Echo's Weekend

Echo had a great weekend at the DelValle Kennel Club and Greyhound Club of Northern California shows. On Saturday the Greyhound Club of Northern California had its specialty. It started the event with 6 obedience entries. Not only did Echo earn her first leg towards her CD her first time in the ring, she went High In Trial with a 198. Unfortunately the video got deleted. She may rival Whisper in obedience. Her sister Becca also earned her second leg towards her CD.

Then later in the day was conformaton. Echo earned an Award of Merit. Her brother Darby went Best Op Sex and her sister Bryn went Select Bitch. So it was all in the family.

The next day was DelValle Kennel Club the all breed dog show. Echo was entered in Rally Excellent and earned her third leg for her Rally Excellent title with a three tie for first place. Way to go Echo. I think she is starting to grow up.

Echo's New TD

This past weekend Echo was in her first tracking test. Since the draw for the TD portion of the test was so early 7:45 AM we arrived the night before and spent the night in a hotel. Bryn and Marie came down for a quick lesson on clicker training sits,downs and recalls. Bryn and Echo also played a bit afterwards.



It is always a good idea to arrive early at the tracking headquarters. The draw started at 7:45 AM and any dog/handler team not present forfeits their spot to an alternate team.






Getting into a tracking test is unlike any other AKC events, it is not first come quaranteed entered. Once entries have closed, a draw is done about 10 days before the trial. However many tracks are available-in Echo's case there were 4 tracks-the first 4 names pulled out a hat are entered. In Echo's test there were 18 dogs entered, only 4 tracks were offered so 14 dogs didn't get in and were on the alternate list. It pays to be early to the draw and not lose your spot by being late. Once that everyone has checked in, the draw happens to determine which track each team will run. The first dog/handler team in catalogue order then pulls a slip of paper with the track they will run. In Echo's case she was third dog picked for the test and we drew 3rd track. What a coincidence.




Then the waiting begins for the tracks to age. California is going through another dry spell and the tracking conditions this year were less than ideal,no moisture and little green vegetation. Once the track has aged sufficiently the dog and handler are taken out to the beginning of the track and allowed to start when ready. Nothing is more humbling than to be at the start flags and know it is just you and your dog-well mostly your dog to navigate the 450-500 yards out in the field, multiple turns and find the glove. Echo started off gangbusters-she loves to track-and completed the track in my fastest time to date 470 yds in 6 1/2 minutes. There really was very little for me to do except hold on and follow her. She got distracted once by some old horse straw but with a little verbal cue went back to tracking. Turns were no problems and I was told she rarely came off the track. Six and one half minutes later she lead me straight to the glove and she eaned her TD! There is a special feeling when you pick up the glove at the end of the track and you and the dog are a proven team.





Ch Aragon Black Ice RN TD

Odd Behavior

Some of Lyric's puppies in particular Becca and Echo love to burrow under covers or pillows to sleep. Echo in particular will stand beside a bed and put her head under the covers, hop up and quickly burrow under the covers-the disappearing greyhound. Now you see her now you don't, well except for nose sometimes.






As told by Donna-For quite a while now when Becca is lying on the bed next to me, she FIRMLY and repeatedly pushes her muzzle at the covers in my direction, like a dog does when it's trying to bury its food. Is she trying to push me out of the bed so she can have it all to herself?" I finally realized what she is asking is for me to cover her with a pillow. Strange!

Tracking Certification

This past weekend was a busy dog show weekend. Between obedience with Whisper for her third leg CDX leg, a three day agility trial and certifying Echo for a tracking trial, I was exhausted by the end of the weekend.

To enter a tracking trial a dog needs to be certified,that is run a TD track under a recognized tracking judge. There are few trials for the number of dogs ready so a certification track proves that the dog is actually ready to enter a trial. I met tracking judge and greyhound breeder Gail Burnham of Suntiger greyhounds at the end of the first day of agility. She laid a 1/2 hour old track with 4 turns to test Echo. It was lovely tracking conditions, rain the night before, cool weather, no wind and moderate grass cover. Because of technical errors the video starts about half way through Echo's track. She had already made two turns before the video starts. Sorry for the video quality. It was hard to walk and video at the same time.

