An Open Letter to AKC's VP of Performance

Note - AKC's BOD rescinded the age lowering - restoring it to 12 mos - at the March 2014 meeting. Kudos to AKC for responding so quickly to correct this.

24 February 2014

to: Doug Ljungren, VP of Performance and Companion Events

re: AKC Board Minutes 2/7/14 - CAT rule change - minimum age reduction

Dear Mr. Ljungren -

I am writing to ensure you are aware of my acute dismay at the recently published AKC Board Minutes, dated 7 February 2014 in which the following change is announced on page 10: "The Board VOTED to amend the Regulations for Coursing Ability Tests, Chapter XV, Sections 3 and 9, to open the Coursing Ability Test (CAT) up to a wider range of dogs by (1) lowering the minimum age for a dog to participate to 6 months..."

I must express to you my most strenuous objection to this change, and to the manner in which it was carried out. As the immediate past-Secretary, previous President, and current Director on the Board for Albuquerque Whippet Fanciers Association/Lobo Lure Coursing Club, we were not allowed the opportunity to provide feedback on this proposal. Neither were current active Lure Coursing Judges asked to weigh in.

As you are aware, lure coursing is a Performance event, not a Companion event. As an agility competitor since 2001 and a lure coursing participant and judge, I am keenly aware of the distinction between the two categories. Your own involvement in field trials no doubt gives you a similar appreciation.

As you can see from this chart the average age for growth plate closure of the critical tibial crest (stifles being the last joint in which growth plates close, and in all canines the joint most prone to injury) is 11 months, with the range being up to 14 months (the study used beagles and greyhounds). In my own borzoi, I have seen (via digital radiograph) some males' growth plates still open at 18 months of age.

It is therefore my considered opinion - as owner, breeder, and judge - that the 12 month age MINIMUM for entry into any lure coursing activity is an essential safety rule. I find it unconscionable that AKC would enable entry in a performance event by immature animals.

It has been brought to my attention that several clubs will be dropping CAT events from their hosting activities; countless judges have stated that they will decline CAT assignments; and the NM club has lost its FTS for future CAT events. Please work with the AKC BOD to rescind this rule change before dogs are needlessly put at risk of suffering career-ending injurys.

Thank you in advance for your prompt attention to this matter.

- Leonore

AKC LC Judge

AKC Breeder of Merit

cc:

AKC LC Field Rep

and the following AKC clubs, of which I am a member in good standing:

Albuquerque Whippet Fanciers Association / Lobo Lure Coursing Club - President

Rocky Mountain Borzoi Club - Performance Chairman

Borzoi Club of America - AKC Delegate

But wait! you also get...

A while back I wrote an essay on being a huntmaster; it's a tough job and I've had the pleasure of seeing some really good ones recently. All things being equal, I'd rather have a dog in a hunt than anything else, but if I'm not running a dog, I'd rather judge than anything else.

At it's best, judging is a lonely job. And spending six or eight hours all by myself is a luxury... no phone, no e-mail, no chores, nobody talking my ear off... just wide open space and endless quiet and the opportunity to be as the hounds slip and the jackrabbit does its level best to out maneuver them. I start my recorder and let stream of consciousness go from binoculars to lips, running commentary. I listen to the play-by-play as I do my scoring, close my eyes and the entire course plays out again.

