Nevada Coursing

Patti, Gil, and Pi: Ready for Action

This blog entry is long overdo, and I hope my memory of it isn't too foggy.

On the weekend of November 22nd and 23rd, Tom and I packed up his pickup truck with Patti, Pi, and Gil, and drove out to northern Nevada for some open field coursing. It was our first rarebreed hunt of the season, and the first coursing outing for any of my dogs since the Grand Course back in February.

The weather was predicted to be quite chilly, and to avoid any possibility of getting stuck in the snow while going over the pass, we decided to leave Friday night. We arrived around 8:00, checked into our hotel and went to bed early in preparation for an early roll call the next morning.

 Frank, our judge, sitting atop his giant van in the beautiful Nevada desert

As predicted, it was very cold the next morning, and by the time we rolled into the valley we were to hunt in the wind had picked up quite a bit, making the chill all the more sharp. I wasn't phased by it at all; in fact I prefer to be cold rather than warm, and with all the t-shirt weather coursing we had the year before I welcomed the sub-40 degree temperatures.

 Fadiahr the Afghan

We had a good entry of 11 hounds the first day (1 Galgo, 3 Magyars, 4 Afghans, and 3 Silkens), but not enough of any one breed to split the stake. I can't remember exactly which course numbers my dogs drew, except that Pi and Patti wound up in the same course, which I was glad about. Patti is the least experienced of the three Magyars when it comes to coursing, and I hoped that by running with her brother she would have the good sense to follow him back to the gallery when the course was over, rather than wandering off on her own.

 Diego the Galgo

Overall, the rabbits were pretty scarce and very good at evading the hounds, which is typical of my experiences with Nevada coursing. The few times I've hunted there, the rabbits always seemed to have an uncanny ability to seemingly disappear into thin air just as the dogs begin to gain on it. The landscape is deceptively uneven (it looks flat when viewed from a distance, but is actually scattered with low and high spots), and with the brush being as thick as it can be in some spots, it's easy for the rabbits to duck into a hiding spot. In sum, it's a very challenging place to hunt, but the beauty of the landscape itself more than makes up for it.

 Tom soothing Patti, who got a little impatient for her turn to run

We got the first couple of rabbits up, fairly early in the day. Gil's rabbit came up at about 10 'o-clock, and took the dogs over a rise and down into a much lower area of the field, almost completely out of our sight. All three hounds were pretty well-matched on the run up, but by the time we could see them again Gil was quite a bit ahead of the others. It wasn't much of a course from a spectator point of view, but the dogs clearly had fun, and I think they got their money's worth.

Pi, taking a break from slips, but always on the look-out for rabbits

Pi and Patti's hare got up at about 3 'o-clock, right as we were coming over a small rise (he must have been sitting on the edge of the gully). Pi and Patti took off like a light, up and over the rise and out of my sight again. From what we and the judge could tell, there wasn't as much to that course as there had been with Gil's, but I was happy that Patti got sighted and had a good slip, and that she came back safely and quickly.

We struggled to find our last prelim of the day, and had to settle for a very long call that amounted to even less than a tail-chase. With that, we decided to call it a day, and hoped for better runs the next day. Final results had Gil placing 2nd, Pi 3rd, and Patti 5th.

 Kepi the Afghan

We got out of the field just as the sun was disappearing over the horizon. Too tired and cold to leave the hotel for dinner, we had a pizza delivered right to our room. I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow, and I did not wake up at all until my alarm went off the next morning.

 A hunter and his hound

Sunday's weather was much milder by comparison. It was still cold, but without the wind and occasionally rain showers it didn't feel nearly as bone-chilling. We decided to drive further into the field than we had the day before, hoping for more rabbits. As it turned out, we got to take in lots of new and beautiful scenery, but there wasn't a single rabbit to be had until we headed back down the valley to where we had been the day before.

