Greyhounds CAN Sit

Our Last Post Here!

noreply@blogger.com (Greyhounds CAN Sit) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 22:53:00 +0000

That's a relief! When I first went to do this post I kept getting a page that said my dashboard couldn't be found. Talk about panic. Somehow I've found it and now I've got a brand new, spiffy dashboard. I'm a bit scared to wander around though in case this page disappears!

OK, our new home is http://greyhoundscansit.com and I hope you'll all come and visit and update however you get our feed. Well, I hope you can update it, I'm getting very confused about feeds. I was going to set up a redirect thing here on Blogger but that's very confusing too, so I'll just hope this feed goes out as I don't know if I've stuffed it up with all the changes I've made.

I've done a post on my new blog which I'll publish shortly, kind of a test post to get your reactions ... if you can comment! And I'll put my competition details in the next post I do. But I'll tell you the prize, it's a $US25 Amazon voucher, so anyone from anywhere can enter:) I sometimes feel left out living here in lovely New Zealand because so many competitions are for US and Canada people only:(

Bye bye Blogger. I'm still keeping this blog up for posterity and in case anyone still comments here:) See you all in Wordpress!

Candid Camera:)

noreply@blogger.com (Greyhounds CAN Sit) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 09:20:00 +0000

Beryl reckons you should always have a smile on your face because you never know when someone is going to be taking your photo!! Check out this photo of me and Beryl.

She was highly delighted because she'd not long before gone for a run with the hounds at the last GAP walk. Admittedly she was at the back and she didn't run for very long but I'm sure she'll get more confident after having taken this initial step. So why do I look like the world has come to an end, lol?

I'm very sorry I haven't been visiting and commenting on blogs in the past week or so but I'm really busy working (including the weekend!) and my nights are being spent getting my new Wordpress Blog ready. Everything has gone fairly smoothly, it's up and running with most of this blog imported but it took me weeks to decide on a theme, then I changed it and I keep getting sidetracked when I'm looking for things to add. It's extremely engrossing and I'm learning heaps but the more I learn the more I need to know! So I'll probably do one more post here and then we're going to our new home:)

And to celebrate both our new home and our 1 year Blogiversary, which is on 18th July, we're going to have a competition with a PRIZE! The details will be announced on our new blog as kind of an incentive for everyone to come and find us:)

Happy 4th of July to everyone in the USA! I guess you're all having a long weekend? Hope it's not too hot and you're all doing something fun with the kids.

Right, I'm going to cuddle with the kids for a while and then have an early night for a change. Bye for now.

Doing Some Catching Up:)

noreply@blogger.com (Greyhounds CAN Sit) — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 12:00:00 +0000

We have been given this award not once but twice in the last week:) A week that has been so busy that I hadn't been able to do a post to thank the lovely Caron, Zephyr and Astro at Hiking Hounds for the first award. Caron is an inspiration in herself the way she is handling Zephyr's struggle with encephalitis and very scary seizures. Please go and visit if you haven't already and say hi.

The second award was given to us just a little while ago by the talented Sue and her beautiful Greyhound, Song at Graceful Greyhounds. Sue makes the most amazing crafted cards. They have to be seen to be believed. I am in awe of her talent and imagination! She and Song love visitors and comments and if you pop over you'll be made very welcome.

Now I'm in a bit of a quandary. Most awards come with 'rules' attached and this one is to pass the award on to 10 blogs who inspire you. Well, there are lots of blogs who inspire me and I passed on my last Versatile Blogger Award to 13 of them and this award has been doing the rounds and has pretty much been passed on to every blog I read at least once! But I think I can find a few that have slipped through the radar:)

Karen and her gorgeous Visla, Jersey, are at Doggie Stylish. Karen manages to post at least once, often twice a day. She must spend hours scouring the WWW for wonderful photos and videos to entertain us. Karen also makes stunning dog collars and Beryl has her eye on a particular one that I think she'll be wearing not long after I get my tax refund, lol!

Next is 24 Paws of Love who write wonderful, often thought provoking posts. Always from the heart and todays post I really wish I had written myself, except I couldn't have done it nearly as well.