blue in the lead, pink has quit, yellow arcing around, yellow does a legitimate go-bye... pink has the run-up, pressing the rabbit hard, jink right, advantage blue... tallyho, rabbit straight out, pink on it, the others trailing, rabbit has it's ears up, rabbit hard left advantage yellow, blue very wide can't corner for beans, pink and yellow now pressing the rabbit hard... all tail chase, wow a hawk forced a turn! left turn, pink now has the lead and is closing on the hare... yellow has been dominated since the last wrench, pink is fading, blue out of frame. pink has quit, yellow is still on it, hard turn left, rabbit induced turn... they are coming up the hill right toward me, gawd what a strong rabbit, he's opening up an enormous lead... they have gone into the cover, just flashes of blanket now, they are back in the open, yellow is pressing the rabbit very hard and gaining, take attempt... rabbit is opening a big gap over blue, yellow and pink trailing, left, right, order is the same, dogs are bunching up, blue in the lead, yellow second, pink third, all tail chase, out of sight over a berm... blue opening up a big gap, accelerating and gaining on the rabbit, opening a huge lead over yellow... interesting, rabbit is dicking around, ah now pink is pressing hard, ears down, arc right... yellow trailing, pink is closing the gap on the rabbit, closing, forcing turns, soft turns, left right left again, take attempt, rabbit is very pressed, very pressed, hard right, again, and pink has it...

Recording the courses is great, vastly simplifies my ability to see an "instant replay", enables me to know duration, course dominance, blanket color, and assure kill credits are as fair as possible. As for relying just on my memory would be, well, let's just say I wouldn't do that to the hounds.

But in a 6 or 7 hour day, there may be a total of only 10 or 15 minutes of coursing. You may be wondering what I do with myself the rest of the time. Never fear, gentle reader, there's a long list:

Bright warm memories of great courses to warm the feet on frozen mornings... sand in places ladies don't discuss, sunburn, windburn, mist and frost on boots and in your bones, afternoon doldrums, bored senseless... rattlesnakes (rare), bees (one unforgettably creepy day), countless birds, from burrowing owls and quail to golden eagles; an elk once, pronghorn often, assorted ground squirrels and prairie dogs. There's also repetitive stress injury from lifting binoculars... getting second guessed, yelled at, and developing a thicker skin, gaining a broader perspective and a deeper appreciation of the hounds, and an abiding and genuine admiration of the rabbit.

The season is over, much to the disappointment of my hounds. I watch them twitch in their sleep, lips curled, feet tight, and wonder if they replay the great courses on their eyelids, too.

Black holes

Going to Nationals was a great experience, but I was "off the radar" in more ways than one.

First, there was the two-day drive out. In near-constant gale-force winds and driving rain. Just me, seven borzoi, and Brown Betty (my van). Many thanks to Barb for the loan of a cargo platform, it was invaluable!! The sheer amount of stuff that went to Kentucky with me was, well, staggering. And other than too many t-shirts, none of it was unnecessary. Yikes.

The tubs contain: coursing/racing gear; dog food, bowls, buckets, etc.; people food/drinks; dog-washing and -grooming supplies, show leads, et al; people clothes, a change of shoes.

1,350 miles and four tanks of gas later, we arrived. Meeting on-line friends in person for dinner set the tone for the week - everyone was happy to see each other, fervent in their opinions, and filled with sportsmanship.

The field trials occupied Sunday and Monday, and there were some nice borzoi. By nice I mean: sane and functional. Well muscled. Lots of prey drive. A few impressed me, a few were disappointing, and most were in that ho-hum middle-ground of decent runners that left my socks on my ankles. But there were no slackers, and that is always a good thing. I didn't enter the ASFA trial, but did have skin in the game: Gin's sire, grand-sire, and great-grand-dam were all running. (I helped slip.) Gin ran in the LGRA trial that afternoon, but was pulled after P2 following a nasty collision at the finish. (She was fine.) I ran three dogs in the AKC trial on Monday: Rumor finished her MC title from the Veterans class; Py (Specials) and Gin (Open) both placed.

That afternoon I handed off one adult and two puppies and I headed up to the host hotel with a fist-full of ribbons and bling, ready for the next stage of the event. By Monday night I had shed another adult, so was down to a mere three borzoi for the rest of the week. After coordinating 50 meals (and at least four-times that many potty trips) in three-and-a-half days, I was finally feeling like a lady of leisure.

Except for unloading all that stuff from the van to the hotel room - plus two crates, an x-pen, several dog blankets, my cooler, camera, and other front-seat sundries... which sent me to bed with an aching back.

