My bottlefed baby ram

Well he isn't really a baby anymore is he? He has a better rack of horns than any of our rams lambed here to date, he still thinks he is a person periodically and will call us in his very deep male sheep voice, of course he is nowhere near his adult size yet. I still call him Lambikins.

Sportsmanship and lack thereof

Over the years I have witnessed and also been the subject of some amazingly bad sportsmanship at dogshows. Now that doesn't make me special because so has most anyone else who has been around for awhile. I was discussing this with a Whippet breeder recently and we were exchanging war stories. Here are some of my favorite dogshow "bad actors" that I witnessed.
The person at the sidelines yelling out loud when BOB is chosen , "Oh MY GOD, I can't believe he picked that POS."
The person who walks up to the steward's table picks up a stack of armbands, puts them on realizes one isn't hers walks over to the stewards table, says I think I have one that isn't mine, looks in the catalogue sees who it belongs to and tears it in half and throws it away.
The handler that walks in the building with his open dog sees who is at ringside then takes the dog outside and puts it up in the van breaking the major. WTF?
Now the crazies have infested the performance sports too. Maybe they have always been there but I managed to avoid them until fairly recently. Here for your reading enjoyment, little behaviors I like to call Psychos Afield
The owner that shrieks when two dogs honestly just collide at the end of a course ( no growling or looking) oh my God, Spammy just got attacked, they need to disqualify that dog, I'm sure the judges want to do something about it. Continues this shrieking while approaching the dog scaring both of the dogs. The lure operator is like Lady it was an honest collision that's all.
Owner's friend who stands watching the incident screaming SON OF A BITCH SON OF A BITCH ATTACKED SPAMMY. Aren't the judges going to do anything? Of course the judges under the tent are going "what is wrong with those women?" because they continue to stand around next to the start line fluffing Spammy's hair examining his cuticles loudly complaining about the dog that attacked him in hopes of what changing the judge's mind? I just shook my head in disgust and walked off.
Later on same day Rhodesian people parked next to the pair o'whackados come and ask me if my dog got DQ'd. I'm like no why? They are like oh those ladies were telling us all about how your dog attacked their dog. Great, just charming. Then Pharoah Hound people parked on the other side of them come and ask me the same thing. Wonderful, remind me that no good deed goes unpunished. It wasn't that long ago that I volunteered another of my dogs for one of these whackados to certify one of her dogs with when no one else would.
One of my friends in another part of the country was at a trial once where two dogs run in on the lure both are very keen, and grab a bag and start playing tug and twist etc with it. Well the other dog's owner runs out in her shorts gets tangled in the line because she is too dumb to grab her own dog and step out and then starts shrieking at my friend that her dog is vicious (he is still worrying the lure) and she needs to muzzle him if she is going to run him because she has line burns on her legs. So blame your own ignorance on someone else's dog. Now this same person spreads rumors that this dog is vicious. Oh yes, he is VERY vicious to plastic.
Another fun field trial example is people with opens asking people to run their field Ch's in open at AKC trials to make a major. Fine but once those FC's run prelims and are ahead of some or all of the opens then someone runs up to one of the people whose FC got a high score and screams at them what a bad sport they are for not pulling their dogs so the opens can "get their majors". Excuse me? I guess they were good sports as long as they were entering crappy running FC's in open but don't enter a competitive one there when asked to help make a major. Honestly, the nerve of some people is pretty amazing to me. If that had happened to me with all that screaming and drama we'd of had a bench committee, there is no call for such rude behavior and poor sportsmanship. It makes a mockery of the sport.

What is a great producer?

Anyone who has bred dogs for any length of time and is past the novice stage will probably have had litters that didn't "nick" or parents that weren't super producers ( at least in one try). Most people when they discuss a sire or dam that produced well are referring to a dog that has produced offspring of superior quality WITH multiple titled offspring, not a dog that produced only one or even two or three titled offspring. We kind of expect a dog will at least produce that. The ones that get the label of great producer produce many offspring with conformation, coursing, racing, obedience etc. titles. I'm not discounting a superior dog out there that say produces one litter and half the litter titles or maybe all of it, but it's hard to consider a dog a great producer if it doesn't get a chance to produce more than once from my point of view. Dogs that are bred to different pedigrees and still produce competitive offspring are really the ones that a breeder holds near and dear to them.