 Karly the Silken Windhound

We had the same number of dogs entered, and somehow Pi and Patti managed to draw the same course again. Gil drew the last course, a brace, which we ultimately had to scratch in order to finish the day on prelims. Although I felt bad that Gil didn't get a chance to run that day, he kind of deserved it for acting like a complete fool all day long. I don't know if the lack of rabbits mixed with adrenaline caused him to go into some kind of delirium, but he would not stop barking all day long, and he would get particularly crazy at the sight of some dirt bikers and ATVers who were driving around in the distance.

 Patti says, "I WANT THE BUNNIES!"

Despite not having a lot of rabbits, Pi and Patti had probably the best run of the day, not because there was any really brilliant moves on their part, but because of how long and far the course went on. Pi isn't the best courser who ever lived, but he has a knack for staying on a hare's ass, even when it starts pulling out all kinds of evasive maneuvers. He stayed on this particular rabbit all the way past the road that we had come into the field on, and up the base of the mountains that created the walls of the valley itself. I don't know exactly how far he ran, but it was quite far. The only reason he lost it was because he couldn't run vertically and stay sighted at the same time, although he tried very hard. Patti wasn't a factor in the course from what I could see, but she stayed right behind her brother, and followed him back to the gallery pleased as punch.

 Patti returning from her run

For all that effort, Pi ended up with a 1st place (his very first 1st place!), and Patti ended up in 4th place.
Overall, I consider the weekend to have been a success. We may not have had as many rabbits as we would have liked, but the weather was to my liking, the scenery was AWESOME, and my dogs had a great time. What more could I ask for?

 We got one of each placement!

The one and only thing that dampened my day was losing my Garmin Astro in the field :-(  The hand-held unit detached from the clip holding it to my belt, which I did not notice until we got back to the cars. I have since bought a replacement hand-held unit, but man did it make me sad to drive away from that valley knowing it was sitting out there with no way for me to find it (sob).

NAMAA Nationals 2014: LGRA Racing

 Pi with his rosette, Photo by Iola Stetson

I am so behind on making posts to this blog, so I will make this last installment of my 2014 Nationals coverage as brief as possible.

 Patti, Photo by Gary Claggett

The LGRA specialty is always held the second day of the specialty, and this year we had a total entry of four. After taking a pretty bad fall at the previous day's ASFA trial, Gilly was a little bit gimpy the next day so I decided not to run him in the race meet.

 Luna and Gator, Photo by Gary Claggett

The convenient part about having such a small entry of just four dogs is that we only have one race per program, which we can get done quickly so we can spend the rest of our time helping the Silken folks run their dogs.

 Pi on his way to a race meet victory

Photo by Gary Claggett

At the end of the day, Pi was the High Score Hound, however I'm almost certain that had Gator not been tired from running in the ASFA trial he would have handed Pi his ass. I scratched Pi from the ASFA trial after prelims so he would be fresher for the race meet, and it certainly paid off.

Luna, Gator, and Pi

Photo by Gary Claggett

In between the race programs, we did a couple of practice runs with Rietsu and her kennel-mate Saluki, Bukra. In the past, Rietsu has shown only a little bit of interest in a squawker, so we hoped that running with another experienced dog would help encourage her to run, and it did! We look forward to continuing her training, and hopefully she'll be ready to race by springtime.

Rietsu following Bukra down the track

Photo by Iola Stetson

And so concludes my reporting of the second annual NAMAA National Specialty. It was an exhausting two days, but we can't wait for next year! Unfortunately, Jairi and Rietsu had to go home before we took our customary group shot, but we'll make sure she's in it next year!

Tom with Gator, Me with Pi and Gil, Olivia with Patti, Kyle with Luna and Dude, and Rita with Holly the Ridgeback

Photo by Iola Stetson

NAMMA Nationals 2014: Conformation, Day 2

 Patti: BOB, Pi: BOS

Photo by Iola Stetson

Our second day of conformation was much drier and sunnier, thank goodness! Our judge that day was Marcella Zobel, a local Borzoi and Whippet breeder.