Then there are the 3 gorgeous Rotties, Bart, Gizmo and Ruby over at Rottrover. The beautiful Ruby has entered a competition to win a cyber-date with the Relentlessly Huge Mango the Mastiff who is having a few seizure problems but has recovered enough to think about getting his glad rags on and taking out a very lucky 4-legged lady on the adventure of a lifetime:) I think that's pretty inspirational!

And some new friends at Love and a Six Foot Leash deserve the award for the work they do fostering and sometimes rehabilitating Pitbulls until they're ready for their forever homes. Aleksandra takes wonderful photos that really capture the character of their fosters:)

So there you are. I know it's only 5 blogs instead of 10 but if I don't stop now this will be all the post I get done tonight! And I haven't even put in a photo yet! But that's easily fixed:)

Yesterday we came across an old friend of Frankie's who we hadn't seen for about 18 months. He and Tigger hadn't forgotten each other and they had a wonderful reunion:)

Tigger is a bit of a funny chap and doesn't like every dog he meets. I was hoping he'd like Beryl but she gave him a look that spoke volumes and he quickly decided that he'd stick with Frankie:)

Don't even think about messing with me Shorty!

Next catching up is our DWTDS competition has been judged and while we didn't win a prize we are so glad we were a part of it all:) It was a lot of fun and again I'd like to thank Honey and Hsin-Yi for coming up with the idea and hosting it. I think they're going to have a bit of a well deserved rest for a while now! The winner chosen by the judges and also viewers votes was an absolutely delightful miniature dachshund, Prana. Here's his video if you'd like to check his performance out. It's worth watching just to see his little tail never stop wagging! You can't help but smile the whole way through:)

Today on our walk at the river Frankie made another new friend, Lucas, a lovely young Irish Terrier. Frankie quickly became his hero and Lucas had a lot of fun tagging along with him.

Wait for me Frankie!

Beryl got sick of Frankie having all the fun with other dogs the past couple of days so she thought she'd show him she was still fun too ...

I'm not so sure he thought it was fun, lol!

I've been really busy working the past couple of weeks but one night the week before that Beryl and I managed an outing to the opening of a new horse equipment shop along with a few other GAP Greyhounds. Beryl really wanted to let rip around the shop and steal food off the table and grab some stuffie toy horses off the shelves but she restrained herself and everyone kept commenting how laid back and well behaved all the hounds were.

My eyes are going to burst if you don't let me at the food!

We also found time to try out a new walk we'd been told about. It's not as good as down the river but it's not too bad. I kept Frankie on the lead seeing as we hadn't been there before.

The walk is about 5 kms long and leads to the patch of bush you can see in the photo above which has a walk through it. I was surprised how long it took us.

There wasn't anywhere for Beryl to let rip and have a run but it made a change to go somewhere different.

They both went on the lead when we walked through the bush reserve. I didn't see any playing fields, lol!

Frankie got to go off lead on the way back. So much to look at:) We've only done this walk the once so far, but we'll go back again. The kids have missed out on a few walks as I've been going to work in the dark and getting home in the dark but they've been good and not pestered me too much:)

Tomorrow we've got a GAP Greyhound walk in the afternoon so hopefully I'll have some good photos. I'll have to take Frankie for his walk in the morning so I'll be getting plenty of exercise too:)

Something else I've been researching and working on the past few weeks is shifting my blog over to Wordpress. Being me I've decided to start at the finish and have it self hosted. But boy, can I see lots of potential for me to stuff things up! It will be a while before I make the move and any words of advice from those who have done it already would be appreciated. I have already got my domain name and signed up with a host but it's dealing with themes I have to contend with now. How do you shift over all the blogs you follow, one at a time? I'm hoping to import this blog to my new one so have to find out how to do that. It all takes time and reading through forums and stuff. Oh well, it's keeping me out of mischief and giving me a challenge:)

Oh, and it's Saturday so it's time for the

It's hosted by Life With Dogs, Two Little Cavaliers and Confessions of the Plume and you can find the rules on any of their sites. Why don't you join in?

