Title Chasing? Okay, you can call it that I guess.

DecoDarby 

(no photoshopping was done to this photo. It's the actual lighting outside the Long Beach Convention Center at night )

I knew Darby Crash was special from the very start, but I never imagined he'd take something that had been so difficult and not a lot of fun for me and turn it inside out and upside down. Showing in conformation had never been fun until, it was just work and nerves, until I met Darby. The first show he and I went to was about a week after Georgianna gave him to me, he had just turned 6 months and was barely trained to stack.

He got a 3 point major that weekend, the judge said it was his exceptional movement. That was the first of many times I would hear that from a judge. When he was 14 months old, we took a chance and drove to 1,400 miles to Ft. Worth Texas for the Greyhound Club of America's Southern Specialty. I was told not to expect much, the competition would be big, perhaps a little out of our league. He finished his Championship at that Specialty, I guess we weren't so far out of our league after all.

You can't go to Texas and not stop at the Cadillac Ranch!!! 

And you can't go to the Cadillac Ranch without tagging something

Now what?  He finished his Championship. We'd had our first really awesome road trip. It was a little disappointing; showing was getting to be fun, and Darby was still maturing and getting nicer and nicer looking by the month. H and several other folks asked if I was going to 'special' him, the answer was a no brainer, of course we were.

Yay for more standing around and looking pretty. Such a challenge....not.

What is "Specialing a dog?" you ask? Good question.

She forgot to mention toys and treats and chewies and new beds and collars and leashes...I don't work for free.

Besides being expensive (entry fees, traveling costs, time off work, etc), time consuming and often times highly political, Specialing a dog is continuing to show in conformation past getting a dog's Champion of Record title. You no longer show in regular classes, just in Best of Breed and Group competition, competing against mostly other Champions. You do it to accumulate breed points to have the dog ranked in their breed by the number of it's own breed it's defeated. Many people who decide to special a dog hire well known professional handlers and will send a dog to large shows with that handler and heavily campaign the dog with advertisements in breed magazines (that judges read). And for what? To garner a placement in the top 20 dogs in the country and secure invitations to exclusive shows: the Eukanuba Invitational, Westminster and on the International level, Crufts. Basically, to gain top recognition within the breed. Our goal was slightly less lofty; I wanted him in the top 20. I wanted an invite to the Eukanuba as this is the last year it would be held here in California (it's moving to Florida henceforth). In addition, the AKC had created a new title for Champions of Record this year; Grand Champion; and I knew he could do that. And what's more? I knew he could do that with ME; no professional handlers, no big advertising, no selectively showing only to judges we were certain would place him. You know, we'd do it the hard way!

Pleeehhhh, this is what we think about Dog Show Politics and doing things the Hard Way.

Here's how it works:

• In conformation competition a hound is awarded points towards his or her 'Championship' title by winning in what are called 'Regular Classes'. Points are awarded based on how many other dogs are defeated in the class. Points are classified as minor points (1-2 points each win) or major points (3-5 points each win). A hound is 'Finished' when they reach 15 points total, with at least 2 'majors' under 2 different judges. The minimum age to start competing is 6 months old, all dogs start out with 0 points, of course.

• For a 'Grand Championship' title, finished Champions of Record compete at the Specials level (Best of Breed competition only) and are awarded Grand Championship points by winning Best of Breed, Best of Opposite Sex or by being awarded 'Select Dog' or 'Select Bitch' points by the judge at each show. Each Champion of Records starts with 0 Grand Champion points and gains the title after being awarded 25 points with at least 3 majors under 3 different judges. Calculating these points requires a degree in higher math, and I firmly believe the formulas invented to decide how to calculate the points was invented by some bored idiot savant.
• If you're so inclined, here's a link on how to calculate the points for GCh.

So we began anew in April, showing in Best of Breed, owner handled always. We didn't show excessively; one or two shows a month, sometimes more, sometimes less. In the the process, we worked our way up the standings. By the time invitations for the Eukanuba came out, we were #15 in the top 25. We were IN!

Stand-Stay in practice! We went for conformation AND our final Rally Novice leg.

We went to the Eukanuba Invitational in Long Beach, California in December. 

Darby turned 2 years old this show! Happy Birthday Darby Crash.

If you can't have fun, don't do it. We enjoy each others company immensely!

Darby showed very well, got to see Donna and Georgianna (who came to cheer him on!) and although we didn't place, we got to hang out with a lot of really neat people and hunker down in the 'Meet the Breed' booth when we weren't showing. We earned our final Rally Novice leg, and got Select points (one point shy of our Grand Championship!) More important, we introduced ourselves to everyone.

