ASFA National Greyhound Specialty

I've been coaxed out of retirement, if only briefly, and only because the drive is less than a thousand miles. And only because I'll get to see some friends I haven't seen in quite a while.

The ASFA National Greyhound Specialty will be held in Tyler, Texas on November 13, with a greyhound-only LGRA racemeet the following day. Details at the link.

The fact that you can get the finest action images of your dog... ever... should be enough to get you out to this event, but if not, I guess there're trophies and such as well.

"At Least Our Percentage is Good"

The wry comments of one M. H. Dutch Salmon, after Ashley ran down this hapless hare in the tall cover, (with a little help from Sandia, and Dutch's dogs, but it was pretty much all Ashley's hare).

Things have improved only marginally since the previous post bemoaning the lack of jackrabbits in our area.. in about 6 trips, we've run 4, caught 2 for sure, and had one hole up on Ashley and Willow. 75%. Will we still be catching them at that rate when we've run a hundred? I'd really like to find out.

My Favorite Sociopath.

Joining his Aunt Camille in a long line of spectacular serial killers.  TSH Watermelonman@shotonsite (Sandia).

Wolfman.

I know, it's a movie opening soon.  This has nothing to do with that, but will attract traffic to the blog from Google searches for the movie.

This is actually about Sandia.  We went out hunting today, as we do a couple of times a week.  This was a particularly rewarding day, with 4 long courses, culminating in a take on the mile+ fourth chase.  And as always, I took lots of pictures.  Many of them were pretty good, but it was a detail I noticed on one that caught my attention.

That's Sandia.  Looking scary.  And he looks so skinny when he's standing still!  Looking at it, I was reminded of something else:

Yeah.  That's what I thought.

Nessie.

These things seem to come out of the blue.  Last month we were a 4-dog household, but with only one dog young enough or sound enough to run competitively.  Apparently Dutch got tired of hearing me bitch about it, and offered us Ashley, who has fit in perfectly here.  Not only does she hunt expertly in tandem with Sandia, but her vocalizations are a source of constant hilarity around the house.

Last weekend, someone posted on the Deerhound discussion list about a "Deerhound" in a shelter in Cheyenne, WY.  Sometimes I follow these links to see what's out there.  This was one of those times.  Obviously, not 100% deerhound, but there's parts that are.  Most likely greyhound x deerhound, but whether 50/50 or some other ratio will forever be unknown.

Regardless, after looking at the pictures, I think I was hooked.  Sent the link to Margaret's computer and she was also hooked.  There was only one thing to do, and I did it.  I emailed the shelter, said I was interested, and asked about the adoption procedure. I already knew someone would be coming to New Mexico from Wyoming, and would be passing through Cheyenne, and was pretty sure I could get her here without having to drive all the way up there.

I got a nice email from the director of  Black Dog Animal Rescue.  She spelled out the routine, and mentioned they usually do a home visit, but because of the distance, she would accept 3 references and our veterinarian. No problem. As you probably know, I could come up with a hundred references, and 2 dozen veterinarians if I needed to.  People all around the country know our dogs live the life of Reilly, or if not Reilly, at least Snoopy.

Then the oddness happened.  While I was lining up my five references, I got another email from the shelter director.  It began, "I've looked at your blog....".  Uh Oh, I thought.  You know what's on this blog.  Dogs chasing jackrabbits.  Dead jackrabbits. Liberal politics.  I'm in trouble.

No such thing, as it turned out.  She decided, after reading the blog, that Margaret and I would be the perfect home for Nessie!  This was definitely not a California shelter!

So, in less than a week, we got the paperwork done, we got the contract sent out, we coordinated with Heather Minnich, who would be doing the delivery as far as Socorro, and last night we made the exchange at the Socorro Motel 6.  We were home by 10:15,  where I attempted a photo with my phone for Facebook.  Not easily done in a dimly lit room and a black dog.  The photos, which you see here, were taken in the bright sunlight.  They'll get more artistic when she becomes more comfortable and we can let her off lead.

Of course, all the dogs gathered around when we arrived, and of course they all sniffed a bit, and accepted her.  All but one, that is.  The resident male.  The legend in his own mind, Sandia who still hasn't stopped barking every time he sees her, and does his best to make sure she knows he's the boss of the pack.  What a jerk.  He did this with Ashley, too, and he'll eventually get over it.  Especially if she works with him in the field as well as Ashley does.  Dutch's Pack Hunt is coming up, after all.

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Now there's irrefutable proof there's a Scottish Deerhound in there.  Only dog on the planet with a nose like that!

It Rains. It Pours.... Dogs.

Gosh.  It seems like just last month we picked up Ashley, the greyhound/lurcher girl from Dutch.  Wait.  It was just last month.

