NAMAA Nationals: Conformation Day 2

Sunday's conformation show was judged by Mr. George Bell. For those who don't know George, he is an avid hare courser, and breeder of some very accomplished coursing Greyhounds and Salukis. While George and his late wife started out with Salukis, he is now focused almost exclusively on Greyhounds, particularly the "half and half" variety. A "half and half" as they are affectionately called is a Greyhound that has both NGA and AKC bloodlines in its pedigree. Needless to say, George is more than qualified to judge working sighthounds, and I was excited at the prospect of having him judge our Agars.

I decided to keep things simple and leave all the dogs in the same classes they had previously been entered in. Unfortunately for us, the race track for the LGRA specialties was being setup in plain view of the show ring, and all of our dogs were well aware of what was going on, which made showing them a bit of a challenge to say the least.

Pi being very uncooperative

Photo by Ed Sakai

Pi went into the ring first and was about as cooperative as a bucking bronco. I don't know if that had anything to do with George's choices, but it certainly didn't help.

Gator, Photo by Ed Sakai

Next up were Gil and Gator in Open. The two older gentleman were slightly more composed than Pi, but not much. Between the two, George picked Gil. In addition to coursing his dogs, George enjoys taking them into the show ring on occasion, and he tends to like dogs that are "pretty" as opposed to more rugged types. So, I wasn't surprised that he preferred Gil over Gator, as Gil is definitely more slight of build. Between Gil and his son, George predictably went with Gil.

Peshamba showing off her lovely side gait

Photo by Jairi Rai

Next in the ring was Peshamba. Knowing George's preferences in dogs, I had hopes that he would like her, despite her post-season condition. I was definitely not wrong. Even though Pesh was pretty uncooperative in the ring, he remarked to her owner/handler that he liked her, which gave me hope for at least a Winner's Bitch award.

Luna on the go-around

Photo by Ed Sakai

In Open Bitches, Luna was quite beside herself with the race track being so close by and did not show as well as she has before. Nevertheless, I had a feeling George would prefer Patti over Luna, and I was right. Patti's show performance was greatly improved over what it had been the day before; she was much more relaxed with minimal help from her handler, and when she went around the ring I saw her move like I had never seen her move before. She reminded me a lot of both her mother and father; a seamless blend of both, and I was very proud :-)

Patti getting ready to go around the ring

Photo by Ed Sakai

That pitted the two sisters against each other for Winner's Bitch. As their breeder and "second mother" I would have been happy and proud for either of them to win, but as I had hoped George picked Pesh for Winners Bitch!

Winners Bitch Peshamba

Photo by Ed Sakai

And, last but not least were the Veteran girls, Belle and Fecni. Again, George's choice was pretty predictable, and he went with the prettier Belle over the more rugged Fecni.

Belle, Photo by Ed Sakai

Mama Fecni, Photo by Ed Sakai

That put Gil, Peshamba, and Belle in the ring for Best of Breed. I was so tired by that time not just from going around the ring several times, but also having to handle several uncooperative and strong dogs. In the end, George picked Gil for Best of Breed, which did not surprise me. What I was really waiting for was to see who he would pick for Best Opposite. I felt that both girls stood a good chance of winning, but I was thrilled when he handed the ribbon to Peshamba.

Gil, Best of Breed under George Bell

Photo by Steve Tradewell

Peshamba, Best of Opposite Sex under George Bell

Photo by Steve Tradewell

NAMAA Nationals: Conformation Day 1

Before I get into the details of the first day's events, I thought I'd give a little bit of background on how this event came to be. I have a lot of good friends in the Silken Windhound community (if you don't know what that is you can Google it), and every year the local breed club hosts a regional specialty around Halloween time, which they appropriately dubbed "Boofest". Boofest started out as just a gathering of Silken pet owners and fanciers, and it eventually grew into one of the largest specialties for the breed in the United States. The specialty takes place over two days; each day there is a conformation show in the morning, and in the afternoon there is a performance event (lure coursing on Saturday and sprint racing on Sunday). Our Magyar Agar breed club (NAMAA) doesn't have much of a treasury, so the prospect of putting on our own specialty event was simply out of our budget. It was through the generosity of the Silken Windhound club that we were invited to host our Inaugural NAMAA National Specialty alongside the Silken regional specialty.