Hanging out with Tess at the Cocktail Party

Darby is very sociable and will "go say hello" to anyone and everyone. Everywhere we go, every road trip, Darby Crash meets people. More important than competing or winning or any of that blah blah blah is meeting and making new friends wherever we go (whether it's the local Home Depot or a trip to the East Coast). This huge show, the Eukanuba, was no exception. The show will be aired on ABC this Sunday, January 23rd. Keep your eye out for Darby Crash, he was schmoozing with EVERYONE, cameramen included and may show up in the 'Meet the Breed' interviews. Sort of a "Where's Waldo" to get you to watch the dog show! Except this is "Where's Darby Crash?" We had a really good time, although I can say I won't be traveling to Florida to do it again!

Darby in Blues (again, no photoshop here, this is the actual lighting.

In our last planned long show weekend, we traveled to Palm Springs to show at the Inland Empire/Palm Springs Kennel Club hound special. We got our last needed Select point and two Rally Advanced legs!
Our little Darby Crash is now GCh Ch Aragon Aroi Silver Lining, working on his rally titles. As of October, 2010 there were only 6 Grand Champion Greyhounds in the country (none with any obedience or coursing accomplishments, by the way), Darby is now amongst them! Stick a fork in us, we are DONE. And you won't find us talking about titles much more. Alphabet soup before and after a dog's name has never really been that important to me (in fact, fanatically and meticulously listing title abbreviations after a dogs name irritates the hell out of me. So few people REALLY know or care what all those letters mean. It's pretty silly, actually). This was a challenge, the grand champion thing, it doesn't really mean that much aside from the fact that we did it based on the dog's merits alone. I'm a nobody, judges don't know me from Jack. Yet we placed over professional handlers and top dogs. I haven't seriously campaigned Darby, he's won on his merits in the ring, not a magazine. THIS is what means something to me. And his obedience accomplishments. Obedience is practical. We use that everyday. Yes, we work hard to pass the tests that earn the titles, but the person it means the most to is me, not anyone else. We'll blog about that later. For now? We plan on taking some well deserved time away from conformation so the baby boy can grow up a little. He finished his Grand Championship less than a year from starting it at the tender age of only 2 years, with 4 majors under 12 judges. Now we let him grow up. We'll work on our obedience; finish rally legs and start regular obedience competition. In addition to fetching a lot of sticks

So many sticks, so little time.

Digging a bunch of gophers

when you stick your tongue out the side of your mouth, it means you're really concentrating hard!

Another one bites the dust!

and mastering control over his ears

Oh geez, not the ears!!!!

They give him special stalking powers.

I think his Merlin is showing.

Merlin, Darby's dad, on the right. As if you couldn't tell. Oh boy, we're in for the ears, I think.

We go everywhere, man....

Oatman, Arizona. Please don't get his mange, Darby.

Cardboard is Not Alone

Add Christmas tree ornaments to Darby Crash's Top 10 Destroy List. He doesn't really have a top 10, mostly just cardboard. Seeing as he plucked an identical Glitter Bird Tree Ornament clean of feathers, glitter, eyes and beak last year we will add it to his list. Since he has to wait an entire year to establish his tree ornament pattern I'm just going to go ahead and give him the benefit of the doubt. RIP little glitter bird.
Oh, and how do I know it was Darby??? Glitter-Lips, AGAIN.

"Wait" is not in his Holiday Vocabulary

H called me about 2 weeks ago to tell me she and Lyric and Echo (Darby Crash's mom and his sister) had a Christmas present for us. We love presents, so we ran right down to the clinic gather our loot. When presented with a very simple brown box, I asked if we could OPEN IT NOW?!? We were told no, it's a Christmas present, you should wait. Darby and I sighed together and agreed, we would wait. So I put the box in the van and left it there (in the foot well of the front seat). Today (Christmas Eve Day), I loaded up DeeDee and Darby and we went to do a little last minute shopping.

Let it be noted that all of my dogs are very well mannered and trustworthy in vehicles. I travel often with one or all of them, and they never destroy or soil anything (seatbelts, electronic cords, seats, etc). At worse they've gotten into the trash or my training bag and scattered or devoured the contents. Not so today. I had forgotten Darby's obsession with cardboard boxes. Not paper bags, not magazines or newspapers, never blankets or dog beds. But a severe cardboard addiction, starting with chewing a corner until it's soggy, then going wholesale nutso ripping and shredding like a mad-dog until there's nothing but confetti remaining. But I had forgotten, and left the two in the van parked directly on the street in front of the store I was in without a second thought (other than how lucky I was to find a coveted parking spot in a busy shopping area). The alarm was set, the minivan was parked within sight, what could go wrong?

