Sunday, November 8, 2009

California - Last One

Anna and I stayed with my friend Helen in Livermore, California on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night (15, 16, and 17th). Anna and I especially enjoyed our down time lounging around in Helen's backyard.I met Helen via email when she contacted me about competing greyhounds in agility. Helen is very active with her greyhounds and competes them in conformation, agility, obedience, and tracking. In tracking, Helen has the most Tracking Dog Excellent titled greyhounds. I'm jealous! She and I swap training tips and advice. You can see her hounds here. She and I met face to face in December 2007 when I competed Travis at the AKC Agility Invitational in Long Beach, California.The reason why I was crazy enough to plan a trip in October (my busiest month) is that there was also a Greyhound Specialty show going on at the same time. So it was a great opportunity for me to meet other greyhound email friends, see their hounds, and see other greyhounds in action.You can see a lot more photos and get the show results here and here.Lisa debuted Andretti in Open obedience (2nd level or the level after Novice). Since he was the only obedience entry he had to do his 3 minute sit stays and 5 minute down stays by himself. And in Open obedience, stays are done with the handler out of sight from the dog. Talk about all alone, but Andretti stayed like a champ. I am sure he will earn his Companion Dog Excellent title (CDX) in no time.I also got to see Helen compete Whisper in agility. Helen and Whisper are doing awesome. As of October 23, 2009, Whisper had 77 MACH points and 1 double qualifying score (750 MACH points and 20 double qualifying scores are needing to earn a Master Agility Championship). I think Whisper has a good shot at being the first AKC Greyhound and conformation champion to earn an agility championship. Whisper is only 3 years old and has plenty of time. Helen posts videos of Whisper competing periodically on her blog. Her are a couple of runs from the weekend I was there.I thought the pink agility equipment was interesting and fitting since it was Breast Cancer month. Just about everything else was pink too. California takes Breast Cancer month very seriously.Last but not least, I got a little cat love from Helen's cat.... who's name escapes me right now. Cute little kitty though!This concludes my summer (okay, fall) vacation!