The setting for our specialty was the beautiful Kirigin Cellars winery in Gilroy, CA. The lawn is always kept in pristine condition, with short cut grass and excellent soft footing; perfect for showing and field events.

Saturday's conformation show was judged by Lorraine Marchant, a Borzoi breeder who has recently switched over to Silkens, and who had at one time worked in a racing Greyhound kennel in England. I heard through the grapevine that Ms. Marchant was looking forward to judging our Agars, so I wanted to make sure we put our best feet forward for her. We had eight Agars entered in the conformation show; Pi in the Bred by Exhibitor class, Gil and Gator in Open Dogs, Peshamba in American Bred Bitches, Luna and Patti in Open Bitches, and Belle and Fecni in Veteran Bitches. Ms. Marchant was extremely thorough in her examination of each dog, and she even had a little tape recorder that she would make comments into about each entry.

Photo by Ed Sakai

Pi was the first dog to enter the ring, and I could tell that she really liked him from the beginning. I didn't catch all of her audio comments, but I did hear her say that he had all the correct body proportions called for in the standard and that he moved very well.

Photo by Ed Sakai

Next up were Gil and Gator in Open. Gator hasn't been shown much, but he took to it like a pro and Ms. Marchant was very impressed with his overall body condition. In the end she picked Gil. Between Gil and Pi, Ms. Marchant picked Pi without hesitation for Winners Dog.

Photo by Ed Sakai

Peshamba was next in American Bred, which normally isn't a class that gets a lot of attention, but given that there has only been one recorded MA litter born in the USA I think it's particularly appropriate to have at least one dog entered in that class. Unfortunately, Pesh was fresh out of season, so she wasn't in good weight and her muscles were squishy. Nevertheless, she showed herself well.

Photo by Ed Sakai

Patti and Luna were entered in the Open Bitch class. Patti still needs some work on her show training, which made her no match for Princess Luna who's always ready for her moment in the spotlight. Between Luna and Peshamba, the judge went with Luna for Winners Bitch.

Photo by Ed Sakai

And last, but certainly not least, we had Belle and Fecni entered as Veterans. Usually veterans are not considered for Winners, but they can be considered for Best of Breed. Ms. Marchant seemed quite captivated by Belle, remarking that she was "sound as a pound" after watching her on the move. Mama Fecni has put on some excess weight in her old age, but she still moves very well for an old lady. Between the two of them, the judge went with Belle for Best Veteran.

Photo by Ed Sakai

That left us with three dogs in the Best of Breed ring; Winners Dog, Winners Bitch, and the Veteran Bitch. The judge had been quite pleased with each of the three dogs, so I wasn't sure who she was going to pick for the top honors. She had us move around the ring one more time, and on that final go-around I decided to showcase Pi and let him free stack himself while I baited him with cheese. He looked great, and in the end Ms. Marchant remarked, "He has so much presence. You're going to be my Best of Breed." I was thrilled to say the least! All the judge had to do now was pick a winner for Best Opposite Sex. She said that she really liked both, but that there was something about Luna that caught her eye, so she was awarded Best Opposite.

Photo by Iola Stetson

Photo by Iola Stetson

Stay tuned for Part II of Day 1!

GCH&H Summer Show Report

We had a nice little outing at GCH&H's summer shows today. Four MAs were in attendance: Gil, Belle, Luna and Dude making his debut in the regular classes. The day was hot so the dogs were a bit sluggish, except for Gil who seems to always do his best in the heat. Go figure.

Anyway, Gil ended up winning Best of Breed in both shows which, I believe, should have finished his Grand Championship but that's still pending UKC approval. We had a large lineup of dogs in group this time; the Afghan, Basenji, Canaan Dog, Pharaoh Hound, Portuguese Podengo and Whippet.

In the first show, Gil took a Group 2 after the Whippet and followed by the Pharaoh in third and the Afghan in fourth. In show two, Gil took a Group 3 after the Afghan and Whippet and followed by the Pharaoh Hound.

All in all it was a lovely day. We had a chance to reconnect after our long trip and see lots of old friends, which is always nice.

Sorry, no pictures. Everyone forgot to bring a camera.

