MACH2 Whisper

This past weekend Whisper earned her MACH2 under judges Mark Upshaw and Paula Ratoza. I owe a big thanks to Lorie Abbott for getting Whisper and I started on our way, and Jim Basic and Nancy Gyes for teaching us how to handle a course and trying to polishing our handling(no easy task)
Our first run is Jumpers, always our favorite.



Standard is always more challenging. The contacts are a killer!



More videos of the weekend to follow.

Merry Christmas

Hope everyone has a happy and successful year.

And no my hounds aren't dressed up often-they don't approve!

Laparoscopic spay and gastropexy

Recently I made a decision to have Lyric spayed with a prophylactic gastropexy. Because bloat/torsion is such a big problem in our breed, it seemed a wise move to do both procedures under one anesthesia.

Veterinary medicine has advanced by leaps and bounds in the past few decades. Minimally invasive surgery is becoming more common. Instead of a dog being opened from the upper part of the abdomen to the pelvis for the above procedures, two small holes are placed in the side, instruments inserted and procedure is performed. Although it still requires general anesthesia the recovery time is much faster. Lyric's procedure was performed early afternoon, by the next day she was looking for breakfast and wanting to go out for a walk.

One week later she acts as if nothing had happened.

Then and Now - Part 2 Whisper's Litter

The last post featured Lyric's litter as 6 week old puppies and 4 year old adults. Now for Whisper's litter as 6 week olds and 1 1/2 year old youngsters. Although they still will mature more, the basics are there. Over the next two year, they will fill out and develop more muscling and strength. The girls generally reach physical maturity around 2 years and the boys around 3 years.

Bruce at 6 weeks

Bruce at 1 1/2 years

Breeze at 6 weeks

Breeze at 1 1/2 years

Goose at 6 weeks

Goose as a 1 1/2 years

Kahlua at 6 weeks

Kahlua at 1 1/2 years

Willa/Freyja at 6 weeks

Willa/Freyja at 1 1/2 years

Riser at 6 weeks

Riser at 1 1/2 years

Thor at 6 weeks

Thor at 1 1/2 years

Willow at 6 weeks

Willow at 1 1/2 years

Emma at 6 weeks

Emma at 1 1/2 years

It surprises me how they change. The puppies seem to have no necks and roached backs.  Yet, within a year they develop lovely swan necks and flatter toplines.
I am also surprised at how much ticking/freckling the parti colors have developed.
All in all it is hard to see what the finished adult will look like as a puppy.

Then and Now - Part 1 Lyric's Litter

Recently a friend asked me to evaluate her new greyhound puppy. It may seem like a simple request but each line develops so differently, what may be normal in one line maybe a problem in another.

There is an art to evaluating a litter, a skill that I am still perfecting. My mentor in the breed is a long time greyhound breeder Georgiana Mueller. I send photos of each litter to her for evaluating and try to learn from her comments.

Generally, greyhound puppies are best evaluated at 6 weeks before they go through growth spurts that cause them to look funny.

I am posting 6 week old puppy pictures and then grown up pictures of Whisper as a puppy as well as 5 puppies from Lyric's litter (Darby, Echo, Tanner, Bryn and Becca). Try to gauge for yourself what they will look like when they grow up. I will show pictures from Whisper's litter in the next post.

 Whisper at 8 wks

Whisper as an adult

Darby at 6 wks

Darby as an adult

Echo at 6 wks

Echo as an adult

Tanner at 6 wks

 Tanner as an adult

Bryn at 6 wks

Bryn as an adult

Becca at 6 wks

Becca as an adult

After looking at these pictures do you any similarities between the puppies and the adults?  What changed?  What stayed the same?

November Agility Videos

Whisper and I are starting to get back in sync. At the last trial we QQed 3 out of 3 days. She is running faster than she looks in the videos. Our jumpers runs were always well over 5 yards per second(normally fast for us). Her standard runs I am trying to make her hold her contact position and table position so that is slowing  us down a bit. I thought I would post her first days runs-her 17th QQ.










As I mentioned in the last post, a friend Sylvina Bruera let me run both her Border collies in the trial on the standard course. Maja I have run once before three years ago. TCam I have never run. Why did Sylvina let me try running them at the trial? Who cares- I was game to try. I have never run so fast. Both of Sylvina's dogs are good in the weave poles so I can leave and head to the next obstacle. Whisper and I could use some of those skills. Her dogs are also good about leaving them at the table and getting them into position for the next obstacle. Again Whisper and I need to learn from them. Because of those skills I was able to serp out the weaves-definitely had my running shoes on for that run!! Sylvina's dogs have such good 2 on 2 off contacts that I couldn't get TCam off the AFrame. Both were fun to run even if TCam and I didn't qualify.






By the next day my legs were sore!!!