Tuesday was Obedience and Rally, and I will say - hands down - this was the most supportive competitive environment I've ever been in. Pick a sport, any sport; any time zone, any level. THIS was a great place to be: heartfelt cheers, good-natured laughter, sympathetic groans, supportive classmates. Clear front-runners for the Triathalon emerged, titles were finished, first legs were earned, and the judge's indulgence was much appreciated.

Wednesday the entire tone of the event changed. Perhaps it was the quantity of dogs, the endless drone of blow dryers in the grooming room, the wet and shivering dogs walking from the bathing area to the building. Perhaps it was the event type changing, perhaps it was something else. But once the conformation events started, there was a subtle shift. Around the ring, people seemed to fragment into groups, there was less camaraderie. There was a lot of clumping around the results board, muttering and lowered voices. Aside glances, fingers pointing in catalogues, and pursed lips.

In the grooming room itself, sportsmanship abounded. Grooming tables, supplies, dryers, and extension cords were shared as readily as a super-sized bag of M&M's. Two of my own dogs were groomed for nearly six hours by someone else (six!!) and - I will be honest - looked utterly magnificent when she was done. Paula is a master groomer, and a finer example of a Southern lady would be hard to find. Kindness and generosity, endless gossip and tales of other dogs and long-ago shows filled the air - along with mousse, mist, and whips of dog fur. Scissors sang and brushes flourished and virtually all the dogs stood for endless hours with looks ranging from profound boredom to resignation to quiet contentment.

The health seminar Wednesday night was great; the speaker was funny, articulate, thoughtful, and very informative. An excellent use of time and money.

Thursday "regular" conformation classes began. Hallways were progressively more crowded, exercise areas in constant use, and a sense of "I'm late! I'm late! for a very important date!" gave urgency to footfalls in the hallway.

Heaven help you if you took a dog of color into the ring (and few people did), or one without a lot of bone, or a moderate rear... with few exceptions, you might as well have been standing on a distant planet. Serious rumblings of discontent from the ring-side observers was evident.

Thursday night I attended the member education seminar on how to judge Sweepstakes. Focused principally on procedure and administrivia, it provided insights into the realities for judges. More interesting than informative, I thought, other than a suggestion to find the dogs of best type first, then select soundness from among those. Not quite chicken and egg... but perhaps soundness first and type second?

Things weren't quite so bad in the bitch classes on Friday, as there were more colored hounds entered and quality, overall, seemed better than in dogs. I was terribly disappointed, however, when in one class a bitch that the judge had great difficulty in touching was put up over others that were of superior temperament.

After a quick trip to visit a friend's kennel and see some lovely puppies, I attended the judge's education seminar. This is presented several times a year to prospective and current borzoi judges so they know what makes a "correct" borzoi. There were numerous photographs, including two of hounds that had been shaved down (so their coat didn't disguise appearance). In retrospect, I think I would have preferred that photos of outstanding running dogs, rather than highly successful show dogs, had been used. If BCOA is going to tell judges this is a running breed, then let's focus on field performance phenotype, yes? Return of upper arm and croup angle are two items where information presented was inconsistent with experience. Points around tail -set and -usage and sidegait (a trotting breed moves very differently from a galloping breed) also made me frown.

Saturday morning I was up and loading and on the road as soon as possible. Another 1,350 miles and four tanks of gas, I was home late Sunday afternoon. Despite the grueling hours - most days approached 18 hours in length - it was a very worthwhile week. My head filled with possibilities and good memories, I'm already looking forward to next year.

2009 GN results... sorta

My e-mail is down, haven't had access since Thursday. Maybe will get it fixed tomorrow...

Here's the reader's digest version of results from the Grand National weekend:

Friday - Region 3 Invitational
Open - Gin (only one entered) - had a very nice course in Prelims, the lure op did an outstanding job. Then she got caught in the line in the middle of Finals, came up lame, and I pulled her. Excused.

