#1 Greyhound

Seven and I had a perfect weekend! At the end of September, we competed in a local two day trial and smoked it!  Here are the four runs.

Other exciting news, Seven is now the #1 Greyhound in American Kennel Club Agility! It only took 6 years for me to finally top my other greyhound, Travis. Travis got a late start as I adopted him at age 3 and had issues to work out before he could compete. So his first trial was not until he was 5 years old. But he was super sound and athletic. He was extremely consistent his last year and a half in competition. He competed until he died at age 10.

So it is exciting that Seven is only 6 years old and hopefully has several more years to go.  The bad wrist is always a factor though. We did have a recent set back.  I spoke with the ortho vet and we made some tweaks to our plan and Seven has been doing great ever since.... knock on wood. ADSENSE HERE

Go Big or Go Home

Seven and I recently competed at an agility trial in Tennessee. We did pretty well.  We earned QQ #42 and 2 extra jumper legs. Here are those runs:

Seven did make one huge error of mistaking the teeter for the dogwalk.  She does this sometimes when she is excited and rushing around course.

However, this time a photographer was perfectly positioned to capture it. I love my thrilled expression.

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MACH2 Seven

Well, Seven had an excellent 4-day agility trial last weekend and earned her second Master Agility Championship. She is only the third greyhound to do so. My Travis was the first and Helen Hamilton's Whisper was the second.

To earn MACH2, your dog has to accumulate 40 Double Qualifiers (running clean in the Standard and Jumpers classes in the same day) and 1,500 points for seconds under standard course time (Seven had 2,552 points).

On Thursday, Seven knocked out Double Q #39 easily making Double Q #40 over the next 3 days appear achievable.  Well, she did it the very next day. Here are those videos.

Here is Seven clearing the last jump.  Look at my friend, Beth, in the background.  Love her! :-)

The bar from the last jump basically becomes your trophy.  All of your friends and supporters sign it.

And how about the ribbon?  This club has the best MACH ribbons! Gorgeous!

Seven qualified in Standard the next day, but got sucked into a wrong course tunnel in Jumpers. But then on Sunday, she earned her first QQ towards MACH3.  Will she be the first MACH3 greyhound?

So 7 clean runs out of 8 attempts. MACH2. Definitely an amazing weekend for us!

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MOTC Trial - Seven

Seven also competed at the recent three-day trial.  She and I had a very successful weekend with two double qualifiers.  As you know, a double qualifier is when you run clean in the standard class and the jumpers class in the same day.  Here are our Double Qs:

I also shot this funny video of Seven complaining.  Whenever I return to my set up at agility trials, Seven looks at me very hopeful that it is finally her turn.  Most of the time it is not and she will complain when I sit down next to her instead.

I find it amusing.  Wish us luck this weekend! ADSENSE HERE

The Last Few Weeks

So behind in blogging again. We made it to Nationals and back again.  We did not have anything really great to write home about and our videos are awful.  Usually my friend, Jerry, and I will video each other.  But out of a couple hundred dogs, Riley and his German Shepherd, Ex, were surprisingly only a few dogs apart so we both paid for the professional videoing so we would not have to worry about it.  What a mistake!  The quality was horrible and they are frustrating to edit.

Riley, always the bridesmaid, completely bombed the Time to Beat Class. Slightly bombed the Standard class.  She did really well in Jumpers and I made the mistake that caused us to have an off course.  And then finally we ran clean in the Hybrid class. She did do all of the tricky stuff we had been practicing so I was happy about that.

Seven ran clean in Jumpers and Hybrid, but ran past the weave poles in Time to Beat and had an off course in Standard.  All in all, we had a fun trip, but I would have liked to have run better.

Time to get back to just running and finishing their second agility championships.  Riley needs 3 more double qualifiers and Seven needs 6.

Miss Maddie is coming along in her training. Now with Nationals over, the focus has switched back to her. Ever since her first season she has really matured. She just seems so much more grown up now for some reason.  I hope some of the playful puppy comes back.

I think her little boobies are pretty funny. I am just used to my greyhound girls being a bit more flat chested. I believe they should go down eventually.

Here is a video clip of some recent training.  I think Maddie looking pretty good.  She is cautious and does not want to make any mistakes.  I think she will speed up as she gains confidence.

It really is time for us to start practicing at other facilities and on different equipment. We are starting to make some plans for that.

We also have been doing a lot of fostering for Road Trip Home. Right now we have this little yellow Labrador Retriever.

She is quite shy.  She has gotten pretty comfortable with me, but is still very suspicious of my husband and everyone else.

She came from the local crappy, county animal shelter. Road Trip Home pulled all three.  I think she is probably the one in the back of the photo (below).

She will be transported to Animal Welfare Society in Maine on May 9th to find her forever home.

We also fostered this black Labrador Retriever.  Not our favorite foster. I will just leave it at that. She will do great in the right home.

And then a very special foster was a Shar-Pit (Shar-Pei X Pit Bull Mix).  I saw this photo in a rescue album on Facebook for the crappy, county shelter. Usually I am pretty tough and know that we cannot rescue them all, but the fact that this dog followed her jerk owner into the shelter off leash really bothered me. How could you surrender such an obedient, loyal dog?

I watched the album all week.  I offered a fairly significant pledge hoping to tempt a rescue group to take her, but nothing materialized.  Finally it was Monday morning and she had to have commitment by 3:30 PM. So I emailed my friend, Heather, from Road Trip Home to see if we could look at her. The group in Maine had asked that we not pull anymore pit bulls, but that if one was special that we could ask.  So Heather asked and they agreed they would take her if she passed the temperament test. And she passed.

