Greyhound Toe Injuries

Good toe


Bad toe

Whisper is just recovering from a torn toe ligament. Luckily not a severe injury. Most toe ligament injuries need surgical repair for optimal recovery. Almost all of my greyhounds through running have torn an inside or outside back toe metatarsal-P1 ligament. Although the toe looks like it should hurt it doesn't seem to bother them after a couple of weeks. Initially they are a little lame but after about two weeks of leash walking they are totally sound again.
She was back to competing in agility and Open obedience training two to three weeks after the injury.

Becca's Obedience Career Begins

Becca continues to excel in her obedience classes. Recently, they had a "finish" elimination contest at class. Each handler revved their dog up and asked them to "finish" (get into heel position) when asked. The last dog in heel position was eliminated after each round. Becca performed each time with snappy precision and in the end she was the last dog standing err, sitting! For showing everyone else how brilliantly a greyhound can perform this particular obedience routine, Becca won a stuffed bunny! She proceeded to jump and play and basically flaunt her winning prize in front of all of her classmates.

In this picture, Becca is sitting in heel position waiting for her prize.

The Next Day

After the crash and burn agility run the previous day I was alittle apprehensive about running the next day-even though she had seemed okay in the standard ring the day earlier. The jumpers couse was the hardest I have ever run in competition and we didn't Q although she did several hard parts successfully. Starting off I wasn't sure she really wanted to run in that ring again. She almost stopped in the same place that she crashed the day before. After getting started she picked up interest and seemed to run okay. I think she got distracted at one point and went around a jump.

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Then onto Standard which once again she Qed and was 12 seconds under time.

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A friend Silvina asked if I wanted to handle her Border Collie Maja in competition. Maja is a world class competitor. It was a blast. A well trained Border Collie is fast and can really bank turns. Maja is such as awesome dog and I was nervous to handle her-she and I have only run a part of a course in a match months earlier. I also didn't want to do a bad job handling her and failing. I was unsure how far I could send her or if she could understand my handling cues. For instance my tunnel command to Whisper is "Be Small" no one else uses that. That command came from the hiking I do in the fields with barbwire fences. I don't want the dogs to try to jump those fences so I got in the habit of telling them to "Be Small and crawl". It seemed a natural transition for the crawling in the tunnel. Anyway back to Maja- Silvina told me she didn't need to be talked to-just point to the obstacle and she should take it. Just as I was getting ready to take her in Silvina told me she had run out of the ring with other handlers to get back to her-Silvina. Guess we did okay since we Qed.

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Crash and Burn Agility Part 2

I am not sure why Whisper slipped in the video but whatever happened she certainly was lucky to come off the course okay. It looks like her back left hindleg may have slipped on take off and she didn't get the correct height to clear the jump. Scary- so thankful her neck is okay. Whatever happened the exhibitors were very helpful coming onto the course to help out if needed. We walked off and within minutes she seemed like herself. Make sure to listen with the sound up.

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I was nervous to run the standard course an hour later. And of course the course would have our hardest obstacle sequence-a turn off a contact obstacle into a tunnel-twice. Maybe because I was so apprehensive about how Whisper was feeling and not wanting to push to go fast we got through the course successfully and 11 seconds under course time. Another 11 MACH points but no QQs. Importantly Whisper didn't seem hurt or reluctant to run the course. It wasn't until the next day that I thought I saw alittle reluctance to run in the ring that she fell the day before.
Next post will be the following day runs.

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Crash and Burn Agility

This weekend Whisper and I were lucky she didn't get badly injured. It always scares me when a greyhound goes down and somersaults. I have known many greyhounds to break their necks running into objects while playing or coursing. Saturday we ran our Jumpers course early in the morning while the ground was still alittle slick with dew. She started off fast and on the third jump exhibitors said she made a turn and went to take off and her back legs slipped. She crashed into the top bar with her chest which caused her to land on her head/neck and somersault. Of course it happened so quickly by the time I was aware of what was happening she was struggling to her feet dazed. I walked her off the course and within minutes she seemed okay. Oddly enough this was the same trial and the same Jumpers ring that Lyric was injured in a tunnel in two years ago. Lyric never enjoyed agility again.




The Standard course was about an hour later. Whisper seemed recovered enough to try but I was more worried than she was. The standard course had one of our hardest sequences-a turn off a contact obstacle into a tunnel. Not only once but twice during the course, a turn into a tunnel from the A frame and later towards the end of the run a turn into a tunnel from the dog walk. I have been practicing a turn command for such situations but she has a hard time understanding it means go into the tunnel. I decided I would be happy if we could get the tunnel entrance after the A frame-anything else would be extra especially on top of my nerves. Not only did she get the A frame/tunnel she completed the course 11 seconds under time. Her runs were videoed this time and should be posted later this week.

After the runs we went to the dog massage therapist for some muscle/tendon/ligament evaluation. Everything physically seemed okay.

Beauty and Brains

Becca is the first of Lyric's litter to compete in the performance world. Donna and Becca's first Rally trial together is featured below. She earned her first Rally novice leg with a 95 and a 4th place! She certainly shows a greyhound can sit fast. I think her nose is telling Donna that she wants to start working on her tracking title though.
Now the rest of the puppies need to get busy. Hopefully Lyric's litter will be the first all champion litter with performance titles on everyone as well.

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All Grown Up

Recently when all the puppies were back together at the Northern California specialty I realized they had all grown up. Time passes so quickly, in the blink of an eye they were adults at least in body.
A walk down memory lane with each puppy. My puppies are always registered and remembered in birth order.

Darby aka Ch Aragon Aroi Silver Lining then and now







Echo aka Ch Aragon Black Ice then and now







Tanner aka Ch Aragon Silver Oak then and now







Aragon Mystic Pearl aka Bryn then and now







And Becca aka Aragon Morning Mist then and now

Bad Day or Foxtails Abound

One of the disadvantages of living in California is foxtail season. When the rains stop and the grasses dry out, foxtails keep vets in business. Something as simple as walking Echo outside at lunchtime and having her sniff the ground lead to an inhaled foxtail in her nose. At times like this I am very glad to be a vet.



Because the nose is such a sensitive area rarely can they be removed without anesthesia. Of course it would happen on a day I had an agility lesson after work....
Oh well at least the anesthesia went smoothly and she didn't have the odd tremoring/shaking/seizuring reaction to propofol anesthesia that her mother and uncle experienced.
Dang foxtails!!

The Uncles

This weekend having no dog events I went to visit a friend who has two of Lyric's brothers-Morgan and Walker. In appearance they are both so similar to each other and the masculine version of her.



While visiting I noticed both boys show a common greyhound trait-trancing. Although Lyric doesn't trance her father Uro and obviously some of her brothers do. Trancing is where they stand in a bush or low tree and slowly walk through it. They have a funny far away look to their eyes. Some dogs will trance for upwards of 1/2 hour-just slowly move back and forth. Walker is showing the trancing behavior in the below photo.