Getting in Sync

It was inevitable but I had hoped it wouldn't happen. After so many QQ in a row Whisper and I have hit a dry spell.  We've had no QQs in several trials despite many good runs.

In agility, the slightest error can cost the elusive QQ. A rear cross might cause Whisper to turn in the air to find me and she might take a bar down with her tail. A slight step the wrong direction can send her off to another obstacle or cause her to enter the weaves incorrectly.

The faster the run the more the fun but the less forgiving the errors.

We are sitting on 13 QQs and over 750 points towards her MACH2.

As we enter the hot summer months with no agility trials in the horizon, we will take the time to work together and try to get in sync again.

Meanwhile, here are a few videos to tide you over.

Whisper at the Agility Nationals

Whisper and Helen competed at the AKC National Agility Championships this weekend.  The event isn't quite over but we wanted to report that they placed 9th out of 86 dogs!  They competed against some very, very good dogs and ended up beating many representatives of the more traditional breeds.

The whole event was quite a rush and as you can imagine, the two of them are quite exhausted.  

They will give us a full report when they return home next week and catch up on some sleep.

Whisper got her MACH!

Today, Whisper earned the final QQ she needed for her MACH!  This makes her only the third greyhound to earn a MACH and the first greyhound with a conformation championship to earn a MACH!

MACH Ch Aragon Lunar Eclipse VCD2 TDX RE JC

 More details about the trial and hopefully some pictures and video will be forthcoming!

Happy Birth Day!

They're here! They're here! Thanks to Lisa for taking the pictures!

The litter was born via c-section. Everybody came out healthy and vigorous. Whisper is recovering nicely. We will continue to update the blog so you can overdose on puppy cuteness!

This was from before the surgery. It is important to know how many are in there before you start fishing! How many do you count?

The surgery was performed by Gary Brown, D.V.M. of Veterinary Orthopedic and Surgery Service. Here is a pic of Whisper and some of the surgery crew during pre-op. We knew Whisper was in the best hands with the crew from VOSS!

Here is the puppy crew. It is nice to have at least one person for each puppy. This way, each puppy gets the individual attention she or he deserves from the very moment it is born! Hmmm, do we have enough people?


All done. How many do you see?



In the end, we have 9 puppies! There are 5 girls and 4 boys and a nice mix of colors. There are 5 solids (2 blue brindles, 1 black, 2 dark brindles) and 4 parti's (1 black and 3 brindle). Here is the breakdown.


Here they are one at a time:

#1 Boy - Blue Brindle

#2 Girl - Black and White


#3 Boy - Dark Brindle


#4 Girl - Brindle and White


#5 Girl - Brindle and White

#6 Boy - Dark Brindle


#7 Boy - Brindle and White



#8 Girl - Black

#9 Girl - Blue Brindle
We will continue to update the blog with pictures and reports as often as we can. Come back often to get your puppy fix!

Expecting!

Aragon greyhounds is pleased to announce that we are expecting another litter. You may have noticed that Whisper has had some down time recently. She was bred in May and it is official, she is expecting this week! We are expecting a litter of pretty puppies with great attitudes and abilities. Stay tuned for new puppy pictures.

Below is the proud father Ch Aroi Aryal Remarkable aka Brego .

Getting Close

The following week we entered another agility trial in Salinas Ca. It was beautiful, old Coast Oak trees with hanging spanish moss. Wide open uncrowded venue, except for the rain it was perfect.





Saturday the rain was severe. Whisper hates the rain, I think she is afraid she may shrink into an Italian Greyhound. In fact I wasn't sure she would run in the rain. Not only did she run in the rain she won her Jumpers class.



However in Standard we accidently took the wrong jump. I got behind her in a box formation and she turned and took the wrong jump. Oh well, we tried and had fun.

The following day June 5 she earned her 19th QQ! Despite the fact she is feeling very "hormonal" and not running with her normal enthusiasm and speed.



Holding her contact position is improving.



We are getting so close to the elusive MACH.

Agility Again

Whisper and I recently started competing again in agility. After her tendon was reinjured again in March and the ensuing rest, then coming into season and having to wait out the three weeks it has been along time since we have run together as a team. Many times after coming out of heat they are moody or slow for a couple of months. Whisper is no exception however slowness has worked to our advantage. She earned her 17th and 18th QQ at the TRACS trial over the memorial day weekend.






