Ending 2010 on a High Note

December 2011 saw two Gryffyns complete the requirements for their AKC conformation championships!

First was Deckard, who took Winners Dog (and 1 Best of Winners) both days of the Conroe Kennel Club's show cluster. His finishing win was bestowed by breeder/judge Pat Murphy, Oaklara Borzoi. What a greay way to wrap up his show career (he hates showing, so this is it for him)!

Ch. Gryffyn's Aeyrie Blade Runner
"Deckard"

Our second champion of the month is miss Pumpkin. This Solo/Duri daughter has blossomed into a lovely little lady and she loves to show off (must get that from Dad)! She completed her championship at the Dallas shows, and some of her friends from the local performance club saw her - not used to seeing her all dolled-up and overgroomed! They usually see her in her normal "tomboy state."

Ch. Gryffyn's Aeyrie Incendio, SC
"Pumpkin"

Pumpkin Pumps Us Up!

The first show of the year was that hosted by the Nolan River Kennel Club in Glen Rose, TX. This year members of the Lone Star Borzoi Club hosted a BCOA Trophy Supported Entry in conjunction with the Saturday show. In the Sweepstakes classes, Ozzy and Ray placed second and third, respectively. Their mother Duri was entered in the Veteran Sweeps and placed Best Opp to Kalipso's brother Kazimir, who we had here for several months some years ago. Kaz now lives with our friend Tim in Boyd, TX. In the Regular classes, Ozzy came away with a 4th placement in a very large Bred-By class; Faina won the Bred-By class on the girls' side, with Pumpkin taking second to her. Duri again came away with Best Opp Veteran.

Duri
At the Sunday show Ozzy placed 2nd and Ray 4th in another large BBE class. Faina was 3rd in he BBE class - and Pumpkin won the BBE bitch class. Pumpkin then went on to take Winners Bitch and Best Opposite Sex (over 4 bitch specials) for a 4 point major! Our little fireball is finally filling out and maturing - she is certainly enjoying getting to go our and showoff too!
Pumpkin

The 2009 Running Season Begins With a Bang

J/T with the day's judge, Tom Golcher, Zoiboyz
On September 19th the running season got back into swing here in Texas and we attended the local RR trial. J/T needed three singles to finish his AKC field championship, so when he won Best of Breed for 2 points, we decided to let him run for Best in Field since there was 3 points available. We thought....what the heck, it would give him what he needed if he pulled it off. I was quite dismayed when he drew a track greyhound bitch that I've seen run and win BIF before. I figured we didn't have a prayer at that point.

OMG - he put in the best run I've ever seen him do, staying close to her while
maintaining nice follow - except for the big cheat straightaway they both did at the start, where I was pleasantly surprised she didn't leave him yards and yards behind. Towards the end of the course it dipped a bit out of site, I was so happy to see J/T appear just before the grey-girl (and on course) - he was really working it!

I was thrilled that he was awarded BEST IN FIELD (a Whippet and Rhodesian Ridgeback were also running), and won his third major, becoming BIF DC Gryffyn's Aeyrie Bringin' Sexy Back, SC!

This makes the third homebred AKC Dual Champion for me (and 4th for Victor) and the 7th for us to have had the pleasure to have in our lives here. I think this makes him the next youngest Borzoi to achieve this...the youngest being our Kalipso from Nadine at Rising Star.

Hopefully we will have more on the way, as Nawti, Sparkk, Ray, Shayde (Tim's girl) and Ozzy (all Duri's pups from her breeding to Achilles) have had some promising practice runs.

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').

Victor walking Buster in the way-too-early morn
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 - and be really proud of it too!

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.

Magik shows fine form for a Veteran racer, despite the funny headgear
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.

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!

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!

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!

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.

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.

Nox
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!

Good Day at Faith City

It didn't start off that great - next time I make entries for one of the puppies, I will bring them in for the next 2 weeks after making entry! Apparently Pumpkin got to play the part of "bunny" in a rousing game of chase and bruised her left shoulder. She was just off enough that I opted not to show her. A shame since she was doing really well on learning the finer points of being a show prospect. She did accompany us to the show (in Wichita Falls, TX) and I brought her in before and after showing so she could take in the atmosphere. She did very well and met some new friends!

Bugg was in fine form, albeit sullen at being asked to work. She humored me through the class, winning Open Bitch. She did show well and even did a nice stack at the end of her down-and-back and kept it up, coming away not only with Winners Bitch, but taking Best Opposite over 4 bitch specials for a 5-point major under breeder/judge Jan Leikam (Adrienne Borzoi)! This was her second 5-pointer, so we are quite pleased, needless to say! This puts her at 12 points and both majors - I will be entering her in the Fort Worth shows tomorrow, I guess.

As to who she took Best Opp to - Solo! So a very VERY nice outing for us - even though the group judge had failed to find him the day before in breed competition. There was a reason I hadn't entered class dogs the day before!