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 Magyar Among Keeshonden

Happy Birthday Cserihegyi E's!!

It seems like only yesterday that Remy's puppies were born. A very happy birthday to our beautiful nieces and nephews from their uncle Gil :)

News from Abroad: A.U. "G" Puppies

I apologize for failing to report on this earlier, but Gil has some new cousins born by his auntie Disco that are at least 10 or 12 weeks old now. This is a beautiful litter; two males and two females.

Disco is a lovely dog; she's the perfect mixture of the traditional, old fashioned MA and the elegant modern MA. The litter's father, Danger Dog Vazul is a gorgeously athletic fellow that really compliments Disco.

How I wish I could have one of these beautiful puppies!!

Anyway, pictures and video below.







This one's my favorite:


This video is so adorable. It just made me grin from ear to ear!

Another Best in Show for Gil!

I promised to help some friends show their dogs at a local Rarities show so I decided to take Gil along just in case there was a good judge that I could show him under. To my good fortune the renowned Greyhound breeder/judge and author, Patricia Gail Burnham, was judging the second show of the day so I entered Gil for the one show. It was definitely worth it since he ended up going Best in Show! This is Gil's 6th BIS win, not counting the multiple Best Puppy in Show and Best Rare Breed in Show wins he's earned. I'm so proud of my boy!

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.

Our Premier Adventure: Part 8

Sunday was our last day of competition at Premier and everyone was pooped to say the least. Both conformation and terrier racing were scheduled for 9:00am, which made things tricky for us yet again, but thankfully everyone was very understanding and accommodating so we were able to do both without too much friction.

The conformation judge for Sunday was Steven Melgreen. Mr. Melgreen was very complimentary and thorough, noting that he was particularly pleased with Gil's muscle tone and conditioning but thought that all the sighthounds needed some work done on their toenails. Every judge is different, and I took both comments into consideration for the future. Gil was Best of Breed again, but did not pick up a placement in group.

Since Opal was scratched from racing we decided to let her have a go at the new lure coursing program for all breeds. Both Opal and Bandit got to run the course once and both received a qualifying leg towards their "Coursing Aptitude" degree. More importantly, both had a fantastic time!

And so concludes our Premier Adventure. It was definitely a trip to remember and one for the MA history book. According to UKC officials, the 2011 Premier will be held in Richmond again next year. I'm not sure if we're going to make it but it's definitely an event I would attend again in the future.