She ran in FAST as well as the regular Jumpers and Standard. Thanks to practing contacts in FAST by the 18th QQ runs I think I finally have learned how to get to her hold her contacts at a distance.

TDX Part 2

A tracking test takes alot of people and time to put on the event. The San Joaquin Dog Training Club Tracking Trial offered 5 TDX tracks plus 1 alternate track and 7 TD tracks. All in all it took about 25 club members, judges and two days of work to host the event. A big Thank You to the club!

Whisper drew 4th track of the day, the wait seemed for hours and the day started warming up. Warm weather ages the track faster amd makes for harder tracking conditions. All the dogs before her had failed their tracks for one reason or another.






Hers was the only track that we had to drive forever to the start. The drive out seemed like miles of dirt roads and rolling hills. At one point a stream/small river crossed the road and the bottom of the road wasn't visable. Not having 4 wheel drive in my van I held my breathe and crossed the steam imagining what would happen if my van got stuck in water in the middle of no where. We made it and continued driving and driving to the start. We were so far away from base camp only the judges and tracklayer were at the start flag waiting for us to arrive.




At a TDX start the track direction is unknown, the dog has to figure out which way to start. Whisper started off with confidence she knew the direction. Allowing the line to go out 20 feet I followed her. She easily found and made the first turn. On her second leg she stopped and as I sent her on to continue tracking she picked up her first intermediate artcle. Luckily she did as articles are not always visable. If the dog/handler team pass any article without the handler picking it up the team fails. So far so good. The third leg went up a steep steep hill, panting after her I realized I wasn't in as good a shape as I had been in years past. Up the hill then down the hill, turn into a forest and major milk thistle weeds. She didn't want to go through the thistle and came back to ask if I really wanted her to. Yes she needed to go and off she went.



Intense concentration is needed by both the dog and owner during the track. Watching the dogs tracking behavior is important to stay on track. Is the dog crittering(no), going off on cross tracks(no), past a corner and indicating loss of track(no), what is the wind doing to the track scent(?), roads may not be crossed directly but at an angle or paralleled-if the dog can't find the track did she/he search 360 degrees around the handler to figure out what happened to the track? That and a myriad of other concerns are always in the handlers mind tracking.

Whisper made it easy, she did the entire track with no help. Turns were spot on, articles indicated and picked up, roads crossed and track picked up on the opposite side with no help. Except for following along behind her I did very little and was suprised when the track ended, it seemed too short and easy. In fact when she stopped tracking on the 7th leg I didn't think we were done and tried to send her on tracking. She picked up the glove looked at me and tried to toss it at me.
We were done and the first team to pass that day.

TDX !

The journey to Whisper's TDX is finally over-she earned it at the San Joaquin Dog Training Club trial April 10. The grounds were beautiful-the Comanche Hills Hunting Preserve in Ione Ca.



To earn a TDX title a dog has to follow a 3-5 hour old track for 800-1000 yards. Along the way they have to identify all the articles dropped by the track layer(3 plus the start article), ignore cross tracks which are fresher easier scent to follow and overcome significant obstacles(road crossings, steep hills, downed trees, water crossings etc). Trouble in any one of these areas will cause the dog to fail. Although I have earned several TDXs on my greyhounds it is never an easy title and typically takes my greyhounds about 30 minutes of intense concentration to complete the track.




This was our third attempt at a TDX trial. The previous two trials we made it to the second to the last leg before failing. The tracking pictures were from a previous trial as I had no one to take pictures at this trial.



The day was beautiful although we drew fourth track and by the time it had aged sufficently it was starting to warm up. She started strongly and never looked back, 13 minutes and 858 yards later we found the glove and she earned her TDX.



After all the dogs had run their tracks a pot luck was held the club and awards given out to the dogs that successfully completed their track. TDX trials typically have a pass rate of around 15% athough the trial that day 3/6 dogs earned their TDX.



Ch Aragon Lunar Eclipse VCD2 RE MX MXJ TDX NF JC (and Echo)

Agility Marathon

Every weekend the month of February had agility trials. After a month I am glad to take a break. Our last weekend was a good one, we earned another QQ. She is running fast and happy. Our trainer, Nancy Gyes, suggestion to play play play outside the ring with her, run into the ring at the last minute, then quickly get into position and release her has made Whisper run better. She is more focused and faster. The Jumpers run had a tricky weavepole entry. When the dog comes blasting out of the tunnel they are faced with the second weavepole and many dogs were NQ by entering incorrectly. Although our handling of the weaves was not graceful, we managed it and Qed.



