It was a strange but wonderful weekend…

Committed to being trial secretary for WWWA’s ASFA trials in Roy, WA, I packed up the RV and headed down to the field on Friday. For the first time in a very long time, I didn’t run any of my own dogs, but it was a wonderful relaxed weekend and the trials went just like clockwork thanks to the well-oiled WWWA performance committee machine! I enjoyed the weekend but I must admit to being more than a little preoccupied…

Lark and friends helping in the kitchen (photo shamelessly stolen from Jenn's facebook)

Before I left, I dropped Lark off with her auntie Jenn Hughes, who graciously agreed to take her up to BC and show her for me in hopes of earning the final win needed to complete her Canadian Championship.

I’m thrilled to announce that Jenn handled Lark to WB/BOS on Sunday to finish! Thank you Jenn! I am so grateful for the wonderful care you gave Lark on her big adventure. I missed her like crazy but I never had any doubts that she was in good hands. I owe you big time! And thanks to Lark’s other auntie Janet for her generous hospitality and for letting Lark help in the kitchen.

We’re just home from the 2009 NAWRA National in Roy, WA, co-hosted by WWRC and ORCC. What a fantastic weekend, filled with fun, friends and truly incredible racing. I volunteered as head line judge and judged most of the races; the racing was fast and competitive, and we were glad to have a finish line camera to check some of the closer calls!

2009 NAWRA National Match winner "Frost"

I took photos at the match on Friday and added a gallery for the 2009 NAWRA National match photos on my photo proof page. I did not get photos of all the dogs, and did not post photos I felt were particularly unflattering to the dogs, but if you see a photo of your dog and are not happy with it, please let me know and I’ll exclude it from the gallery. I tried to identify all the dogs, but had to guess in some cases  and in particular I may have mixed up littermates, so feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of the gallery page if I’ve misidentified anybody. Please email me if you are interested in any of the photos.

WWWA/WWHA gallery cover girl: beautiful Maeve, bred, owned and handled by Christine Hopperstad

I did quite a bit of work on the site over the weekend, mostly tinkering with the design, and adding some color to various sections.

I also added a page for photo proofs. The first gallery featured on this page is for photos I took at last month’s WWWA/WWHA specialties.

Check out the cool gallery feature (powered by NextGEN Gallery, a very cool Wordpress plugin) on that page. As time allows I’ll be converting all the dogs’ photo pages to that style, so consider this a sneak preview of what’s to come!

I realize I haven’t updated the blog since the last RFF meets in June, so before reporting this weekend’s meet, here is a quick catch-up. We spent the summer at the dog shows, where I’d hoped to finish one or both of Lark’s conformation titles before she is bred this fall. Alas, the closest we came was not one, but two specialty reserves in Canada. So we’ll have to try again after puppies…

Needless to say, we were really happy to get back to racing at RFF’s CWA meets in Abbotsford, BC over the weekend! It was another fun-filled and food-filled weekend, and, as always, a wonderful time was had by all.

Tiercel moving at a CWA match in September 2007. Photo courtesy of Anne Herrett.

Tiercel finished in the top 10 both days, and finished 4th in the match on Saturday and 2nd on Sunday, earning the DPC credit both days and finishing his DPCX! Thank you to judges Jenn Hughes and Carol Hauta! The highest achievement in the CWA system, the Dual Purpose Champion Excellent title is awarded to dogs who have earned their ARX racing championship and their DPC title by either finishing a conformation championship or earning five DPC credits awarded to the highest non-champion or non-DPC dog placing in the CWA matches. I was very proud of Tiercel, who seems to have finally settled down and figured out what to do in the show ring. Both judges commented on his smooth movement and I was indeed relieved to find the Tiercel on the end of the show lead was NOT the one prancing and bouncing around the ring like a circus pony, but instead the one who moves like silk out in the yard when there is no one else but me to witness it!

Branwen had a great weekend, full of firsts! On Saturday she ran her first B score and earned her first top 10 finish! On Sunday, her score dropped one point and she fell just out of the top 10 to finish in 12th place, but after only her second full weekend of racing, I am very pleased with her progress!

Kestrel also raced both days, finishing well down in the standings, but she ran confidently and enthusiastically, had a wonderful time and loved filling in for Lark, who sat the weekend out at home, waiting to come in season.

Thanks RFF for another great weekend!

I think it must be getting really boring for me to continue to post after each and every Racing For Fun meet about the wonderful time I had, and in any event there just aren’t enough superlatives in the dictionary. But I just can’t help it. There just isn’t a better group of people in the dog world than this small but hard-working and fun-loving club in BC, and there aren’t any other events that can rival their meets for sheer fun and fantastic sportsmanship.

This weekend was bittersweet, as we bid a very fond farewell to RFF founding members Janet & Bo Juzkiw, who are leaving for their new life in the Kootenays. Good luck Janet & Bo, we will miss you!!!

Tiercel finished 6th in the meet on Saturday and placed 4th in the conformation match. He was running very well on Sunday but unfortunately came out of the 3rd program a little sore, so he was scratched for the day. He still managed to post a B score only running three of four programs.

Lark had a fantastic weekend, finishing in the top-10 both days: 10th on Saturday and, running a B score, 8th on Sunday! She was also 2nd in the match on Sunday. Although she is mostly retired from the CWA matches, having finished #1 in the conformation standings last year and #2 the year before, she earned her eligibility Sunday by winning high score grade C, and since I didn’t have another eligible dog to show, I decided to go ahead and show her. She will not be a regular in the CWA match ring this year, but it was really fun to show her again, and she was so excited when she saw me get out the show lead and realized it was for her this time instead of her brother.  She squealed and jumped up and down as much as she does when I get her muzzle out to go racing. She is one whippet who really does love to show as much as she loves to race, and it was so much fun to be back in the ring with her again.

