Shades of Grey

Why is it that some greyhounds turn grey so early?  Jessie, the brindle in the picture above, (Gator in the background) is the greyhound I adopted when I was 18.  I hardly remember her as I think her face turned white the next day.  Below, is the Jessie I remember.

I am expecting that Riley's cute white snip on her nose will eventually be a distant memory as her face is quickly turning grey.  Here are a series of photos starting with the day I brought her home on September 20th, 2008 to today. 

One thing is for certain, Riley will always have ugly ears... but I love them!

1999 Blooper

Since 1999, I have trained or am in the process of training seven greyhounds in agility. As you can imagine, I have gained some experience over the years and am a much better trainer and handler today. I thought you might all enjoy this blooper clip from 1999.

Not only was I a horrible dresser (ugly green sweat pants? what the heck was I thinking?), but I was not a very good trainer/handler. Nonetheless, Jessie and I had fun anyway. So here is a clip from 1999, the year I began competing in agility. It is the agility run I will always remember with Jessie. Due to bad training, Jessie often missed the yellow contact zones, so we rarely qualified in the Standard class. In this run, by some miracle, Jessie manages to get at least a toenail into each required zone. So as I am desperately racing for the last jump, I trip and fall. Jessie runs past the last jump causing us to not qualify and then starts spinning. The spins are hilarious so be sure to watch the last 10 seconds a second time.

Ahhh... the good old days. Jessie has been gone almost seven years now. It is so nice to have photos and videos to remind us when so much time has passed. Good girl, Jess.

Never Make It

Since we are on the subject of names, I thought I would explain Jessie's "Never" name. Jessie's NGA racing name was "Never Make It". Its the only racing name I have kept for competing later with. I thought it was funny and ironic.


At one point, I actually spoke to her prior owner and breeder. He seemed to remember her and said that she went after the lure hard, but then would back off. She had some issues with the starting box, but she showed a lot of late speed. He did not think she would make it as a racer and therefore named her as such. She was sent to Birmingham and washed out after a few schooling races. I adopted her just before her 2nd birthday.

When I adopted Katie, someone suggested having a kennel name that was derived from Jessie's "Never Make It" name. "Never Say Never Greyhounds" grew from that and it fits us so well.


Unfortunately, it was too late to rename Teresa. She was already competing in agility with the name Teresa, a name she had been called since she was rescued as a puppy at 4 months with a broken leg. She was adopted and later returned at the age of 4. We adopted her at that time. She is still very much a "Never" greyhound though.


When Jes passed away, I said "She is not my most famous hound, not the highest titled, and never made a top 10 list. But she was my screw-up dog. The screw-up dog is the one you train and retrain over and over. The one who endures all of your mistakes, hard lessons, and your what-NOT-to-do moments. The screw-up dog is the one that helps you to make your future dogs be all they can be. I'm so grateful for everything she taught me, for getting me hooked on dog sports, for making me learn about clicker training, and for all the great times we had."


The photo below is beautifully framed and hangs in our living room. The brass plaque attached to the frame reads:

Never Make It FCh CD NA NAJ aka Jes

Made It!

Positive Reinforcement

An important part of training is reinforcement. The old saying about a dog wanting to please his master... well, in my opinion, when the master is pleased, good stuff happens to the dog, and in the end the dog is ultimately pleased. Some breeds, by design, are built for following directions better than others and are easier to reinforce, but in the end I think dogs probably want to do what works for them.



When you compete with a dog, nothing is more enjoyable than having a canine partner that loves to work and joyfully responds to your requests. I used to ride horses and I never got the impression that any of my horses were glad I climbed aboard. They weren't excited about getting onto a horse trailer and heading to a local horse show. Horses will often pine for each other, but not so much for a person. I know there are exceptions to every rule. (I did actually know a horse who loved to go places in his trailer and his mom had to keep it out of sight if she was trailering another horse and leaving him behind.) But my greyhounds love to hop in the van and head for a new place, choose me over other dogs, and enjoy their jobs. I love that.






My first greyhound, Jessie, had to endure all of my bad training. At the time, I did not know about clicker training and so I took Jes to a compulsive, choke chain training class. I rewarded with food, but training was forced and mistakes were corrected. Jes was sensitive and submissive. She hated training. When we would go outside to practice, she would head back for the house like a barn sour horse. It saddened me. Training was suppose to be something we did together.... for fun and it wasn't. And then I discovered clicker training. I purchased a little Karen Pryor booklet and the first thing I did was to teach Jes to touch a cup with her nose. She loved it! Finally she was being allowed to think and to offer behaviors without the fear of making a mistake. Mistakes were ignore. Correct actions were marked with a click and rewarded with a treat. Training was fun!