Have a wonderful weekend:)

Wordless Wednesday - Beryl's New Friends:)

noreply@blogger.com (Greyhounds CAN Sit) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 09:18:00 +0000

Wordless Wednesday - It Was SO Cold The Other Night!

noreply@blogger.com (Greyhounds CAN Sit) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 08:40:00 +0000

Nah, just kidding! I defrosted my little fridge/freezer and put the chunks of ice in the kids paddling pool and they had a lot of fun removing them:)

Our DWTDS Entries Are A Wrap, Yay!!

noreply@blogger.com (Greyhounds CAN Sit) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 08:41:00 +0000

Yep, all done and dusted, whew:) Before I show them to you I better explain the background to our costumes and music. Most people know Beryl and I are both Australian but New Zealand is home and I thought we'd have a real fair dinkum (oops, sorry, that's an Aussie saying!) Kiwi flavour to our routine. And you can't get more Kiwi than Footrot Flats which is an iconic cartoon strip that ran for many years in the papers, was published quite a few times in booklet form, and eventually made into an animated movie. Footrot Flats 'starred' a farmer called Wal and his faithful Border Collie sheepdog called Dog.

The author, Murray Ball, was born in Feilding where we live.

OK, so I'm Wal and Beryl is Dog and we're performing (dancing isn't the best description for our routine!) to Slice of Heaven which was the hit song from the movie. If you want to check Dave Dobbyn and Herbs singing it have a quick look at this ...

And here is a close up of Beryl modeling part of her costume

Beryl and her bandana

Some more ~~excuses~~ background ... most of you know I get lost going around Rally O and Rally Zoom courses where the stations are not only numbered but also tell you what to do at each station. So I confess to not having done any choreography except for the beginning and end of our routine. Funnily enough they are both the same!! And we nailed them, lol:) The rest involved a lot of improvisation on both our parts. At times I go wandering off without Beryl, I've got our next moved planned but forget to tell her what it is. Other times she'll chuck in a move that she thinks is appropriate. And I totally forgot to include her marching, duh, and I filmed about 5 different versions. Enough of my babbling, here is the World Premiere of Beryl and Sue DWTDS - and I think I deserve a medal for my costume, I couldn't have flung anything less flattering together, but I look more like Wal than Wal does lol!

But wait - there's more! We can't leave Frankie out. The ~~excuses~~ background for his video is that he had not 1 second of training, no run throughs of things he can do and the choreography is pretty much all his:) You will notice he isn't wearing the angel wings, they would have been shredded in 10 seconds, lol.

Without further ago here is the World Premiere of Frankie and Sue DWTDS (insert drum roll)

We'd like to thank Honey and Hsin-Yi for coming up with the idea of the competition and all the work they've put into their training tips and videos and the encouragement they've given to those of us who are feeling less than adequate:) You two are a really special team!

Beryl and I had a lot of fun and we haven't finished yet, I'm determined we'll get the marching thing down and who knows what else? Frankie had lots of fun just being himself and participating:)

Now we can relax and look forward to watching all the entries roll in and seeing lots of lovely dogs of all shapes and sizes having fun with their people! You/we all ROCK and are winners because we participated:)

More About Muzzles - And Passing on The Award:)

noreply@blogger.com (Greyhounds CAN Sit) — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 08:55:00 +0000

My last post about muzzles and tails provided some very interesting comments, thank you:) I'll answer a few questions here.

A Couple of Misfits wonders if Beryl ever seems at a loss without her tail. She is used to not having a tail now but in the early days she often looked around as if she was wondering where it was hiding! And her balance was off for a while, her turns weren't as slick and she crashed into me a few times til she worked out how to adapt her running.

Her tail hair has grown back into a cute little point ... but only on the bottom, lol. I'm very tempted to even it up with scissors but I'll leave it and see what happens:)

Hsin-Yi, Honey The Great Dane's Mum, wonders how Beryl gets on playing with other types of dogs and if they hurt her skin. She doesn't actually play with other dogs like she does with Frankie and her BFF, Lucy. She tends to keep her distance as I don't think she really knows how to play. And she plays rough so I'm glad she is a spectator:)

Beryl playing fetch with smaller dogs.

Beryl dealing to Frankie!