When I was done, I got in the van and put my packages on the passenger seat. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something that made me do a double-take.

Dead Monkey Wig, first glance. What else could it be???

The first thing I thought (and remember, first thoughts don't have to make sense) was "There's a dead monkey in my van????", and then actually turning around and looking closer my second thought was "Somebody chewed up a wig???". Then I realized that I have neither a long haired black monkey nor a wig, so those first thoughts couldn't be correct. Then I took a good look at the bigger picture and saw the cardboard carnage, the nibbled/ripped greeting card envelope, and of course the Dead Monkey Wig that I still couldn't identify and was a little hesitant to touch.....

The bigger picture, still don't know what that thing is. Suspicious.

It was about that point that Dee started doing a little prancy-dance and then dove onto the back bench seat to try and look as small and non-guilty as possible, leaving Darby 'holding the bag', or in this case the chewed box.

Guilty, ten times over. The glitter on his face, and the lack of glitter on Dee, confirmed it beyond a reasonable doubt.

Maybe he was set up? Maybe Dee wasn't so innocent as she pretended and had arranged for Darby to take the fall? Not a chance. In his guilt Darby flooded me with snuffly face nuzzles and kisses....his muzzle was covered in glitter. A Dead Monkey Wig, with glitter???? What was this mangled furry glittery thing that was liberated from the plain brown box Helen had insisted we wait until Christmas to open? Was this some sort of deranged joke? I gathered up my nerves (a Dead Monkey Wig was still in the top running as a possibility at this point, having no other ideas) and plucked the hairy, spit flecked thing from the floor of the van. It was a toy, a very nice quality wool 'chaser' toy, similar to a fox-tail, but wool. And scary-hideous if you have no idea what it is. I plucked the cardboard shreds and various pieces of tape and other wrappings from it and tucked it safely away in the center console, gathered up the nibbled card and smiled at the greeting from H, Lyric and Echo. The card is one of Helen's original Lyric photo Christmas Cards, so it was sort of special from a mom-to-son perspective.

I still think it looks like a Dead Monkey Wig.

Glitter-lips continued his 3 part apology, further cementing his conviction as the gift shredder. All was well, but I should have known better. If there's ONE THING Darby cannot resist for any length of time, it's a cardboard box left unattended. He has stolen them from the recycle pile in the carport, he's nabbed them from the office, he's liberated them from the barn. No matter the size, no matter that he knows he's not supposed to destroy them, he loves cardboard boxes and they are not safe in his presence. But he's a Good Boy, and to be fair, it WAS his present. No harm, no foul. Still adorable, of course, which erases all wrong doing and resets the "Angel-O-Meter".

Angel-O-Meter.... all in the positive. For now.

Read your obedience rules/regulations

Nowhere does it say how far down on the 'Long Down' is too far down.

Nor does it say they have to remain fully awake.

When this happened, I let my breath out because I knew we were home free.* Andretti does not move once he's decided to 'throw down'. If all the obedience tests were this simple. :)

*this was last year at Del Monte KC, Andretti's final leg of his CD. We're working on his CDX this year.

The BEST part of Open Obedience; the dumbell and the highjump!

We do NOT routinely do jumps on the pavement, it's not safe or healthy. These were set up for the photos after we had put them away and our grass area was occupied.

Over!!!! He loves 'over'.

First time for everything

A really successful show weekend in Petaluma this weekend! Normally I wouldn't post about individual show weekends, unless it's a specialty and we were super successful. But this weekend was amazing. Both days was an entry of 7 greyhounds, a fairly large entry for a non specialty weekend show. Both days Darby went Best of Breed over 2 other specials and class entries. Today, he got a Group 4 placement under judge Jerry Watson in a group of about 12 or 13. I'm not sure, I was 6th in line and there were at least that many behind me. When I'm in the group ring I focus on Darby first, and the dog immediately ahead of me second. Everything else disappears. Except for anyone cheering for us. I always hear the woo woo woos, random cheering and clapping. Always. So if you ever see us in group, please, that really makes us feel special, and we'll try extra hard for our entourage.

Darby wearing his 'shoelace with sparkly beads'. Elizabeth's description of his show leads. Pretty accurate actually. 