Branwen in the #6 jacket. Photo courtesy of Ann Fessenden.

Branwen made her CWA debut, with very respectable results. She is running impeccably cleanly, and she improves with every race. She is getting the hang of navigating in traffic, and will only get better with experience.  I was very pleased with her performance and she was so proud of herself for being a grown-up dog and getting to race for real instead of tagging along just to practice as a puppy.

Thanks RFF for another great weekend. Can’t wait till the next one!

I just received word from proud owner Sue McNeill that Fulani finished her LCM, and is now FC Serendipity Peregrine of GP, LCX, LCM, SR, OTR.

I am so proud of this great little runner, and even more grateful to Sue for giving Fulani (and half-sister Spice) such a great home, for keeping her fit, conditioned and competitive, and for giving her every opportunity to shine in the field.

Thank you Sue and CONGRATULATIONS!

Last night, in preparation for today’s race meet, I brought in all the muzzles from the car to replace the tattered remains of the vetwrap I’d applied a couple of years ago to pad the sharper edges. The dogs saw the muzzles and general mayhem ensued as they all tried, simultaneously, to stuff their faces into the well-known equipment that could only mean one thing: RACING!

I laughed and shooed them away, and set about the tedious job of re-wrapping, with the TV on for distraction, and one by one the dogs went and found their favorite sleeping spots and drifted off to dream of starting boxes, muzzles and squawker lures. Tiercel settled next to me on the couch, and watched intently for a while as I worked on one of the muzzles, before drifting off to sleep. When I finished wrapping the muzzle, I stretched and he woke up. Noticing I was done, he grinned and wagged and stuffed his face in the muzzle again. I laughed at him and slipped the strap over his ears. He crawled into my lap and lay there with his beloved muzzle on, grinning at me. It made him very happy to think about racing. And it made me happy too.

So today, we went racing… at BCWRC’s NAWRA meet in Abbotsford, BC. What a fantastic day, with near-perfect weather, fine friends, and great racing. It was an interesting meet in that 21 of the 30 whippets were grade D dogs! Wow! I can’t remember such a D-heavy meet in my time racing. It made for very exciting racing all through the races, from high point to low.

Tiercel had a great day, finishing just out of the top 10 in 11th place. This meet finished his SRM title! Lark ran well, winning one of her races and finishing 19th (I think) in the meet.

The real story of the day was young Branwen, who made her adult racing debut today. She has been schooling very well this spring in practice runs, but until today had only run out of the boxes with two other dogs, so it was a big test for her to move to the real thing, with six-dog races. She lucked out and drew an outside box for the first program, keeping her clear of traffic, and she ran very well to win her first race convincingly. She moved all the way up to the high-point for the 2nd program, where she was a little out of her league, and had a momentary lapse of confidence and pulled up slightly just before the finish line. But she figured out what she was supposed to do, put her head back down and ran hard to the lure. She dropped down to the semi in the 3rd program and stayed there for the 4th, finishing last in both but running harder and more confidently each time.

She finished 15th in the meet, learned a lot, and gained really valuable experience. Best of all, she had a great time and was really proud of herself for running with “the big dogs.” It is always fun to see how they respond to running in competition for the first time, when they’ve spent their whole lives tagging along to events and getting practice runs; they are so happy and proud to finally get their chance at the real thing!

I’ve been saving up some new photos to add to various dogs’ pages, and finally had some spare time today. Check out the new pix on the following pages:

• Wren’s candid photos
• Lark’s running photos and candid photos
• Branwen’s stacked photos and candid photos
• Fulani’s running photos
• Spice’s running photos
• Kai’s candid photos

I’ve been spending some time here and there over the last few weeks updating the website’s style after switching to the Thesis theme. You’ve probably noticed some changes to the navigation (drop-down menus and breadcrumbs), changes to the links in the right column, among others. Stay tuned for more as time permits…

Today, instead of going up north for racing, I stayed home and added two new pages: information about my Web Design and a Portfolio of websites that I’ve designed and maintained.  If you like this site and need help with your website, I’d love to hear from you! Email me at serendipitywhippets@gmail.com for more information.

Finally, I updated a few of the dogs’ pages, including new ads on Tiercel’s and Lark’s ad pages. I have some additional new photos to add to several of the dogs’ photo pages but that will have to wait for another day…

We’re home safe and sound from a long trip out to southern Idaho for the SISFA ASFA trials, where I went to run some whippets and judge some other breeds.  Lark won the open stake on Saturday, FINALLY earning her first placement and finishing her ASFA field championship! I was starting to wonder if she might be in contention for some special ASFA award for the whippet with the most second placements in pursuit of her title! I’m just kidding about that but am very relieved she was finally able to break her second placement streak/curse. Patience is a virtue!

It was also a productive weekend for me personally, as I completed my provisional judging requirements and will now be able to apply for my all-breed license. Thank you so much to my SISFA friends for inviting me to judge and making me feel so welcome!

I wish I could say the long drive (1000 miles roundtip) was uneventful, but about three hours from home I felt something “funny” and didn’t like the way the RV was handling, so I pulled over at a rest stop and found my left front tire missing a large chunk of tread. Somehow I managed to catch it before it even went flat, much less something worse… AAA dispatched a truck, which miraculously arrived in about 10 minutes instead of the promised 60-90 minutes, the bad tire was replaced with my spare, and, disaster averted, we were back on the road in no time.  I’m very grateful that what could have been a very dangerous situation was instead just a minor inconvenience.

All in all it was a great weekend, and I’m very grateful to be home, safe and sound, with a bunch of very tired whippets!