So after being quarantined, she came to our house for a few weeks of fostering. She was so funny, sweet, playful, attentive, and wonderful. Fosters come and go, but the husband and I love her. Just so precious!

I wondered and there was some discussion, but in the end we were able to tell her goodbye about a week ago. She has been up for adoption for a few days now. Hopefully it will not be long before she finds her forever home who will appreciate everything she has to offer.

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Seven's Wrist and Agility

In the month of March, we attended two local agility trials. On March 8th, Seven tweaked her wrist towards the end of the Standard course. You can see her on the table holding up her left paw on the table. Yes, we kept going. I looked at her on the table for a few extra seconds and asked if she wanted to continue. The next obstacle was the tunnel and if she really did not want to finish, she would tell me there. Well, she wanted to finish so we did. If this was anything other than arthritis, I would have stopped her on the table.

Long-time readers know that Seven has an arthritic left wrist that she will occasionally torque and come up lame for a couple of minutes, walk out of it, and then be fine again. There was a time when it was happening almost every time we did agility. The carpal joint became inflamed and was prone to getting hurt, but with the help of an orthopedic specialist vet and a rehab specialist vet, we have developed a system that manages the wrist very well. Seven gets joint supplements and fish oil. I carefully warm her up and do lots of work on her wrist before and after any activity. She is given Adequan once a month. And about 8 months ago, we did a platelet rich plasma injection. Platelets tend to concentrate in the injured areas to promote healing so the vet basically takes the platelets from Seven's own blood and injects them right into her problem joint. Last time, we got three months of ZERO wrist issues.  It was amazing!  So we did it again.

A week later, Seven competed at her next agility trial and did great. Here is video of her two best runs.

So onto Nationals later this week! Wish us luck!

Also, just an FYI, I asked my vet, the orthopedic specialist, and my rehab vet about the new stem cell treatments for arthritis. All three are skeptical of it and need to see more evidence of its effectiveness before they are willing to do it or suggest it. The great thing about the platelet rich plasma injections (PRP) is that it does not require a surgical procedure like the stem cell treatment does. The whole PRP process takes about an hour and if your dog is as food motivated as mine, they don't even need to be sedated. Cream cheese and canned dog food made the procedure very tolerable for Seven. ADSENSE HERE

AGRC Trial - Seven

A few weeks ago, we went to a trial in South Carolina. Seven ran clean three out of six runs. All first places and one Double Qualifier. She needs 8 more for her second Agility Championship. Unfortunately, not all of her runs were videoed, but here are two of them.

Those that know me in person know that Seven and I have a love/hate relationship. She is challenging to live with and it is not getting any easier with age... Dang it! Anyways, here is a recent example. That yellow blanket started out in her crate. I guess she pushed it out when she was pulling on her crate door and then pulled the blanket back in. Interesting. But she is worth it and I love her.

And if you poke around the blog at all, you will notice that photos are missing from many posts. I accidentally deleted photos from a web album that feed the blog. Stupid me. I think I will attempt to fix it, but it will take a very long time. ADSENSE HERE

NDTC Trial - Seven

Seven finally had a perfect trial.... well since her Novice and Open level days.  She earned 4 Double Qs (running clean in both Standard and Jumpers classes in the same day) at the 4-day agility trial in Tennessee last weekend.

It was a very nice surprise considering she was not spot in training the week prior. I came into the weekend expecting some issues, but we had none!

I would definitely like to keep this lucky streak going through the AKC Agility Nationals at the end of March.

Here is a clip of the runs that were videoed.  I am missing a couple of them.  My favorite run is the last one. Seven averaged 6.13 yards per second.

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Speedy Mostly Does It

Seven is also on quite a roll! At her last two trials, we ran clean 5 out of 6 times... so four Double Qualifiers. She too has been competing very consistently and seems to be getting faster and faster. In Jumpers, Seven has been averaging about 6 yards per second which I am super pleased about.  And knock on wood, it has been several weeks (maybe even over a month) since she last tweaked her bad wrist.

Here she is at the trial in South Carolina.

Here she is at the trial in Tennessee.

And Seven only ruined one tarp! She was pretty good up until the end of the last day. I was getting ready to run Riley and a friend told me that she had pulled a tarp into her crate. Definitely not her first time. I wish she could relax like her sisters, but she rarely does.  She Double Qed that day so she earned her ride home. Silly hound!

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Good Dog

Seven competed in a two day agility trial again recently. This time it was local so we did not have to go out of town. We did not qualify in either class on Saturday. My fault in Standard. Seven's fault in Jumpers. But we came back on Sunday and won both classes.

I am just so grateful that Seven continues to stay sound despite the bad carpal joint. I never want to take that for granted.

Riley is doing well also! The rehab vet felt that she could go back to work as long as there is no pain or swelling afterwards. Recall that she fell off the dogwalk a few weeks ago and the tendon that runs from the stopper pad to the big pad swelled up. The tendon is still thick, but Dr. O said that she has seen something like that remain for a year. Riley has been easing back into work and seems just fine.

I pulled both hounds out of the trial that happened last weekend and entered them in a trial in December we had not planned on.  If I am going to take Friday off, I would prefer it be for both dogs if possible. In total, two more trials before the end of the year.

Maddie... I really need to do a post on Maddie. However, she tends to not cooperate when I turn on the video camera during a training session. She is a right-brained, free spirit and she does not always go for my Type A plans. I am getting humbled on a regular basis.

Recently, I was emailed a request to use Maddie in an Italian fashion line photo shoot in New York City. We turned it down. I am pretty sure that if I had "really needed" Maddie to do something... I was definitely not going to get it.... but maybe one day. For now, Pressure is not our friend. She is precious though! ADSENSE HERE