Tuesday, 13 April 2010

We had a spectacular weekend of lure coursing down in New Jersey.  I brought five experienced runners (Jedburgh, Beau, Boudicca, LeLe and Memsie) and two of the yearlings (Nerys and Harry).  Denise brought another yearling, Charm, down from Massachusetts, and Kate and Francis brought yet another, Ori, up from Pennsylvania.  Diane Murray brought her Australian import bitch, another yearling, up from Virginia, and on Saturday, we had a certification party.  Unfortunately, only three of the dogs passed, but much fun was had by all.  In the trial that day, only the experienced dogs ran, and LeLe earned the last two points she needed for her Field Championship.  So she is now DC Cu Liath Lady of the Lake SC!

On Sunday, we re-tried one of the youngsters, and two more young dogs showed up to try to certify.  All showed significant lure interest, but not sufficient lure focus to make it around the course without succumbing to the distraction provided by a second hound on the field.  I was very proud of my experienced hounds throughout the weekend, especially LeLe, who ran two certification runs on Sunday morning before the trial, and endured fairly constant playful harrassment from both of the youngsters involved.  One of them harried her to a standstill, but she never said boo, and when the lure came by again, both dogs took off in hot pursuit--of the lure, this time.  I suspect that with experience and maturity, all of the youngsters will succeed in the coming months.

I was prouder still of Harry.  He ran with Memsie and one of the newly certified youngsters in the prelims on Sunday and was playfully but persistently nagged by the other newbie.  He never acknowledged her existence.  (The owner is a class act, and pulled her after that run.) Then, rock steady, in the finals he turned in the best run of the day!

Denise was thrilled to go home with a four-point major for Charm; Harry took second place honors (and two points!), and Memsie inched closer to her FC title by picking up the single point for third place.

Poor Charlie didn't get to see any of it, as he was home with the next generation of coursing fiends (knock wood!).  The pups are seven weeks old this week, and we are very pleased with them!