2012 National Award of Merit winner!!!

Today I am both Proud and Honored to announce that Spirit was awarded the 3rd Award of Merit at our 2012 National Specialty in Huron, OH, under breeder judge Connie Brunkow!    It was a thrill to see our Dual Purpose girl be honored in such a way.  That same week, she placed 3rd and 2nd in the Special/Field Champion stakes at the AKC and ASFA lure coursing trials and was awarded the High Scoring Dual Champion Stake and High Scoring Bench Champion Stake both days as well.

I want to not only thank Connie for this recognition, but Spirit's breeders (Robin Horner, Donna Richards and Dora McDonald) for entrusting this special red girl to us.  Our goal from the moment that I decided to get my first show whippet was to strive for versatile whippets.   I wanted to succeed not only in the show ring but on the coursing field.   I still believe that you can be successful in multiple venues.... Spirit is our first step to prove it:

• #1 Whippet/ #1 Sighthound 2009 and 2010 AKC Lure Coursing
• 2010 AKC National Lure Coursing Field Champion
• 2011 #1 Dual Champion AKC Lure Coursing / #3 Whippet
• 2012 AWC National 3rd Award Of Mert Winner

Thank you to Mike for some of the great photos below!

We love this red girl...... Run on Spirit, Run On!!!!

Deana

Spirit wins BOB in Camden, SC

We headed to Camden, SC this past weekend, our first trip in the motorhome and attended a CLCS AKC Lure Coursing trial. All the dogs had a great time and enjoyed the new "house on wheels!"
As always, Spirit made us proud, going BOB on Sunday (there were 20 open dogs and 11 specials).
Congrats to Spirit and Thanks to Mike for these great photos !!!

Deana

Spirit wins BOB at 2009 AWC National Specialty

Spirit wins BOB
at the American Whippet Club's
National Specialty AKC Lure Coursing trial

in Atlanta, GA, April 4th, 2009
This young (only 17 months old) girl never ceases to amaze me and made my first AWC National event a memorable one for sure.

On Saturday, the field consisted of 110 dogs (4 stakes of Open whippets (78 total), 1 large stake of Special whippets (26 dogs) and 1 stake of veteran whippets (6 dogs)). The course was a bit more challenging than normal for us, it was about 840 yards long and consisted of rolling hills.
As the day started, Spirit ran well and ended up winning her open stake (Yeah!) for her first Major win (5pts.)! I was so exited, I was in tears. This the first time I have had a dog go first in an AKC trial, so I was trilled! I knew that meant she qualified to run for BOB but at that moment I was so excited about the major win I remember saying to my husband Mike, "I am so happy for this first place, I don't care what she does from here on today, I just want her to have fun running!".
Well, run she did.
I must admit, her third run of the day, the semi-final run, brought tears to my eyes. I couldn't have asked any more out of this special girl in that run and in my mind I will always remember it as perfection. After a short wait I was told she won her course and qualified for the last run-off, the other winner was "Roger", a 6 year old male from the specials stake. I will admit I was a bit worried about the last and final run. She had already run 3 long, hard runs, and as a young girl I had not pushed her this hard yet. Spirit, however, never seemed to have any doubts at all. As they yelled "Tally-Ho" she bolted out of my arms as if she hadn't even run yet that day, took control of the course and finished strong!!
As expected, they kept me waiting for the final results, but once announced I almost couldn't believe they called her name - "Spirit" - as the winner!

Thanks to Donna and Larry Richards, Robin and Scott Horner, and Dora McDonald for this wonderful girl! Thanks to judges Ian Davies and Katie Kaltenborn for noticing my special girl. Thanks to Roger (the other semi-finalist) and all the other whippets who participated in the trial for wonderful competition! Thanks to all the wonderful people that I meet this weekend while coursing, especially David Howton for all of his hard work! And finally, thanks to Mike for all his help, support and of course these photos!

These first few photos of Spirit are taken by Mike on Saturday:

Spirit after her final run wearing her BOB winning collar made by Gail Boyd:
Spirit and Deana in the Hilton Hotel later in the week:
Deana, Robin, Scott, and 4 littermates (Spirit, Missy, Flyer and Double Live) - all 4 littermates placed on both Saturday and Sunday! Way to go pups!
Deana and Spirit in the confirmation ring on Thursday:
Spirit behaved well in the ring and overall showed well for me.


Great job Spirit! We are proud of you as always!!!!
Deana

Spirit!

This is a great photo that Mike took and converted to black and white.
I really love what he did and wanted to share.
Deana

Christmas Day Portrait

Merry Christmas from Spirit.
What a beautiful picture Mike took of her!

Spirit earns her JC title and places in her first Trial!!

Spirit had a great week!

This little red girl is a true pistol!!!
She easily earned her Junior Coursing (JC) title and moved up to the open class on Sunday. What an exciting day. -- She tied for first place after the second run. The run-off was close and she ended up in second (however I have to say that that was her 4th run of the day and her 7th run of the weekend!!)
I can't wait to see what this girl will do in the future! She is running straight on the line and full of enthusiasm! She ended up earning 3 pts. towards her championship title. Not bad for her first time out!
Way to Go Spirit!!!! We are proud of you!
Some photos are below - more can be seen in the web album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/CaliWhippets/LureCoursingReidsville112908#




Deana

Spirit attends her first dog show!

I am proud of Spirit! She attended her first dog show this past weekend and was entered two days. On Friday, she was very excited to be in the building and was not scared of all the noise or people. She did OK in the ring, moving better than I expected but was a bit nervous on the exam (my fault for not practicing her on the floor). Today (Monday) she did better on the exam (table today) and had a good time meeting lots of new people and dogs. I am happy she had a good time and an overall good exprience. She needs a bit more work to be as good as her sister Morgan, but that should come with time and practice.
For now she is happy to be back at home, running in the yard with Morgan! Included are a few pictures from today that Mike took of her in the ring.