When training dogs, think about the environment you work best in. Two years ago, I left a company with a horrible boss. He had a bad temper and would yell at me in front of the whole office. I was held accountable for things that were simply out of my hands. I was under paid and unappreciated. I was paranoid about making a mistake and feared the consequences. The stress affected my health. By the time I left, I was literally sick to my stomach with fear and nerves day and night.




For the last 2 years, I have worked for the most fantastic small company. The partners are super nice, fair, reasonable, and provide lots of positive reinforcement. They don't get bent out of shape over a mistake. I feel appreciated. The pay and the raises have been good. I could not have dreamed of a better situation. They understand that keeping me happy is in their best interest and in the end we all benefit. I want my greyhounds to feel the same way about their jobs.

Goodbye Jes

With much sorrow, I had to say goodbye to my sentimental favorite, Jes, this morning. I adopted Jes from Birmingham nearly 10 years ago when I was 18. What a decade of life changes it has been. She is not my most famous hound, not the highest titled, and never made a top 10 list. But she was my screw-up dog. The screw-up dog is the one you train and retrain over and over. The one who endures all of your mistakes, hard lessons, and your what-NOT-to-do moments. The screw-up dog is the one that helps you to make your future dogs be all they can be. I'm so grateful for everything she taught me, for getting me hooked on dog sports, for making me learn about clicker training, and for all the great times we had. She's probably most people's favorite of my crew. She's the perfect one who generally stays out of trouble except for jumping baby gates. In fact, she was still jumping them last week. This literally started and ended in less than 12 hours. I came home from class around 9 PM on Tuesday. She did not get up to greet me and had not finished her Kong. After a closer look, I thought that she was bloating and took her to the ER. X-rays showed that she was not bloating, but had a mass near the spleen. She was in shock and needed to be stabilized immediately and then ultra sound in the morning to determine what it was. She responded well to the IV fluids and blood work showed nothing alarming. So I went home. At 5 AM, the Dr. called to say that she was crashing and that the tumor had started bleeding into her abdomen. At that point she needed a blood transfusion and exploratory surgery. He said the chances of it being a benign tumor where unlikely and she was a high risk for dying on the table. I opted to let her go and rushed back up there to say goodbye. She didn't respond to me at that point, but I'm glad I was there. I'm grateful that she didn't suffer long. She really had great quality of life up until the last evening. She's always been healthy, eaten every meal offered, and always had an active life. Even went on her last hike 3 days ago. She wallowed in the lake like she usually does. She got a burst of speed and galloped up the hill. I remember shouting "WOO HOO" at her because it's always great to see an older dog get a burst of energy. Just didn't expect it to be all over so quick. Anyways, hurting like heck right now.

Fun Match

Jes is doing quite well and still looks great. Her left front foot gives her trouble sometimes, but she does not let it slow her down. Recently, she competed in an agility match in the Preferred class that allows her to jump 20" instead of 24". The club needed entries, so I thought it would be fun for the "mature" ladies to participate. She was so hilarious and thoroughly enjoyed herself. I laughed quite a bit. I think in the future, I may enter her at agility practice run thrus and let her do some obstacles.

Playing in the Lake

Jes wasn't a swimmer, but she did enjoy a good soak in the lake on a hot day. She would lie down so the water would come up around her neck and then suddenly she would get a burst of energy and go crazy. We had lots of good hikes and fun at Red Top Mountain over the years.

First Agility Trial

Jessie and Teresa's first agility trial was a NADAC trial at Wills Park. Debbie Parker came to cheer for us and Keith Avera and Suzanne Palmer (greyhound people) were competing their mixed breed dog. I do not remember much about the runs except that Jes did earn a 4th place. Teresa was very excited to be there, but would jump, jump, and then zoom away. Her recalls were excellent and she always came right back. During run one, there was a straight line of jumps ending at the exit. Teresa ran right out of the ring to visit with folks, but again came right back when I called. They both were very cute and seemed really happy.

