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: Lure Coursing

Photo by Gary Claggett

So as I said in the previous post, the specialty consists of two days; each day has a morning conformation show and a performance event in the afternoon.

View of the field in the afternoon

The performance event scheduled for Saturday was an ASFA specialty lure coursing trial. We only had four dogs entered in the trial; Gil, Gator, Luna, and Peshamba. Unfortunately, Patti had sustained a toe injury at our last race meet, so she was unable to participate. I could have run Pi in the Singles stake since he isn't certified to run in the regular stakes yet, but I decided not to do that so he would be totally fresh for the sprint racing meet the following day.

The draw for prelims had two braces: first course was Gator and Peshamba, second course was Gil and Luna. The course plan was approximately 700 yards, and shaped kind of like an hour glass. Being a short course in a relatively small space, I wasn't sure which dogs it would favor. Gator and Luna tend to be sprinters while Gil and Peshamba tend to fair better over longer distances, so it was exciting to have one of each in both courses.

Photo by Gary Claggett

In the first prelim, Gator led the run-up (as I expected), but continued to hold onto the lead position
throughout most of the course. With Peshamba not being in top form it's hard to say if the outcome would have been different, but in the end Gator got the nod from both judges.

Photo by Gary Claggett

In the second prelim, Gil had quite a bit of a late slip, but he still managed to pass Luna and lead the run-up as well as most of the rest of the course. He stumbled a bit about halfway through, but didn't slow down at all. Even though he ended up with a prelim score only two points below Gator, I decided to scratch him from the finals so that he would have some energy left for racing the next day.

Photo by Gary Claggett

That left three dogs for the one finals course of the day. All three dogs got a pretty even slip, and to my surprise Peshamba managed to stay pretty close behind Gator, and at some times was also ahead of Luna. Both Gator and Luna got slowed down about halfway through the course when they overshot one of the turns, giving Pesh a chance to catch up and takeover for a few seconds before Gator caught back up to her. She tried hard to stay in the lead for the final leg of the course, but Gator pulled ahead at the last minute. Even so, she finished well and I was eager to see the final scores.

Photo by Gary Claggett

To be perfectly honest, I was surprised that Peshamba didn't score higher in the finals, but to be fair my vantage point was completely different than that of the judges. Gator took Best of Breed honors by a landslide, with Luna in second and Pesh in third.

Score Sheet

All in all it was a nice trial even with only four entries. The footing was great, the weather was cool, and all of the dogs came back sound!

From left, Judge Mary Crume, Tom and Gator, and Judge Al Crume

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!

NAMAA Nationals

A full report will be drafted soon, but suffice it to say our very first national specialty was a great success!! Stay tuned for more!

A Hungarian Hound Gathering

On October 5th, I took Gil and Pi on a little outing to Walnut Creek to attend the second annual reunion of a small group of Transylvanian Hound fanciers/owners. Being that the Magyar Agar is a Hungarian breed, and being the dog nerd that I am, I had done some research on other breeds from the same region and stumbled upon the Transylvanian Hound. The Transylvanian Hound, or Erdélyi kopó as it is known in Hungary, is a very rare scenthound breed used primarily for tracking large game like wild boar and deer.

Like the Magyar Agars, the Erdélyi kopó nearly became extinct after the second world war when Romania and Hungary split apart and a new political regime took over what had once been a larger empire. Slowly, through the efforts of dedicated breeders, the Erdélyi kopó is making a come-back. The Transylvanian Hound Club of America is part of that effort, and nearly 3 years after it's inception there are now over 20 Erdélyi kopós registered in the United States.

I found out about the gathering through Facebook and contacted the host to see if it would be okay for the boys and I to come for a visit. I was not only invited, I was welcomed with open arms! The hounds enjoyed some playtime while the humans enjoyed a lovely potluck dinner and friendly conversation.

At the final tally, we had 2 Magyar Agars, 12 Erdélyi kopós, and 3 Vizslas. It was a great little Hungarian family reunion!

LGRA Racing - Pi's First Points

Photo credit to Julia Jones

So even though Pi is already 2 years old, I delayed his racing career due to several issues which I will not go into detail about here. I had previously only run him in one or two programs, scratching him before he could actually complete a full meet. Last weekend I finally decided that he was ready to run three full programs and entered him in our club's first fall LGRA meet.

I really wish we had starting boxes that could accommodate these Agars. Hand-slipping them not only requires several extra hands, it's also extremely hard to get even slips on all the dogs which can lead to some pretty odd outcomes at the finish line. At this point Pi's speed seems to quickly be approaching Gil's. With Gil getting older and Pi getting closer to his prime age, I expect that he will surpass his father in short time.

We had four Agars racing on Saturday: Gil, Pi, Gator and Patti. In the first program, Pi came in a clear first followed by Gator and then Gil for a very close second/third respectively, and then Patti in fourth. I thought it was odd that Pi finished so far ahead of the others, but I chalked it up to either a preslip on him or a late slip for Gator and Gil. The second and third programs were more consistent with what I would expect; Gator clearly in first with Pi and Gil competing for second and third. At the end of the day when all scores were tallied, Pi ended up taking second place in the meet and earned his first GRC and NRC points. Unfortunately, Patti came out of the third program with one very fat toe and another toe with a swollen knuckle joint. Hopefully with some rest and a little TLC she will recover and be able to finish out the season.

First MA Canine Good Citizen!

Today, August 17th 2013, Peshamba made Magyar Agar breed history by becoming the first MA to earn the AKC's Canine Good Citizen certificate! She is now CH Stouthearted Babes in Toyland RL1 CGC.

This is what her owner, Jairi, had to say about the test:

"We get to the CGC test, and it's on grass with white signs flapping in the breeze... So Pesh instantly goes "LURE COURSING!" and starts screaming, lol.

But I finally got her to settle down a little (after checking out the signs and some food bribes)...

The tester said I always bring her the best dogs, and the only two Sighthounds she's ever tested that will actually sit :)"

I could not be prouder of Jairi and Peshamba; she has come a long way!