A Nice Little Weekend

We had a very nice little weekend of UKC shows on the 22nd and 23rd. The Norcal APBT Club hosted a small specialty show in conjunction with a weight pull and we ended up going home with a lot more than I expected. The first day, Gil, Willow and Belle were all entered in the Champions class at the specialty with judge Dennis Blickenstaff presiding. Gil must have been feeling extra good that day because not only did he take Champion of Champions (for his second Grand Champion leg) he went on to win a Best in Multi-Breed Show!!! Not bad for a dog that isn't too crazy about showing. I think it has something to do with the weather; Gil always seems to do well when it's hot outside, which is surprising because hot weather and hounds don't usually mix. Anyway, this is Gil's third UKC Best in Show win and his sixth BIS win overall (UKC, Rarities, IABCA etc). Nellie Belle gave a pretty good showing as well and took her first Reserve Champion of Champions award. After the show Gil got geared up in his brand new John Deere harness and earned 5 points towards his UWPCH and took second place in his weight division.

On day two Fecni joined the rest of the Champions for the specialty and showed very well, although she did not make the final cut. Judge Mark Golden was presiding that day and, despite Gil's efforts to squelch his chances of winning by refusing to free stack at the end of the down and back, he gave Gil his third Grand Champion leg by going Champion of Champions. This time Willow took the reserve award even though she too was doing her best to show poorly. After the shows Gil amazed us all by earning 10 more points towards his UWPCH and pulling a new personal record. He also took another second place in his weight class. Unfortunately he had a small equipment malfunction so his brand new harness will have to be repaired before it can be used again.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from the weekend. The only excuse I have is that I didn't nearly expect to get the kinds of results we did so I didn't bring my camera. Darn!

**Update 06/30/10**
Turns out Bill Hemby caught a candid of Gil and me in the Best in Show ring right before his big win:

Happy Birthday BK N's!

Happy Birthday to Willow, Belle and the rest of the Betcha-Katcha "N" litter. They are 5 years old today.

Split Weekend: LGRA and ASFA

Since there were two events being held on the same weekend we decided to split it 50-50 with LGRA racing on Saturday and ASFA lure coursing on Sunday.

Gator, Luna, Fecni and Belle were entered for the sprint races. Unfortunately Fecni pulled up lame in the last program (she's much better now) and Belle had to be scratched for interfering with her competitors. Looks like Belle is in for some re-training in the near future. Hopefully we can correct her naughty behavior and get her back in good racing form.

With two of the four scratched that left the two siblings to battle it out for the points. In the end Gator won the meet, taking home one more point for his GRC (just a few more to go!) with Luna taking best opposite for half a point towards her GRC.

On Sunday Gator, Luna and Belle headed out to Sloughhouse for SSIH's ASFA lure coursing trial. Gator and Luna ran together in the Open Limited Stake while Belle ran solo in the Singles Stake. The course plan was very challenging and quite a few dogs had trouble with it but the brother-sister duo managed quite well. In their prelim run Gator edged out his sister by one point, but by the end of finals Gator was the clear victor, taking home 8 points towards his Field Championship. Luna took the other 6 points. With these two staying neck and neck with each other it will be interesting to see who finished their ASFA title first.

Miss Belle had a difficult time maneuvering the course and did not place in singles but she had a jolly good time just the same.

Unfortunately there's no photos this time, but here's a video of Gator and Luna's finals run:

UKC Top Ten 2009

All the California MAs did a lot of showing over the past year and for awhile it was no telling who was going to make it to the number one spot in UKC's Top Ten lineup. In the end Gil edged out Luna by a few points but it was a very tight race.

01. UWP CH Aranyagi Utonallo Fenseg	Audrey Hsia or Thomas Koler	26
02. GRCH Betcha-katcha Ojeda	Rita Yates or Tom Koler	20
03. CH Betcha-katcha Nubia	Lori Koler or Tom Koler	13
04. CH Betcha-katcha Nellie Belle	Thomas E Koler and Lori Koler	6
05. CH Vakvagta Fecni	Sally Barron or Tom Koler	3

Gold Country Hounds & Hunters Thanksgiving Dog Show Extravaganza

And now for the long-awaited update. Gold Country Hounds & Hunters held the largest UKC event to hit the California coast over Thanksgiving weekend. Six UKC shows combined with an NKC American Bulldog specialty, UKC weight pulling trial and Rally obedience fun match rounded out a spectacular weekend of good fun and competition. Five of the nine California MAs were entered into the UKC shows and one, Gil, was entered in both the shows and the weight pull.

