Tails of the Travelin' Trio: Look Out!!

(Woodinville, WA) Note: There are a lot of pictures in this post. Normally I don't do this many pictures but there is a very interesting episode that takes place that I just happened to catch on camera. Read on....

Another beautiful day in the PNW. But I'm no fool...I know this isn't going to last so we head out to take advantage of the nice weather. Today we decided to go to Lure Coursing practice.

Unlike last time, only a handful of dogs showed up. I think we easily made up a quarter of all dogs there.

Because it was such a nice day, many different activities were taking place. In the field directly to our left, there were tens of parachutists landing throughout the day.

At the same location where we were, there is a model airplane flying field and landing strip. These aren't the tiny model planes one normally thinks of. The wingspans of many of the planes are more than two to three times as long as our SUV.

These planes would fly right over us doing all their tricks....death spirals, stalls, flying upside down, rolling, and many more maneuvers. This one is flying along upside down.

And this one is in the midst of a death spiral. It really was very fun to watch. There isn't anything else in the picture so you can't tell the size but the length of this plane was at least twice as long as our SUV.

At lure coursing, things started out great. Sparkie was the very first dog to run. And run she did!

Or fly as the case may be....look ma, no feet on the ground.

Notice in the above two pictures that Sparkie is directly in line with the lure. This will be important later.

Next it was 2iggie's turn. She is totally getting the game now and is definitely chasing the lure. The guy running the lure says that 2iggie has excellent form.

Much to his dismay, Boogie was last....but certainly not least! He gets so low when he runs. He is definitely on a mission.

Here he has almost caught up to the lure and is going in for the "kill". (The lure is still moving fast so Boogie is trying hard to catch this on the run.)

But just then the lure speeds up going even faster and this makes him really mad. He started barking even louder (gosh is that possible!) and he goes into overdrive. The lure operator just loved Boogie. He said Boogie has so much spunk and is very feisty. If you look closely you can see that all four feet are in the air.

All dogs have now had a turn and it's time to start over. Once again it's Sparkie's turn. Like last time, Sparkie was first.

She took off just like normal following directly in line with the lure. If you look at this picture, all looks well...at first glance.

But look again. The dog you see next to the lady in white (Pat) looks like it is just standing with Pat. But not so. This dog is just taking off...from where I'm not sure. I do know it's not Pat's dog. The lady to the very right of the picture, wearing the purple hat, (Lorraine) owns this very large greyhound named Teddy.

Take a close look at this next picture. Teddy is now in overdrive directly toward sweet little Sparkie. She is veering away from the lure a bit as she can feel something isn't quite right - but she is still going at full speed.

Here you can see Sparkie is still chasing the lure with all her might as Teddy gets increasingly closer.

About this time, Sparkie can hear the elephant like footsteps roaring up behind her. You can see Sparkie starting to peel off to her right of the lure as she is scared! It was just about now that the lure operator noticed the quickly approaching dog and stopped the lure in hopes of avoiding a fight.

Sparkie is upset that the lure stopped and very worried about the approaching dog. She is now screaming. I'm really not sure if she was screaming because the lure stopped or because she is so frightened.

Here she is picking up her speed to get away from the quickly approaching Teddy.

Finally Teddy stops...to get the lure. Fortunately Teddy was going after the lure and not after Sparkie.

At this point I was worried about Sparkie and stopped taking pictures. What happened next was that Teddy picked up the lure and started running with it. Sparkie knew that was her lure and she wanted it. So she started running right next to Teddy barking and barking as loud as she could.

Finally Lorraine and Mike got to the dogs and got them both on leash. A dog getting loose is a VERY serious offense. Dogs are in a very heightened state of arousal. So if a dog gets loose and starts "helping" another dog with its lure, serious problems can arise. That's why dogs are required to wear muzzles if more than one dog is racing at a time. The first offense gets a stern warning. Second offense incurs a $5 fine, with the third offense getting the dog banned from practice for life. If, however, a dog that gets loose does actually attacks a dog then there are no warnings - they are banned immediately.

Since Sparkie didn't have a full run, they let her go again right away. As you'll see, she is now afraid of the lure. Notice how she isn't directly in line with the lure. She is way off to side.

The lure is going straight down the left side of the picture and Sparkie continues straight down the right side of the picture.

Sparkie was still very happy to run all out (notice the huge smile), she just wanted nothing to do with the lure.

She was really flying! Literally. No feet on the ground. Weeee.

2iggie is loving this game more and more. She couldn't wait to be released.

2iggie too can fly. I'm really amazed how often they aren't touching the ground at all. I expected them to have all the feet in the air when they are collected but not when they are extended.

Look at this girl fly! Now that's a happy little dog. She's really loving life these days.

Boogie was having fits waiting for his turn. So when it was finally time, he was off like a shot running as fast as those little legs would take him.

The lure operator said that Boogie may not go as fast as the Whippets but he has more heart than all of them put together.

Boogie says those other dogs aren't the only ones that can fly.

This is total grit and determination. We notice when all the other dogs race, they are just running - meaning that it is very silent other than the pounding footsteps. All you can hear is the rumble of their feet hitting the ground so hard and fast. When Boogie runs you don't hear the elephant sounding feet. But you do hear a constant stream of barking. You know, if he were to concentrate on running and stop all the barking, maybe he could keep up with those Whippets. But what fun would that be - barking is half the fun!

We couldn't let just three dogs have all the fun on this nice warm day so we decided to have a swim session when we got home.

Of course Slugger thought this was a great idea. Wazzu, not so much. Although she did go get a toy out of the toy box. This is the most she has participated since we've been here!

Three of the dogs however were loving it.

This looks like a simple thing. But in actuality, Mike has to throw each dog's toy at just the right time to keep them all going in a nice pattern.

Sparkie and Boogie will only swim for an exact toy. Throw anything else and they won't bring it back. Slugger on the other hand will bring back anything....and everything. So if you don't wait for just the right time in the cycle, Slugger will get his toy and someone else's toy as well. I tried to throw a toy but didn't get the timing right so poor Sparkie didn't have anything to get as Slugger got both toys.

We could tell it was a nice warm day as Sparkie stayed in the pool a long time. Usually she just stays in the pool long enough to get her toy two or three times. But today she stayed in the pool for at least 30 minutes.

Look how Sparkie uses the wall to push off for her turn back to the other end of the pool.

Just too cute.

Probably the highlight of the day though was 2iggie not only coming out from hiding behind me during the swim session, but she actually is showing interest in the fun. Notice her watching Slugger dive into the pool.