You cannot please everyone

I know I am getting older because I am way too mellow, and it takes way too much to start a fight with me or for me to hold a grudge. The one thing I'd like to briefly grouse about here is that I don't understand this modern world where everyone has to take their private conversations, problems or WTF ever to facebook or to blog. Whatever happened to just pulling up your big girl panties and deal with it. I have to say my friend Archie is a very good influence for me as he is a big believer in "just let it go" if it isn't something that really has a long term impact on your life. What dogs we breed to what dogs probably does not, who uses our dogs probably not, who likes our philosophy on dog breeding or not , doesn't make two shakes of a lambs tail. When you are younger that may be harder to accept but seems to be easier with age. You do what you think is right because it is right, not because someone is looking or what someone thinks. You say what you mean when asked although you may lace it with kindness if the person looks as though they need it. Damn I am getting mellow.

The next generation

At the BCGA ASFA trials Dec 17 and 18 I managed to practice and then certify what I hope to be part of the next generation of Avalon Borzoi (coming up on #49 January 28th so can't help but wonder how many more generations I have the stamina for). Then two weeks later I brought her back out for her first real competition, and I am pleased to report that "RTee" appears to have the same back as her father and grandfather before her, and more than a passing interest in chasing plastic. She came home with two firsts and 48 ASFA points. Now to ease her through open without her getting interfered with, always a worry when running open dogs.

Photo at the top of this entry Nov 2001 FC Silkenswift Camus Dark Realm MC, LCM2,SGRC2,V-FCH, ROMX (BIF DC Mufasa Midnite O' Silkenswift SC, LCM ORC x Silkenswift Isis O' Shadlows JC) aka "Neechee"

Middle photo by Dan Gauss January 2007 BIF FC Avalon Dark Voyager of Ryhka SC, LCM (Neechee x Deuterium's Selenium of Ryhka SC, FCH, GRC, ORC) aka "Vger"

Bottom photo by Lee Gearheart December 2009 Avalon Artemis ("Vger" x Avalon Solarra SC, JOR, FCH) .

Another little potential superstar waiting in the wings (just certified with ASFA) is Avalon Talinn (Riven x Autumn) Lee got some photos of her as test dog at these trials that look so much like her grandsire Darkling it flight it was startling.

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away

I used to think that being stoic in the face of pain was this wonderful, admirable trait. At the age of just under 49 it is not a trait, it is a myth like those you read in college English that the Greco Romans created. You remember it but you certainly don't believe it.

The hammertoe surgery has been sheer hell. First it was way more painful than advertised, the first 48 hours after the general anesthesia wore out it felt as though my foot were in a lawn mower with a blow torch on it. Oh yeah man they give you good drugs, bah ha hah, percosets taken as often as possible didn't touch this pain. You might as well eat M&M candies at least you would enjoy those. Then it became infected (probably because it is standard to wrap it and not look at it for a week) , then the two antibiotics I was on didn't match the culture ( Augmentin and Bactrim do not touch pseudomonas a.) So there I was and there I've been. Doc originally told me Dec 29th for the pins to come out, that has moved to Jan 4th . F U C * it all. Killed my trip to NM dead in the water. So I go through THREE FREAKING HOLIDAYS with this AIRCAST on (low profile my @$$, it is over 2 inches tall so even with a super high rocker sneaker on my right foot I have limped like Quasimodo and everything in my back, hip, knee and ankle are out of line) and steel rods in my toes. The difference between my surgery and this photo is that mine was on the left foot, got infected and also had incisions across the base of my toes ( which is what got infected) due to how crooked those joints were. So I have had to do Thanksgiving including Black Friday shopping, Christmas and now New Years with this freakshow of a shoe and pins on my foot. At least now the 4 weeks of Cipro antibiotic (which by the way is like eating a gut grenade in terms of projectile body fluids) have apparently killed the pseudomonas which was attempting to assimilate my foot.

