Tournament Weekend

We are off to a flyball tournament in Salem, OR. It is part of the Marion County Fair at the State Fairgrounds, and flyball is just one of the many attractions. Stop by if you want to check out flyball in person.

While we head off to flyball, enjoy a lure coursing poodle in show coat.

And a corgi at full stretch.

Lots of lure coursing fun was had last weekend.

JRT Fun Day

Yesterday, I headed up to Castle Rock Fairgrounds in Washington for a Jack Russell Terrier fun day/play day. I figured that Ptera would have fun, I would get to try some new sports with her, and there likely would be something for Koira to do.

From a few weeks ago, when she was still trying to figure out how ears work

The first thing we tried was called Go To Ground. The idea is that the dog goes through a series of tunnels made by wooden boxes, which can have turns, until they find the rat. The rat is on the outside of the tunnel, but can be seen and smelled through the white bars at the end of the tunnel. Once the dog finds the rat, they are supposed to work it for 30 seconds by scratching, barking, etc.

We started out by introducing Ptera to the rat. She was immediately obsessed. We ran her through a single short, straight tunnel to the rat, and she had no issues. She didn't work the rat at all, but did stay there smelling it. We ran her through some longer tunnels, including one with two turns, and she did awesome on all of them, going straight in and straight to the rat, without trying to come back out of the tunnel. Each time, she stuck with the rat, but didn't really "work" it, so we encouraged her to scratch and bark. The last part of the tunnel has a lid on the top that we open to get the dog out, so we would open that and get her ramped up. With encouragement, she worked the rat from inside the tunnel. Outside the tunnel, she didn't need any encouragement.



The JRT fun day also had something called brush hunt, which is similar to Barn Hunt, but in brush rather than straw. We didn't have much brush to use, so it was a pretty easy set up. Ptera found her rat pretty easily, and worked it really well.

Lure coursing and racing were the other two events offered. Lure coursing is the same as what we do with our coursing club, though set up a bit different since JRTs have different needs from sighthounds. It is more of just a fun way to get some energy out of them than anything else.




Ptera also did racing, which is just a long straight away where they race with other dogs. The start box was really our main hurdle. It was a brand new thing, with loud dogs in the other boxes banging around, and due to some technical issues, the box wasn't able to be opened right away when I put her in the first time. I ended up holding her in the box the next time, rather than closing the back door, and that went better. I think I would need to spend some time introducing her to the box by herself for her to really like the racing game.

Unfortunately, Koira didn't really get to do anything. I did have her meet a rat, which she thought was great. But the straight racing boxes are too small for her. The ground was wet and it was raining, so I didn't feel safe letting her do the lure coursing. The course they set up was fine for JRTs, but was twisty and tight in places, and I thought Koira's speed and size would put her at risk of injury if she ran that course on wet grass. The Go To Ground tunnels were also much too small for her as well. So really, outside of meeting a rat and a few short walks, Koira had a pretty boring day. I tried to make it up to her by taking her to flyball practice on our way home.

I'll be honest that I don't know if I'll have Ptera do any of these sports officially. I likely will put her in Barn Hunt to find rats, but I don't know if Go To Ground is something we'll compete in. JRT racing we might try again, but I would want a slow introduction to the box to do it. But it was fun to meet other JRT owners, see the dogs in action, and was an overall really fun day.

Wordless Wednesday: Lure Coursing

The fields finally dried out enough for us to do some lure coursing this past weekend.

It was Ptera's first time, but she had a blast and totally loved it.



Koira, of course, had an awesome time. She loves lure coursing.



And Pallo had a great time as well, though I think he wished I'd forgotten his muzzle so he could totally shred the bag.



Have your dogs every tried lure coursing?

Wordless Wednesday: Whippet Racing

Just one stride out of the start box

Summer Season Begins

While I try to stay active with my dogs throughout the year, summer is really the time of a million activities. If we aren't dock diving or lure coursing or playing flyball, we are at the park walking, playing fetch, or swimming at the river.

On Saturday, we had to choose between lure coursing or dock diving. Lure coursing was closer and cheaper, so it won. A number of my flyball friends came down to practice as well, which was fun. I like my lure coursing friends, of course, but I love seeing people get their dogs involved in something new, and I like visiting with my flyball people outside of flyball.

One of my friends was even awesome enough to release my dogs for me, so I could stand off to the side and get some pictures of them.

Digging in right after being released, trying to get up to speed

This particular practice we use a reversing lure. The dog runs straight out away from the handler, then the lure reverses and they run straight back to the handler again.

