We had an unbelievable Silken Windhound Nationals experience this year - I am completely floored! In addition to our show ring experiences, we got to meet up with several folks who have dogs from us (both Silken and Borzoi) and see how our pups have grown - and some were being shown as well. Nice to see our dogs in the ring with someone else handling them!
Nan brought out Andres (Solo/Duri; borzoi) - he has forgotten he is a dog as he is the only one and doesn't see much in the way of dogs (except the occasional "ankle biter") out his way. But he is a stunning adolescent male with coat so shiny it's almost blinding. Deb and her daughter also brought Mukki (Bruce/Luna; silken) along for a visit - he grew into such a lovely boy with luscious coat and a grin for everyone. Also got to see Voodoo (now with the Peffers) and her mother Jett (VooDoo's mother, with Ahryn); Kandi's 2 daughters (Blondie and Oreo) from her leased breeding; Tim and Vicki Frey had Sylvi (Bruce/Luna) and Enzo (Isaak/Serena) along to show and their sibling Ajax was also there with Lynn Wall; and Tripp with Pam all the way from CT (and boy was that WORTH it!) - I did not have near enough time to visit with everyone as much as I wanted to - not even Pat Shaw who was so kind as to put us and our crew up at her home for the weekend!
On Saturday we took care of some health testing on several dogs and then began visiting with folks. Victor was at the SLASH LGRA meet with Nox since we decided to take advantage of it being at the same location. It paid off as she won the meet and earned 2 GRC/NRC points! We also had the huge shrimp boil (and pig out) - tables lined up with brown paper and the menfolk dumping fresh from the pot corn, potatoes, shrimp and sausage among the various trays of fresh fruit available for desert and strategically placed bottles of cocktail sauce and squeezy butter. We opened up the sangria that Nan had brought and shared amongst several folks in our vicinity.
Sunday was the day of the showing festivities and started off with Puppy Sweepstakes. Shadow won his class (9-12) with brother Enzo taking third. Goth and Pryss both won their classes and Fanci and Darkun both took 4th in their classes. Kandi's daughter Blondie also won her class. Pryss then went on to win Best in Sweepstakes and Goth took Best Opposite in Sweeps!!
The Regular classes had some nice surprises for us as well. In the 9-12 month puppy dog class, the three brothers, Shadow, Ajax and Enzo took 2nd through 4th places respectively. Gabe won the Bred-By Exhibitor dog class and Tripp won the Open dog class, with his almost 9 year old great-grandpa Ivanhoe taking 2nd to him. Tripp then went on to take Winners Dog and Gabe got Reserve. Fanci was 4th in the 9-12 puppy bitch class and Blondie was 3rd (I was so thrilled to see how she and her sister Oreo have turned out, although poor Oreo managed to cut her pad and was slightly off - but they are stunning youngsters). Pryss won the 12-18 Month class and Maverick's daughter Storm (bred by Lori at Elessar) was 3rd. A naughty Missi was 3rd in the Novice class and still got compliments despite her bratty behavior. Radar shown by a friend for her new owner, Mary) was 2nd in the class and I overheard the judge comment that she was a beautiful bitch, but a lunatic (I 100% agree
By the time Best of Breed came around, I thought I was going to fall over from all the dogs we had shown. Tyler was on "autopilot" though - and I just let out his lead and held on to the very end as he zipped around the ring like a Brittany and pretty much showed himself while I huffed and puffed behind him. I am still on cloud nine - as Tyler earned his third national specialty win! He has now won the two highest entries of Silkenfest (2009 and 2007) in addition to the 2006 show. This also finished his ISWS Grand Champion title!
A nice finish for this year's Silkenfest was Ivanhoe winning the inaugural Stud Dog class, represented by Tyler, Kandi and VooDoo. He sure gave the youngsters a run for it in the classes as well. He just needs a qualifying specialty win to complete his ISWS title - but we figure it will be hard as he lost some teeth when he broke his lower jaw a few years ago.
Needless to say - we floated home!
Friday, May 1, 2009
Three's a Charm (SilkenFest 2009)
Monday, November 10, 2008
I Did It Myself!
This past weekend Jill went to Mexico for her son Phillip's christening. David wasn't headed to the Houston shows either and we had 2 Borzoi breed judges - a rare occurrence! Even rarer - there was also a third on the panel who had not originally been assigned to judge Borzoi, but was when Saturday's judge couldn't make it.