And this question made me think about Greyhounds being adopted by people who already have another dog or dogs. Obviously nobody wants to keep their other dog muzzled so they don't hurt their Greyhound. There are many, many people who have a Greyhound with other dogs, and I would say injuries are extremely rare. I know in Frankie's case he has extremely good bite inhibition and also if a tooth touches Beryl he gets told off in no uncertain terms! I'm sure he's got a lot more loose skin around the neck and throat from it being grabbed and pulled, lol.

One thing I didn't mention in the previous post and House of Carnivores brought it up in the comments is a muzzles' usefulness when bringing in a new Greyhound to a house with a cat. Even if the Greyhound is cat friendly it is advisable to keep it muzzled for the first week or so when the cat and Greyhound are together (never unsupervised, of course!). Everybody is relaxed then and it makes introductions and acceptance much easier:)

Also, if your Greyhound does have an injury that normally would require an Elizabethan collar to prevent it being licked or stitches pulled out then a plastic muzzle is probably even better. I did read somewhere that the Elizabethan collars aren't a great success with Greyhounds due to the shape of their head and it being so narrow. Has anyone had experience with them and could shed some light?

Then there are those dogs who eat their own poop! Thankfully I've never had one but a plastic muzzle would be useful in that situation. Never Say Never Greyhounds has a post here showing Riley wearing a plastic muzzle with a 'poop guard' to stop her licking an injured foot.

I think that's enough about muzzles unless someone comes up with a new query:)

Remember in the last post I told how we'd been given 2 Versatile Blogger awards?

Well, the rules that come with it are that you are to state 7 things readers don't know about you. I'm going to cheat and change it to 7 things readers might not know and that can include the bits about muzzles and Greyhounds with other dogs and I'll add 3 things you probably don't know about us -

1) I really don't like making phone calls. I don't mind people ringing me though:)

2) Frankie enjoys lying on my lap upside down and looking at us in the mirror opposite where I sit at the computer. He can also see out of the lounge room window at the same time.

3) Our DWTDS videos are taken, won't inspire anyone to have a go but may get a few giggles:) I might have another go tomorrow before I put all the furniture back in my dining room and see if we can improve things a bit:)

And you're supposed to pass the award on to 15 other blogs you consider to be Versatile Bloggers. The recipients who pick up and pass on the award can choose whichever colour award they prefer:) So here goes in no particular order ...
BZ Training - lots of great photos, photography tips and 2 gorgeous Golden Retrievers
Little Dogs On Long Leashes - possibly the only other blog that includes a pig dog, Frankie admires Georgia Little Pea from afar:)
House of Carnivores - Argos, the Greyhound, who lives with quite a few cats!
Pet Blogs United - who do a great job bringing attention to lots of pet blogs and feature Oskar, the Schnauzer
Cult of The Greyhound - wonderful photos of lots of lovely Greyhounds
Loving Life With Hounds - who I see have just shifted from Blogger to Wordpress and this is the link to their new site. Fun with 4 Greyhounds, great photos and quite a few adventures
Something Wagging This Way Comes - featuring Honey, another Golden Retriever. Lots of thought provoking posts here.
It's a Greyt Day - simply stunning photos of Greyhounds and other dogs. But check it out soon as this site is going to move in the near future!
Terri's Knit Blog - 2 beautiful Greyhounds, scrumptious cooking and interesting knitting. Truly a Versatile Blog!
Why Greyhounds - hopefully an award will spur WG to post more often;) Adventures with Rex, a Greyhound, and his young brother Rastus, a Kelpie
Genjis Corner - it amazes me how these bloggers get time to blog! They go to the most wonderful wine festivals that let them include their Greyhounds and put up great photos of dogs and people having the best time:)
My Little Dog - lovely photos and stories of the very handsome and clever George the Whippet.
Dogs Rock!! - a very stylish blog with more wonderful photos of 2 gorgeous Whippets and a lovely Greyhound, and tales of their adventures.

