Life Adventures

I have had an epiphany.  A Greyhound is not a Ridgeback.  While I have enjoyed the accolades of having the 2 fastest RIdgebacks in the sport of agility, I knew it was achieved in part through building drive.  So I followed suit with Frye.  Here is a look at the results.... I immediately reached out to Jen Bachelor for help (http://neversaynevergreyhounds.blogspot.com/).  She advised me to get the zooms out first thing in the morning.  Frye is never off lead.  We do a lot of hiking on lead, but only time she is off lead is in the ring.  So it is no surprise she would take full opportunity to enjoy the freedom.  So on the next day we started "Operation TOG" - Tire Out Greyhound). Frye ran for toys and for recalls until she started to pant.  Then two hours later she ran her novice course and qualified.  Thank you Jen!

We came to the show because it was on home turf.   Not our real home, but part of me never left Georgia.  This is the reason that every April we go down to the agility show in Perry, Ga.   We go mainly to see old friends, have everyone over for a cookout a the RV and catch up, allowing myself to feel like I did in the old days, when I felt most alive in my life. This year will be an anomaly, our first to miss the April Perry show in 10 years.   We can’t justify the long trip and time off work 2 months in a row.   Another compelling reason to go is that the Nationals aren’t usually so close to home.  The only other time we entered the show, despite qualifying every year we were eligible, was the Harrisonburg, PA Nationals in 2014. Ironically, I wasn’t looking that forward to Nationals.   I’ve always set my agility vision on the Invitational, hoping to make the finals, hoping to take home a placement trophy.  The Nationals is the most c...

Yes, in hindsight it was a crazy idea to show Frye at 7:30 am in the morning after a 3 hour drive to the show for her very first performance in the ring.  The course started with a tunnel, so that took some pressure off worrying about her holding a start-line stay.  I was also excited to see that the course was really just 2 large speed circles, with the obstacles all in a straight line.  I thought this would be pretty simple for Frye since we've worked multiple speed circles with tunnels and weaves in the yard.  What could go wrong? After speaking with my friend Jen Bachelor who has trained Greyhounds for years in agility (her blog is http://neversaynevergreyhounds.blogspot.ca/ ), I learned that I need to run the zoomies out of Frye PRIOR to her entering the ring.  This is very different from a Ridgeback where one has to time perfectly getting them out of the crate just moments before they run in order to get the most drive out of them. Fortunately, I had F...