I went ahead and entered Solo and showed him myself. Well....on Saturday we won Best of Breed (the judge was Ron Spritzer who had bred Borzoi years ago. I opted to take a picture so that I had actual photographic proof that I could get my own special out of the breed.
So I was REALLY a wreck when it came to showing in the Group. At least I had the same judge, who had said I had done a fine job of handling when we were taking that picture and I had joked about my abilities (or the lack of them). The group was packed with some heavy-hitter handlers too - so I wasn't feeling overly optimistic about my chances at ALL! At least I was standing next to a friend with her Irish Wolfhound who had originally not wanted to bother with the groups - hers had been the only entry there. I had told her...if I can show mine, you can show yours!
OMG - Solo got a Group 2!! Can't wait for the picture of that one - I did it all by myself
Nox was reserve both days, defeating older bitches too. She was a bit fazed by the first day's "enthusiastic" exam and backed off a bit on Sunday, but settled in once Sunday's judge saw she was a bit apprehensive and went over her very gently and slowly, saving checking her mouth for last.
To top it off, Victor took what we thought were completely hopeless boys to the lure coursing that weekend...and came back with 3 newly minted Junior Coursers. There's hope!! They had such short attention spans in various practice sessions previously - he said they all did nicely! J/T, Buster and Wulfie are now AKC JCs. J/T also ran in the trial on Sunday and did well, although he's still trying to figure out where all his legs are.
All in all, quite a nice weekend!
Thursday, November 6, 2008
2008 Race Nationals (LGRA/NOTRA)
Our local club, GIT (Gazehounds in Texas) hosted the 2008 OB LGRA/NOTRA nationals (straight- and oval-racing) this past weekend at WindyGlen in Boswell, OK. Victor had gone up Friday mid-day, and I went up after getting home from work and ex'ing and feeding the rest of our crew, and giving Arthur a bath so he could look all fancy for his appearance in the Legends event. Nothing like driving around at midnight in the middle of nowhere on super-dark country road on Hallow's Eve! It was a bit spooky, and on at least one occasion I thought I had missed the turn - it looked completely different in the dark!
We had set the Zoibus up for camping, and even splurged on a plug-in so we could have a/c if we needed it (we did!) and I was quite content to pass out on the air mattress up on the platform - it seemed like I had just settled in when the alarm clock buzzed at 530am. Yuk! I had two Monster energy drinks before noon - I needed an intravenous caffeine set-up though! I had volunteered to work the boards, in addition to having handled the formatting of the race catalog and any advertisements, and of course, we had the girls to run. Nox had a few meets under her, but this was Pumpkin's first official meet after having had training practices with sister Nox at the last WindyGlen meet. Also along were Buster, for some socialization, and Magik, whose ear hematoma had burst earlier in the week and we were treating it (antibiotics and 'drainage maintenance').
In the first program on Saturday, Nox came in 2nd and Pumpkin 4th. In the pictures, you could see Pumpkin contemplating the box a bit - she had pretty much been introduced to it that morning as Victor hadn't practiced her on Friday afternoon during the scheduled time. Thankfully she wasn't too completely fazed by it. Both girls finished 4th in the 2nd program (Nox had moved up to a higher race), and then in the 3rd program, darned if Nox didn't decide to try and get Pumpkin to play about halfway down the track. So much for being able to run the sibs together! At least Pumpkin kept on going and she got the Turtle award for the day (with a new toy).
For me, the highlight of the day was the Legends program. I had entered Arthur, so folks could see that the #1 racing Borzoi waaaaay back from 2000 is still up and around with a bit of get-up-n-GO! Check out the pictures in the online album - the ol' man can still kick up a dirt trail, he's not just loping easy down the track, hes still diggin' in at 10 1/2 years of age. Although he did learn that he can't stop and fling himself down on the squawker like he used to. But he'll still pick it up after having his muzzle removed
Saturday after the racing (we finished early thanks to everyone's hard work and efficiency), I attempted a brief nap before the FEAST that arrived. Fabulous slabs of medium rare prime rib, baked potatoes, salad, brownies...I gorged myself. Haven't had beef that good in a while. We also sat and chatted with some folk for a while before finally wandering back to the van to crash. We also got an extra hour of sleep (although it never seems enough to me) thanks to turning the clocks back that night!
