some not much, some really bad. I remember Jezebel's: they were horrid, got fat, right on down to milk. . swore I was going to have Greyzois the 1st time she did it. . .Talked to Michelle Houghton who runs some of the best amateur greyhounds IMHO, and she told me some interesting afcts about greyhounds, including that they're not allowed to run 90 days post season as the betters could get screwed due to poor performance.

Oh well, you win some, you lose some. We'll get her back into shape, and go back down, but not before I can take some vacation time.

OMG, I have NO clue how the weekend warriors do it. It was a 9 hr trip down, and a 9 hr trip back. I got back at 12:30, and don't remember anything beyond 8. . .it was horrid. . i do much better if I have a companion go with me, but Gossip's a poor conversationalist. . .LOL. . and it took me days to recover from it. . .Right now saving vacation time for the Nationals, but will save after that to head down south again this fall. . .want to go again, but not until I know I can do it safely!



Good news is, Bartleby finished and his brother Wizard now lacks 1.33 I think to finish. It was nice to see them run together, Bart is a bit faster than Wizard, so it'll be fun to see Gossip & him go head to head at the BCOA nationals in a few months once she's back up to par.

The weekend is here

The first snow of the season has come and now it's gone. if I hadn't seen it coming down, I'd've never've known it had fallen. Damn this year has gone fast, can't believe Thanksgiving is next week.

Today's going to be a lot of fun as well as exciting. There are currently 13 borzoi entered, not sure if John or Mary is goign to show up, but could pop that up to 5 points each day. But even so, with Novel, Indigo, Gossip & Focus, will make for some exciting running. Will be interesting to see how Focus matches up against everyone, and if we can get Carrot to box, him too. . May take Tip tomorrow and work on her with the box so she can come out.

Funny, got told the rumor mongers are at it again, accusing me of AVOIDING competition because I wasn't willing to drive 22 hrs to the nationals. Yep, that's why I contacted FOUR different people offering to pay them a nice chunk of change towards gas if they would take Gossip for me, Nancy had already offered to take her off their hands, keep her for the weekend, and return her to them for the trip home. One of them didn't go due to the cost (Snoopy only does Straights, really not worth the cost for one day of racing), and Carol & Robin didn't have the extra room in their car for Gossip to fit, and Jaime wasn't sure she was going until the last minute. . but because Gossip didn't go, I'm AFRAID of them . .bah, they're full of sh*t. Tho I'm glad I didn't WASTE my money, as it was only a 12 dog meet. .sad for the Midwest for a National

If I was AVOIDING competition, I wouldn't've gone to the Nationals last year, ya know, the one that put my bitch up for 7 months with an injury?

Once again I offer them (Since I know they read this blog), put your money where your mouth is. You travel all over the South to go coursing, have no problems in fact doing that, so come on up here. I, OTOH, have physical issues that keep from doing it. I just can't do all night driving sessions and sleeping a few hours in my car is not an option with my health.

National's'll be up this way next year, come on up! If you think I should travel in your direction to run, you know, the door goes both ways, you should be able to handle driving up here. And since at least three people ya'll talk to have seen Gossip run and SAID she deserves her accolades, maybe ya should listen to them.

Come on up, I'd love for her to have some more FAST competition. If I was AVOIDING it, there's no way in hell I'd be taking First, Focus & Carrot out, and encouraging Wizard out and hoping Bartleby will come. Nor would I send out mass invitations to come on out. AVOIDING it would be going to NH or MN where there's no Borzoi running lOL And I've NEVER been one to do that crap!

Addictions

As I sit here at 0 Dark thirty, i wonder what kind of masochistic gene makes us performance people get up so damn early, to go play in the pouring rain.

It is pouring out
It is cold out.

A smart person would turn over and go back to bed.but noooooooooo LOL, true performance people aren't smart, we're addicted. Generally it's a safer addiction, you won't die of lung cancer, or kill your liver, but it's still an addiction LOL I don't drink, I don't smoke, so guess I have to have some sort of vice LOL

It's just over 4 hrs, nothing i haven't done before, used to get up this early and be on the road at 4 to make coltsneck(5 hrs). Giving myself plenty of time, as I've never done this event before, and don't want to be late because I got lost.

I hate mornings LOL

Off to get my caffeine.