Also during that time I have flown to FL for the region 7 regional (a fine one it was! and I lived through the extra attention from the TSA folk at both airports fine), attended 4 days of lure coursing in Calhoun, GA and am going to 4 more days of it. Archie will be driving down Thursday night so at least I'll have help on Friday and Saturday with Tory, Vger and RT ( who certified at the last trials). God help me the first two days though.

Had a great Christmas though spent time with my son, his wife, her family, Archie and some of his friends. Got some great clothes, earrings and necklaces for Christmas! Finally bought myself an elliptical machine since it will be God knows when before I can put serious miles on this foot that still has a wound on top of it and no skin over it. The Nordic Track monster is now in the den in front of the TV awaiting my pin removal after much work by Archie putting it together.

It is rather funny when I first went to the doctor/surgeons office after surgery I said I bet I am one of your worst patients, oh no they reassured me certainly not, well after it took 3 visits to remove the stitches, with me going OH MY GOD THAT HURTS, gritting my teeth, holding my leg and occasionally whacking the wall with my palm, they no longer reassure me when I say that at my visits. They just look at me and say I hope you took some pain pills before you came in.

On the dog front news: My old dog Neechee who will be 12 in February is still alive and well, puttering about, sniffing girls and telling the youngsters off. I certified two youngsters at the last trial, and may have some others in the spring too. Keelo who turned 9 on Dec 10 sired a litter of 4 pups in August. So far thank goodness all the DM tests from my dogs have been clear, but I still have at least 3 to do here (Genie, Cholla and Tory). I do not understand why these folks who do have carriers turn up don't test the parents. It is not about finger pointing, it is about letting people know so they will test offspring or littermates of the carrier parent which is not going to happen without the tests.

So a lot to be thankful for even with the surgery(I am keeping the foot thank God), Archie and I still enjoy each others company, my old man Neechee is still with us, 3 dogs of mine finished their AKC conformation championships this year, two of them dual champions! making their mother eligible for the BCOA register of merit ( when I get the paperwork together), had another dog finish his ASFA FCH , his brother got both his conformation majors this year, and it was in pretty limited showing or coursing. My father dying in March kind of took the wind out of my sails for a while but life has to go on.

End of the Summer blues

Things can always be worse I know but this week I had major "suckage" early on. 6 weeks ago one of my 10 week old puppies broke a tibia. The vet put a cast/sling on it prognosis looked good. We changed the sling 3x over a period of 6 weeks and it came off last Friday (10th). Sat and Sun she was easing weight onto it, confined of course for the next few weeks to a small area for a few more weeks. On Monday she rebroke it just standing on it, her pressure sores from the last cast were just about dried up, I could not put her through this again and I said goodbye to her at my vet's office. So I spent all week pretty depressed about things, feeling like giving up ( being a middle aged female probably contributes to the tendency to feel this way anyway) and not doing things that needed doing as one does when you're down. At any rate I know I am not the only person who lost a Borzoi recently that really hurts over this but I needed to say goodbye Bailey, Godspeed little cheerful puppy. We miss your waggy tail and happy outlook. Being a dog owner and occasional breeder is really a downer sometimes.

Mild Rant

Did three high points since the last posting here will put photos up this week but this is a dog related rant. You know just when I think that some people may finally be turning into decent humans, I go out of the area and run into others who know them and they tell me Godawful atrocious things that are being said by the people I am trying to give the benefit of a doubt.

This weekend I talked with someone who is new to the breed or relatively so, and who has had another Borzoi person say horrible atrocious things to her and I quote, "That puppy is a freak, probably isn't purebred. Looks like a collie mix you should send it back." "I think that dog is a dwarf, there is something wrong with it." Said dog is in size for the breed and while she is on the smaller side around 26.5 to 27 inches and shorter on leg than my preference she doesn't look very different from some of the other Borzoi person's dogs. I don't know if people realize it but when they talk so mean to others and say such things about other people's breedings ( and let me say none of these dogs have anything of mine in their pedigrees) it only makes them look as though they have an agenda to push their own dogs off on people. Then later on another person there at the event I was at ( who doesn't even own Borzoi) referred to the the aforementioned negative person, as a nasty mean tempered person who only speaks ill of others. I didn't let this spoil my weekend but I had really hoped that there had been some great change in this persons life and that they were nicer now to people. I guess I need to keep praying on that instead of blogging.