On Sunday, Magik ended up being recruited to run in place of Pumpkin since we figured it wouldn't be a good idea to let the sibs run together again - which was unavoidable as both were NOTRA FTEs. The night before we asked a friend of ours if she could pick up some knee-highs at the Hugo Walmart to try and hold down Magik's ear so that it wouldn't bother her by flopping around. It worked - but the visual was hysterical. I don't think Magik was particularly amused - but she always looks pouty.
In the first race program, Nox ended up being the cream in the oreo cookie between one dog fouling another - after holding her own between them for a while, she stopped at the backstretch and came back the other way. It was disappointing, especially considering that she had not shown this tendency in the practices she had - we hoped it was just that she couldn't handle whatever behavior that resulted in a foul on another racer and just left its proximity - so we left her in for the 2nd program. The 2nd and 3rd programs she did well, finishing each race without incident...although we did have an interesting occurence. At the end of the 3rd program, as she was closing in on the finish line, her head was lifted and she seemed a bit distracted. My heart sank and I prayed she would cross the finish (she was several lengths in front) - which she did, and then squatted almost immediately after the finish line. You can find the answer to her mysterious distraction HERE - she was taking care of business while...taking care of business. Dan Gauss (Shot on Site) caught the moment in several frames. We were laughing hysterically when we first noticed this while going through all the photos and making our choices to take home. Nox's DNF precluded her from getting any points, but we're still proud of our girl.
Magik came away with the Best Veteran Award (and the Turtle) and got some nice bling for her trouble and Nox and Pumpkin got some nice runs in and we've got our fingers crossed for the future.
Monday, October 27, 2008
LSBC's First Specialty Show
Ten years ago tomorrow, the organizational meeting of the Lone Star Borzoi Club took place. The past ten years has seen LOTS of hard work, including fun matches, A-matches (for licensing requirements), a handling seminar, ASFA lure trials, the hosting of several BCOA trophy supported entries, an auction to raise funds for a rescue or 22 Borzoi near Houston, TX, and assisting in the hosting of the 2005 BCOA National Specialty Show (in Mesquite). In February of this year, LSBC received licensed status from AKC and this past Saturday was the club's first Specialty Show. It was held in conjunction with the all-breed cluster hosted by the Travis County Kennel Club.
Our dogs managed to earn us some nice bling - trophies created by Redbird Adams, Royale Russian Hounds, including original artworks. Royal Russian is part of the foundation behind our friend Sara's Chataqua kennels, which is part of the foundation behind Gryffyn's Aeyrie. Here's a brief rundown of how our guys did...
Sassi - Best of Opposite Sex
Solo - Award of Merit
J/T - Best Bred-by Exhibitor
Burni - Best Veteran in Sweepstakes
J/T - Best of Opposite Sex in Puppy Sweepstakes
Nox won her 12-18 month class; Faina was 3rd in a large Bred-by Class and won her Sweeps class; Burni made the cut in Best of Breed, then became invisible, but showed fabulously for an approaching 8-year old. For the life of me I cannot remember how Nox and Pumpkin did in their Sweepstakes classes! We were so busy juggling dogs and trying to keep up!
Can't wait for the pictures!
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
New Hope for the Field
Last weekend Victor went down to Hutto for the Alamo Area Whippet Club's coursing trials - they held both ASFA and AKC events each day. Peepers had already gotten a JC leg earlier this year and she finished up her Junior Courser title on Sunday, so she's now WindnSatin Peek-a-Boo, JC! I'm so happy she's decided she will make turns - she used to blow off a course after the first or second turn!
On Saturday, Nox started off gangbusters...but Victor said the lure op was getting the lure too far out and he finally dumped her at a sharp turn about 2/3 of the way through the course. She didn't get passed. On Sunday she did get her first leg...so hopefully she will wrap that up next time.
Pumpkin declined - she's all about the LGRA lure and did well at the NOTRA practices we had...but she didn't want to play this time around. Shugah hit the first turn and then her ADD kicked in - hopefully the light bulb will turn on, although she is amazingly empty-headed, especially for a girl! I expect it of the boys - but not the girls!
Speaking of the boys, we are going to need to start practicing some of them and see where their heads are at in relation to field events. So J/T, Wulfie, Buster and Lars may be heading to some local practices here soon!
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
New Title and New Beginnings
Solo had been entered at the Fort Smith, AR shows this past weekend. After a series of minor mishaps combined with the nasty weather Saturday morning (and the show committee debating on whether to cancel Saturday's show), Jill made the decision to come home after having been on the road for 3 weeks.
