Great Pumpkins

Fall has arrived as well as a tide of pumpkins. The puppies growing obedience skills make picture taking easy. Darby and Echo polished their socialization skills at Alden Lane nursery this past weekend. Both were well behaved and practiced their sit and down stay for a photo op.
No plants were harmed either in the taking of the photo or during the nursery tour.

Name Change

Notice is hereby given that an application will be made to the Department of Aragon Puppy Owners for a change of name pursuant to the provisions of the "Name Act" by me: Aragon Aroi Silver Lining of Sunol, Ca as follows: To change my name from "Sterling" to "Darby Crash" dated this 10th day of November, 2009.

Well, actually, I (Lisa) will be applying for him.

I would like to blame my husband, and say that he renamed him and that I really had no choice in the matter, but that would not be the truth.

I have a long history of renaming. When I was 11 I had a little boyfriend who lived down the street. His name was Ralph. As cute as he was, however, I just couldn't have a boyfriend with a name like Ralph. (no offense to anyone who's husband or significant other's name is Ralph, of course) In my prepubescent mind Ralph was another word for puke, up-chuck, hurl, vomit. And as an 11 year old girl, that was simply not going to work. So I called him Rusty. He objected repeatedly that his name was not Rusty. I told him if he wanted to be MY boyfriend that it was. Since it was a few days until my birthday and I was having a party at the local roller skating rink, Rusty-Ralph conceded to the temporary name change in lieu of a promised afternoon of rollerskating and unlimited video game playing. And then he 'broke up' with me in the van on the way home.

When I was in high school I decided that Lisa wasn't a creative enough name for myself, so I added an extra 's' to it (Lissa) much to my mother's chagrin and spent the next several years smugly correcting people when they spelled it the original, boring way. I spent significantly longer trying to get it back to the boring, legal, single 's' version once I grew up and got tired of being 'creative'. It wasn't easy, I had even convinced the DMV and they were not keen on changing it back to the original version.

When I started working with Sterling in earnest, I found that his name was difficult for me to call and make it sound 'happy happy happy'. Sterling was a very elegant and serious name. I needed something I could 'sing-song' to pump him up while working with him as well as abbreviate on a daily basis (there isn't a 'short name' for Sterling) My husband had called him Crash a couple of times because of his careless running habits and it hit me; Darby Crash, the infamous lead singer of one of the greatest punk bands (and my all-time favorite punk band) in the history of music, The Germs. Their biggest album was called "Nothing We Do is Secret". I smiled because nothing Darby and I do will be secret. If I have any say in the matter, this dog and I are going to make a lot of noise on the greyhound scene. So that was it; I called him Darby and he responded to it immediately and enthusiastically and has continued to do so ever since.

I know for a lot of people, he will always be Sterling, and that's okay. Some folks don't like it. Helen winced visibly when she first heard me call him Darby, and our friend Kathy frowned and chided me "Lisa, that's a Golden Retriever name!". And that's okay too, because he retrieves stunningly! ;) To me he is a little (okay, a very big) part of my heart....and his name is Darby Crash. Nothing we do is secret.

New GCNC Specialty Photos

More photos from the fall GCNC specialty courtesy of Sheryl Bartel and Chris Mott of Helios Greyhounds. You can see pictures of all the dogs at the specialty here.

Aragon Aroi Silver Lining (Darby)

Darby's stacked photo was taken by our friend Jennifer Bachelor (NeverSayNever Greyhounds)

Aragon Black Ice (Echo)

Aragon Silver Oak (Tanner)

Aragon Morning Mist (Becca)

Aryal Aroi Stoney Ridge (Lyric)

Karen Dayberry and her girl Tobi (Chaparrel Toberlone RN) also made it out to the specialty. They came all the way from Colorado! After two days in the car this high energy girl needed to run. And boy did she, she took turns running and exhausting each of the puppies. Here is a picture of her at the show.

Whisper Agility Videos from Del Valle

As mentioned in the previous email, Whisper had a terrific agility weekend. This was her first time running agility four days in a row.

Here is her Excellent Standard run from Oct 17.



Here is her Excellent Standard run from Oct 19.



Whisper really is a phenomenal dog to work with. She is also a lot of fun to watch!

Enjoy!

GCNC Fall Specialty Weekend

The four west coast puppies got together at the Greyhound Club of Northern California specialty at the Del Valle shows last weekend.

The best part of dog showing is getting together with friends. This year, Helen's house was Greyhound Headquarters / Grand Central Station! At one point there were 10 dogs and 13 people eating delicious indian food cooked by Sheryl Bartel of Helios Hounds (http://www.heliosgreyhounds.com) in the house. We also enjoyed the company of Jennifer Bachelor of Never Say Never Greyhounds (www.neversaynevergreyhounds.net) and her friend Anna as well as new greyhound friend Karen and Toby (Chaparral Toblerone).

At the specialty on Saturday, Echo won Best in Sweeps and Darby won Best Opposite! Lyric also won an Award of Merit! We are very pleased with their performance. Tanner was unimpressed with the specialty and showed it by taking a very long pee break in the ring. All four puppies had a grand time in the ring and out visiting people and dogs.

The specialty was Andretti and Lisa's debut in Open A obedience. They did remarkably well but unfortunately did not qualify. Andretti did not see the point of the drop on recall and instead came swiftly to Lisa.

On Sunday, Tanner redeemed himself and won Winners Dog and Best of Winners for a 4 point major! This is his second major and we are very excited to have it out of the way. Lyric decided not to let her kids out shine her and won the breed.

Monday was a winding down day as lots of our fellow greyhound exhibitors headed home and didn't show. Tanner was among them. Darby went reserve winners dog and Lyric once again won the breed. However, winning the breed wasn't enough for Lyric and she went on to win a Group 4!

During the down time puppies played and practiced obedience. Becca is the most advanced in obedience as she recently graduated 4th in her all breed competitive obedience class and is now in a more advanced class.



Not to be out done by her house mates, Whisper had a great weekend in agility. On Friday she earned her first Double-Q! When the weekend was over, she had an additional 37 MACH points. Videos to be posted later. She had a great time and would have earned more points except for some silly handler handler hours and slight miscalculations.