Doggy News

Avalon Solarra SC, JOR, FCH, conformation, LGRA & NOTRA pointed went to live in Missouri with Laurie Florio a couple of weeks ago to be coowned by myself. Laurie has previously shown standard poodles and been a poodle groomer and I think she'll find Borzoi MUCH easier!

Avalon Athena pictured here at 7.5 weeks (DOB 12/27/09) is moving to Missouri the second weekend in May to live with my longtime friend Diana Embry of Willow Wind Borzoi. Athena is a great granddaughter of CH Willowwind's Love at First Site JC, ROM aka "Dottie" cobred by Diana, myself and Dawn Kelly years ago.

Avalon Aphrodite aka "Veenus" is going to live in Kansas with longtime friend Diane Montague who also has Avalon Walkin in Memphis aka "Joy".

Avalon Ryhka Firefox Vikirnoff (asfa ptd) went to live with his cobreeder Mary Lee Jenko on April 23rd . Love at first sight for those two. He was born into her hands as she was actually the one who whelped the litter, and when she lost the boy she had picked from it, seemed like a good thing for us to coown Fox who has never met a stranger. He'll be at the national this year in Novice dog class. I hope he behaves.

While Mary Lee was here she fell in love with Avalon London who she is going to call "Merlin". He is going to be a Pennsylvania boy now too. After her having so much bad luck in the last few months we hope he is going to be of great good cheer to her.

Such Furor

My God you would think we were sacrificing virgins on Main Street to read the heated posts that have erupted since ASFA accepted Silken Windhounds to run in Limited Stakes ( an exhibition only status stake) . Sure they did start out as Borzoi crossed to small lurchers but 5 generations later of DNA typing and breeding one to the other you would think that this would be a moot point. No one is trying to replace any breed with them, no one is saying they are an ancient breed, only that hey we'd like to bring them out and pay the money and let them run and then go home with them. Other than breeding type to type and DNAing every single dog used in breeding, I cannot imagine what other requirements would really be needed to insure a registry is "secure". If I were a drinker, I think I'd be doing that.

More Do as I say Not as I do

It would be funny if it didn't have such far reaching repercussions for the animals but the cyberworld is just rife with discussions on email lists about what it is that constitutes a responsible breeder. Some of the expectations that supposedly we have of each other ( and that buyers have of us) are
a. that puppies be microchipped or tattooed before leaving
b. that health testing be done on parents and either in a database or proof provided
c. that the ability to keep an entire litter be present before you do the breeding ( this was hammered into my head by my "mentor" in the breed and it is something I have kept)
d. that the parents have some sort of bona fides ( either in beauty or performance, now while this isn't a requirement it is usually a preference)
e. that the puppy be warranteed

Apparently though these things seem to be only important as long as some are discussing other people's dogs or practices. Classic examples
1. the MANY MANY breeders who do not microchip their puppies, this is far further widespread than I would have thought and some of the most supposedly enlightened breeders have placed puppies far and wide without any permanent ID. So what happens if the dog is lost?
2. Breedings are routinely done with no health testing, sometimes the reason given ( and I just LOVE this one ....not) oh the dogs were TOO YOUNG TO HEALTH TEST. EXCUSE ME but CERF registers dogs no matter what age they are. It doesn't take a rocket scientist either to take your dog to a veterinarian or better yet a cardiologist for an auscultation and it costs less than a bag of dogfood to register these results. Come on people give something back to the breed. What is funny is the people some of them highly educated calling some of these backyard crazies and inquiring about these puppies. When asked why "oh I might find something good". Well honestly as if a complete novice could sort through a pedigree (that is assuming the breeder knows anything other than who the parents were) and figure out who was healthy , who died of bloat etc.
3. I actually had someone get all fluffy like a cat's tail on some list when I commented people should be in a position to keep the entire litter before breeding one. Poof, novices came out of the woodwork to tell me I'm wrong about that one. SOrry Charlie Tuna's but that one I am dead right about. If you can't keep them you don't need to breed them.
4. See section 2, as if most rank novices ( and some not so rank)
could sort a pedigree or pick a good puppy
5. What really bowls me over or yanks my shorts are people who quiz quiz quiz you out , all bout the dog or it's parents, etc etc. Then they show up 3 months later with some dog that they found at "Super Elite kennels" that has a bad bite missing a load of teeth and a gay tail, no front, and guess what their contract covers nothing at all IF they actually have a contract. What happened to these enlightened , concerned buyers? Were they only interested in asking questions if the puppy was possibly coming from a real breeder but it's OK to meet none of the responsible criteria if you just had two dogs running in your yard and decided to let them have a litter. I really cannot follow the logic on this one

