Lure Coursing Day One

At the meet, Scarlett bounded around, wagging her tail, greeting everyone, human and dog alike. Rose, on the other hand, had a tough time. All the new people and dogs were overwhelming and she got flustered. After a bit she seemed to do okay with the whippets and IGs, but she HATED the borzoi and would lunge, snap, and bark aggressively at any that got too close.

When it was her turn to run her single stake, she didn't seem to understand what to do. She got off to a bit of a slow start, but then seemed to figure it out. She made it through the first few turns in a relatively tight box layout, then started in on the "easy" straight away. Unfortunately, it was straight away from me. She got a few feet into it, then seemed to "wake up" from the chase and look around. She looked confused for a moment and worried, until she spotted me and started straight for me. I called her so she wouldn't get distracted and she came right to me. She scored 19 points out of 100.

Before her second run, I got closer to the lure with both Rose and Scarlett. Scarlett was a natural, lunging and barking. She was clearly following the lure with her head as they ran the course and strained at the end of her leash to track it. After several dogs ran, Rose seemed to pick up on what Scarlett was doing. She started just blindly following along and barking too, with an air of someone who doesn't know what the excitement is all about, but who doesn't want to miss anything. Then she started to really see what was going on. When the lure came close for the reset, she really keyed into it.

Then we went for our second try. I messed up on the slip and fumbled her start, but in a single it didn't matter much. She went down to the first straight away and I yelled "good girl" and she put on the brakes and came right back to me. Oops! I feel like she could have done a little better if I hadn't yelled, but we are both learning. :) She got 5 points on her score.

After that second run, though, she really seemed to understand what was happening and bounced along, lunging and barking at the bunny for the rest of the afternoon. I think tomorrow she will likely do better. We made friends with some people, including a man named David, who has 5 whippets and runs whippetview website and kennel. He lent us a slip lead for the day and coursing blankets and offered to run one of his dogs with Rose tomorrow as the test run for the lure first thing tomorrow to see if that would clue Rose into it even more. Rose is generally prey keen, she just didn't get for a long time that plastic bags counted as prey. We've tried playing with plastic bags around the yard and Scarlett is keen on that, but Rose didn't get it. I think now she is starting to.

At the end of the day we ran Scarlett in an abbreviated run that was spectacular! Her running form looked great. All 4 feet leave the ground on the stretched out part of her stride and the front and back pairs are really well synched. She is incredibly focused, especially for only a 10 month old. She did her first turns today and kept up really well with the change. There was one turn that kind of threw her off for a moment, but she corrected and got back on track right away. The kid is a natural and I can't wait to really see her go. She is small, but she has so much else to recommend her and clearly loves it, so it is a joy to watch her having fun.

The pictures

Tomorrow's Another Day, of course, so hopefully Rose will hit her stride tomorrow and Scarlett is sure to have fun. :)

Posted by Erin Doyne at 23:20

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New Photos and More Hunting

First, an administrative notice: I've added a New Photos page, also linked on the right side of the main page. It'll show the 20 most recently uploaded photos, so enjoy! Now time for some dog-content. Early last week, during their last trip outside for the night, I noticed a rabbit hopping along near the back of the fence, but Scarlett and Rose were more concerned with going back inside to go to sleep. I thought they might be broken at that point... Last night, however, was quite a different story. They were out doing their business, and I see another rabbit hopping along the fence. It had just noticed the dogs, so it sprinted away towards the back of the yard. That alerted Rose who took off like a shot, and Scarlett not far behind. It was quite the impressive site, with the rabbit just barely escaping through a small gap in the gate (where it's warped). I can't wait to take them lure coursing on the 15th!

Posted by Patrick McNeill at 17:30

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