Mud Dabbers and Farm Dogs

In between training and competing, my dogs have a fair amount of down time just being dogs and doing whatever interests them.





Recently I had to go down and work on my rental farm, grading roads, clearing culverts and other hard work. The dogs got to run and play their hearts content.





Two full days of working on my avocado farm gave the dogs lots of free time to investigate and run the hills. Birds, coyotes and bobcats were all around.




After the weekend although the work wasn't all done the dogs were through. A tired dog is a happy dog.

Then They Turned 2!

Hard to believe that 2 years ago today, Lyric and Merlin's pups came into the world. Five little spuds and five lives irrevocably changed for the better!

Here they were 2 years ago today.


Here is a current picture taken in October of this year at the Northern California Greyhound Club Fall Specialty.


Happy birthday to Darby, Echo, Tanner, Bryn and Becca! May all your birthday wishes come true!

New Rally Title

This past weekend was the Greyhound Club of Northern California specialty. All breed shows before and after the specialty gave up to 5 days of showing in obedience, rally, agility, and conformation. I decided to enter Echo in her first performance trials and decided on something easy-Rally Novice. We entered three days of Rally. She did better than I had a right to expect. In preparation for the trials we only managed to attend two Rally classes and never have we trained indoors. Never have I asked her to hold her attention for so long and with such distractions. Some of the signs we had never practiced. The first day of Rally she earned second in her class for her first leg.




The second day the rains came in so Rally was moved indoors. At least it was partially matted. I have never asked my dogs to sit/down on concrete so I was nervous whether she would. Not only did she sit on concrete she won her class of 22. Two legs down and one to go.



Her third leg once again was indoors. At the end of the video the judge came up and told me I had done the first sign incorrectly. Luckily for friends video recording our performances at the end of the class I could replay it and he changed his score. Once again she won her class for her third leg and Rally Novice title. So three shows three legs (two first places and one second place) and a new Rally title. Now she is Ch Aragon Black Ice RN.

Fun Weekend

This past weekend was a busy weekend packed with agility(Whisper) and conformation(Lyric and Echo). The day started off early with agility and later in the day conformation. Whisper had an excellent day Saturday in agility. She QQed that day but a problem is becoming evident. Although she holds her contacts reliably in training, when she gets excited she jumps off and barely touches them. In the standard run she was suppose to hold until I could front cross and send to a jump. It didn't work out that way since she jumped off, it was messy but qualifying. She was fast enough to be 21 seconds under course time but I would rather be alittle slower and better about the contacts.



She ran very well in jumpers and qualified. Her weavepole entrances are super.



Conformation didn't go as well as neither Lyric or Echo won neither Breed or Best Op.

The following day she barely made the dog walk contact and popped the A frame contact-not a big suprise but otherwise her run was excellent, fast and responsive. I decided in the Jumpers run since we couldn't QQ I would push the limits alittle in running, talk less, more distance handling-basically not play it safe so much. Although I talked more than I thought the run was awesome-until the last jump. I was told I slowed down at the last jump and she looked over to see why and hence knocked the bar. I don't see it on the video so am not sure what really happened. But we had a blast with that run.



Conformation was also good in that Lyric won the Breed but unfortunately did nothing in the group.

All in all a busy fun weekend for all the dogs.

Echo's Agility Match

Echo and I entered her first agility match after the labor day weekend shows. She did quite well, working with me and not as distracted as she often is. In agility classes she will sometimes run over to people sitting on the sidelines watching or waiting their turn-say hi and run back onto the field. The agility match was in the afternoon but still plenty of people and distractions ringside. I wasn't sure if she would stay with me through the entire 20 obstacle course. It was a blistering hot 95+ heatwave when she ran. I would like to see faster weavepoles and more intensity but overall I was pleased with her performance.