I know that's only 13 but I've got lots of new blog posts to read from looking at my blog roll and I'm going to do that after I've joined in on the Saturday Pet Bloggers Hop:)

Details can be found at Life With Dogs, Two Little Cavaliers and Life With The Plume. Enjoy your weekend everyone:)

From One End of A Greyhound To The Other!

noreply@blogger.com (Greyhounds CAN Sit) — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 11:08:00 +0000

Every so often someone asks in the comments section about why Greyhounds are wearing muzzles in some of my photos, usually when I post about a GAP (Greyhounds As Pets) walk. So I thought I'd do a post about the reasons behind this. I'm no expert and while I did some Googling around for references on the subject in general I didn't really find anything comprehensive and decided I could either keep Googling all night or write my post ... and I'm writing my post:) I did find an article at Wikipedia which seems to cover Greyhounds in general quite well and it includes this -

Temperament

The Greyhound is not an aggressive dog, as some may believe due to muzzles worn during racing. Muzzles are worn to prevent injuries resulting from dogs nipping one another during - but more likely immediately after a race - when the 'hare' has disappeared out of sight and the dogs are no longer racing but still excited. The thin skin of the Greyhound can tear easily from a small nick from teeth so even a minor skirmish can result in stitches and time out from racing.

If a Greyhound is aggressive then it won't make the race track. The Greyhound's job is to chase the lure, not fight with it's fellow competitors. But Greyhounds are no different from any other dog in that when they are playing and tearing around they get excited and can mouth and nip each other. Where Greyhounds do differ from other dogs is that their skin is extremely thin and easily ripped under these circumstances. So basically they wear muzzles as a precaution. Shortly after getting Beryl and before I started blogging and I had more time I used to spend a lot of it reading the Greytalk Forum and saw some pretty horrific photos of injuries sustained by Greyhounds playing. These were always written by owners who wished they had muzzled their dogs!

The law in New Zealand for pet Greyhounds is that they don't have to be muzzled when out in public. In know they still do in some states of Australia and that will hopefully be changed soon. The policy on our GAP walks is to have all dogs muzzled. On our last walk Beryl was in her wire racing muzzle which they come with when they are adopted, or she can wear her plastic muzzle.

Hanniberyl Lecter!

It's not a real good look for photos, I don't think even Beryl can make a muzzle rock! I did take Beryl's wire muzzle off after the free running in the fenced area on our last walk, not that she participated in the running around. Everyone else went back on lead so there was no need to take precautions.

Which leads me to the other end of the Greyhound, Beryl's tail or lack of:( Some new followers (welcome, lovely to have you here!) have wondered why Beryl hasn't got a tail. I won't bore 'old' readers with the whole saga again but it was an on-going saga. Briefly, Greyhounds (and other breeds with thin, bony tails) can be prone to 'happy tail' which happens when they wag it and hit the tip against something hard and the skin splits and it bleeds. And boy, can it bleed. A little blood goes a long way. My house has looked like a battle zone more than once because they keep on wagging it! The first few times it happened I managed to bandage it up myself and it would heal, then it would happen again, lather, rinse, repeat. If you want to read up on the fairly recent events that lead to me having no choice but to have Beryl's tail docked the posts are here, here and here. There are no gory photos, but in the second post I did put a selection of photos of Beryl and her tail, which I still miss anyway! It's hard to believe it's been almost 3 months.

And almost finally, Frankie, Beryl and I are honoured to have been presented with the Versatile Blogger Award not once but twice recently.

Thank you My Life With Flyball Dogs

And thank you Rescued Insanity

I'm still surprised than anyone bothers to read my blog, it's nothing fancy, just 'Life With a Greyhound, a Pigdog and Our Friends' as my header says. So awards are lovely:) Of course there are the conditions to fill when getting one of these awards but I'm not going to do that tonight. I am going to finish off by joining in on the Saturday Pet Bloggers Hop and wish you all a wonderful weekend:)

It's a Bit Sad ...

noreply@blogger.com (Greyhounds CAN Sit) — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 09:32:00 +0000

On Sunday we went on a GAP (Greyhounds As Pets) walk with our local group. It was wonderful to see some new people and dog faces and make some new friends and catch up with old friends. The past few walks haven't been well attended with only 3 or 4 Greyhounds there but we had 11 this time and hopefully will get back up to the 20's before long!

The weather person smiled on us with a lovely late autumn afternoon and everyone enjoyed themselves:) So you're probably wondering what was sad? Well, since Beryl took a spill while running with her best Greyhound buddies a few days after she had her tail docked she hasn't and won't run with other Greyhounds. While the other hounds were having a wonderful time on the walk doing this ...