Gator, Photo by Iola Stetson

As had happened the previous day, our dogs were highly distracted by the race track being setup not far from the show ring. This made things a tad challenging for us, but the judge saw past our imperfect handling and seemed charmed by the happy Agar spirit :-)

Rietsu holding her stack

Photo by Iola Stetson

Dude, unfortunately, had to be scratched from the show because he sustained a minor toe injury during the field trial and had a noticeable limp. Gil was also a bit stiff after his fall during the trial, but he managed to show decently nonetheless.

Gil, looking good at the trot

Photo by Iola Stetson

As it turned out, the results of the show were not much different than from the day prior. Patti and Pi both took top honors again, but decided to switch their BOB and BOS awards!

Pi on the move

Photo by Iola Stetson

Patti on the move

Photo by Iola Stetson

I was so proud of Patti; she has never showed more beautifully than she did that day. She offered me amazing free stacks and gaited perfectly. 

Luna, Photo by Iola Stetson

Stay tuned for the last installment in this series ...

NAMAA Nationals 2014: ASFA Trial

Immediately following the conformation show in the morning, we moved on to the fun stuff: RUNNING SPORTS.

 Pi, running in Singles

Photo by Gary Claggett

The footing at Kirigin Cellars is always exceptionally good, but the drizzle we had had during the show in the morning made some parts of the field a little slippery, which caused more than one dog to take a nasty spill. Our total entry for the field trial was 4 in the Limited stake (Gil, Gator, Luna, and Patti) and 2 in the Singles stake (Dude, and Pi), making this the largest entry of Magyar Agars at an American lure coursing trial to date.

 Gil on the lure

Photo by Gary Claggett

Our judge was Tom Golcher who traveled all the way from Colorado. In prelims it was boys versus girls with Gil and Gator running in course one and Luna and Patti running in course two. Gil and Gator were pretty evenly matched on the run up until the first turn where there was a particularly slippery patch of grass. Gil attempted to turn right and fell, HARD, on his shoulder and tumbled a couple of times over. He was disoriented when he got up, but re-sighted on the lure and kept on running. My heart was in my mouth for the rest of the course, and upon completion I gave him a good look-over. He did not present with any lameness at all, to my relief, so I figured he was good to go for the finals.

 Patti, Photo by Gary Claggett

As luck would have it, Patti had also drawn the yellow blanket and took a tumble in the exact same spot on the first turn of the course. She did not fall nearly as hard as Gil did, and also recovered well, but could not make up the ground necessary to win her course.

Dude in Singles, Photo by Gary Claggett

Next up were the singles. Dude ran first and had a marvelous run; his very first time running in an official trial. It must have been just my bad luck that day, because Pi also fell during his run at the very same first corner. Nevertheless, he managed to earn the highest score of all dogs running in the prelim round, but I decided to scratch him from finals anyway to make sure he would be good to run in the LGRA meet the following day.

 Patti and Gil in slips

Photo by Ann-Marie Holmes

In finals it was one family versus the other, with Gil and Patti drawing the first course together and Luna and Gator drawing the second course with each other. With the course plan reversed for finals there were no more spills to be had (thank goodness!), and both runs were very evenly matched.

Luna and Gator in finals

Photo by Gary Claggett

Patti and Luna ended up tying for 3rd and 4th overall, but not wanting to take my chances on another fall I decided to forfeit the win to Luna. So, the final placements for the Limited Stake were (1/BOB) Gator, (2) Gil, (3) Luna, and (4) Patti. And, of course, Dude was the high scoring hound in the Singles Stake.

 Gator, Best of Breed, with Judge Tom Golcher

Photo by Gary Claggett

Even Rietsu got a chance to do a practice run, which she thoroughly enjoyed! She seemed to like the plastic baggies much more than the furry lures she's seen before. Perhaps she learned that from Hattie ...