We've been in Groups quite a bit, Darby Crash and I. I am still amazed that I don't get nervous, not even a little. We go in, we do our best, and we let the chips and professional handlers fall where they may. I always hope. I hope he's flashy enough to compete with the Afghan hound. I hope he's solid enough in his stack to compete with the Ridgeback (they always stack so impressively). I hope he's fluid enough in his movement to compete with the Borzoi and the Deerhound. Even though we're supposed to be competing with the standard of our own breed, these other competitors and their flash come into the picture. I hope he stays animated and having fun, that he plays tug with me while we wait and stacks randomly for me when I ask (when we're in line with the judges line of sight as he or she watches the other hounds go around: we are always 'on' in the ring, always). I hope that a plastic bag tumbleweeds by outside the ring, or a squirrel rustles in a tree across from where we are. I actually make a wish for that plastic bag and squirrel. Sometimes those wishes come true and the judge catches him looking very sighthoundy. Today, that happened. The tumbleweeding plastic bag, everything. My heart jumped and I knew we had a placement when the judge went down the line from behind us awarding 1st, 2nd and then 3rd to the Saluki in front of me and then came back to us and said 4th. All I could do was gait him over to the placement sign and wave like an idiot at Gail and Sheila (who stayed to watch us and hooted and hollered along with a few other random spectators who have fine taste in dogflesh, obviously). Then the hugs began. Massive Darby Crash hugging and thanking. I owe every win he gets to his willingness to cooperate with me and flip on the "pretty switch". Yes he has one, it's internal and I'm not allowed to touch it. 21 months old and his first real group placement. He had a puppy group 1st placement when he was 6 months old, but the group was small and a special thing for that show.

Can you say 'gangly' All legs and tail.

We were still tickled all the same. But grown-up-group-for-reals???? Very Big deal.  Doesn't happen a lot with greyhounds. But this weekend it happened, and we're hoping it keeps happening. It will, he's that good. Of this much I'm willing to place money on. That's how sure I am. I've told folks who have asked why I go the distances to show him, my answer is always the same. Faith and a love for road trips. I have an astounding and deep seated amount of pure faith in his talents..... and an incredibly strong love of the open road and the bbq joints you find on it. ;)

So ultimately it's BBQ, people, that's why we do this. The BBQ.

Sniffin the showground air for BBQ. We found none. :(

Kids babysitting other peoples kids

Darby crash got his first real job: babysitting a baby. And she's just about the cutest little thing. He played careful keepaway with her.

Because he's all grown up, he can hold the toy higher!!! But she didn't care. Playing with the big dogs makes her happy;

Darby showed her the best places to sniff, and they practiced smelling stuff together

They ran and tumbled and played with all the really good toys (which Darby was all too willing to share)

And when Darby, Andretti, Dee and Q were too pooped to run with her, she just ran by herself. Like a little maniac until she wore herself out and had to take a nap. Right where she ran out of energy under one of the trees. Darby hovered like a mom-dog making sure everything was good with the sleepy pup.

Puppies are like lithium batteries; all or nothing, no in between. :)

It was a fun afternoon for everyone, but I think the big dogs were just fine seeing the little kid off to her new home. Quiet, blissful quiet, once again.

Lessons Learned

I got my first greyhounds (AKC) a relatively short time ago in 2004. Andretti was first, then D-Square came along from the same breeder a little over a year later. D-Square was given to me with no restrictions other than I not breed her. I'm good with that. :) I opted to show her and course her. I had learned to handle and show with Andretti (who veered off in the direction of obedience vs. conformation) so I figured I could show her and finish her as her conformation is technically better than Andretti's. Ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaaa. Silly girl.

Dee was all but unhandleable when I first took the leash from her breeders hand. I was told her name was Hope, but that they called her Hopeless. That most definitely didn't set well with me. She was so shaken and afraid, while she bonded with me and Art the Husband almost immediately nobody else could get near her. She would cower and sink to the ground when approached. She slunk at the end of the leash. Our first conformation class was a nightmare, our first show a disaster. She wouldn't remain standing for the judge to go over. She would fall into me, jump and cower, tuck her head to the ground and her eyes would glaze over. She was so terrified she couldn't hear my voice, she was a rock on the end of the lead. Abject fear. This was our starting point. With me she was silly and loving, with the outside world she was a ghost inside a beautiful package. My greatest fear at this point was that I had taken on a true Spook of a greyhound. It happens, don't let anyone tell you it doesn't. But several things about her told me no, this was most definitely not the case. And as you'll see, I was right.