FCh - 1st Challenger, 2nd Py. Charger came up lame after Prelims, Challenger didn't look good after Finals.

Rough day for borzoi.

Saturday
I spent the day running scores from the judges to the scorekeeper, so actually have no idea how the results went. I was EXHAUSTED from all the back and forth, *man* I need to get in shape before OFC season. But the judges were great sharing perspectives on how to score, which dog got scored how and why... very interesting. Must do this job again sometime soon.

Sunday
Open
1st & BOB - Emmy
2nd - Gin (now has 99 pts!!)
3rd - Merlin
4th - Halis
NQ - Shadowcat

FCh
1st - Challenger
2nd - Spitzer
3rd- Kyra
4th - Phoebe
NBQ - Nitro
Field: Charger, Dagny, Py

Vet
1st - Belle Starr

Py and Dagny were tied for 1st after Prelims, but Py got a cactus spine jammed up his nailbed and I didn't get it out cleanly. He took a few bad steps so I, very reluctantly, pulled him from Finals. FCh stake had a run-off for 3-4-NBQ, Nitro was lame and was pulled from the run-off. Then Emmy beat Challenger in the run-off for BOB.

Grand National
It is a thrill to report that Joan's scottish deerhound Wist won the GN!!! Sorry I wasn't there to see it, by all reports it was an incredible run.

A little mud never hurt anybody

It was a weekend that separated the utterly deranged from the merely insane. Guess which category I'm in.

Nine inches of rain on Saturday, which came on the heels of inches earlier in the week, left the ground saturated, and all of us at the I.I. ankle-deep in mud.

They say a picture's worth a thousand words...

credit: Shot on Site

What're two pictures worth?

credit: Shot on Site

Now imagine: sleeping in a van with these hounds for THREE nights. I need my head examined!

Define "safe"

What exactly, is "safe" enough? Is it even possible?

Following a recent local agility trial, the usual complaints started to surface. The surface was either too hard, too soft, too deep, too slick or too something for many handlers. The groomed dirt arena was blamed for dogs knocking bars, missing contacts, running wide, and for handlers slipping or falling. To hear the list of ills, you'd think every run would have been a blue ribbon if not for the surface. Allusions to the risk of injury were made. To hear the list of complaints, you'd think every agility surface should be a perfectly level, perfectly traction-ed, and perfectly safe. As if there were such a thing!

I've seen agility courses set up and run - successfully - on rolling terrain. On soccer fields. In rodeo and dressage arenas. On hardpan and on sand. On school playgrounds and public parks and dirt lots and desert meadows. In the rain, in morning dew, in a dusting of snow. In blasting winds and glaring sun. After dark with street lighting. And inside on artificial turf, carpet, and rubber mats. With no air, or swamp coolers, or refrigerated air (that's air conditioning to those that don't live in the desert). There are lots of other settings I haven't seen yet. Most are safe, most of the time. But injuries can and do happen anywhere.

I think that the truth is that if you TRAIN on a variety of surfaces, you and your dog are physically and mentally prepared to run - successfully - on anything that comes up. So if you aren't successful on a particular type of surface, you have two choices. Either TRAIN like you want to compete, or SHUT UP. Complaining will not solve your problem, so either get to work or... stay home.

I didn't always feel this way, no siree. The last three years of coursing have really opened my mind to the idea of what a good performance dog can handle. Dogs that weigh over 80# going roughly 30 MPH in all kinds of weather on all types of surfaces - grass, pouring rain, wide open desert, rolling meadow, snow, wind, beating sun - day after day, for long minutes that no agility run could ever compare to for speed, distance, difficulty or duration. Cacti, cockleburs, goat heads, devils claw, arroyos, barbed wire fences, unmarked roads, cattle, rattlesnakes, pronghorn, coyotes... and yet people want to whine about a soft spot in the dirt? If you and your dog can't handle a groomed surface... well I got nuthin' to say, that leaves me speechless.