While we are talking about old dogs

Another really difficult thing to do that only applies if you are a dog breeder is balancing when you are able/ready to breed a litter with when you really "need" to do it. Now you should never do it if you don't have the space or finances to keep them all if it came to that, even though that is rarely the case in today's economy you really don't know. Sometimes you have the space and $$ but it is so much work and so emotionally draining that you aren't up to it and sometimes you have to make yourself be up to it. Why? There's a dog or a bitch you "need" to use for whatever reason that is of an age that to wait makes it marginal either that they will be fertile or that it will be safe to try ( mostly with a bitch). A friend of mine was in that position this year with bitches all getting older so she bred them and luck smiled on her with one litter being quite small, the other one completely spoken for and two of a moderate size with a lot of interested folks. This year is sort of the same thing for me, I had a 5 year old bitch I bred absolutely lovely puppies all spoken for quickly now if their mother only grows some hair back she can go out and look for her finishing major. That was the easy one. There's also an 8 year old very healthy beautiful girl from one of my earlier litters everyone loves her curvy, broad muscular and pretty from a litter strong for prey drive and good bites and dentition. Two of her sisters have had a litter. One of them bred to a nice dog but not the dog for her (my opinion and I get to have one as the unwitting cobreeder) as he shared her same faults and strengths so to my taste the litter was like the parents and just sort of plain but sound. The other sister was bred to a dog very different from her but related and produced a spectacularly good litter both in the ring and field ( field as in open field). I didn't keep anything from that first litter and the one I had from the second litter was lost sadly at a young age (3) which makes me a little more "hungry" to breed their sister. Another breeder tried to buy her years ago ( but she had actually just been sold to a novice who later returned her for being the "wrong color" as though that was something that had changed? ) and yet another leased her to try for a litter when she was a two or three year old but she is BIG and they were unable to get a live cover, the AI didn't take and I don't think they ever had a litter sired by the dog they wished to use with her. As usual I digress. Anyway, her owner and I may just bite the bullet this year and try one last time. This is one of those breedings that as a breeder you truly do for yourself because nothing else would make it worth the worry. I am pretty nervous about that though due to her age and I may just schedule a C section for her, I don't know.

Of course she isn't the only girl whose born on date is getting older and older. Another dear friend of mine has a bitch I bred who is over 6 years old pictured to the left here. My friend has only bred 2 litters in 30 years of being in the breed although she has cobred 3 other litters whelped here and enjoyed puppies from those litters. She does a lot of local mixed breed rescue and has been dedicated to that forever so it is rare that she has the time and energy ( she also is a teacher ) to even consider a litter but she has also had bad experiences with some litters in the past she tried to breed with older bitches so she decided this year she was going to breed her girl if she passed her health testing ( which she did). She sent her over here and I AI'd her with a younger male (2 year old) who just passed his health testing and conformationally is a great match for her. Time will tell if she is pregnant or not. She went back home the weekend after her AI's and I imagine I'll exercise my option to take a puppy from the litter and to cobreed it since both parents are of my breeding and I had input on it. Fortuneately there are several folks/friends and breeders who already want a puppy from that litter so I hope to be able to help her place them. Her pedigree has two of the most dynamic performance males in the breed close up and the sire while unrelated has two more truly talented males very close up. I think he himself has the potential to be a powerful sire for those wanting to breed performance dogs that they can show.