Simple Pleasures

I ask a lot of my dogs, they perform in conformation, obedience, agility, tracking or rally and many weekends we are off competing in some event. However they also have their down time where they can just do what dogs do for fun. Whisper and Echo still like to play with each other-dinosaur mouth wars or just the regular chase game.



After the games end they are tired happy dogs for alittle while and then it starts all over again. In the evenings it seems like it goes on endlessly. Mouth wars, tugging, chasing, rest then up and start again.



Lyric however doesn't enjoy playing with anyone except her daughter Echo and only briefly . She finds her own amusement elsewhere. She-and her daughter love to "trance", they both find that behavior relaxing. Lyric's dad, her brothers and now her daughter all display the same behavior. I wonder if it like "nursing" is a genetic based trait. Whenever Lyric is no where around she can generally be found "trancing" in the sunflowers plants in the far backyard. It seems like an odd behavior to stand in or under plants that have leaves touching their backs/neck. They stand for minutes in one position with a glassy fixed look to their face. If called they snap out of the daze, back out of the bushes are ready to go. Funny but harmless behavior.



One thing Lyric has learned to love is the vegetable garden. Carrots, tomatoes or anything else that comes out of the boxes to eat-she is there waiting, with Echo close behind.

Odd Behavior

Lyric likes to nurse toys. Never having a greyhound do this before I wondered if she was weaned before she was ready to stop nursing. It seems to occur only when she is ready to relax and sleep. Generally the nursing is confined to only two toys. I was suprised then to find some of Lyric's puppies-Becca and Echo-show the same behavior. Both Lyric and Echo have the same favorite "nursing" toy.




Knowing how they were raised and weaned I now wonder if if there is a genetic basis to the behavior. Below is Becca's story and video.

Nothing is more comforting that “nursing” your security blanket as seen in the video. Becca usually walks over to the throw in either the bedroom or kitchen; then with her paw, pulls back the edge to expose the fleece part and starts to nurse. Even though she’s 20 months old, she’s still very much a puppy in this respect.

Training Aids

One of my favorite training aids to teach a dog to go out and work away from me is the staples Easy button. Touch it and it says "That was Easy". Once they learn how to make the button talk they are crazy about it. I used it to teach Whisper to go in a straight line in agility. She used to take a jump and look back at me for direction. In agility they may have to jump in a straight line for 2-3 jumps so curling back to me was a disadvantage. Once she learned the button talks and and she would get treats for making it talk she became motivated to work ahead of me.



In the last video Echo is also learning how to make it talk to get rewards.

Echo Continues In Agility

Echo has had her fourth class lesson and is definately improving in her enthusiam and time between rewards. When we first started the class I had to reward every two or three obstacles. In addition I used the fuzzy lunge line as a drag toy to motivate her-awkward to carry and run but whatever motivates her. The last half of the class I switched to bait bag with food which now seems to work as well. Currently she seems to love contacts more than jumping. We are training 2 on/2 off and still have a ways to go.



Although we are still are having troubles with the weavepoles-right handed used to be impossible without hoops, now they are just hard. Her rhythm is picking up in them as well although we still have alot of speed to develop.

Echo Starts Agility

Echo started her first agility class this month. Up until now we have been working on individual and two jumps sequences and individual contacts. Time to move on. She started her first class at Power Paws. Unfortunately as there was no room in a novice class she had to enter an intermediate level class. Some of her classmates are actively competing at the Excellent level. Much more difficult moves than we had been practicing(serpentines? huh? 270s? who would have thought...right handed weavepoles? I don't think so!)



Even though the class was way above our head and we had to stop to reward every few obstacles I was pleased she tried and worked with me instead of trying to play with the other dogs.
Weavepoles we have a long way to go. We have been out of guidewires only a handful of times. Obviously need much more practice for her to understand the concept on her own.



After looking at her enthusiam for the dog walk I decided it is a good thing AKC is not judging the upcontact of the dog walk after September of this year.