The first day of showing saw what was quite possibly the largest sighthound entry ever in California UKC competition. Other hounds representing the sighthound and pariah group besides the MAs were the Afghan, the Pharaoh Hound, the Whippet, and the Portuguese Podengo Pequeno. Luna took Best of Breed in both shows and also took home a Group 1 and a Group 3.



Luna's little bro also did well his first time showing and took home a Reserve BIS Puppy. Way to go little guy!



The next day was the first day of weight pull and Gil was going for a second try at a Total Dog Award. The conditions of the pulling chute were far from ideal so I was worried he wouldn't be able to pull a qualifying load. After a heavy rain/hail storm the previous night, pulling day was a cold and windy one. Despite the less-than-perfect conditions Gil put in 200% and made a qualifying pull. Now all he had to do was earn a first placement in the show ring. The first show of the day he took Reserve Best of Breed to Luna's third BOB win of the weekend; not enough to qualify for a Total Dog. He still had another chance in show 2 and after a long and thorough competition Gil pulled off a Best of Breed win and took home his first Total Dog Award! Gil continued his winning streak by taking a group first the same day.



Day three Luna moved up to the Grand Champion class and earned one more BOB. Willow took home the second BOB honors as well as a Group 1. Luna came very close to winning her first BIS or RBIS but was edged out at the last minute. Oh well; one of these days she'll get her chance in the spotlight, we just have to keep on trying.

Overall it was a great weekend and definitely one for the record books.

BRNC's First Fall Race Meet 10/10-11

BRNC had its first fall meet a couple of weeks ago and we had two really exciting days of racing. Gil was absent for the weekend but Willow, Belle, Gator, Fecni and Luna all made it out.



Saturday we had all five MAs entered. The track was pretty rough and hard on everyone's feet. By the end of the day Willow and Belle had sore pads so they stayed home on Sunday. Nevertheless, Willow put in some amazing runs and tied with her nephew Gator for first place, giving them both 1.5 points towards their GRCs.

Official Results for Saturday were:
1. Gator (Betcha-Katcha Omlin)
2. Willow (Betcha-Katcha Nubia)
3. Luna (Betcha-Katcha Ojeda)
4. Belle (Betcha-Katcha Nellie Belle)
5. Fecni (Vakvagta Fecni)



Sunday was pup day. With Willow and Belle out for the rest of the weekend that left only Gator, Luna and good ol' Fecni. The brother and sister duo were battling for first place the whole day, but in the end Gator took home first prize for his second meet win and one more point towards his GRC. He's now more than half-way to completing his championship. Luna also picked up a half point towards her GRC.

Official Results for Sunday:
1. Gator
2. Luna
3. Fecni

The Stout-Hearted Terriers, Opal and Beryl, were also in attendance and gave it their all. Opal was undefeated in her class the whole weekend.



... and our friend Bandit did his best :)

New Champion: Ch. Betcha-Katcha Nellie Belle

I just found out that Belle did indeed finish her UKC Championship over the GCH&H July show weekend in Rancho Cordova. Congratulations Belle, we knew you could do it! Belle will now join the rest of the California MAs in the Champions show ring so watch out for her in the future!

UKC Show Videos

Kyle and Rita took a lot of great video at some of the recent UKC shows we attended. I uploaded them onto Youtube and organized them into three different playlists. Click on each screen below to view the playlist:

Days of Dogs and Roses

Kyle Yates took a bunch of wonderful pictures last year at our little 4th of July get-together. Although these pictures are over a year old, they are so nice that I wanted to post them here. There's too many to post individually so I made a little slide show. Click on the link at the bottom to see all the photos. Apparently they only allow a limited number to be shown on blogger:

Racing and Lure Coursing News

The May racing period is a bit of a blur, but one thing that's for certain is that our young Luna made a big leap forward by winning her very first LGRA meet! All the CA MAs were in attendance, which translated into Luna earning her first 2 points towards her GRC. Gil took second place in the meet and finished his GRC.