Hope is really all we have when it is all said and done now isn't it? After the hard work and thought that goes into anything that is.

By the Way

There are wee Borzoi puppies at my house for the first time in 3 years. 9 of them, 7 boys, 2 girls, they are 6 days old today all doing well. While there were no surprises as to the colors I got, the distribution of colors is a surprise I expected an even mix of reds or red brindles and blacks or silvers and I got 7 dominant blacks in various patterns , 1 red or gold brindle and 1 that I think is tri with brindle. This is the "Z" litter skipping some of those letters where its hard to find a cool name

Rant Rant

I have never understood the desperate need for attention that some dog owners/breeders have that propels them to make crazy claims and invent titles for wins their dogs have.
Winning a Best in Field is WAY FUN, it is bragging rights, usually expressed as "wahoo my Greyhound Bubba won Best in Field at the Way Out Gangsters field trial in Podunk Alabama". That isn't enough for some people though, their dogs have to win Best in Fields with crowds of people giving only their dog ( not the other 6 that ran) standing ovations much like the Coliseum in the movie Gladiator if they are to be believed.
Then there are the dogs that people label things like BPISS. That is bee piss to me. So instead of saying their dog won Best Puppy at the Podunk Specialty show it is now a bee piss dog. I laugh out loud everytime I read that one.
Of course the best are the folks that look for some obscure thing their dog may have done on the way to its title that no one else did. Here's a new favorite of mine. Such and such titled "Mud Fence Ugly" is the only Moldavian rat hound to have finished this title undefeated, now what should go in small print and doesn't is that Mud Fence's owner dragged out their own old dogs that didn't run, their friends REALLY old dogs that ran well before their heads turned gray and all such in order to make points in the area they ran in because they couldn't travel anywhere else to do it. Mud Fence's owner previously ranted about dogs that traveled all over the country defeating dogs from all over the country being "dragged" around to events. Look who's dragging now. Karma is a bitch and Mud Fence's owner is reaping all the benefits due to them now. I wouldn't wish it on anyone though but I didn't wish that IQ on them so it isn't my fault.

vent, Vent, VENT!!!!!

I read dumb people. If I want to stop I'll have to get off most of the dog lists. Did you know that it is almost a federal offense to have a dog listed somewhere for sale? Good thing I warned you.
There are cyberstalkers out there not interested in buying a dog just surfing the web all the time to look for that most dreaded lowlife scumbag, that's right THE PERSON WHO HAS A BALKAN ANTEATER HOUND FOR SALE IN A NEWSPAPER OR INTERNET AD. These dogsellers must be stopped and harassed at all costs. Post their ads on lists with hundreds of members and imply that there must be something horribly amiss here if a Balkan Anteater Hound is for sale. Such atrocities cannot be tolerated in this PETA/HSUS loving society.
Apparently those cyberstalkers know of other ways to acquire a Balkan Anteater hound than to buy it from a breeder or someone else who has one. I can't help but wonder does Santa (or the Tooth Fairy) deliver puppies to them. Do they just find their Balkan Anteater Hounds running loose in a neighborhood and adopt them? Do the puppies spontaneously appear like they used to think maggots appeared on decaying meat? Of course I'm curious because it has never worked like this for me.
So all you disreputable people out there thinking you should advertise your puppies SHAME ON YOU, you are a national disgrace and should be put in stockades and publicly whipped for selling a dog.
Now in a couple of months there will be a plethora of people posting on lists that they cannot find a Balkan Anteater Hound, they are never advertised, they must be so rare, how is a person to find them. I promise you there will be.
The US sure has fallen for the PETA/HSUS rhetoric hook, line and sinker.