Now.  (Now?)... well, just watch this space.  I'll be making a road trip tomorrow.

A Changed Perspective.

I did something different this weekend.  There was a hunt locally, and I left the dogs at home, opting instead to carry about ten pounds of photographic equipment around the desert instead.  The results were, modestly speaking, fantastic.

Usually when I shoot, either at a hunt, or just out free coursing with friends, I'm with the gallery, and all the shots look the same.  You get a jackrabbit butt, and you get hound butts, as they disappear  into the distance.  This time, I got some separation from the group, and either hung out with the judge, or got off by myself, sometimes getting shots from the side, like this attached slideshow of the Saturday Greyhound final, or way out in front as I did for this second run from Sunday's preliminary Greyhound run.

In the slideshow above, I think I captured the feel of one of the best courses I think I've ever witnessed.  All three hounds in the chase took at least one shot at one of the most badassed jackrabbits I've ever seen. He even slipped away from a near fatal tactical error, where he turned left to avoid one dog not realizing the other two were waiting about 6 feet further left.  He finally created enough space to scamper over the hill and get into the rougher 

vegetation, and made his escape.

It was pretty obvious he'd experienced the hot breath of other predators in his brief life as a prey animal, and used all of his tricks.  Hats off to you, Mr. Hare!

Every Day In Every Way...

...yada yada yada...

I'm probably looking forward to this Winter's coursing season a little more than I ever have.  For the first time, we'll have hounds who are fit and ready for competition right out of the box.  Remember, for the past 5 or 6 years, we've been showing up in New Mexico in January after having spent the previous 11 months traveling around the country, shooting lure coursing trials, and staying at campgrounds where we have to leash up the dogs and walk them around a small area.  Rarely...no, never, have we stayed anywhere where the dogs were free to run around.  So when we got to New Mexico, we had a limited amount of time to get them ready for competition, or even for just going out free-coursing.

Well, that all changed last March, when we moved into our house in Deming.  We've been running consistently, at least once a week, and more often, twice since the end of September.  And that's made all the difference in the world for Sandia.  Of late, he's been spending more and more time at the head of the chase, especially late in the chase.  Check him out.  That's one buff  looking Galgo!.

Is he handsome... or what?

First Team Test.

Make no mistake, Sandia and Ashley have run together numerous times in the last two years, but always they were accompanied by other hounds. Dutch always brings at least three dogs, and before this year, we'd usually have one of our older girls, and we're often accompanied by other friends from the area.

This photo, however, captures the first jackrabbit run by Sandia (blue) and Ashley (pink) as a "team".  Yesterday morning, Margaret and I took the pair to the big ranch on the way to Las Cruces.  They turned it a couple of times, (the images was taken after the left turn, and just prior to the right turn).  Just before they disappeared over the yucca covered ridge in the distance, we saw Ashley pass Sandia...  briefly.  At that point, he downshifted, spooled up the turbo and repassed.  Then they were gone.

They didn't bring anything back to us, but I figure that's just a matter of time and training, a couple times a week.  Probably going out again tomorrow.

Nothing Punches Up the Numbers Like a New Dog!

Ashley.

We just returned from Silver City, where we picked up new pack member, Ashley, from Dutch Salmon.  This is a trial period.  She's three years old, and is not quite used to living in a house.. with people.  She did have access to the indoors, with Dutch's other dogs in the kennel.  Right now, she's hanging out by the back door, and shows no inclination to venture further into the house.  We'll see how it shakes out.  If all goes well, we'll have a young pack for the Pack Hunt for the first time in several years!

For the curious, Ashley is roughly 3/8 Saluki-Tazi, and 5/8 coldblood greyhound.  She's been out often with us, so going out with her tomorrow with just Sandia and me shouldn't be too much of a problem.  Unless she decides to go the 90 miles back to Silver City.

The Life.

Yeah, because the Express broke down before we even hit El Paso, we missed the big lure coursing trial we were going to shoot this weekend.  I had to do this instead.  Damn.  (Sandia in blue)

Subcontracting.

Here's a scene from the first course of the first TCC hunt on Saturday. I didn't feel like toting around the camera and my heavy binoculars, so I subcontracted out the duties, and passed my camera off to our friend, Frank Vigneri, who captured the release perfectly. That's me and Sandia on the right, running with a longdog, whose name I didn't get, in pink, and Sandia's brother, Zuni, in yellow. The jack can be seen upper left, and despite the handicap of being on the wrong end of the line at the start, Sandia won this course.

Because the temperature climbed over 70 in the early afternoon, the hunt was called after the preliminary round, so Sandia ended up 4th overall, out of 15 entered. It was a pretty good day.

(New) Mexican Stand Off.

Buffy barks at a lot of things she sees out the window; cottontails, quail, jackrabbits. Sometimes they're in the yard, most often the things she sees are outside the fence.