Well, we took our lemons and made lemonade...and took Solo along to WindyGlen for the NOTRA meet after having spent a nice Saturday there. And today, Solo earned his needed point to finished his Oval Racing Champion title!
Also, his daughter Nox (out of Duri) had nice practices the previous Saturday at the GIT meet and ran on the following Sunday in her first meet and earned her first point. Saturday at Windyglen she earned a bit more towards her GRC. Peepers (bred by Mary Childs and Susan V) also practiced and ran the previous week and ran Saturday as well and earned her first GRC point, but we're going back to some training for her, as she had a bit too much interest in one of her yardmates (Demi) - although the second program's finish was beautiful with her and Nox running shoulder-to-shoulder and heads straight while crossing the finish.
Pumpkin (Nox's sister) practiced during the GIT weekend and showed more promise than ever, so we had her along this weekend as well and on Sunday she learned to run with a muzzle on and we also did a test run with her sister Nox (to see if they would play nice with each other, which they did) and today, she and Nox were introduced to the oval (practice) and did very well.
So we're excited to have some new, young racers to work with in the coming months!
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
From Hell to Heaven (or close to it!)
I managed to survive "Hell Week"! Hoorah! And all the work resulted in some nice wins in both Silken Windhounds and Borzoi - so much the better!
At the inaugural Southern Silken Specialties in Georgia, Gabe was Reserve Winners Dog and Best Bred-By Exhibitor on Saturday and his uncle Tyler was Best Opposite Sex. Luna was Reserve Winners Bitch. At the Saturday specialty (the ISWS qualifier), Gabe was Winners Dog and then went on to win Best in Specialty Show!! He was also once again Best Bred-By. Luna was again Reserve Winners Bitch. For his trouble, Gabe got a lovely biothane sighthound collar - even more exciting, it looks like the collar's designer/creator will be getting one of our puppies!
On Monday at the Rocky Mountain Borzoi Club specialty show, Nox went on to win Best in Sweepstakes and her brother Sasha (who lives in CO with Sylvia Sieverding) was Best Opposite in Sweeps! This was our second year in a row to win BISweeps - last fall it was Lars who took the honors. Faina won the Bred-By Exhibitor class and went on to Reserve Winners Bitch. Sasha won the 9-12 Puppy Dog class and then went Reserve Winners Dog. Solo won an Award of Merit. All in all a nice day!
We also got to meet with our friends and extended family at both events. The Lockards brought Kenny to visit and show, and the Turnell's brought Bailey (Arthur/Miss T) and his little girlie friend they got from Sara. She's a petite little thing and cute as a button! There's never enough time to visit it seems like!
It took a couple days to recover from the trip, with my back acting up as well as an episode of costochondritis from sleeping (likely twisted) on a hard bed at KOA. But I still had a great time!
Monday, July 7, 2008
We're On a Shugah High!
This past weekend was the Lone Star Classic series of dog shows in Dallas, Texas - and it was also Shugah and Nox's ring debuts. On Friday, we ended up with the entire bitch entry (of 3) as the other one entered was absent - so we were at least guaranteed a point on one of our girls! Shugah came away as Winners Bitch for her first point at her first show! Nox took Reserve over half-sis Faina. Deckard was Reserve Winners Dog in a major entry.
Saturday brought more excitement despite the fact that I was a bit peeved with myself as I had mixed up the judges. I had thought Saturday's judge was on Sunday and vice versa, and so had not entered my black dogs on Sunday, having never seen the judge I thought was assigned that day put up a heavily colored dark Borzoi before. So here I was with my two black dogs showing to the judge I thought I was avoiding. My goodness - how I did enjoy in being proved wrong! Deckard won the Bred By Exhibitor class and went on to win Winners Dog for a 3-point major! You could have knocked me over with a feather! Shugah won the Bred By bitch class, over a lovely mature bitch, and then was awarded Winners Bitch! To top it off, she took Best of Winners so she also got a major towards her championship!
On Sunday Shugah's little winning streak came to an end in Winners Bitch, and she came away the Reserve winner. We're so proud of how well the girls did on their ring debuts - no little puppy tantrums, and they didn't mind the echoes nor the crowds of strange people and dogs. The fact that Shugah got some points to boot was icing on the cake! Solo won Best of Breed on Sunday against some nice competition, and then made the cut in the Hound Group in even more spectacular company, including the most gorgeous Scottish Deerhound that just floated around the ring and was exquisite standing.