Rietsu on the lure

Photo by Gary Claggett

NAMAA Nationals 2014: Conformation, Day 1

 Pi: Best of Breed, Patti: Best of Opposite

Photo by Iola Stetson

Our little contingent of American Agars held our second annual NAMAA National Specialty on the weekend of October 25th/26th at the beautiful Kirigin Cellars winery in Gilroy. The local Silken Windhound club has been extremely generous in allowing us to "piggy-back" off of their regional specialty, and we could not be more grateful!

Gator, in the Open Class

Photo by Iola Stetson

The specialty takes place over two days with one conformation show each day, followed by an ASFA trial on Saturday afternoon and a LGRA meet on Sunday afternoon. I figured it would be best to organize my report of the entire event by separating my posts into four separate categories. So, for this installment I will be reporting on the conformation show results for Saturday.

 Dude, in the Open Class

Photo by Iola Stetson

Fortunately for the state of California, but unfortunately for us, we had a pretty serious episode of rain on Saturday morning. As you may or may not know, California has been going through one of the worst droughts in history, so as unpleasant as it was for us to show the dogs in the rain, we very much needed it!

Gil, from the Open Class

Photo by Iola Stetson

Our judge for Saturday was Mr. Dennis Blickenstaff of Cabaret Beagles. Dennis is a seasoned UKC judge and has judged our dogs several times before, so he was no stranger to our breed, and having a friendly and familiar face at a show is always a welcome comfort. Nevertheless, the entire weekend was characterized by a bittersweet atmosphere, due entirely to the fact that Pesh is no longer with us. While her absence was notable, we still had a good overall entry size of seven for our Saturday show, including our newest import, Rietsu, and Dude the "golden boy."

 Pi, showing from the BBE Class

Photo by Iola Stetson

Just prior to the Agars entering the ring, the field committee for the lure coursing trial had been laying out the lure course for the afternoon, and our dogs eagerly took quick notice. As such, it was a bit of a challenge to run them around the ring along with the wet turf, but we managed, and a good time was had by all.

 Rietsu, showing from the 10-12 Puppy Class

Photo by Iola Stetson

Pi and Patti were shown in the Bred-by-Exhibitor class, while the other adults all showed in Open. Rietsu showed from the 10-12 Puppy class and did very well considering this was her first show ever! Pi defeated Gil for Winners Dog, and sister Patti defeated Luna and Rietsu for Winners Bitch. At that point it was all a win for me, and I could not have been prouder. Pi edged out his little sister for Best of Breed, but it really could have gone either way. Rietsu was Reserve Winners Bitch, and Gil was Reserve Winners Dog.

 Luna and Patti, competing for Winners Bitch

Photo by Iola Stetson

Many thanks to Dennis for judging, to Iola Stetson for the fabulous photos, and to Kyle and Rita Yates for the beautiful metal art trophies!

Patti, showing from the BBE Class

Photo by Iola Stetson

P.S. Dude and Luna entered the Halloween costume contest which was held right before the ASFA trial and they were awarded "Best Couple"!

2014 Splash Dogs National Championship

I decided I better get caught up on this blog before I start posting about Nationals, so here it goes!

 Photo by Celeste Schmidt

In September, Pi and I got invited to participate in the 2014 Splash Dogs National Championship. In order to qualify, the dog has to have five qualifying jumps within the same jump division for that calendar year; they then get invited to compete in that division at Nationals.

Pi's average jump this season landed him in Juniors division, which tends to be the most competitive division in Splash Dogs. Since we didn't get to go last year I really made it a point to go this year, because it was being held so close by (Reno, Nevada). I was a little bit concerned about the weather being too cool for Pi's liking, but temperatures in September tend to stay within the "summer" range, so I figured it was still worth going.

 Pi and his silly jumping faces!

Photo by Kristin Beitzel

The National Championship is structured to take place over two days. The first day, each dog gets to attempt two semi-final division jumps. The second day, only those dogs who placed within the top half of their division get to return for finals where their highest scoring jump then gets used to determine final placements. Generally speaking, the days are scheduled from lowest division to highest division, with the lower divisions jumping earlier in the day. So, that gave us plenty of time to make the drive over the border on the morning of the first day (we weren't scheduled to jump until about 11:00am). I loaded up the car into a special Baby Pi limousine and off we went!