Anyway,what is it that makes a great producer? Having one superior puppy in a litter? Having several across several litters? I know what my vote would be.

Brace Yourself for too much cute

The little Z's are just a bit over 7 weeks old and they are just way too cute, so why not just share the overload of cute?

This is "Mina" on the right ( short for Zimina, a Russian stratovolcano). Maybe we could caption this "when good girls go bad?"

Zia (short for Zia Eclipse ) would not want anyone to think his sister is cuter than he is. If he only spoke really good English he would be really excited to think he is going to live in New Mexico, the land of high desert, endless vistas, terrific food and festivals and most interesting of all Mr. Jackrabbit!

He says he'll keep his white spats on in case he meets that important Mr. Jackrabbit because you need to have the right footwear and be prepared.

I am reminded why I just like having boy dogs

Keelo is singing this morning apparently because he thinks one of the two girls I own might be coming in season. Tory ( the aforementioned girl) has been doing some singing of her own in the house and more panting than usual which is a surefire sign of impending season. At this point I am seriously considering a bark collar for Keelo. I gave him a really horrible haircut yesterday too so maybe he is just voicing his displeasure at that although he loves it when I snip him down and he looks like a slightly furry Greyhound. When I clipped down someone else earlier this year he got in line for it and at that time I hadn't decided to cut him down but now I am thinking since I won't be showing the yak (he is a dual champion and almost 7) then why make him suffer through the heat and humidity of summer without a haircut since he obviously hoped I'd give him one. So now I have a big bag full of Keelo hair on the back porch. I wish I could bag that singing up and take it off too.

Progress

Well, a lot have asked me how am I doing and feeling? I think pretty well. I'm 5 months out from my surgery. Have lost 71 pounds since Jan 17 and 100 since this time last year. Walking 4-6 miles a day can't wait to get back to NM or WY this fall, I just wish and pray gas prices will go down so I can get out there for more trips, or maybe I'll get lucky and someone else will want to go out there for a vacation.

Puppies

Well the little guys will all be leaving in the next few weeks except for the one I'm keeping and he is going on loan to a friend who needs him to grow out her puppy from a mutual friend. Here's a picture of him at 7 weeks old. We call him Zuni, his official name is Avalon Zuni Bandera.

Yes, named after a place in New Mexico. I love NM. I just don't see anyway to get out there until retirement though.

The usual attempt at changing the subject

The poor undermedicated homeless psycho continues to try to evade her own statements about other people. All she can do is call people names (a grade school tactic) as she flounders about challenging people over things that HAVE NEVER BEEN SAID. Poor thing tells people they should drive 800 miles with gas $4.00 a gallon just because they have said that she does the same thing that someone she hates does ie. stuff entries or they are chicken shit. Of course the rattletrap car that someone else bought for her probably wouldn't make an 800 mile trip even if she could get sponsors to pay for her gas so she has to play in her backyard. You won't be wagering anything anytime soon and you know it, you don't have the money. If you do have it then it would be better spent on finding your own place to stay. Wake up frizzhead no one is dissing your dog, I have NEVER said your dog was slow, you won't find that anywhere. The only thing I've said (and apparently I'm not the only one because you say there is a bandwagon) is that you stuffed some entries with noncompetitive dogs for her. It isn't your fault no one else showed up. So get over it already.

As a sidenote though it is however incredibly funny for her to throw down a gauntlet about competition when she had competitive dogs running in her area and she was in NY she drove to CANADA to avoid running against them the same weekend the national was close to her. So throwing down a gauntlet to someone whose youngest race dog is 7 years old is really kind of ridiculous, you don't need me to bring my veteran to stuff your race meet you have done very well bringing your own or getting the person you live with to send old dogs. I just wish she would get some medication.

Bah ha hah

Aforementioned psycho now states that only dogs that are campaigned or won in the NE at coursing or racing are honestly ranked. How pathetically sad that psycho can't recognize dogs that won 25-30 and even a 41 dog meet because they weren't in the Northeast. Guess the psycho thinks some owner actually could manage to get that many dogs to a meet and have them all be pulled for another person's benefit. No one I have ever met has made as big of a deal about a dog being number one at anything as psycho, I mean we are halfway through a new year and the psycho continues to pretend that only psycho's dog had honest wins. You would think that the novice that psycho is that they invented the sport. Oh yes and only psycho has reasons that a dog should be pulled from competition, everyone else is dishonest if they scratch or pull a dog. Completely dumbfounding as to why it is so important to try and tear down anyone else's dogs or previously established records with cheap insinuations. More evidence of junior high insecurity and the need for serious medication.