Greyhound gallop

Beryl watched but wouldn't join in:(

She wanted to run with them and at one stage took off towards them but thought better of it and came back to me. At least she will still run when she's by herself at the park and beach. And I guess she had the last laugh in a way as only she, Monty (the Corgi pseudo Greyhound) and Babe were off lead most of the time:) The other Greyhounds were newly adopted or foster dogs who went back on lead once we left the enclosed area.

A few of our new friends are

Cara (why can't I get a photo like this of Beryl?)

Troy(foster dog) meeting Beryl - shame the photo is a bit fuzzy.

Stanley with Monty

Stevie

And here are some of the group in the fenced off area

After most of them had had a tear around we went down to the river

Then headed off back to the park area

Monty spent most of the time following Beryl around:)

I don't think she minded:)

The queue waiting to squeeze through the little hole in the fence - Chase and Stevie in front.

After the walk we were able to take our dogs to a local pub and sit in the outside area. There used to be a wonderful cafe at the Domain where we do our walks but some idiots burnt it down late last year:( So it was good to be able to have a sit, a chat and quench our thirst again.

On the right, Graham and his lovely girl, Tina

Cara, Horse and their Dads:)

Obviously this has been a fairly 'wordy Wednesday' but I thought I'd better get this written while I had the time and am in the mood!

Does anyone else find that they have to make a choice sometimes whether to write a blog post or go around and read other blogs? I'm a bit behind with reading blogs but hopefully will catch up tomorrow night. Seeya then!

That Blew a Few Cobwebs Away:)

noreply@blogger.com (Greyhounds CAN Sit) — Sat, 28 May 2011 09:08:00 +0000

Yesterday morning we bit the bullet and went to the beach even though the weather was looking a bit iffy. It was very windy when we got there but no rain:)

Beryl loves it at the beach:)

So does Frankie!

While the wind wasn't cold it was strong enough to blow Beryl's lips out of shape!

Beryl sucking it in!

So I stuck to the damp sand hoping I wouldn't get any of it blown into my camera like last trip to the beach:)

We only saw one other person and that was on our way back. An older man driving a little mini moke who came over to us and asked if Beryl was a Greyhound. He wasn't sure at a distance as she doesn't have a tail, lol. So I had to tell him the story of why she hasn't got a tail!

It was lovely to have the whole place to ourselves and just mooch around. Beryl did some ball fetching

I got it for you, Mum!

Beryl's skid marks;)

I'm bringing it back real quick, Mum!

She dug a hole ...

And then Frankie rolled in it!

That's not why I dug the hole, Frankie!

Frankie coming back for a drink, looks like he really needs one!

Beryl running back for a drink:)

Beryl did some cross country jumping:)

And some more running.

We were there for over an hour and I expected them to sleep the rest of the day (and night) away after all the fresh air and exercise, but no. Within about half an hour of getting home, having a bit of a power nap they were both raring to do it all again! I've created a couple of monsters, lol.

This afternoon we went to the park and Beryl met new foster dog, Lily, for the first time. I also had a great reunion with Lucy and Louie who I hadn't seen for a few weeks. Beryl isn't impressed with me and Lucy smooching!

Oi, what about me, Mum?

Beryl, Frankie and I went to the river after this and enjoyed the sunny afternoon.

Frankie is faster than Beryl over the stony ground:)

Tomorrow afternoon Beryl and I are going on a GAP walk so hopefully more photos and more new friends:)

We hope everyone is having a great weekend too:) And I think we'll join in on the Saturday Pet Blogger Hop today.

If you want to join in too, go to any of the first 3 links, who are the co-hosts of the blog hop, for the instructions. Happy blog hopping!

Almost Wordless Wednesday - She's Done It Again:)

noreply@blogger.com (Greyhounds CAN Sit) — Wed, 25 May 2011 09:46:00 +0000

The cream sheets won't be on the bed long, lol!

