BRNC's October Races

Last weekend was BRNC's first race meet of fall 2010. All the California MAs were in attendance in one form or another. On Saturday, Luna, Gator, Fecni, Willow and Gil were entered in the official race meet, and Nellie Belle was entered in the San Quentin Invitational. Hawthorn Dude also came out to have a bit of practice on the lure.

The track was very hard and dry since we've been having sort of a lingering summer with no rain. Due to the conditions of the track I decided to pull Gil out of the last program, but he still ran the first two programs very well considering his long absence from racing.

In the first program, Luna won the low point race against Fecni, moving her up to the high point for program two. Gator finished first in the high point race followed closely by Gil in second and Willow in third.

In the second program Willow moved down to the low point and won a victory against Fecni. That left the three young ones in the high point. Gator pulled off another strong first place finish followed by Gil in second and Luna in third. This left the lineup at:
1. Gator
2. Gil
3. Luna
4. Willow and
5. Fecni.

At that point I decided to pull Gil out of the third program leaving the other four MAs remaining. This dropped Gil from second to third place at the end of the day, the final lineup being:
1. Gator
2. Luna
3. Gil
4. Willow
5. Fecni

Gator took 2 points towards his national ranking and Luna got 1 point towards her GRC!

After lunch, BRNC ran the San Quentin Invitational for dogs that have a tendency to run dirty. Belle was joined in this special race by three Borzoi, Breezy, Lacy and Buddy. All four dogs ran exceptionally clean considering their prior histories, and Belle ended up taking first place in the race!

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The hard conditions of the track left many dogs' feet sore the next day, including the Tuzvihar gang, Willow, Gator and Belle. I also decided that Gil needed a rest, but Luna and Fecni were still game for competition so they returned for another day of racing.

Not surprisingly, Luna defeated Fecni in all three programs and took home another point towards her GRC. She now has 6.5 of the 12 points required for a GRC. We expect that she'll be able to wrap that title up in no time.

Not to be outdone by his big sister, the not so little dude, Hawthorn, got a chance to run some race practices. He was a bit unsure and distracted at first, but after several tries he started to get the hang of the game and ran a full 200 yard sprint. His form is good but he still needs a bit more training before he's ready to run for reals.

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.

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.

New GRC for Willow!

BRNC held their second and last meet of the year on November 7th-8th and all four Betcha-Katcha dogs were in attendance (Fecni was in season and Gil was on bed rest). Unfortunately Luna had to be scratched after the first race but by the end of the weekend Willow earned the last few points to finish her GRC! Congratulations to Willow, her owners Tom and Lori and her breeder Friederike Honstetter.

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 :)

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.

Belated Easter Race Results and Report

We had the largest entry of MA's at the BRNC Easter races a few weeks ago. Willow, Belle, Gil, Gator and Luna all came together for one heck of a meet full of exciting and close races. Gator and his sister Luna are definitely catching on fast. Gator was Gil's main challenger all weekend and will probably be the top racing MA very soon (watch out Gil!).

The results for Saturday were:
1. Gil
2. Gator
3. Willow
4. Luna
5. Belle

Unfortunately Belle hurt her shoulder and was not able to return on Sunday for the next set of races. Even so the dogs put in some more good races and good competition.

The results for Sunday were:
1. Gil
2. Gator
3. Willow
4. Luna

All in all it was a great day, beautiful weather and good footing for the dogs. We hope to have many more like it soon!

Plans for a Magyar Agar Litter in the USA

Gil x Willow

We have tentative plans for a Magyar Agár litter in 2010/2011. The parents for this litter will be Gil, Ch. Aranyági Utonálló Fenség CC JOR, and Willow, Betcha-Katcha Nubia.

The sire is an accomplished show, racing, and open field coursing dog. He was the number one Magyar Agar in LGRA and NOFCA for 2008 and number one in UKC conformation 2008 as well. The dam is close to completing her LGRA racing championship and was the number one LGRA MA in 2006 and 2007. Both parents will have their eyes, hearts and thyroids tested/screened for good health. We expect the puppies to be versatile and athletic examples of the breed, suitable for showing, racing, coursing, lure coursing and couch-potatoing. The puppies will be UKC and FCI registerable.

We are looking for responsible and dedicated individuals/families to provide homes for our puppies and are taking reservations now. If you are interested in acquiring a Magyar Agár puppy please contact us.

Racing Results for March 21st 2009

We had a nice day of LGRA racing with four MA's entered. Here are the results:

1. Gil (by a hair)
2. Willow (a very, very close second)
3. Luna (getting better by the minute)
4. Gator (a very "earnest" runner)

Race Practice Videos

Here are some long-awaited videos from the race practice that we had back in January.

This one's a race between Gil and Willow. Gil ended up winning this one:


Belle's single runs:


Gator and Luna:


And last but not least, the race between Gil and Gower the Lurcher. This was a very close and interesting race:

A nice day of race practice

5 of the northern California MAs headed out to Wheatland yesterday for a day of race practice. The weather was beautiful and all the dogs put in some nice runs.

The two young pups, Luna and Gator, are wicked fast and pretty evenly matched for one another. Their last run of the day was a neck and neck race the entire 200 yard distance with no clear winner at the end. These guys are going to be serious competitors come spring time!

Gil and Willow had one very exiting race together, but the most interesting runs of the day were between the MAs and the Lurchers. Our good friends Bev and Niki wanted to see how fast their two Lurchers, Gower and Gwena, were compared to our dogs so we had a couple of match races. In the end all the dogs were very well-matched against one other which made for some pretty intense racing. We will definitely have to do that again some time!

Belle ran two very nice schooling races as a single. This girl has a lot of heart and always puts out 200% when she runs.

All in all it was a lovely day. Luna's dad took quite a lot of video so once those are available they will be posted to the blog. Stay tuned!

Top MAs of 2008

With 2008 over and done with, top 10 results for the North American MA's are now available.

LGRA Top Dogs:
1. Aranyagi Utonallo Fenseg "Gil"
2. Betcha-Katcha Nubia "Willow"

UKC Top Dogs:
1. Aranyagi Utonallo Fenseg "Gil"
2. Vakvagta Fecni "Fecni"

ASFA Top Dogs:
1. Vakvagta Fecni "Fecni"
2. Aranyagi Utonallo Fenseg "Gil"
3. Betcha-Katcha Nubia "Willow"

We may not have that many dogs right now but hopefully that number will grow.