Bend Weekend

[bradl]

Lovely weekend in Bend, Oregon. Bit of sun; bit of rain; lots of Cairns; lots of Cairn folk. Got to meet Tami and Fearghus (and caught a glimpse of Steve ) and generally hang out at Bill and Pat's house. In between eating like a pig at the house, and watching the Cairns show, we spent Friday afternoon, Saturday morning, and Saturday afternoon at the lure course. I think there were around 12 or so Cairns who ran the Coursing Ability Test at least once. Many ran every available time. Several titles were earned.

Due to the rain, the lure operator was really hopping trying to cope with stretching string (which loosens the tension, slows the lure, and allows the dog to catch it) or drying string (which increases tension and breaks the string). The club putting on the test was overwhelmed by the turnout (of all breeds) but were unfailingly pleasant, patient, and encouraging.

They seemed impressed with the turnout of Cairns, and their success with the lure. By Saturday evening they'd figured out to run the small dogs/short course first, since the "do over" rate was very low - the Cairns were very reliable and barring string problems ran like champs. Oz wicketed over 12 inches and he had to run the 600 yard course - which he did with typical heart. Run Toto Run.

As we were packing up the lure operator came over and said to Vicki something like "I wanted to thank you guys for bringing out your tribbles to run." They got quite a kick out of watching the wee Cairns run.

The course was a bit tight for the big coursing hounds, but once while testing the string tension they ran a Borzoi. Oh my ... watching a big sighthound run is a sight of surpassing beauty. It was genuinely thrilling to see. It would be a crime to own one of the sighthounds and not let them course!

Here's Sammy (Dundee's mother ) - she was running during/after the downpour so had to keep restarting due to string malfunctions. Finally on the third try they got a complete run.

On Sunday, the coursing field was dismantled and set up for a flyball tournament. No Cairns were on any of the flyball teams (it's a team sport and not something you can just show up and try), but Cairns *can* be on teams and are often desirable as the "short dog" of the team - the jump height is set for the shortest dog on the team, so a short fast dog like a Cairn can be welcome. Just for fun I've linked a couple short youtubes I took showing what a flyball heat looks like, along with a closer look at the box that dispenses the balls.

Flyball looks like a lot of fun. These dogs were having a ball (literally). At the end of the course, a ball is released by the dog pressing against the platform lever - they grab it and return to complete their leg of the relay.

[bradl]

Some more photos.

The lure operator switched back and forth between these two machines as the motors would get hot.

Every dog within a quarter mile was sure it was MY TURN NEXT!

Most dog sports run rain or shine. We even let a non-Cairn mother-daughter (and their dog) take shelter under our canopy.

Back at the Hassey's, we had a weenie roast (and s'mores) around the fire pit on Friday evening. Can you tell who recently dropped a hot dog bun?

Meanwhile, a cat has been spotted over by the barn, causing "cairnsternation" among the dogs in the backyard.

[Tuesday]

Looks like great fun! Love the hot dog bun shot (and the group shot, and the rest of it)!

[Sam I Am]

Love it love it is that Haggis in the far left corner?

[Hillscreek]

Great pics. Looks like a really fun time.

[Lynn in TN]

I am so jealous. It looks like so much fun.

At the end when they had to press the platform to get the ball, I don't believe Kelly would be good at that because she would step aside and get the other teams ball. she always wants what others have. hehe

I'm glad you all had a ball!

[Dempsy's Mom]

Very interesting videos. Sammy did great! The flyball was fascinating. Pictures are fun too. All the cairns are a lovely sight.

[Kathryn]

Wow - that looks like so much fun I might be tempted to chase the lure myself! (I would be so much slower than a cairn - almost embarrassing...)

Allie in her day would have loved this. Now though, since she is almost 15 and has a wobbly knee, I don't dare even think about it.

Still I would love to watch. Are there any events in the Midwest?

[Kathryn]

I just have to add - there is NOTHING more wonderful than spending a whole day with cairns who are enjoying themselves...wish we had been there.

