Tails of the Travelin' Trio: Chasing the....Rabbit?

(Woodinville, WA) Thursday evening Boogie started not feeling very well. He was up all night...which means Mike was up all night as well. Darn, the little guy has been doing so well for quite some time.

We decided to let him try tracking Friday midday as he seemed in better spirits by morning. He did his most difficult track to date...450 yards with five turns. All things considered he did extremely well.

Saturday he seemed to be worse. Poor guy just doesn't seem to be able to shake it this time. So I put my foot down and insisted he rest all day. That almost happened. We did do a very small amount of obedience work and then some box work - for his K9 Nose Work class.

The other dogs all seemed to like the past two days a little better as Mike took them each on various hikes, walks, and did some training activities.

Sunday was a beautiful day - sunny and warm. Sure wish all days were like this! Our activity for the day was Lure Coursing. We took Sparkie, 2iggie, and Boogie.

The location was beautiful. There were fields in every direction.

You can't see it in my pictures but we could see some mountains with snow on them in the distance. It was a really pretty place to spend an afternoon.

Sparkie and Boogie have done Lure Coursing before and absolutely loved it. Because 2iggie is part Italian Greyhound we thought she might enjoy it as well. I must say we didn't see any other Italian Greyhounds there....maybe they are too delicate. But there were lots of Whippets there (probably 99% of the dogs there)...and were they ever fast. What a beautiful thing to watch! Even Boogie and 2iggie enjoyed watching. We couldn't let Sparkie watch as she just screamed and jumped straight up in the air nonstop.

They were doing straights today. This means the dogs run in a straight line chasing the lure which is a plastic bag. I guess the dogs think they are chasing rabbits....or maybe they could care less what it is....maybe they just like chasing. Whatever the case, they are FAST! Here is what the lure looks like. If you look closely you can see a very small rope on the ground that the plastic bags are tied on.

These are pulled down the course just ahead of the dogs by a machine run by the lure operator. One person would hold the dog (the releaser) and the other person would walk 130 - 200 yards, depending on how far you wanted your dog to run, to be the "catcher". In this picture you can see the lure box (I'll explain that later), a guy getting ready to release his dog, the lure course operator (in the distance on the right), and the catcher (the person in the middle 130 yards away).

I couldn't really get much in the way of pictures of our dogs since I was either the releaser (for Sparkie and 2iggie) or the catcher (for Boogie). But here is a glimpse of the start. The boxes you see in the back are starting boxes. They put one dog in each spot in the box. Then when the lure starts to move, the front pops open and the dogs go zooming out. Here you can see three dogs that are going to race against each other. When more than one dog runs at the same time, the dogs must all wear muzzles. Here you can see everyone getting the muzzles on the dogs.

As you can see, none of the dogs minded wearing a muzzle. In fact, they were anxious to get them on as they knew that meant it was their turn to race.

Of our three dogs, Sparkie got to go first. She was screaming bloody murder waiting for her turn. She was the oldest dog to participate today...10 years old.

Since Sparkie is so old, we just had her run 130 yards. She had a blast! She didn't slow down one bit until the lure stopped at the end. What a big smile she had on her face.

2iggie went a few dogs later and since she was new, Mike just went 130 yards. I released her as soon as the lure started to move. She took of like a shot and ran directly to the lure operator who was standing on a tall ladder 130 yards from the start. We're pretty sure she thought he was Mike because as soon as she got close to they guy she realized it wasn't Mike and she turned and ran immediately to Mike. They let her have another turn immediately so she could hopefully learn to chase the lure and not just run to Mike. But once again she just ran to Mike.

Then it was little Boogie's turn....finally! Since he has such short little legs I decided he should only go 130 yards as that's a long way for a little guy. I told the lure operator that Boogie knew just what to do. He was very skeptical about the skill of a Border Terrier in this activity. But I assured him it wasn't going to be a problem.

Mike released Boogie and he was on a mission. He ran just as fast as those little legs could possibly go...and of course he was barking at the top of his lungs! When he caught the lure at the end he used his terrier attitude to tear up the lure. Good thing it's easy to get more. And suddenly the lure operator was changing his tune. (He was a super nice guy.) He was very impressed with Boogie and couldn't stop with the compliments.

After all the dogs had a turn (maybe 30 dogs) there was a break for lunch. The property owners had a barbecue for us. Then it was back for one more turn each. We didn't let Sparkie do it again due to her age.

We decided that if 2iggie could watch Boogie and then immediately have her turn maybe she would get the idea a little better. I went down to be the catcher, Mike held 2iggie while some nice lady offered to release Boogie. Here they are getting ready. 2iggie is supposed to be watching intently...hmm, not so much.

This time when I went down to catch Boogie I went 170 yards. He had just as much energy this time and easily went 170 yards. He was just as fast, just as loud, and just as damaging to the lure. The lure operator asked me if there was anything this little guy couldn't do. I told him if there is, we haven't found it yet. Here's a peek at Boogie lure coursing...hey, 2iggie's watching!

It's hard to tell in these pictures but Boogie is running just as fast as his little legs will take him.

Mike said Boogie probably could have run faster if he would have stopped barking the entire way!

Just like the Whippets, he back legs are up under his front legs.

He's determined to catch the "rabbit".

A full 170 yards later and he's still not even panting!

When we got home the girls were tired but Boogie wanted to know what was next. Since Slugger hasn't gotten to swim yet since we go here, we decided today would be a great time. So Slugger and, you guessed it, Boogie got to go swimming.

Slugger was so happy! He swam and swam like he was a dolphin.

He can really move the water when he swims.

Boogie barked, swam, jumped and was a little monster. He loves diving as you'll see. By the way, the little donut around his neck is just to help keep his head above water when he lands so he doesn't get so much water in his lungs.

Have you ever seen such form? I give him a 10!

Still nice and extended for the entry.

Notice how he tries to keep his head above water as he lands.

Good thing he wears the donut as the rest of him goes totally under water upon completion of landing.

Ah, now you see the whole purpose of all this diving and swimming....to get the magic squiggy ball. It's the only ball he wants. Every other toy he just leaves in the pool.

After a few minutes, I brought 2iggie in to watch so that maybe someday she would like to swim. We thought if she watched the boys having so much fun she'd want to give it a try too. Ha! Not so much. She just hid behind me the entire time...she didn't even like the splashing. It could take all summer just to get 2iggie to come out from behind me.

Boogie is so funny when it is time to dry off. He gets right in front of the nice warm heater and rubs himself all over the floor. Sorry about the blurry pictures...fast moving dog and very low light.