Zoom Zoom Zoom (by L. Stine)

On Sunday, we (Helen, Marie and I) decided to put the pup's natural instincts to the test. That is, the running instinct. It's one thing to watch them zip around the yard chasing squirrels and birds and bugs, but it's another thing altogether to have them sight a lure, instinctively chase and remain keenly sighted on it exclusive of any other distractions, and follow it through a course of turns and switchbacks. And so this is what we set out to do with our 18 month old puppies on Sunday in Livermore. The Basenji Club of Northern California was hosting an AKC and ASFA trial (basenjis only) as well as an all breed JC and QC test.

For those not in the know, the AKC requires prerequisite test runs on all dogs competing in lure trials, you cannot just show up with a dog whose never run a lure and enter it in a trial. It used to be that you would take a young dog to a test/trial and run them by themselves on a short course with a minimum of 4 turns of the lure to test if they had interest in the lure and if they could remain sighted on it. You had to do this twice and pass (with two separate judges) to obtain a Junior Courser title and thus be qualified to run in trials against other dogs. In recent years the AKC has amended their requirements to more resemble the common sense of ASFA in requiring that dogs be run with another dog. This Qualifying Course not only ensures what the old JC tested, that a dog run sighted, but in addition arguably importantly that the dog run clean (not interfere/play/intimidate the other running dog). The QC now takes the place of 2 JC runs, although I personally think the JC single runs are still very important because they allow a young dog to practice run and build up their lure intensity.

Anyhow, Gail Burnham was bringing two of her young dogs to QC, so we all met up in the afternoon at the field to....wait. Lure trials and tests have a schedule, but they are rarely if ever on time. Unless, of course, you are running late, then it's almost guaranteed that they will have run whatever you were suppose to be there for early. :) I brought Dee along as a qualifying runner and Gail brought Hunter. All QC test dogs have to have their own experienced running dog to qualify with. Dee is a Dual Champion and an exceptionally clean runner, she's a good teacher. Hunter is a fast, firmly sighted runner and thus a good qualifier as well. Echo ran first with Dee, and ran very well. She loves the lure and is very fast, there was no doubt that she qualified. Then came Hunter and Pixie (Gail's young dogs) They ran well together and Pixie qualified. Then Darby and Dee. Dee crashed and burned on a corner but recovered well and there were a couple of pass-bys made with no incident. Darby was fast and sighted and seemed to not only be intent on the lure but in destroying as many orange course cones as possible. Despite the complete cone destruction, he qualified. Then Bryn and Hunter ran...wow is Bryn fast. She opened up on the straight and it caught my heart in my throat. She's beautiful and very athletic. Hunter, her qualifier, took a gut wretching spill on the straight but rolled and instantaneously recovered to continue on the lure. He is one tough cookie. Bryn, of course, qualified.


So now we have 3 of Lyric and Merlin's kids QC'd. We (Darby Crash) will be doing some road work to build up stamina and muscling and continue to do practice runs prior to trials to get him used to following the lure and work on turning. They still have a lot of growing up to do before they start seriously competing, but it's good to know they have the drive and the ability to perform as well as the natural ability look good in the show ring. Pretty only goes so far, or so they say. ;)

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!!

Family Reunion

This past weekend was the Northern California Greyhound Specialty and for the first time since they were 8 weeks old all the puppies were reunited. From left to right is Darby,Tanner,Lyric,Bryn(and Marie),Echo and Becca.

For people interested in show results, they are as follows. For people interested in the dogs, pictures are as follows.


Darby showed well and was one of the four dogs to earn an Award of Merit.



Tanner won Best in Sweeps and his sister Echo won Best Opposite sex in Sweeps as well as Best Opposite sex in the show. A huge win for both of them.



Bryn was in her first show and made an excellent showing earning third place(her first ribbon) in a large Open bitch class.



Becca went Winners Bitch for another 4 points, Best of Winners, and earned an Award of Merit. She is now only 1 point shy of her breed championship.

After the show all puppy owners except Bryn and additional friends and their dogs were able to come back to the house for some play time.




The dogs played with each other until they were exhausted. The owners kicked back and drank appletinis and key lime martinis until they were exhausted. Then onto an Indian food feast. A good time was had by all.