Coursing Beginnings

Jes is the only greyhound I have coursed competitively. It all started when Dan (long-time-ago-ex-boyfriend) and I took her and Gator (the Lawson family's first greyhound) to a greyhound gathering at Barnsley Garden. I remember meeting John and Debbie Parker for the first time there. The main event was of course lure coursing and it was a mass pre-certification process. It was just one big rectangle. Each dog ran twice in a brace with muzzles and under a judge's supervision. Lots of greyhounds got pre-certed before any of us even knew what "pre-certification" was. It was funny because they did give out some ribbons, but I had to leave before it was all over. Later, I called John Parker to see if she or Gator had placed. He didn't think so, but he said he'd check. After all, there were probably about 50 greyhounds there. Well, it turned out she actually got 4th place out of all of them. Not bad for a little dog named Never Make It. So I was bitten by the coursing bug after that.