I've really fallen down on the job of keeping the latest news posted. But there wasn't much to brag about this weekend. I camped out on the field with Shannon Lyons (Shannon Down Whippets) and we enjoyed each other's company, helped each other with the dogs and ate good food.



Saturday I had Aren, Derby & Kira entered. One dog in each stake, the way I like it, which minimizes the chances of back to back runs. The heat was brutal, temps up to 100 degrees and the heat index was said to be about 120 on the field. Thankfully Shannon had found the only spot that was completely in the shade all day long except for about 5 mintues mid-morning, so we coped pretty well with it.



The course plan was very difficult, at one point it came straight down a hill, over a shallow rise then straight up another hill, and I'm talking steep angles here! All three of my dogs came down that hill over the rise and than ran straight into the ground. Aren actually hit his shoulder and did a flip. Kira hit the ground so hard that her entire chest was one big bruise. (Thankfully I had Arnica tablets to give her and Arnica cream to apply directly to the skin!) The learning curve on this course wasn't too bad, and all three dogs managed to negotiate the sequense fine on the final run. All three dogs finished out of the points, but after watching the way the course plan actually ran, I felt lucky that the injuries we sustained were minor.



Saturday night we had one big thunder boomer, and later another period of just rain, but with the rain came cooler temperatures and after the rain it was actually quite nice sleeping weather.



Sunday morning still came too early, even though I didn't have to get up and drive. With Shannon's generator going, we had fresh brewed coffee, and that makes the whole world look a lot better! At roll call I discovered that Greyhound Ruby had come in season overnight and therefore wasn't permitted to run. I heard from the Field Trial Secretary that there were 29 Open Whippets and that if we had one more we could split the stake and have two 5 point majors available, so I put Derby in again, in addition to Avery and Marseille who were already entered. EEEK - THREE dogs all in the Open stake! Not the way I usually plan things, but they did put Derby in one stake and the girls in the other, so it made things a little easier.



The course plan ran much better on Sunday than it did on Saturday, and the field committee shortened it up some more to make it safer to run from what was published, but it still ran up over the hill so the handlers could not see the dogs for about half the course. Derby and Marseille both had OK runs in the preliminaries, from what I could see. Avery, on the other hand, did not. Evidently she must have taken her eyes off the lure for a moment, when she was over the hill out of sight, and then couldn't find it again. When the lure came back in my sight off to my right, there was only one dog following it, then a few long seconds later, here come Avery and the third dog over the hill from the left. Needless to say, Miss Avery got a very poor score on that run. Derby's score was quite a bit lower than the first place dogs in his stake, and he'd managed to bloody up a couple of his knuckles on his first run, so I decided it was in his best interest to pull him from the competition for the day. Leaving me only Avery and Marseille to run in the finals.



Avery had a VERY nice run in the finals and got almost the highest score given in the finals, but not enough to pull up her overall score enough to get any points. Marseille had an awsome course, but her score didn't reflect how great a run she had. That happens sometimes. Marseille finished in a tie for 4th place, but I forfeited due to the heat since there were no points involved. Avery finished up one point behind Marseille, so I guess that put her in 6th place. A very respectible finish for the little girls.



~~Joanne