The Standard run was fairly straight forward but I often can't get ahead in time to front cross and end up rear crossing. The tunnel to the jump is an excellent example, I meant to front cross before the jump but couldn't get there in time. One of the fun things about agility is thinking on your feet. No matter how many times you walk the course to plan your strategy, you have to be prepared to change tactics in a millisecond.



MACH Goal
Points-800
QQs-16

The Weekend Part 2

In addition to tracking last weekend we had 2 days of agility. At least agility went better-2 more QQs and 79 MACH points. We are now maxed out for points and are just looking for QQs.

The first day was cold and Whisper ran well. Notice her collar in the first two runs-it has been been my obedience/performance collar since the early 1990s-Merlin's and Jesse's era. Stolen along with its mate that night at the hotel with all my dog stuff. The jumpers run had her fastest course time to date. She earned 17 MACH points and a 4th place. Her speed was 5.78 yards/sec. Love her weavepole entrances!!!



The standard course was fun and fast. Interesting opening sequence-the decision whether to do a lead out pivot or serpentine the two jumps. Since I wanted to do left handed weavepoles to nail the tunnel entrance I chose to serpentine the two jumps. Funny to watch her rear end in the weavepoles. We are still struggling on the A frame contact though.



The day after the tracking trial another QQ but she is not wearing the collar. Her Jumpers run was very good with a 3rd place but no video available. The standard run she earned a 2nd place and 33 MACH points. We don't have a table lead out and it is obvious we need to work on it. It almost caused us to NQ. Love her weavepoles.



Except for the tracking theft a fun weekend.

Tracking

This past weekend was one day of agility followed the next day by a TDX test and the last day back to agility again. Agility will be posted in a later blog.
The night before the TDX test my van was broken into and all my dog equipment was stolen, obedience training bag, cool coats, hiking boots, tracking harness,line and fanny pack etc. Everything needed for the test that day as well as all my obedience training gear. I was shocked then furious that someone would take things that have no value except to a dog person. My tracking harness I had had since the late 1980s and had 5 TDXs and 8 TDs on it. My dumbbell had earned 5 CDXs on my dogs. I found out all the hotels in the area were hit that night.

The tracking people were great, everyone came to the rescue and I can't thank the tracking community enough. Whisper wore a German Shepherd's tracking harness, a sheltie's tracking line, a Corgi's fanny pack and boots. People even offered gloves and socks although I had those items. Needless to say I wasn't in a great mood to start the track and I think it carried down the line to Whisper. She didn't want to track that day either. We went to the start line and barely got off the line. She picked up interest as the track went on although kept coming back to me. We found 3 out of the 4 articles, crossed the road twice and paralleled the road once before we ran into trouble we couldn't overcome. She was tracking along side the road in a direction I was worried was wrong and put tension on the line to ask if she was sure. She came off, came back to me and never found the track again. I found out later we were on the track but Whisper must have read my insecurity and tension and stopped. We had completed all but the last 1 1/2 legs of the track-hard to come so close but to fail.


As upset as I was when I discovered everything was stolen I didn't get any photos of the test so the hotel photos will have to add insight into the dogs evening.




I hope whoever stole my stuff appreciates what they got but I am sure they just trashed it once they found out there was nothing resalable.


Where is Echo?



There she is!!

More Agility

Every weekend this month is either agility or tracking. A busy month. Last weekend was agility only and once again quite humbling. Just when you think you know how to handle every situation, a new one comes along to teach you that you are wrong. Either my decisions for handling are getting worse or we are just going through a dry spell. Either way it is frustrating. Our Q rate is remarkably low. To think one time I posted we Qed 75% of the time in Excellent. Well no longer.

This last weekend we were entered in Novice Fast to practice contacts. It doesn't really seem to count Qing in that class. We only Qed one out of four Excellent runs. However the Jumpers run did have a hard weavepole entrance. If I wasn't feeling so discouraged at that point(last run of the weekend) I wouldn't have risked handling the weavepole entrance like we did. A push to the left and a rear cross. It was the best way to handle the course and it worked our only Q that weekend. Maybe sometimes I just have to trust that Whisper knows her job and stop micromanaging situations.

Santa Rosa Agility Part 2

Along with Lyric, Whisper of course ran agility that weekend. In the morning it was cold-you can see her breathe running the Standard courses. Contacts are a continous struggle as it is hard to correct in a trial. She is managing to hit her contacts-but just barely.