I hope to get a blog post written sooner rather than later, but right now we're not doing anything or going anywhere and it's hard to get inspired. We need a trip to the beach to clear our heads and maybe get some photos! But I'm enjoying reading all your blogs:)

Wordless Wednesday - I Don't Remember Leaving It Like This?

noreply@blogger.com (Greyhounds CAN Sit) — Wed, 18 May 2011 09:18:00 +0000

Blogger And I Are Back ... More or Less!

noreply@blogger.com (Greyhounds CAN Sit) — Sun, 15 May 2011 08:21:00 +0000

First of all the real world impinged upon my cyber world a couple of weeks ago with some events that made me very stressed, tense and emotionally drained. I wasn't in a fit state mentally to blog or even do any training with Beryl ... so I just didn't. Once that was sorted I was plunged into full on work which left me physically and mentally exhausted. And then Blogger has such a hissy fit that I couldn't even see some blogs, let alone comment except on Wordpress blogs. Even now the videos on my blog aren't visible to me, just a black square where they used to be. Hopefully they'll reappear. I think the Blogger people are having some R&R over the weekend before getting everyone back to normal. I hope so anyway.

There hasn't been much time to do doggy things recently but yesterday morning a contingent of 4 Greyhounds took part in a local pet parade. We were a hit with the kids and everyone took home a load of stash, which was totally unexpected. There were only 8 dogs there all told and Beryl was the only one not in fancy dress of some sort as I couldn't think of anything she could go as! Imagination isn't my strong suit:) I took my camera but didn't get much opportunity to take many photos and those I did take aren't good but here are a few.

Foster dog, the very handsome Hugo, went as a bumble bee:)

Lucy was Minnie Mouse and found it all very tiring:)

Hugo and Beryl - Beryl went as a pretty Greyhound!

Beryl enjoying a pat

Miss Mischief, Dotty, aka the Ninja Turtle. She was into everything:) She's a 7 1/2 year old puppy!

Our training for Honey's DWTDS competition is somewhat sporadic but we're managing a bit most days now and hopefully Beryl will be able to 'march' a few steps at least, in a week or so. I'm also working on a couple of easier things but have no idea of how I'm going to put everything together yet, lol! With only 4 weeks to go I'm kind of hoping for camera failure! But hey, it's all about having fun and bonding, not winning, and we're doing that just fine:) I'm learning how Beryl likes to be trained, lots of noise and praise and TREATS!! When I'm beginning to teach her something I'm quiet and give her time to mull things over and go back to something she knows and likes to do. Once she's got the basic idea she seems to need to be revved up a bit to get her to try more things and when she's wrong I just ignore it.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. Seeya:)

Our First Doggie Dancing Training Video!

noreply@blogger.com (Greyhounds CAN Sit) — Mon, 02 May 2011 01:50:00 +0000

As you probably know, Beryl and I have entered a Doggie Dancing With The Stars competition being run by Honey The Great Dane. It's going to be lots of fun for competitors and spectators alike I think. And I'm so happy because I've finally chosen some music, yay!!

The most complex thing Beryl is going to learn for our Doggie Dancing Debut is to 'march' and we started learning that on Saturday. She is VERY left handed so the first thing I had to make her aware of is that she has 2 front feet:) She already knew how to put a paw on something on the ground so I concentrated on clicking and treating only for using her right paw. This video is of her second lesson which was this morning and I think she progressed very well. I took a bit more video which I haven't edited yet and might put up a part 2 if it's worth showing:) I've put little explanation thingys in the top left corner through the video so you can hopefully understand what I'm doing.

This is my first attempt at videoing anything other than Greyhounds running outside or my kids inside and I didn't exactly dress for the occasion:) The second bit of video I took is better than this one as I moved the camera back a bit and Beryl doesn't get her legs cut off as often, lol! Anyway, we've started Honey:)

And we've got time to squeak in on the Saturday Pet Blogger Hop which is hosted by Life With Dogs, Two Little Cavaliers and Confessions of the Plume. Pet Bloggers rock, so why don't you have a wander around some of them, say hi and make new friends. If you want to join in the instructions can be found on all the above mentioned blogs:)

Wordless Wednesday - Ready For Lift Off:)

noreply@blogger.com (Greyhounds CAN Sit) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 05:55:00 +0000

Will I EVER Get My Act Together?

noreply@blogger.com (Greyhounds CAN Sit) — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 23:36:00 +0000

Yesterday Beryl and I went to another Rally O competition. We had an awesome day, good weather, great company and some very entertaining rounds:) I entered Beryl in Rally Novice and Rally Zoom. Unfortunately Beryl decided that she really HAD to have a comfort stop when we were almost half way through the Rally Novice course even though she hadn't needed to go a few minutes earlier! We finished the course for experience sake and I've actually got a few photos of us in action.

