Sunday, July 29, 2012

LC @ Roy (& a scary story about Mintz)

Although there were some low points, this was a FUN weekend.  J (with her Mom who is in town) drove Bados, Mintz & I up to Roy for coursing.

Sometimes when we go to Roy we stay both Friday & Saturday with Lego, Patty, & now Maggie.  I love that because their place (aka the Stetson Inn) is fabulous.  The yard is huge, & those guys are fun to play with.  Unfortunately, J wanted to stay in PDX friday night to watch the Olympic Opening Ceremony.  That looked pretty boring to me: a bunch of people parading about.  Then on Saturday we stayed at the "Stetson Inn", but Lego & the gang went up to spend the night with Tootsie.  This was confusing to me, but it had to do with Tootsie's person needing a ride down for Sunday.  Oh, well.  The event ran very late on Saturday so we would not have had much time to play anyway.

For coursing on Saturday, I ran a fair bit of the course & didn't manage to stalk at all.  It was not a continuous loop, and I find it harder to determine where the lure is going with the drag lure. My fans were disappointed, but J was optimistic that I might earn a 'qualifying score'.  Whatever, I managed to figure it out on the second run & 'tagged' the lure after stalking at about 3/4 through the loop.  I 'tied' with Chino, but neither of us had 'qualifying scores' so J was disappointed.  Whatever.

Bados got off to a mediocre start in the prelims, but he got his act together & coursed super in the finals.   He didn't win or anything, but he pulled from middle of the pack into a tie for 3-4-NBQ.  He coursed even better in the run off & earned 3rd place.  I will let the humans post the full finish order somewhere.  I forgot the details.  Actually, I wasn't really paying attention because I was worried about Mintz.

Mintz?  Yes, Mintz.  I know I pretend not to care about him, but I do a little.  Anyway, in the prelims he was looking great until he made a short cut when the lure was turning at the far end of the course.  Being speedy, he got so far ahead of the lure that they couldn't get it ahead of him as he came down hill into a coming into a tricky turn.  This should only have resulted in his taking a wide turn, BUT the irrigation sprinkler was (at that speed) nearish the side of the field.  We all held our breath as Mintz tried to brake & turn but seemed headed for the sprinkler.  ( I was watching from my little window in Ivan).    Then suddenly he was  on the far side of the sprinkler; he had managed to duck underneath it.  It took mere seconds but seemed like forever.  Even more surprisingly, after a short pause, Mintz kept moving and came around the far end of the sprinkler to complete the course.  Whoosh.

At first he seemed completely OK, but J scratched him immediately.  Walking him more, he would alternately favor one leg rear leg or the other.  J gave him a Rimadyl - which seemed like a good idea, but then he started to have bleeding & clear bruising between 2 toes on his left rear.  Maybe he hit it on the sprinkler?  The foot is even more sore & swollen today.  J is worried.  She cleaned it, applied antibiotic ointment, gave him Tramadol, & tonight has put a splint on it to help him keep weight off those toes.  He is miserable.  If it looks bad tomorrow she may take him to the vet.

Well, I have written a lot so I'll be quick in my Sunday report - I am sure humans will post details to their web lists.  BoB was Garis, who earned his FCh today.  Bados earned 2nd after a run off with Nike.  Nike stepped on the line & may have a line burn; hopefully this will not turn out to be as big a deal as Mintz's injury.

I had a blast & got my toes on the lure during both runs!  I managed to predict & stalk twice on the prelims.  The finals was good, too.  Of course, J was busy checking on Mintz & never remembered to get the video camera.  Sorry, fans; no new movie.

Until next week . . .

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Human Grandma's visit & parties

Oops.  I forgot to post last weekend.  Sorry.
Honestly, though, nothing really happened.  J & Rob did take us to an off leash area on Sunday, but it wasn't the field we usually go to & none of our Sighthound friends were there.
This week J's mom, Genia, arrived on Wednesday.  This is good; she is an easy mark for treats.  Luka is not even very afraid of her (Luka is afraid of almost everybody).  Of course, Luka has known her for about 9 years now.  It takes Luka time to warm up to people.  Genia also really likes Appley.  Perhaps she has a soft spot for the more timid souls.
J had parties on both friday & sunday.  Friday was neighbors & a few other friends; sunday was her work colleagues.  The people sat on the patio, and J set up some x-pens to extend our yard so that we could watch the people.  Unfortunately, I could not reach the tables; their food smelled enticing.  Today some of the CRNAs that work with J brought their children.  These are small, clumsy humans with smaller vocabularies; kind of like puppies.  Big & small people all seemed most impressed by Mintz; there is no accounting for taste.  He is huge & excessively friendly; I guess that's appealling.  OK, he is handsome, too, but he could show a little restraint.
We also got to go to the "Greyhound Playgroup" today.  There used to be only Greyhounds, but now the Greys are outnumbered by other sighthounds.  Minnie (Grey) and Thor (Whippet) were the only other dogs today - not counting the lab who lives nearby.  I really like Thor; he is just about my size.  Mintz was enchanted with Minnie.  He thought she was pretty hot.  Bados & I played & fought & raced about.  Thor joined in the racing bit.  Between  this & the parties, I am exhausted.
In the future, I think I will write on Mondays.  On weekends that we go to events, J gets tired & doesn't want to help me blog.  I can't really do her without her as I can't type.  No opposable thumbs.
Anyway:  Mondays for the blog from now on.  I'll remind you next weekend after we get m=back from coursing at Roy.  That should be a blast!