The ASFA Regional Invitational was held in May and two of the CA MAs, Willow and Fecni, were in attendance. After her long rest period Fecni was rarin' to go and took home the Best of Breed award. This is the first time that any MA has competed in an ASFA Regional and we were very excited to participate. After the trial was over the club set aside time to do certification runs. Gator and Luna got to run together as a brother/sister brace, but their first run was an oval-look-alike so they had to run it a second time. After the second run they were back on track and received their certification slips. I can hardly wait to have the whole team out lure coursing this fall!

If/when I get more pictures I will be sure to post them.

Condensed Show Results: New Champs and Big Wins

Since there are too many shows to report on individually I thought I would just condense all the major show news into one post.

After their big success in Sparks the CA MAs got to stay in our home state for the Norcal APBT Club's May shows in Rancho Cordova. This was Luna's big debut in the ring and she took the shows by storm. She and Gil battled for Best of Breed wins the entire weekend and in the end they each took home two BOBs. That gave Luna three competition wins towards her championship and a boat load of points to spare. Not to be outdone by the youngsters, Willow earned her last few remaining points and finished her UKC Championship in style. Way to go Willow!

Continuing their conformation marathon the CA MAs then attended the Norcal APBT Club's June shows. This weekend proved to be eventful for all in attendance. Unfortunately Willow was absent due to injury but the other four showed in full force with two of our lovely ladies finishing their UKC Championships!

Luna dominated the Best Female competition with 3 wins in a row and earned the remainder of points required to finish her UKC Championship. To our delight, Fecni took the very first Best Female award, earning her last competition win and also finishing her UKC Championship. Way to go Luna and Fecni!

Gil put on a great show as well and took all four Best of Breed awards as well as two Best in Multi-Breed Show awards! He now joins the ranks of the few MAs to achieve this distinction and we couldn't be prouder.

Special thanks to Judges Debbi and Al Orwin for recognizing Gil and our breed.

Finishing out the show news are the results from our latest show outing with the Gold Country Hounds & Hunters and Rarities. On Saturday all five MAs attended the GCH&H shows in Rancho Cordova.

We now had five dogs showing in the champions class and one remaining class dog. Luna strutted her stuff and went home with two Champion of Champions wins, one BOB and two legs towards her UKC Grand Championship.

Gil took the two Reserve Champion of Champions and Belle won her very first Best of Breed! Way to go Belle!

On Sunday Belle and Fecni stayed on at GCH&H while Luna, Gil and Willow headed down to Livermore for some Rarities shows. There were a total of 5 Rarities shows all in one day and the July heat nearly made everyone melt. Nevertheless the dogs put on a good show and came home with lots of ribbons. At her Rarities debut Luna took three Winners Bitch awards and Willow took the other two. Gil was undefeated as the BOB winner 5x in a row and also took three Group 1's and a Best in Show!

Back in Rancho Cordova Belle was on a winning streak and won both BOB (finishing out her competitive win requirements) and finished the day with a Reserve Best in Multi-Breed Show!

All in all the MA Show Marathon was a success, but we're all ready to take a break from showing for now :)

I finally got the Rarities pictures in the mail (see above).

UKC Show Results 4/18-19

Day 1 Show 1
Betcha-Katcha Nubia (Willow)- Best Female, Best of Breed, Group 1
Betcha-Katcha Nellie Belle (Belle)- Reserve Best Female

Day 1 Show 2
Aranyagi Utonallo Fenseg (Gil)- Best of Breed
Betcha-Katcha Nubia (Willow)- Best Female
Betcha-Katcha Nellie Belle (Belle)- Reserve Best Female

Day 2 Show 1
Vakvagta Fecni (Fecni) - Best Female, Best of Breed, Reserve Best in Multi-Breed Show!
Betcha-Katcha Nubia (Willow)- Reserve Best Female

Day 2 Show 2
Betcha-Katcha Nubia (Willow)- Best Female, Best of Breed, Best in Multi-Breed Show!
Betcha-Katcha Nellie Belle (Belle)- Reserve Best Female

Tűzvihar Magyar Agárs Has a New Website

Tűzvihar Magyar Agárs now has a new home on the web. Check it out at: www.tuzviharhounds.com

I have also added a link to the new website under the "related links" column on this blog.