Found Them

I knew I had photos of Riley jumping to catch her Frisbee.  This is how she fractured her hock.  I wanted to show you guys a long time ago, but could not find them.... they were in Seven's folder.

Riley used to leap into the air to catch the Zanie Flyer frisbee and land hind legs first.  I thought this was a good thing because it seemed easier on her toes... a very common source for greyhound injuries.  Well, not anymore!  The day she fractured her hock, she leaped up like she normally would.  The landing was not at all awkward.  The only difference was that I heard a little click and then she was dead lame.

Needless to say, I do not throw high anymore.

Rain Rain Go Away

I told the hubby not to bring this one home.  He had to give Reagan a bath.

This has been the strangest winter with high temperatures, thunderstorms, and rain, rain, and more rain.  We are so tired of the rain!  It makes me grumpy when my agility hounds are not getting plenty of exercise and training.  They are annoying and, of course, very well rested when I get home from work each day.  I am Type A and it messes up my schedule when the afternoon is filled with rain.

Seven and Riley after a 2 mile slog... I mean jog.

Sometimes we hike or jog even if it is raining.  It is not the most fun we have ever had, but at least we get our exercise.

I am especially tired of thunderstorms.  One of my husband's greyhounds is thunder phobic, so normally we enjoy our winter break from storms.  But not this year!  That is my complaint for today!

Upgrade

Okay, so when I compared Seven to a Nissan Altima (versus Riley as a Ferrari, some people thought that was simply not good enough for Seven.  Blame it on my ignorance and simple tastes.  A Nissan Altima seemed like a really nice car to me.  However, I think Seven definitely belongs in a luxury car category.  Not only is she reliable, but she has all the bells and whistles and smooth handling.  Although maybe not quite as sporty or reckless as a Ferrari, Seven is a luxury to run in agility.  She has a fast pace I can easily manage, turns on a dime, and nails tricky weave pole entrances.  So how about a:

2012 Mercedes Benz CL 550 Class Coupe

or

2012 BMW 760Li

or

2012 Jaguar XJ

The only mechanical difficulty I have with Seven is that the alarm system goes crazy when it is Riley's turn to come out of the garage and take a spin.  Seven makes a ton of noise.  Maybe one day I will be able to fix it.

Normal Agility Dog

Like Riley, Seven also had a good agility trial last weekend.  Her weekend started off with two clean runs on Friday.  The clean Jumpers run (2nd run in video) moves her up to the final level of agility, Excellent B Jumpers.

After that, Seven became more of a normal agility dog.  She did not qualify on Saturday morning in the Standard class and did not qualify at all on Sunday.  The Q streak was wonderful while it lasted and I hope for many more, but it was probably time for reality to strike.  However, Seven still has an impressive record of running clean 16 out of 20 times.  I am thrilled whenever my hounds have a 50% Q rate and Seven is 80%.

Here is Seven's first clean run in Excellent B Jumpers.  I loved running Seven and Riley on this course!  So much fun!

Comeback

Riley's comeback to agility competition went very well.  It felt as if we had not missed a beat despite not competing in over seven months due to a minor toe sprain and then the hock fracture.  We had so much fun and she was very happy to be running agility again (love her facial expression in photos).

We started off on Friday by winning the Excellent Standard class (has the climbing obstacles).  Unfortunately, it was not filmed.  We later did not qualify in Jumpers due to an off course.

Saturday was our best day.  Riley double qualified which means she qualified in both Standard and Jumpers.  We need to do that 20 times in order for her to earn her Master Agility Championship.  She also needs points awarded for seconds under the time allowed, but she is so fast that we are only 87 points away from meeting that goal.  Here are those two runs.  First place in Standard and 2nd place in Jumpers.  Both were very fun courses!

Master Agility Championship Tally: 663 MACH points, 87 to go. 4 Double Qs, 16 to go.

We also tried out the new Time To Beat class.  The courses are supposed to be  flowing, fast, and fun.  There are two contact (climbing) obstacles, jumps, weave poles, and tunnels.  There is no table.  Points are awarded for speed and the course time is determined by the fastest clean run at each height.  I do not understand all of the details yet.  We did not qualify as Riley was a wild child and got a little carried away.

We bombed out on Sunday, but Riley and I still had a very fun time running agility.  I am so happy to have her back.

Seven up next...

Warm Ups

I mentioned recently that I have started warming up and cooling down the hounds more thoroughly since Riley's hock fracture.  I have created a bit of a routine doing pivots, backing up, nose-to-tail stretches, and rear crosses on the flat.  

Then we finish up with some running and a few practice jumps before training or trialing.  I am trying to maintain the same routine for training and trialing.

Brat

As you know, Reagan is my extremely talented, very fast, fully trained agility greyhound that I retired just after her 3rd birthday. Remember how freakin awesome she was...

... always makes me want to poke my eyes out.  It was very disappointing to retire Reagan, but she  developed noise phobias to common, unavoidable things and worst of all became terrified of riding in a vehicle (especially my van).  This made daily training and traveling to trials nearly impossible. I tried everything (and you can read all about it by clicking on Reagan Fears if you wish to), but it continued to spiral out of control.  The bright side is that Seven has worked out well as Reagan's agility replacement.... I would not have adopted Seven if Reagan had not retired.

Well, we are having some crazy winter weather this year.  Temperatures have been very warm and we have had several thunderstorms.  Due to Reagan's propensity towards developing noise phobias, we have always counter conditioned thunderstorms.  Thunder = Treats.  This has worked well and we employ this strategy with all of our younger greyhounds since it is common enough in greyhounds and usually takes a few years to develop.  The downside is that it is labor intensive.  An evening of thunderstorms can have you tossing treats periodically for hours. 

So as an alternative, the first clap of thunder equals everyone going to their crates for frozen, stuffed Kongs and bully sticks for the duration of the storm.  Well, Miss Reagan, although patient, still thinks she deserves a treat.

Spoiled brat!

Favorite 2011 Photos

Riley

Happy New Year!  I hope everyone has a healthy, fun, successful, and productive 2012!  These are my favorite photos from 2011.  I cannot believe another year is over!

 Riley in the daffodils at Wills Park

Ditto for Seven

Husband's very thoughtful and sweet gift of attaching the new A-frame skin to the aluminum frame... just upside down. It makes my A-frame unique, so I left it.

 Riley - The Thinker

 Seven chewed up one of Stephen's socks. She found this one on the trail and brought it home as a peace offering.  "Here, Daddy."

Seven - "How does a greyhound get a little attention around here?"

Riley weaving at the Purina Incredible Dog Challenge.  It was so cool to be on TV.

How many weave poles?  60!

Riley, the happy agility greyhound.

Riley - Airborne

Riley and I on the podium.

Seven - "OMG! This bitter flavored, No Chew bandage tastes so good!"

How can you not have a party when you have three greyhounds born on June 28th (2008, 2006, 1999)?

Beauty close to home.

Seven converting small children into future greyhound adopters.

Reagan lives, but doesn't have as many pictures taken anymore. But once in a while the hubby gets a good one when they are hiking near the house.

Riley's x-ray of a healed hock.

Riley using that healed hock.

Riley and Seven blending into nature.

Seven at the farm.

Seven's best running shot.

Riley is glad to have the splint off. Me too!

Who doesn't love a Pnutty in the pool? My sister's greyhound, Peanut.

Cool collage photo of Riley completing the A-frame.

I think Seven looks so beautiful and warm in this photo.  I love it!

Happy New Year!