Edited July 3, 2012 by Kathryn

[Idaho Cairns]

Wow would I like to see my girls, especially Sammi, chase those rags across a field--all of the videos were great, couldn't help but laugh at the fly ball competition--those dogs really go all out with the need for speed.

Photographs were wonderful and that chocolate brown Cairn with black appointments is absolutely gorgeous! What a beautiful color and so rare--I've never seen one this color.

[bradl]

Kathryn, would you like to watch Afghan Hounds course? There's an event that appears to be for Afghans only August 25 in Ramsey, MN. Events get submitted and approved at various times (depends on the host club submitting their paperwork) so you can always check from time to time at the AKC Event Search (just choose Lure Course from the list of available activities) and get a calendar of all the relevant events. (Here's a different format of event search that allows you to specify states.)

[tlwtheq]

Brad,

This is such a wonderful view of the relationships between canines and their (human) companions. Thanks!

Tara

Edited July 3, 2012 by tlwtheq

[hheldorfer]

What a wonderful weekend for you. Thanks for sharing the pics. (My fave was the "cairnsternation" pic. Those dogs want to give the cat the what for.)

[cairnsby3]

I have friends that run fly ball, did you know that little dogs can have a smaller tennis ball. Also some dogs turn better one direction than the other, so the ball loader will put the ball on the other side for the dogs that turn the other way. Was that the long coursing course? It looked a long way around.

[bradl]

One thing I got was that there is a lot more going on than first meets the eye, just as you say. Besides the mechanics of training the basics there's coordination with other dogs for the relay aspect, timing with the start lights, and so on.

Sammy was running the 300 yard (short) course. The 300 yard course ends with a run back toward the start point whereas the 600 yard course continues on with another set of looping turns (some of the larger dogs gave up on the lure at that approach point and "over-ran" the lure to go back to their handler).

We asked the operator about the endurance/conditioning aspect. He said that at a proper trial some of the hounds will run a 1,000 yard course up to four times in a day. I imagine those dogs sleep well at night!

Apparently there is a lot riding on the lure operator. He said the basic theme is to keep the luring moving at the beat of the dog's gait, except when approaching a corner - then you have to speed up to "show the dog the corner" so that the dog will cut the corner at a less acute angle - if you wait too late and the dog has to cut sharply, some of the finer-boned dogs could break a leg .

In one of his runs, Dundee tripped in a hole or low spot in the course and literally tumbled head-over-heels. Wipeout! He popped back up and immediately launched again, no worse for wear and qualified no problem.

[Kathryn]

Thanks, Brad! We might go watch afghans. It would not be as wonderful as seeing cairns, of course, but I think it would still be great fun. (Until they stopped holding them, we also went to the local sheep dog trials every fall in MN, and there were never any cairns in that mix...)

[Tami]

We just got back home late last night. (We stopped along the way to visit a great aunt near Yreka and then took our time going home. Of course there still were a few long phone calls.Turns out that all the computer issues were due to a leap second. Who would have thought that?)

Thanks Brad! We had such a great time meeting everyone. I even met Haggis and more cairns than I've ever seen in one place, all different colors and ages. Fearghus even got to meet his uncle and played with a bunch of new friends in the backyard. He even lent his voice to the effort of chasing off cats in the woodshed, not that the cats even paid any attention to the lot of them.

Of course our absolute most favorite moment was getting to hold the puppies. I forgot all about taking pictures because we wanted to give them lots of love and attention. It was hard to pick a favorite. Instead she picked us, or more accurately she picked Steve. Every time we went to the puppy ex-pen she was the one who walked towards Steve and wanted to be picked up and held. We've since heard that her ears have turned up. We will know 100% that she's the one in mid July when they get judged. Yay!

We're definitely putting this event on our calendar for next year. It was so much fun to see all the cairns and visit with all the wonderful new people.

[Newman]

That ball catcher thing was insanely awesome, thank you so much for sharing....