NEVER SAY NEVER GREYHOUNDS: ASFA National Greyhound Specialty

Southeastern Greyhound Club hosted the ASFA National Greyhound Specialty for lure coursing a few weeks ago. I do not lure course my greyhounds, but once in awhile we enjoy going and this was a big event. The farm is beautiful and the best part is that Maddie's breeder, Kelly Fidler, came from Texas with two of Maddie's brothers.

Sam, Maddie, and Jack

Sam and Jack are quite handsome and I enjoyed seeing them in person all grown up. I was also excited to see Kelly and her future hubby, John Dalton, as they are both good friends of mine as well. I really wanted Maddie to show off her personality, but I thought she was very blah for Kelly and John. She hid all of her silliness. Maddie is so outgoing at the agility trials, but I wonder if she just recognizes the agility scene as "her people" and "her dog friends". Oh well.

Jack and John Dalton

For those of you with the book, "Care of the Racing Greyhound" on your bookshelf, the guy illustrating the Routing Examination of the Musculoskeletal System in short shorts and knee high socks his John Dalton's father. John is from Ireland, but his racing greyhound farm in Texas has been home for over ten years now. Maddie was born on his farm. John is a great, multi-generation greyhound person to know and super nice too!

One fun fact is that Kelly and John use the "Kells" prefix for naming both the coursing and racing greyhounds. So Maddie is "Kells Never Drink Mad Dog 20/20". Recently, my adoption group got "Kells Travis" and "Kells Barracuda". So I knew immediately that they had been born on the same farm as Maddie. It was fun to ask John about them both.

At the ASFA National Greyhound Specialty, we always have an informal, fun conformation show that all the greyhounds (those running or not) can participate in. I think Kelly and I were the only ones with show leads. I had not practiced with Maddie in months, but she did pretty well.

John Parker accused me of distracting his puppy out of position with bait, but I dare say that Katie looked pretty good during that moment (above photo). We had some laughs!

Maddie looking gorgeous.

I also showed Seven in the adult bitch class. Isn't she a pro? She would be so easy to show.

Despite Seven looking gorgeous, Kelly won that class with Sarah (Maddie's cousin). Of course, I had to give Kelly her big congratulatory hug for her win (like the cheesy ones you see on TV at Westminster). Although I was genuinely glad for Kelly.

Generally, I never let my hounds watch lure coursing. In fact, Seven and Riley have no idea the sport exists. I only bring them out of the van when the lure is not moving so they are none the wiser. If Seven knew what was going on, she would destroy her crate and the inside of my van.... so no thank you. But at the end of the day on Sunday, I did decide to let Maddie do a straight run behind the lure. I knew she would not need any prompting and like I thought she chased the lure with great enthusiasm.