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!

Racing in Tehachapi

The Tehachapi mountains overlooking the field

Finding Greyhound competition at amateur race meets is pretty tough out here in California, particularly the northern end where we live. So, when our friends, Ellen and Mike Cobleigh, said that they were interested in running their Greyhounds at the LGRA meet down in Tehachapi we packed up all the dogs and headed down there to meet them.

Tehachapi is a small city in Kern county just west of Mojave. Although small and out-of-the-way, it's got some beautiful landscapes, and a nice little sports field that is perfect for racing. It's a good five hour drive from where we live, so we decided to drive down the night before and stayed at a motel in Mojave.

Check-in for the meet started bright and early at 7:30am. Temperatures can get pretty high in that area, especially in the summertime, so we wanted to do our best to beat the heat. It was a small meet, but with everyone's help we got through pretty efficiently, and finished around 1:00 in the afternoon.

As it turned out, Hattie was pretty un-enthused about racing that day (for whatever reason, lol). She finished all three programs, but just barely. I don't know if it was the heat, or the elevation, or what, but her lackluster performance was definitely the polar opposite of the Agars.

Final scores

Pi, Patti, and Gil ran three very exciting races, with Pi ending up the victor of the meet. He and Gil are always an interesting match for one another. I think if Gil were younger he would probably edge out his son in the speed department, but as it stands now, Pi manages to beat his dad just barely. It would be interesting to see how they would finish on a longer track. Gil always seems to be gaining on Pi more and more towards the end of the race.

Anyway, it was a really nice little meet, and as always there was a lot of good company. We may not be able to make it down to all the southern California race meets, but we will try to return again soon.

Pi's BIG Jump

Photo by Jairi Rai

Apologies for the delay in reporting on this, but I recently finished taking the California Bar Exam, so between preparing for it and recovering from it I haven't had much time to post to the blog.

Anyway, there's not much to say in this post other than that Pi had a really awesome time at the CA State Fair Splash Dogs event. We were only able to attend the last day, but that was okay with me because the last day is the day for the finals competition, and if Pi could qualify I definitely wanted to jump for that.

Photo by Jairi Rai

He started out the day doing some pretty mediocre jumps, which was partly my fault because I didn't throw the toy far enough. With the way he's been jumping between the junior and senior divisions I was worried he wouldn't qualify for finals, but he just managed to get in for the senior finals (yay!).

Photo by Jairi Rai

When our time came to do the last two finals jumps, I don't know what came over him, but Pi broke all his personal best records with a whopping 19 foot jump!!  Just to put that into perspective, his personal best up until that time had been 16 feet. He improved by 3 feet, putting him into the Semi-Pro division. As the day had gone on, he was hesitating less and less, and by the time finals rolled around he didn't hesitate at all, at least not that I could tell. I hope that this event was not just a fluke and that he will continue to jump without hesitation. If he keeps it up he should be jumping at the highest level possible soon enough.

Pi's Splash Dogs National Championship Invite

We hope to be there, weather permitting! Stay tuned for updates.

Tamarack Junction Summer Solstice

Pi in his new fishy swimsuit made by Super Fly Suits

On Saturday, June 21st, we packed up all the dogs and headed out to Reno for the Tamarack Junction Splash Dogs event. We weren't sure how long we would be gone, so we decided to bring everyone, plus this event gave us a rare opportunity to do free practices in a smaller pool. I was hoping Patti might be interested in jumping once she saw her brother do it, but I didn't really get the response from her that I expected, lol. Oh well, we will keep on trying.

I had ordered Pi a brand new swimsuit made by Super Fly Suits, but had yet to try it on him since one of our own local jumps had been cancelled due to the drought. I was really looking forward to having him debut his new look.

I only entered Pi in two splashes, and while he didn't make any spectacular jumps he did have a good time (which is always the priority). In the first splash he placed 7th in the senior division with a jump of 15'5". Placing high in the junior division is pretty easy for him, but if he goes a few extra inches he lands at the bottom of the senior division.

Pi just about to launch off the dock before he hesitates

I have been trying continuously to get him to stop hesitating at the edge of the dock before jumping, because it seriously impacts his distance. In fact, it's not uncommon for him to slip and fall into the pool in the process of coming to a halt when he hesitates before jumping (which he did at this event).

You can see that Pi's feet are barely touching the edge of the dock. 

This was right before he fell into the pool after he hesitated on the jump

I'm not really sure what to do at this point other than practice, practice, practice. What I'm hoping is that Splash Dogs will revise their rules to allow for two handlers on the dock at one time, so one of us can hold Pi at the back end of the dock and one of us can throw the toy.

In the second splash, Pi jumped a little shorter (as usual) and placed 2nd in juniors. All in all it was a great day, and we're looking forward to more summer dock diving events as the weather begins to seriously heat up!

Pi doing his best fish-out-of-water impression

Gil's Birthday Race Party

Photo by Sam Scherf

On June 14th 2014, Gil turned 7 years old. It's kind of hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that he's 7 years old, but he's alive and well, and doesn't look a day over 4! 

I originally thought that I would take all the dogs to the beach as a way of celebrating Gil's big day, but I got recruited to help secretary a LGRA meet that day, so I figured Gil would be just as happy (if not more so) chasing the bunny for his birthday. The only thing that had me a little worried was his toe, which he had broken about a month prior to the meet. It had healed such that he was no longer lame, and he had regained some range of motion in the joint, but it was still never going to be the same as it was before. I figured I'd wrap the foot as well as I could and hope for the best, and as it turned out he managed just fine :)

Patti takes off

Photo by Sam Scherf

This was also Patti's first time back on the track since last year when she came up with two fat toes at our spring race meet. Her feet had healed quite well, the old injuries were barely noticeable, but I wrapped her feet good and tight too just to be safe.

Pi finished first in all three programs, followed by Gil and then Patti. Even at seven years old Gil still has quite a lot of speed on him. Pi never manages to be more than a half length ahead of his dad, even on a good day, and sometimes they finish almost in a deadheat. 

All in all, it was a fun day spent with friends and good competition, and I know Gil had a blast. Here's hoping to at least seven more years with him!

Photo by Sam Scherf