Sure, hazards are real and some are best avoided. At least, minimized wherever possible. Certainly, preparation, training, and luck are huge factors. But staying home is no guarantee of safety: I know at least a dozen people that have had dogs killed or severly injured in freak accidents in their own yards. Just yesterday my neighbor had a perfectly healthy 7 year old dog drop dead in front of her eyes for no reason whatsoever, inside her house. (Necropsy results pending, we suspect anyurism.)

In the end, there's no such thing as "safe", there's just LIFE. I, for one, will be out there living it with my dogs.

Pronoun Revelations

In case you're unsure, this is more Strunk & White than another good book.

I've had this thought for quite a while, and several weeks ago during a desert-walk conversation with a delightful young gentleman this topic came up again. So here goes: my thoughts on what the use of pronouns reveals about the speaker.

"I've bred five Champions."

"I got six MACH's on two dogs."

"I have put twelve different titles on Rover in three sports."

Compare that to this:

"He finished his Championship this weekend!"

"She picked up her second ADCH in Phoenix."

"He's a three-way performance champion, with points toward five more."*

What do these sentences reveal about the speakers? Well, from my perspective, a couple of things. One, all are proud of the accomplishments discussed. Two, some people think they earned the titles, while others think the dog did something wonderful.

A human taking credit for a dog's accomplishments is petty, and very little makes a person look smaller to me than this use of language. That's like taking credit for a sixth-grader's spelling test result because you helped the kid study. Now, if one is a professional handler and is describing one's qualifications to a prospective client, that's different. But for people that own, train, and handle their own dogs, well... And I'll grant you, I am completely aware that some things are team sports (e.g., agility, obedience, rally) but get real, people... taking credit for a dog's accomplishments is absurd.

And regardless of team sport or not, the judges are judging the dog's performance, so I stand by this: the credit goes to the dog. Last time I checked, only a couple of venues award titles to handlers (CPE and USDAA), and to JUNIOR handlers only.

The proof is in the pronoun; perhaps grown up's should consider how revealing the use of I vs. s/he is.

*the dog is mine, but the titles are his ;-)

A Special kind of Crazy

I suspect there is no treatment for this particular disorder.

Here's the set up: It was 11 degrees and I couldn't WAIT to get outside. The hounds were climbing the furniture, itching to get GOING already - and I decided that leaving my boots at home wasn't that big a deal, I'd just wear my sneakers. Coat over jammies, slippers over bare feet, and I took the boys out to a paddock for their morning constitutional. No wind, stars galore, the moon setting over Pike's Peak, and a hard cold that puts a spring in one's step.

Dog trial fashion this time of year trends toward the... bag-lady impersonator. I got a cup of coffee and began to dress. Layers and layers of long-sleeved everything, heavy wool socks, lined gloves, ear warmers, hat, down vest, windbreaker. While I would have liked my ski pants, I had to make do with my very favorite fleece lined jeans. Ski pants are wind-proof, which is a wonderful thing on the windswept high desert in winter. Feel free to call me a wimp, but only my toes and a couple of fingers went numb. Yes, it's essential to pee before going to the field, because dropping trou in a porta-pottie is not only incredibly uncomfortable, it's utterly cumbersome.

By the time breakfast was finished I'd broken into a sweat and the dogs were ready for the relative comfort of the car. The sun was just coming up, promising sunburn in addition to frostbite. It was 14 as we pulled onto the field, and about 20 by the time we had roll-call. I seriously doubt it broke 30 before lunch, and the wind made it feel a lot colder than that. The borzoi were, of course, giddy. Cold weather is their favorite, and running in the cold only makes them happier.

After the trial I headed back to the ranch house for a shower, where I traded bag-lady for lobster impersonations. When my last toe thawed out I exited the shower and got ready for dinner. Then it was time for a good dinner with friends all things dog.

We laugh at ourselves and what we do for the our love of the hounds and what they do. Call us crazy if you want to; we're nearly as happy as our hounds.