She started barking this morning. We looked out the window. Coyotes. Four of them, just crossing the road right in front of the gate. Buffy hates coyotes. She was bred in Iowa to be a coyote hound. She's loudly voiced her hatred for coyotes since she heard her first pack of yodelers as a 15 week old pup back in Franklin, Wisconsin.

So, what the hell.... we opened the door and let everybody out for a mad dash to the gate.

Coyote wasn't intimidated, and probably would have continued the stare down if I hadn't come

out on the front porch with the camera. He trotted off immediately after this picture was taken.

Buffy will never outgrow her hatred of coyotes.

"Please Release Me, Let Me Go"

A very short slide show of the best "slips" of the weekend in Stanley, NM.

We're laughing with you.

The Long Wait is Over!

Counting on my fingers I see it's been 6 months... 6! A half a year since Sandia's been able to chase a jackrabbit. He was ready.

Leelanau Mithrandir (Randir) 8/19/96 - 9/6/09

We put in almost a million miles together. He will be greatly missed. I'll try and put together a "celebration of Randir's life" slide show soon.

Nobody Got Hurt. (OK, one turned ankle)

Many readers will get it, but for some people, this is considered "fun". I'll try and have Margaret stitch together a panoramic shot of the aftermath. I'll go up on the roof and shoot the "aerial" version, now that everyone but us is gone.

This, friends, was the 2009 ASFA International Invitational Swimming and Diving Meet.

Optimism Is

Yesterday was the rabies vaccination expedition to the Deming Animal Clinic for dogs and the cat. Everybody was due except Sandia, who's a year off the schedule.

This included the nearly 13 year old Randir the Scottish Deerhound (which the clinic hilariously recorded as a Scottish Terrier...).

It's a 3 year vaccination.

That's optimism.

We Go "Hunting"

"We are Fam-i-leeee"... That's Sandia and his sister, Maya in the image above. While she's longer than tall, and he's taller than long, the family resemblance is still unmistakable.

Maya's owners came down to Deming for the open house on Saturday, and became the first overnight guests in the cabin. They pronounced it very comfortable.

Yesterday morning we headed out to the well known big ranch with Dutch, and another acquaintance with some rookie Azawakhs. Recently, the jackrabbits at this location have been bountiful, to say the least. On this day, for whatever reason, they made themselves scarce. Maybe the increased coyote activity we noticed had something to do with it. We almost never see coyotes here, and on this morning, we saw 4 in the access road as we arrived, and later, two followed Sandia's aunt Camille back from her first run. The stopped when they noted the people in the equation, and returned to whatever nefarious deeds they were originally involved in.

On a typical recent day we would have run 6 or 7 jacks by 10:30, and been on our way back to Deming for brunch at the Campos. Yesterday, we were still struggling to find a 4th rabbit so everyone could have run twice at 1PM!

That's when we put Sandia and Maya off-slip to better scare up the hares. As the picture above shows, they worked very well together. Not straying too far, stopping periodically, then moving, right to left, left to right in front of the gallery. We'd been at this for nearly an hour and were walking in the direction of the vehicles when they took off at a run. Not an all out run, but purposeful, until they flushed a group of meadowlarks. Oh. Birds. And as soon as we relaxed again, Sandia was right on the butt of a jackrabbit! So they did see something.

They were quite a ways away when this race started, but Dutch released Phyllis, and the Azawakh was slipped and everyone was away. The pack followed the hare right towards the vehicles, which smart ones sometimes try to use as a "pick", but this fooled no one, as the 4 dogs stayed right on it.

They were out of sight briefly, then we could see them still in a group, way beyond the vehicles... a quarter mile for more. My binoculars were in my pack, so I was doing my best to see the course with the naked eye. I saw the dust cloud, then saw no more.

We waited for further developments, when someone said, "they're coming back." We started walking towards the trucks, as a couple of the hounds waited there. Then I heard, "one of them's carrying something". It was Sandia, and they'd caught the hare on a roughly two minute chase. Dutch, who had watched with binoculars, said Sandia would have won the course if he'd been judging it, but all 4 hounds would have had an assist in the kill, as the group was turning the hare every 50 yards or so. I've seen Sandia not bring the hare back when he wasn't the hound who picked it up, so I know he got this one. It will be in the crock pot by this evening.

So, here's the "money" shot I didn't get a couple weeks ago. He dropped it about 50 yards short of us.. I guess it felt pretty heavy after running it almost a mile, then carrying it back almost a half mile.

People are always discussing.... (arguing?) the difference between "coursing" and "hunting". My definition has always been pretty simple: If you go out with your hounds and don't bring back a jackrabbit... you were coursing. Yesterday, Sandia and his kin, and buddies went hunting!