Schedule Update, and a List Essay.

First things first, as it's been a while since I updated the schedule:

April 16-17 BCOSW Belvedere, IL (ASFA)
April 20-22 Jackrabbit hunting in OK!
April 23 IHCA Shreveport, LA (All breed AKC trial)Tentative.
April 24 BCOA Ferris, TX (Borzoi ASFA trial)
April 25 BCOA Ferris, TX (Borzoi LGRA races)
April 30-May 1 LSWC Ferris, TX (All breed AKC trial)
May 7-8 AAWC Hutto, TX (All breed ASFA)
May 17 IWCA Gray Summit, MO (IW ASFA trial)
May 18 IWCA Gray Summit, MO (IW LGRA races)
May 19 IWCA Gray Summit, MO (IW Agility) Tentative.
May 21-22 WCLCC Hobart, IN (All breed ASFA trial)
May 28-29 NCC Ravenna, OH (All breed AKC trial)
June 4-5 ASFA International Invitational, Remington VA
June 7-10 SCOA National Specialty, Lexington, KY
June 11-12 NCC Oberlin, OH WRA (and LGRA?)& fun match
Sept 18-23 The Dog's Camp Asheville, NC
Sept 26-28 BCOA Basenji National Specialty, Gray Summit, MO
Sept 30-Oct 1 Loomis, Nebraska Dog Races and Swapmeet.

Whew! What a schedule.. and most of the missing Summer weekend dates should get filled in. We're also going to try and get the gig shooting the Kenton, OH "Coondog Nationals" on the week leading up to Labor Day. For those not familiar with coondogs, (as opposed to coonhounds!), they're basically greyhounds.... that bark/bay. The coondog races are a speed event, covering a distance of about a mile. There are also water races. It's a massive event held in central Ohio every year for a long, long time!

We're also most likely going to do the WCLCC trial at Hobart in September, because we NEVER miss the pig roast. More events will be listed as they become established.


DOG LISTS- (they eat their own)

I noticed a strange phenomenon this week on one of the lists I'm on. I became involved in a bit of an imbroglio.. a first for me; have been on numerous lists since '98 or so and have never been in an imbroglio. And all from a brief "toss off" posting. It brought about the cannibalistic nature of lists, and I'm not sure I'm going to stay subscribed to most of them, other than for informational (read: business) purposes.

But anyway, back to the interesting dynamic... where the people on the list one least identifies with (for political, personality, or whatever reasons) become one's defenders, and those who are one's (supposed) friends turn on them. Very disconcerting. And a little bit hurtful. I'll be more careful around them in the future. Especially the instigator, who has a long history of this sort of thing on many lists, and in my thoroughly non-professional opinion, should probably seek therapy to root out the source of their insecurity. It ain't natural.

Schedule Update

Here's what we have for the next few weeks:

February 19 Dutch Salmon's Desert Hare Classic New Mexico
February 20 TCC Open/Mixed Hunt New Mexico
February 26-27 GIT LGRA Altoga, TX
March 5-6 RTG LGRA/NAWRA/AB NOTRA Boswell, OK
March 12-13 LKC AKC trials/tests Folsom, LA

There's LGRA in Florida the following weekend, and I'm checking on whether we can go to that.

So, tomorrow I head for the Desert Hare, with Rally and Fanny. Have to go alone, with just the car... economic considerations based on the lack of income-producing events two weekends in a row. The entry has dropped this week from the max of 18 hounds, to 14 hounds. Betters our odds, but also reduces the purse. Winning some money would be very, very welcome at this time.

Free Coursing the Lazy E

You ought to be able to see a bigger version of this shot. Click on it to enlarge. Rally is here, hot on the tail, as she always is. Randir stays with the course all the way to the fence. Randir don't do fences!  


This is Rally two days after her hypoglycemic episode at the Pack Hunt. Seems none the worse for wear.

And there's something gratifying about seeing an almost 9 year old Scottish Deerhound enthusiastically chasing some of the fastest jackrabbits in the country.. even though he doesn't put much of a fright into them.

The Lost Weekend

But before I go into last weekend... it's time to update the Shot On Site schedule..

Feb 5-6 GIT NOTRA McKinney, TX (Doggie Camp)
Feb 12-13 NOTHING! We need your input!
Feb 19 Dutch Salmon's Desert Hare Classic Somewhere in NM.
Feb 20 TCC Open/Mixed Hunt Somewhere in NM


To make a long story short... as if that were easy for me to do... but the details will be found in the next issue of Performance Sighthound Journal.