Here's a suggestion for psycho get out of your own backyard, drive to TX, or MO or FL, or GA or SC, or NC or other places before you claim all those folks are dishonest, but then that would be expecting some fairness, and that is a quality that only sane people can be expected to dispense.

Drama Queens or Melodrama Queens

Some people are not happy unless they are unhappy or at least pretending to be martyred. It is just a shame when these psychos end up with the same hobby that you have and worse yet in dogsports with the same breed that you have.
God forbid that you point out say that they have done the same thing that someone they constantly rag on does ( ie. stuff an entry) because then they claim you are saying that their dog is crap and only has beaten crippled dogs which is so far from what was ever said as to not even be recognizeable, but then psycho has a real history of not being able to recognize or speak the truth even when pressed well unless she has been taken to task and you have copies of emails psycho sent and threaten them with a lawsuit. Then suddenly psycho is quick to write the people they lied to and say they must have "misunderstood" what was
said.
Psycho that states all their dogs leave with contracts but when another breeder expects someone to live up to their contract that other breeder is suddenly a "control freak", or psycho advises owners of these other breeders dogs that they shouldn't adhere to the contract because the other breeder isn't a good person and doesn't "deserve" to have the contract honored.
One of the funniest things is that psycho is all huggy lovey with people then when they branch out and have friends not on psycho's approved list psycho has to chide them and when they say, "look be a grown up this isn't junior high where you can only have one friend" then suddenly they are scumbags.
It would really be very amusing if it weren't for the fact that the only time psycho's name is ever brought up is when psycho starts some crazy rumor usually about psycho or psycho's dogs claiming that some other person started it, even to emailing people about a breeder;s dogs (owned by someone they don't like) they are very dependent on and making claims about the bad health behind them while stating the owner of the dog is the one saying it. Of course they got called on that one and psycho removed the person they had emailed the incriminatory emails to from the psycho list of psycho approved breeders. (hell if I would want to be approved of by someone with no morals, no scruples, and no home) I'm not sure why psycho thinks trying to attack others makes them a bigger and better psycho in the stewpot of whackados but that has and continues to be the psycho strategy.
If psycho would just quit talking about everyone else and trying to stir trouble up between people who have known each other longer than psycho has been in the breed the world would be a better place. In other words just STF up about everyone we really don't care about psychos other than to wish you would stay on your meds.

The II

My friend Paula Moore and I drove to Leesburg, VA the weekend after Memorial Day for the 2008 ASFA II. We had checked the weather before leaving to make sure it wasn't going to be really hot ( as in over 90) since we both have hairy dogs that are no fun to keep cool in really hot weather. The weather fairies smiled on the clubs sponsoring it and we had glorious weather for running dogs, also plenty of shade and cooling stations with misters and a water truck there if you wanted to run water over your dogs. We took home ribbons both days which considering the number and quality of the competition pleased us. On Sunday we scooted out as soon as Borzoi finals were done not because we didn't want to stay for it but because it was so early we had the opportunity to hit something on my "bucket list" that is the Shenandoah National Park with it's 105 mile Skyline drive (which has 71 spectacular overlooks that I think we stopped at almost all for photos). So here are a couple of photos from our drive . We stopped at Skyland in the park for a late lunch, if you are ever there the restaurant is a MUST DO, great views, and unique very very tasty recipes. By the way for photos of the actual II you can go to www.shotonsite.us Dan Gauss site who was one of the official photographers there.

Memorial Day weekend

Memorial Day 2008 will certainly be memorable for me. I had a very very long overdue and wonderful visit with my mother in Zephyrhills FL. One of the best weekends I can ever remember in my adult life. I did manage to take my camera and found time while walking around her neighborhood each morning to take photos of the wading birds that inhabit all the ponds in the neighborhood. It was a birder's paradise, Great Blue Herons, Great White Herons ( color variation of the blue), cattle egrets, white ibis, roseate spoonbills, and SANDHILL CRANES an entire family with a big leggy baby crane almost as big as its parents and this handsome female anhinga (from the cormorant family) who posed for a bunch of photos. Then the last day a pair of wood storks, the only north American stork. Way cool.