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Fun at NWFest

This weekend was a blast!  Well, Saturday & Sunday were a blast.  Friday I sat at home with Appley, Luka, and Mintz while Bados went on an excursion with J.  Boy, have we heard a lot about that from the big-headed BadAss; we may never hear the end of it . . .
He & J went to the NWFest Conformation Show.  J had not expected to be able to be at the show as she was supposed to work.  Iola had agreed to show him for her, but in the end she made it to NWFest just before the show started.

Not only did Bados manage to win his American-bred Class & Winners Dog (which earned him an ISWS CH).  He went on to win Best of Winners, Best of Breed, & Best in Show.  I think Karen Sander's Sky was Best Opposite, but Bados was too busy bragging about himself to give any details.  I point out to him that he necessarily won BIS by winning BOB as this was a specialty show with no other breeds represented (while I had to beat other breeds to get my 2 Altered BIS rosettes last weekend at the UKC shows), but this does nothing to reduce his swagger.  BISS RBIS, ISWS CH, ICKC Int'l CH, UKC Grand CH Allagante WindSpirit Barbados ISWS LCM SRC.  Thats a lot of initials; I probably got the order wrong.

Saturday was more fun for me - and, if Bados could set his ego aside, he'd probably agree.  Bados went straight racing; Appley & I got to practice.  One time I pulled the lure back with me about halfway.  It squawks and is fun to play with.  After halfway there is lots of resistance; but, as long as I don't shake it too much, J will help but still let me hold on to it while we finish walking back.
As usual, J had set up Ivan with a large 'paddock' off the side door.  I completely messed with J's head by breaking out 3 times.  Once I even made it to the track just as they were preparing to open to starting box, but someone alerted the starter & they stopped.  Sigh.  Someday they'll let me race again.  Anyway, it took J several times to figure out my escape routes.  My favorite was learning to open the low sliding window.  It has a screen, & she had opened the glass slightly for ventilation.  AHA!  It was very easy to slide both further open.  The window is not tall, but I am small. : )  J was mystified about how I had escaped.  Unfortunately, someone saw me sneaking through when I tried again.  That spoiled my game.  J closed & locked the window.
Garis won (no surprise there).  Bados was down at 9th I think.  Being all egotistical about Friday's big win, maybe his head was not fully in the game.  I don't remember the rest of the placements, except that Hudson - who came all the way from New York - did well & earned his SRC.  Maybe if they let me compete, I'd pay more attention to the results.

Today was Lure Coursing, my favorite!  Doing Singles instead of open allows me to focus on strategy.  I got some good stalking in, and J was pleased that I still got 'qualifying' scores, finishing 4th.  Chino won Singles.  Whatever; judges just don't 'get it'.  Did Chino manage to get a paw on the lure before the finish?  No, but I did; I almost always do.  Oh, I managed one escape from Ivan's paddock, too!  J had not been careful enough locking the gate; I was able to push the bottom corner open.

D'Artagnan finished 1st in Open & then BoB (against Kamiah who is FCh).  His humans are very proud.  There was a 4 way tie for 2nd-NBQ.   After the run off the result was Nike, Bados, Frankie, then Sky.  All of the scores had been really close all day.  There was one really sneaky, sharp turn.  The dogs that got that turn best are the ones that ended up on top.
A Basenji & Mintz (Greyhound housemate) also won BoBs.  Ann Chamberlain was concerned that it was too hot to run Mintz for BiF.  J wasn't sure, but she's always cautious with his old foot injury.  She decided not to run him for BiF.  Mintz is miffed, but, when no one is looking he may be favoring that foot a tiny bit.