We went to New Mexico last weekend for Dutch Salmon's Pack Hunt. This is an event where folks run their hounds, or "pack", against the blacktailed jackrabbit, with the only "judge" being whether they catch the hare or not. Well, it was a long day, and our pack... "Dan's Hot All-Girl Review"... was drawn to go 6th. Well, by the time we were ready to run, Rally had gone into a hypoglycemic funk, and couldn't run. So our pack was reduced to Fanny and Buffy. Buffy being Buffy, just ran really fast straight ahead, and was a non-factor. Fanny was right on the jack for a couple hundred yards, but without help from Buffy, our day- and entry fee- was a lost cause.

Congratulations do go to Bill and Cindy Brown, and Chris Mason, whose packs did manage to catch their jacks.

The next day, the TCC hunt at the Corralitos, just kind of disintegrated, as we ran only one rabbit before 1 O'Clock, and the wind came up and everyone went home without completing the mixed hunt, or the Saluki breed hunt.

Thus, lost weekend.

But Monday was a new week, and we decided to take the girls- and Randir- back to the Corralitos for some free coursing. The best news to come out of this was that Rally seemed to be mostly recovered from her weekend "event", and her formerly dislocated toe seems to have held together well, when taped, as the photo shows.

Schedule

We're going to try and keep the schedule always near the top of the blog. So here is the latest:

January 15-16 AAWC ASFA Trials Hutto, TX
January 22-23 AHCD ASFA Trials Ferris, TX
January 29 Dutch Salmon's Pack Hunt Las Cruces, NM
January 30 TCC Open/Mixed Hunt TBD NM

We're urgently seeking events in the Southwest (TX, NM, AZ, OK, etc) for February. Particularly the 12th & 13th. Anything action-oriented will do! Lure Coursing, straight or oval races, whippet or other breed, agility, horse, flower, cat, or rabbit shows, kid soccer... whatever! Thanks for anything you can help with.

Jabbering about the weather and other stuff

Is this another El Nino year? Lots of terrible weather on the coast and really nice weather everywhere else? Being in Texas for the second Winter in a row has been downright pleasant; most of the time. Take this week for instance- It's been t-shirt and shorts weather. And even when it gets cold- like it's about to tomorrow- I just need to look at a weather forecast for Wisconsin, or Michigan and I say to myself: This ain't cold. This is all right.

The AKC trials and tests at Glen Rose, TX last weekend were pretty successful, despite an uncharacteristic bonehead move on my part. On Sunday, I imagined that I had swapped CF cards with Margaret, and went ahead and reformatted the card in the camera. Oops.. senior moment... It was a card with the first 22 or so JC's, which hadn't been downloaded to the laptop yet. Gone... just like that. Fortunately, we have a program that we found last Summer when our external hard drive crashed, disappearing about 9000 archived images. It's called "Get Data Back", and it worked then, to recover the images, and it worked... finally... this week, after a couple of days of trying. Some of the images were corrupted, but most of the good ones were saved.

Many of you read about Rally, our half & half gyp in Performance Sighthound Journal. Since her early success in the open field, there have been a "series of unfortunate incidents". Starting with a dislocated toe in early December, followed by several episodes of grand mal seizures- origins unknown, but some popular, non-prescribed medications and treatments are prime suspects. The seizures are under control now, and we'll be weaning her off the phenobarb, as she's unlikely to have any more as long as I don't give her any more Ivomec or Arnica Montana. I think there's another whole Sighthound Performance Journal article brewing here.

We've been spending the week indoors. The Bounder.. er, the Hare Brained Express, has been parked inside at The Paint & Body Shop in Brownwood, TX, finally getting the tree damage repaired. The guys here have done a fabulous job so far, and the owner, Terry Blevins, (a poor, misguided "W" supporter), has let us live in the vehicle, has given us a key to the building so we can come and go in the evenings, and, the building even has a shower in the bathroom. With luck, we should roll out of here tomorrow. And the best part is the insurance company pays for all but $800 of a $5000+ repair. (Almost $6000 when the shipping's thrown in). And I thought all I did was damage the right outside mirror. Wrong-o.

More news as it happens, and after the AAWC trials in Hutto this weekend.

Schedule

Next on the agenda:

January 8-9 AHCD AKC Trials & Tests Glen Rose, TX
January 15-16 AAWC ASFA Trials Hutto, TX
January 22-23 AHCD ASFA Trials Ferris, TX
January 29 Dutch Salmon's Pack Hunt Las Cruces, NM
January 30 TCC Open/Mixed Hunt TBD NM

Happy New Year 2005!!