There were animal rights activists picketing outside the show as well. We were lucky and didn't meet up with any of them, although some folks had their cars keyed. Classy, huh? More proof that the wackos aren't so much about loving animals as they are about hating people. Security was obviously present and the show hosting clubs made sure that the folks inside were taken care of and left alone by the raging wackos that are unable to see the truth about how involved the dog fancy is with their dogs.
Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.
--Roger Caras.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Nox and Shugah Get Edu-ma-cated
This past Saturday we took Nox and Shugah to handling class in Garland. David (who handles Solo on occasion when Jill isn't available) has discontinued classes, and it was so difficult for us to get to them anyway since they were on a weeknight and over an hour away :( So we tried another class for the first time since we're in town more often thanks to less trips out of town to show.
We were a bit apprehensive since we hadn't done much with the girls other than take them to visit at occasional field trials, and Shugah had only gone once! So neither really had show-level leashbreaking. Thought it might be nice for them to get some class experience since they are entered in their first show on July 4th!
When we arrived an earlier class was still in progress - full of plenty of interesting new breeds that the girls had never been exposed to. Borzoi can be notoriously "breedist" - recognizing the sighthound type and being wary of the others. At the first show of this year, we had a heckuva time walking Buster and Wulfie through a group of Bulldogs awaiting at ringside! They did not want to be anywhere near the "alien doggies"! Nox and Shugah didn't even look twice (and even touched nosies with some) at the Pug, Bulldog, Dachshunds, Irish Setter, BIG Irish Wolfhound, or even the Husky. So within 5 minutes of our arrival we were already doing better than expected
Both girls were a bit hesitant about the rubber mat flooring. They behaved better on lead than expected, especially since it was a bit more restrained than the "walk about on a long, loose lead in the middle of the field" method that they were familiar with. They both behaved excellent on the stacked exam, although both tend to post slightly out of fussiness about being made to stand still a certain way. A stranger's approach didn't bother them in the least, and they didn't break their stack either. Woohoo!
We might just survive the Dallas shows!
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Some Networking
Someone on one of the lists I'm on had posted some networking sites ...so I went ahead and got myself listed on them. LinkedIn.com and Plaxo.com
Here are the links to my profiles, if you're feeling bored or curious, or bored to the point of curiousity.
http://gryffyn.myplaxo.com/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/rlynnshell
At work, they decided to offer a trial program in terms of the schedule - and I took them up on it. Working 8-6 Mon. - Thu., 8-5 Fri. with every other Friday off. The pilot program ends in mid-August, but I hope they make it permanent! Considering that my daily drive is about 57 miles round-trip in the Astro-van...a day off the road would be a GOOD thing, because it's really sad when gas is becoming too expensive to get to your job to even pay your gas bill, much less the rest!
So my weekend starts tomorrow! I've got plenty to do with some web updates on several sites, as well as getting some dogs bathed - and hoping I can find information on a handling class for Saturday so I can take Shugah and Nox. Since I entered them in the Dallas shows July 4th weekend, it might be nice if they had a *little* training!
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Some New Pix and a Brief Update
Posted some new pictures we took this past weekend of the Spells pups that remain here (Nox, Azchyl and Pumpkin - 8 months), 2 of Sassi's, J/T and Shugah (7 months) as well as Peepers.
At the lure coursing in Cleburne this past weekend, Peepers turned it on for her JC run and surprised us by earning her first JC (Junior Courser) leg. Why surprise? In practice she rarely turned more than once! So it was great to see the switch go off and watch her put some effort into it! She looked pretty darned fast too - and got some nice compliments from bystanders there. Unfortunately, the brilliance only lasted halfway through the course the next day - so no JC title yet.
You can see in the picture of Peepers above that we had some pretty scenery at the coursing site. So we took advantage of it by bringing the Spells-girls with us the next day and snapping some photos. We also took advantage of the leafy tree in our front yard for pictures of J/T and Shugah.
I've uploaded the new pictures into the online albums at Gryffyn's Aeyrie and there are links to the individual albums on the Updates page.
I received some pictures from the Selmans of Lance and Tasha, and from Deb of Mukki. Need to get those downloaded, edited and uploaded as well!
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