When we went up to the house for awards, Luka fell in the fish pond.  She loves to lie in shallow pools & had not realized it was so deep.  This completely freaked out both Luka & J, so we did not stay much longer.  That was OK, because Hudson & D'Artagnan were being too flirty with Appley & I - and Appley is a boy!  I put those boys in their place, but they were still annoying; so I did not mind leaving.



Monday, July 2, 2012

I'm a Champion!

Finally, J will transcribe for me so that I can blog!  Have I told you yet that I am a Champion as well as being a Super Spy & Superstar?

The weekend was very busy and managed to alternate between boring & exciting.  J drove Appley, Bados, Mintz, & I to the UKC Washington Classic.  The plan had been to leave early Saturday, but J learned that our group was to be 1st in the ring after Jr Handlers.  We would have had to leave by 5:30 & have no traffic to be sure not to miss it.  This meant we left Portland Friday after J got off work & after rush hour.
We did not reach Hotel Stetson until after 10pm.  OK, it is not a hotel.  This is where Lego, Patty, & Maggie live with Iola Stetson, a few Irish Terriers, a German Shepard, a Miniature horse, a pony, a donkey or 2, and some chickens.  It is loads of fun to stay there & play in the yard, but J made us go inside pretty quickly.  Mintz could hear Iola & Lego still up & made a fuss whining until J let him go check it out (he & Lego are buddys).  Nothing was really going on & finally the 75 lb baby agreed to come back & go to bed.

Saturday morning we were up early & off to Argus Ranch.  In addition to our pack & Iola's three, Tootsie, River, Breezy, and Superman were there with Jane Taylor; Sky & Hillevi were there with Karen Sanders.  Meg, Demi, Jarreau, and Kali were there with Claudia Cullison & Julie Lechuga, but they did not show until Sunday as their owners had to work ringside.  On Sunday Poppy, Summer, and a new girl, Sasha (or Pasha?) were there with Teri Campell & her friend Ed.  We missed Teddy, but he has hurt a toe & is being forced to rest.

I will not pretend that I can remember all the details of who won what.  I think that with the 4 shows, Hillevi, Tootsie, & Bados (my BadAss housemate) all won a Best of Breed.  Tootsie probably 2; she is like that.  Toosie & Hillevi also won Best in Group on Saturday, but neither won BIS.
Bados lost Group to a Pharaoh Hound on Sunday, and that dog didn't stay for the BIS competition.   Too bad Bados couldn't stand in for him.  Isn't that what 1st runner up in the Miss America Pageant is supposed to do if something happens to Miss America?  Oh, well, it doesn't matter:  Bados is already feeling awfully proud of himself because he managed to win all 4 champion classes and earn his UKC Grand Champion title.  Maybe I am proud of him, too.

Now, the Altered classes were pretty exciting & kept J very busy.  Appley was in Adult male; I was in Adult Female: then she would have Karen Sanders show me for Best of Winners while J handled Appley.  Then J would run get Mintz for Altered Adult Male Greyhound.  As he was the only Greyhound she would then get someone to show either him or a Silken for Best in Group.  I beat Appley 3 out of 4 times.  In group I always finished over Mintz, plus 2 out of 3 times I also beat the handsome Pharaoh hound.  Which put me in for Altered BEST in SHOW twice, which I WON TWICE!!  All those wins made me an Altered Champion!  I may be the first female Silken Altered Ch.  Rio was the 1st male, but I cannot remember if another bitch has done this yet.

I should mention Mintz again.  The big lure crazy, klutz has no clue what to do in the ring.  He kept looking out across the large field for things to chase; he couldn't figure out why he had to trot around so slow and why the ring was so small.  He just wanted to keep going & go faster.  Anything outside the ring was more interesting, and yet somehow he managed to WIN GROUP (over Appley & a Pharaoh) & Altered BEST in SHOW for the last show.  J is so proud, but he is clueless.
This is bad news for Appley, who HATES showing.  With no other Altered Greys competing, Mintz will need to win Group to get his wins against competition.  With this taste of victory, J will probably drag Appley out to be Mintz's competition.  It could be a toss up who gets a Championship 1st between Appley's cowering from the judge & Mintz's trying to charge out of the ring.  I'll get to watch the entertainment from the sidelines. : )

So long until next weekend & NWFEST.




Sunday, July 1, 2012

apologies

I said I would blog on Sundays, but J is failing me!
J complains that she is too tired to transcribe & has to work too early tomorrow.  Fine.  Of course, she says that; she does not have news of her own accomplishments for today.  Hrumph.  She swears she will post tomorrow and also send an alert to let my fans know that missing today as al her fault.
Whatever . . .