The weather report for Saturday morning predicted a high of about 75 degrees, which is a little on the cool side for Pi's tastes, but not too cool for him to enjoy the day. When we arrived it was sunny and warm, and I was feeling good. As soon as we pulled in I made a quick trip to the registration table to check in, then I got Pi out to let him potty and stretch his legs. We got there with about an hour to spare so there was plenty of time to warm up. Most dock diving competitors like to do warm up jumps before their real jumps, but I have found with Pi that it's best not to give him too much time on the dock before his official turn is up, unless it's at least 90 degrees outside. So I walked him around and let him watch the other dogs jump, which always gets him really excited.

 Pi giving me a workout

Photo by Celeste Schmidt

There were about 24 dogs in our division at roll call, and Pi drew an early jump time in the line-up. His first jump he hesitated before leaving the dock (I had hoped we were past that, lol), but his second jump was a solid 16 feet, which put him outside of the junior division and gave him a great chance of making it into the finals competition. Sure enough, he wasn't the only dog who jumped out of the division that day, but he ended up with the highest semi-final junior division jump and a spot in finals the next day!

The weather forecast for Sunday was not looking good (high temperature in the high 60's and possible rain), but I decided to take a chance and stay on. So after a restless night in a motel we headed back the next morning. As I had feared, it was pretty cold on Sunday morning, and Pi hesitated before every jump, but he gave it his best sighthound effort and ended up placing 10th overall in the junior division finals. At the awards ceremony I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that Pi was the #1 Junior Division Dog for the 2014 season! They gave us a beautiful little plaque to commemorate the achievement as well as a lovely rosette for his 10th place finish. While it was definitely not his best performance ever, we still had a great time meeting with friends and getting to spend one-on-one time together. And with that was the end of our dock diving season. See you all next summer!

New Blood: Introducing Rietsu!

This announcement has been a long time coming, but I didn't want to say anything about it until she was actually here in the states. Introducing the newest member of the California Magyar Agar tribe, this is Rietsu, formerly known as "Boróka" (her puppy name given by her breeder).

Given the small population of MAs here in the states, and most importantly the small number of breedable bitches, we have always been looking to bring in new blood from overseas. I was particularly interested in bringing in a dog from an established line of active hunting Agars, who's type is notably different from the typical FCI show/racing Agar. I was fortunate enough to find out about Rietsu from a friend in Hungary, and upon hearing of her availability I immediately contacted the breeder. To make a long story short, it took several months, and a lot of help from our Hungarian friends to get this new girl on a plane to SFO, but she finally arrived on Wednesday, August 27th at 4:30pm.

I made the trip down to the airport with a friend in tow, and after sitting in traffic for at least an hour, we finally arrived at the cargo facility to pick her up. After going through customs and filing all the necessary paperwork I was finally able to get her out of her crate. I always worry about these long, international flights, especially with younger dogs. They don't get any opportunity to leave their crate once boarded, and the journey is very long. However, as soon as I pulled her out of the crate, I could see that it was clean and unsoiled. I immediately took her out of the warehouse so she could go potty, which she did in short order.

She was worried for sure, but not afraid or skittish at all, which is always a good sign. While we were walking back to the car, a seagull flew overhead and she noticed it right away, following the bird intently with her eyes. It gave me a lot of hope that she will grow up to be a keen and skilled hunter.

Fresh off the airplane!

Although her sleep schedule was thrown off by the flight, Rietsu has settled in to her new life in America very well. She's extremely attentive, and sweet towards her humans, and she's making fast friends with her new doggie housemates.

 Rietsu, Photo by Jairi Rai

Rietsu is co-owned between me, Jairi and Tom. I cannot give enough thanks to her breeder, István Szloboda, for allowing us to bring this lovely girl to America, and to our friends Bori and Rita for helping her make the journey to her new home. I cannot wait to see what the future holds for her!