In full flight headed away after the lure

My little cannonball of muscle

This method makes it easy to catch the dogs at the end of their run. Reversing the lure also helps correct dogs who "cheat" by running far off to the side of the lure or who anticipate and cut corners. The lure gets reversed as soon as the dog veers away from it, drawing them back and forcing them to run more honestly.

On her way back, head a bit farther up as the lure slows down at the end

Bounding to the stationary lure at the end of the course

Caught the bunny.

At our practices, each dog gets to run twice, with a nice long break in between to cool off between runs. Using the reversing lure makes the practices run really quickly as well, since there is no need to spend time resetting the lure by hand like we have to when using a drag lure.

Pallo's most graceful coursing shot. He isn't super graceful when running, but is very powerful and absurdly fast for his short little legs.

The first run with each of my dogs, I released them myself, then crouched down to get some photos of them heading away and heading back to me. That's how I got the photo from yesterday's BW Sunday post of Pallo in full flight headed away from me. 

Here is the headed away shot in color

This gives you a good idea of what the practice is like. First the dog heads straight out after the lure. Then the lure reverses at the far end of the field, and then the dog chases it back to the starting point again.

But he returned with the same enthusiasm he left with

Koira is fast enough that I wasn't able to get crouched down and focused fast enough to get a good picture of her heading away from me, but I did get a couple of her coming back. I like the straight on lure coursing photos, but not as much as the side views.

Koira headed straight back to me as well

Has anyone else been ramping up their summer activities? Do you keep having to choose what kind of awesome adventure will come each day?

BW Sunday: Heading Away

This is my view after loosing Pallo after the lure

Lure Coursing Fun

Over the weekend I managed to head down to a lure coursing practice with the dogs. I got off work a half hour after the practice had started, but we still managed to get there in time to do two runs each with the dogs.

Lure coursing is her favorite!

This was our first time running with the reversing lure machine. Normally, we run with a drag lure. In drag lure, the string is only attached to the machine on one end, while the other end has the bags on it. After each dog runs, someone has to go grab the end with the bags and walk it back to the starting point.

I just love the intense expression and the grass flying

Continuous loop lure is the kind most of the CATs are run on. This type of lure means that the entire lure string makes a giant loop that runs through the system of pulleys. No one has to grab the lure and move it back into position with this kind. To reverse it, though, the line has to be taken off of the machine and flipped around so it is pulled the other direction.

Kill that lure!

The reversing machine is a continuous loop set up that has the ability to run both directions without having to adjust anything with the string. We were running straight aways with the reversing machine today, which was really fun. It is a great way to get dogs who like to cut corners, or who kind of fall off the lure and head back to their owners, to stick with the lure better, because the operator can reverse it and make it go in the opposite direction all of a sudden.

This is Koira's butt as she is headed away from me shortly after I released her. All the other photos are from after the lure was reversed and she was headed back toward me again. The reversing lure is pretty awesome for taking photos!

Of course, for most of the dogs, it just meant that when they over ran the lure at the end of the straight stretch and turned back to go grab it, the lure operator made the lure reverse and run back down the straight stretch to where the handler had released the dog. It is a great way to build interest and drive for the lure. My dogs don't really need those built up anymore than it already is, but they sure had fun chasing it anyway!

Don't worry, Pallo was there too, and had a blast!

Mischief Monday: Dirt Colored Dogs (and a Poodle)

I go to a lot of dog events, if you haven't noticed. Most of the time, I bring my camera along. I really enjoy taking pictures during events. I also enjoy going through the photos afterwards, editing them, and sharing them with people. It is one of the best things about going to dog events for me.

But seriously people, stop getting dirt colored dogs!




Do you have any idea how hard it is to even see a small dirt colored fluffy dog running on dirt, let alone through a zoom lens? And then, once you find the small dirt colored blog that is the dog, how hard it is to get the camera's auto focus to actually focus on that dog?



Now, I promise I am not trying to insult any of these dogs' looks. They are all wonderful dogs, and pretty gorgeous. But.. they are all brown, or gold, or some similar kind of color. And that color? Yeah, it blends into the dirt.



And look how many breeds there are that are brown!



My only issue at all with all these dogs who are brown, red, brindle, etc, is that they are really hard to take photos of. At least on dirt they are. And so many different sports are run on dirt (or golden brown summer grass, which is just as bad!). It makes for hard picture taking.



Of course, dogs who are black aren't really any better. Auto focus has tons of problems with black dogs no matter what surface they are running on. And then there are exposure problems, you can't see the dog's eyes, or the dog is exposed right and the background is totally blown out, and on and on.

So maybe you are thinking about getting your next dog. And, if your only criteria for that dog is that you want photographers at every event you go to to be able to get wonderful pictures of your dog, here is my advice. Get a poodle. A white, standard poodle. Because seriously, there is no way to screw up those photos!