The first day by the afternoon it was warm and she was asleep in the car. Dumb mistake assuming she would be ready to compete with no warm up. I took her out of the car to potty, went in the building and did one practice jump and went into the ring. She was slow and as I tried to send her to a jump she just followed me. No QQ.

Learning my lesson the next day we QQed.





All in all agility is a constant learning experience. Just when you think you know what to do and how to handle a situation something comes along to make you humble.

MACH goal
13 QQs
678 MACH points

Fun Agility Weekend

In addition to obedience and tracking last weekend we also competed in a three agility trial. What a fun but exhausting weekend. Whisper earned another QQ-her 12th and fastest time to date in Jumpers-5.72 yds per second.

She enjoys agility as much or more than any other sport we compete in. Her tail never stops moving. Her weavepole entrances are super and I am finally learning to trust her to find and enter correctly as seen in the Standard run.





I think I am also finally learning to handle from a distance. What a blast to send her out to an obstacle, trust she will take it and cut to the next one to be ready when she comes in.





MACH goal:
12 QQs
616 MACH points

CDX and VCD2 title

Although I enjoy showing my dogs in conformation I love training them in performance sports-tracking,obedience,rally and agility. Years ago my greyhound Spirit was the second greyhound to ever earn the VCD1 title. A VCD1 requires a CD,TD,NA(P) and NAJ(P). No greyhound had earned a VCD2 title-CDX,TD,OA(P),OAJ(OJP) and I had hoped Spirit would take me there. Unfortunately age caught up with her before she earned the last title an OAP so she never made it.

Her niece Whisper made it Dec 30 2010 and became the first greyhound to title to that level. She earned her third CDX leg in the below video despite the fact she rarely if ever trains indoors. I was so proud of her-you can tell she is getting insecure around the figure eight exercise but hung in there to earn a 194.5, third place in a class of 18 and her CDX title. She is now Ch Aragon Lunar Eclipse VCD2 MX MXJ RE JC.

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.

Wow Weekend

Last weekend we went off to an agility trial at my favorite location in Rancho Murietta. It is an indoor covered horse arena that is often cold which helps the dog run faster. In addition to Lyric, I of course, ran Whisper. Although we didn't QQ we had some great runs. The second day she won her jumpers class of 22 dogs with this run. She earned 26 more MACH points and ran it in her fastest time to date. Definitely a fun run.



On the last day she had an equally fabulous Standard run and won her class of 20. She earned another 48 MACH points and ran it in record time. As she likes to jump the dog walk and A frame down contact, I am working hard on getting her to hold until released. This weekend she did! Her jumpers run was great but tight and twisty. We knocked bars which caused an NQ.
She was having a blast running in the cold.



Echo went out tracking one of the days on our down time. She is almost ready to certify and enter a tracking test. A fun weekend for all.

Whisper's Back

After Whisper's tendon injury she was laid off for a month. We did no agility or real exercise for four weeks. She was leash walked for one week before the agility trial Nov 14. We practiced agility together for the first time 3 days before the trial-and at a lowered jumped height. Needless to say I was nervous jumping her and my handling showed my indecision to push her too fast. Still in her qualifying standard run she was 21 seconds under course time so we weren't that slow.



Although we only qualified one run-the standard run on Nov 14 it was fun being back in the ring again with her. Our jumpers run was a blast but unfortunately I couldn't call her off an incorrect jump. But she obviously was having fun again.



After the weekend she was tired and earned a well deserved rest.

High In Trial

Obedience seems so much harder than agility to keep a dog happy and motivated to work. At least in agility the dogs are running and as long as they perform the next obstacle correctly it doesn't matter how they get it done. In obedience it is much more detail oriented. For instance on a recall not only must they come to you briskly, they also must do a correct front and finish. Points are deducted for each little mistake even if the exercise is performed correctly. To teach all of these components and not be demotivating can be a challenge. On a recall if a dog comes in very quickly(good)and does a straight front(good) but does an automatic perfect finish(bad) points are deducted. To correct a dog for this mistake can make a dog not want to come in quickly or give a perfect front. Training for obedience has to be very creative to get what you want with a happy fast working dog.

Whisper is probably the best working greyhound I have ever trained.
We entered the obedience portion of Greyhound Club of Northern California specialty and Whisper earned her second Open leg with a 194 and High In Trial.



Now to try to find our third leg-and title.