We started with a lot of advice. Advice is usually worth what you pay for it, although some of it (and the people behind it) was key to our eventual success. PGBurnham advised I teach her to 'touch', and eventually teach her to 'touch' strangers. That was step one. T. Franzen showed me the 'Around the World' stack. You practice stacking in random settings (in the house, in the yard, in the driveway, at the park, etc.) and in 4 different directions per practice set.  The minute they hold it to the north, abundance of praise and treats and a momentary break, then stack to the east, repeat praise and reward, then south, then west, then done. The idea is to keep the direction random. It worked better than any other stacking advice. H.Hamilton advised teaching her to 'high five' to take her mind off of her fears. Once we learned touch, high five was a great distraction and helped loosen her up when she would start to glaze over. H was always ringside to give me on the fly advice, which was, and still is, worth it's weight in gold. Recently P.Knoll reminded me to 'just slow down', good point, I listened to her and was very successful that day. Advice along the lines of 'don't let her get away with it' and 'make her do it' and anything that started out with "if that bitch belonged to me....."were dusted with disgust and tossed out the window. These were all great lessons (even the discarded ones, especially the discarded ones) and helped us get to our conformation goal.

It took me 4 years to finish her. The first 3 were spent dealing with her fears, the last year it all came together and she became a dual champion (she finished her Field Championship easily, years before her conformation, she's a fantastic runner).

Out of all the advice we received, the best advice I got was from Dee herself. She taught me everything I needed to know about handling a dog. She gave me a foundation to build on.

• She taught me patience. The moment I would lose my patience, she would fall apart, and we were further behind than where we had started that day.
• She taught me to listen, to the exclusion of everything else going on around us. If I could hear her, she would listen to me. She showed me it's all about the dog; not the judge or the people watching or what anyone expected of us. Not about how much money you spent on entries, or how far you drove to get there. Not about what you have planned for her in the next circuit of shows, or what you overheard moments before entering the ring. The moment I stopped listening to her, she would fall apart and quit me and the moment would be over. Better luck next time, lady. So I learned to stop listening to them. Good plan.
• She taught me the value of a gentle hand and kind words. Forcing an issue resulted in absolute and certain disaster. The minute I started strong-handing her, she would fragment and again, we were further behind than where we started. I let her give me what she felt she could, then work with it as unobtrusively as possible.
• She taught me to breathe. I learned not to sweat it in the ring. RELAX, and mean it! If I was anxious, it was all over. Dee absorbs whatever I'm exuding. She needed me to be relaxed and confident, REQUIRED me to be. I learned quickly that it's nothing, don't sweat it, go in and just enjoy yourself. If you can't relax and even slightly enjoy it, you shouldn't be doing it. (that goes for obedience too, btw, but that's a complete other blog!) That was a particularly hard lesson to learn because you can't fake happy, and you  absolutely cannot fake relaxed, not in a dog's eyes. 
• She taught me not to take small accomplishments for granted. Baby-steps; let the little accomplishments in the ring outweigh any disappointments. If she held her stack, I was all grins. If she gaited on a loose lead, for even half a down and back, I was thrilled. She could place dead last and we had still won that day. 

We continue to show even though she's finished and to Dee's credit, she can be shown by anyone. This is a HUGE deal to me. She is solid in the showring. My husband has taken her into the ring (a total non-dog show person, hadn't gone to a dog show with me in 5 years).

She showed (well!) for a 10 year old little girl who'd never been to a dog show, little less in the ring.

Dee's personality is golden. You see, she never was a spook. She just needed to be socialized and worked with. She needed to teach me. Now days you would never know she had issues with strangers. She's in everyone's face wanting to be pet, wagging her tail and generally fulfilling the role of social-butterfly. She knows the request "Go say hi, Dee" and sees it more as "Oh, gee, I didn't see them over there, I'm going to go say Hi, be right back" People don't completely believe me when I tell them that not so many years ago she was all but untouchable, but I'll never forget it. Or the lessons she's taught me.

So when someone tells me I'm a good handler, it means more to me than they can imagine. It's one of the bigger accomplishments in my life. I know that sounds like an overstatement, but it's not really. I've learned to recognize my shortcomings (impatience, heavy handed pushiness, a tendency to not absorb what's being told to me and an especially annoying habit of ignoring the obvious) and overcome them if only for a small moment in time.* I try, to varying degrees of success, to apply that recognition to other areas in my life. That's a work in progress. ;)  However, being able to handle a dog successfully, whether it's my dog or someone else's, is a hard learned talent. I suppose especially if it's someone else's dog, bonus points if that dog has issues. ;) I will always owner-handle, if only because I can. And I will forever be honored when asked to handle someone elses dog, because if they trust me to do well by their dog, it means I made good use of D-Squares lessons.

 *In no way should anyone assume I've overcome my shortcomings. I'm still quite impatient, short fused, bossy, pushy, inattentive and completely blind to the obvious (on many occasions) and randomly quite unpleasant to be around. Hey, I'm nothing if not consistent. But you know, that's what makes us fun to hang with, right? :)