Rainy Sunday of Lure Coursing Awesomeness

Both dogs did awesome at lure coursing today. The weather was being all flirty, bringing out the major thundering rain storm, followed by light sprinkling, followed by brilliant sunlight, rinse, repeat. It meant fewer people showed up to course, which is too bad for them, but meant we were able to get through our two runs much faster than previous times.

Koira was glad of that. Every time I pulled her out of the car, she started yelling at me that it was her turn, she wanted to run.



The other dogs were all eager to go as well. This whippet was not only straining against the leash, but also making the strangest whining sounds I've heard out of a dog.




Pallo ran a zigzag pattern for the first time ever. Previously, we have only done straights with both dogs. The zigzag adds in two relatively gentle turns, giving him a chance to see more what a real competition course would be like.

Here is the video of Pallo running his zigzag:




Koira also did a zigzag run, but it was raining by that time, so no video of it. Just a video from the catcher's point of view of her doing her straight run.





For the people who previously asked about lure coursing equipment, I took a picture of the lure machine today to share.



Basically, we hand pull the lure out, stringing it around the little thingimibobbers like the one at the top of the picture to create turns. The motor on the side, run by a battery, is controlled by the lure operator, who watches the dogs carefully and zips the lure up in front of them, far enough that they can't catch it, but not so far that they lose focus on the lure.



I love watching the dogs run out there. I wish my camera was fast enough to get good pictures of it, but alas, it is not. I did get some good pictures of a few breeds present.

Most striking was probably the Afghan. Amazing to watch too.



The most popular breed, other than greyhounds and whippets at least, was Ridgebacks. They are considered a coursing sight hound by AKC, and we had a whole bunch of them. I managed to get four all in one picture.