Beginning Agility Class

Denise and I started taking beginner agility classes with Teresa and Jes in 1999. Anne Jones, now a good friend of mine, taught the class. It was an excellent place to start and very welcoming to greyhounds. Anne has ridgebacks and understands the fine art of persuading hounds. Initially, I just wanted Jessie to learn how to do all of the obstacles, but that quickly changed to wanting to compete as well. Eventually, I took over taking both dogs to agility class. I was getting out of horses and was welcoming the chance to try a new sport and a new form of competition.

We definitely had the most trouble with weave poles. Looking back, I did a terrible job of teaching both of them how to weave...... but then don't we all do that to our first agility dogs. They never did learn how to weave very fast, but it was good enough to finally compete.

We also had some trouble with learning to teeter. The class started dogs on a full size teeter that someone would control the speed of the pivot. Doing this only once a week was not working. I spoke to Kate Crawford who was competing Mandoid and Lily at the time. She taught me how to use a table to lessen the teeter tip and to use a smaller teeter. This process worked very well for Teresa and Jes.

Our silliest obstacle problem had to be Jes' trouble with the tunnels. It was so strange. She really made a big deal out of how much they scared her. The once a week class just wasn't enough, so I constructed a pretend tunnel made of mesh and covered by a tarp to practice sending her into something that she'd come out the other end of. So we practiced that everyday in the basement and it worked! She turned into a tunnel lover after that!

Coursing Career

All in all, Jes had a great coursing career. I believe she ran in 17 trials, earning 1st place 5 times, 2 of those times being 40 point wins, and also 2 Best of Breeds. She could turn and she could out run on the straights. Really beautiful to watch. She did starting cutting corners in the Field Champion stake.

Also, in 1997, Jes was 19th in the country out of 300 + greyhounds that ran that year.

The Problems with Toes

Jes ended up dislocating a toe on the worse possible day. It was my first experience with a migraine and they just so happen make me also feel very sick to my stomach. I had no business being at a field trial. Well, poor Jes dislocated a toe.... outside of front left. For some reason, Steve and Melissa had given me a ride even though I only lived 10 minutes from Old Mill Farm at the time. Steve gave me a ride home and I puked... luckily not in his car. When I got home, I really wanted Jes to be x-rayed right then, so I called Bartow Animal Hospital. It was closed, but Dr. Tripp met me anyway. He really wanted me to go to the ER vet, but I told him there was no way I could physically make it. He confirmed that it was dislocated and basically put a piece of tape around it and said to leave it for 10 days. I consulted The Care of The Racing GH when I got home and promptly took off his tape and redid the wrapping. We followed the conservative protocol. When it was time to try her again, she promptly did it again :-(. This time I had the toe removed. I wish I'd known about Dr. Gillette and Auburn the first time, but oh well. The toe came off and she went through the recuperation and I got her back in shape in time for the Regional at Old Mill Farm. After the toe problems started, she never ran well again. I believe the Regional was her last trial.

Field Champion in Conyers

Jes earned her Field Champion title today with a 24 point win against Santino, Charger, Ruby, and Savannah. The trial was at the Conyers horse park. The field was not the best, but it was flat. It was super hot though.

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.

Submission

Overly submissive is not my favorite trait. Jes was would crawl with her head low, tail between her legs, and would occasionally urinate. Once, she peed all over my bed when I tried to slide her over..... needless to say, she lost human bed priviledges for a few years. She truly wanted to please you and to do no wrong. She wasn't shy, but definitely some fear there. It is funny because when I think back, we really did a good job of getting Jessie to become more confident and to stand tall. Whenever she approached me in a submissive manner, I ignored her. I did not praise the trait I did not like about her. But when she stood tall, I praised her. Eventually, standing tall became a habit and eventually her nature. I also think that lure coursing was a huge confidence builder as well.

Why I Chose Jessie

My mom and I chose Jessie out of a group of greyhounds at the Birmingham Racetrack adoption kennels. She pressed herself up against her crate door trying for any attention we would give her. We took her out first. She was very sweet, affectionate, and attentive, but oh so submissive. She literally crawled around with her tail between her legs. I really did not like that about her, so we looked at all of the other dogs. None of them paid us very much attention. We finally settled on sweet little Jes.

This is a picture of Jes on the first day we brought her home. This is the only picture I have showing how she looked before turning grey. I think she must have turned grey the very next day :-). Gator is in the background.

Jessie's Agility Career

Jes was notorious for missing contacts. She could leap to the top of the dog walk and jump from the highest point of the A-frame. She was such a good runner and had such a good time, but those dang contacts.