A CAT

A few weeks ago, I took the dogs to a CAT hosted by the Chintimini Kennel Club alongside an Earthdog trial. That means a Coursing Ability Test to those unfamilar with the term. CATs are open to all breeds and mixed breeds registered with the AKC or through Canine Partners. Each dog runs alone over a 300 or 600 yard course. The dog just has to show a basic instinct to follow the lure, follow it for most of the course, and do so within the time limit.

I love watching CATs because there is such a huge variety in the dogs who come. Some of them are totally into lure coursing, while others couldn't care less. And sometimes it is really hard to guess which ones will do what when you first see them arrive.

This Irish Water Spaniel? Totally into lure coursing. I think this dog would follow that lure anywhere, for any distance.







This Dalmation had only seen a lure once before. She didn't even notice it at first when she was brought up to the line, and kept trying to slip loose to go find her people. Then, all of a sudden, the lure operator managed to catch her eye by moving the lure a little and BOOM, she was totally on it.







Or how about a rather absurd dog to see lure coursing, when compared with the long legged, sleek sight hounds the sport was designed for? But just because the legs are short doesn't mean the drive is any less, as this dachshund showed us.





Or how about this dachshund?



A really big fan of lure coursing is Elli, who we think is a dalmatian/whippet mix. Her mom has a blog about Elli over here, if you want to check them out more.





I honestly got so many pictures of so many dogs that there is no good way to share them all on the blog. And, I try really hard to only post the pictures where the dog looks like they are coursing. So all the shots of the dogs who refused to run, didn't want to get that far from mom, or simply had no idea what was supposed to be going on, all of those get deleted out of courtesy.

And one more shot. This is Sam, a lab/shepherd mix owned by a friend of mine, and who absolutely loves lure coursing.

Flirt Pole

First I want to mention- despite the pictures yesterday, Koira actually has a full mouth of teeth. None of them are missing. There is a good open mouth shot in today's post that shows her teeth. She just has no teeth when she barks, and looks like an old lady who took her dentures out.

A flirt pole is basically just a very large cat toy. It is a great way to exercise dogs in a relatively small area. Flirt poles can also be great stepping stones in getting a dog into lure coursing or interested in tugging.

I use a lunge whip with something tied on the end. You can buy a lunge whip at basically any tack shop or feed store; one whip should run you 10 to 15 dollars. No need to get anything fancy.

Koira is fine with just a lightweight plastic bag on the end, which makes it really easy for the whip to snap back and forth quickly. It makes the game more fun. I really end up using it just like I would a cat teaser toy too. Snap it back and forth, move it so they think they are about to get it, but get it out of their way too fast for them to grab. Of course, sometimes the dog moves too fast and catches it anyway!

Pallo required me to tie a toy on the end of the whip first, because the bag just wasn't interesting enough. We hadn't worked with a flirt pole in a long time though, so I think if we play regularly with it, I can get him on just a bag. I actually managed to remove the toy part way through our play session and he liked the bag okay. It is amazing how much difference even a lightweight toy makes. The entire contraption is way heavier and less agile when there is a toy on the end instead of the bag.

And I need to thank my friend Kay both for taking this awesome pictures and for letting us play with her flirt pole for a while. I know my dogs had a blast!

FitDog Friday: Whippet Nationals

On Sunday, I did some volunteering at the Whippet Nationals lure coursing event. Now, this is an event where you will never see a fat dog. All of the dogs were totally ripped, with huge muscles. They were all able to run the 700+ yard course two or more times in a single day, and were still raring to go. Even the Veterans classes (dogs 7 years and older) are full of in shape, healthy dogs.



My dogs do lure coursing themselves, but since neither are whippets, they didn't get to run this time around. They came along and spent the day in the car, with a few frisbee breaks throughout the day. It doesn't happen often, but man, my dogs looked scrawny and under muscled in comparison to pretty much every other dog.



I spent the day working the paddock and taking pictures. Working the paddock basically involves making sure all the dogs who are on deck (about to run) are accounted for and ready with the right colors on, and everyone knows when they need to get their dogs ready to go.

Not all of the dogs run with muzzles, but some of them do, for various reasons. The dogs on the Wordless Wednesday post were all about to run or just off the course, which is why they have their muzzles on.



Possibly the best part though was the whippet puppies. Because, seriously, who can resist a whippet puppy.



And of course a picture of the Best Of Breed. Since it was a whippet only event, Best of Breed was the same as Best of Field. This little girl is seriously in shape, totally loves lure coursing, and was a total sweetheart as well.

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