I look a little lost as usual!

I am going to get a shorter lead! Beryl is paying attention:)

Good heel position:)

Both concentrating!

Awesome 'down and wait while I walk around her'

You're not getting another down out of me unless I get a treat, Mum!!

So that was good practice anyway:) A while later we did the Rally Zoom course which I don't have any photos of which is a bit of a shame as Beryl went SO well .... but I got lost again:( We were half way through a weave and I forgot what the station was, lol! My mind totally went blank (which isn't that unusual!) so I turned it into a weave twice which was totally wrong and cost me 10 points. I keep forgetting that I can redo a station if I blow it, hopefully I'll get my act together someday! I would have only lost 3 points if I'd redone the station. And apart from me messing up again, she only lost 2 other points the whole course!! We still got our first merit card on 88 points but we could have got a gold qualifying certificate, same as last weekend, duh! But it's all good fun and experience and hopefully we'll get there:)

The next competition isn't for ages so now we can start learning some things for our Dancing Doggies debut:)

We hope everyone is having a wonderful Easter weekend:)

Time for us all to do some blog hopping which is kindly hosted by the fabulous Life With Dogs, Two Little Cavaliers and Confessions of The Plume

It's easy to join in, just ....

* Link up your blog name and URL using the Linky Tool below. You only need to add you link once to be seen on all the Pet Blogger Blog Hop Linky Tools for that week.

** Grab the Pet Bloggers Blog Hop button that our friends over on Life with Dogs made for us and include it in your Saturday Pet Bloggers Hop post so that your readers will know what is going on.

*** Follow your co-hosts listed in the first 3 slots of the Linky Tool and comment on their blogs to say hello!

**** Follow as many other blogs on the linky as you'd like

***** Take a moment to comment on the blogs telling them you're from the Saturday Pet Bloggers Hop

****** Follow back when you get a new follower through the Saturday Pet Bloggers Blog Hop

Wordless Wednesday - Looking ....

noreply@blogger.com (Greyhounds CAN Sit) — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 10:09:00 +0000

Rally O and Doggie Dancing:)

noreply@blogger.com (Greyhounds CAN Sit) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 10:01:00 +0000

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that Frankie, Beryl and I went to a Rally O competition last Saturday. Even though the weather varied between misty rain and steady rain we had a fun day. I entered them both for Rally Novice but when I walked the course and saw all the sits in it I changed Beryl to Rally Zoom. The grass was wet and I thought my chances of getting about 6 sits out of her were absolutely nil! In Zoom there aren't any sits or downs:)

The only surprise in Frankie's run was that it wasn't my fault we NQ'd:) As usual he had his nose to the ground for 75% of the course!

When it came to Beryl's turn she wasn't sure what was going on the first part of the course but then something clicked and she seemed to start enjoying herself and paying attention to what we were doing and I was really rapt with how she finished. Then the judge came over to me and told me I'd missed a whole station:( As had the competitor before me. Neither of us saw the sign, it was a 360 degree turn to the left as we came out of a weave and apparently we both treated it as an extra cone in the weave, duh!!! Another competitor did the same thing after us. If I hadn't disqualified us Beryl would have got a gold card!! So while I was kicking myself SO hard I was also thrilled with her. I never thought to ask someone to take photos but hopefully I'll get some at the next competition this Saturday:)

Next topic is Doggie Dancing ... Honey the Great Dane is hosting a doggie dancing competition on her blog.

"Don’t worry if you’ve never tried dancing before -- this contest is especially for newbies! The routines won’t be judged on how slick they are or how many fancy moves & tricks the doggie knows but rather on creativity and originality, and most of all the “wow factor” -- the top prize will go to the human & doggie team who look like they are having the most FUN, who can make you smile and think “Awww….” or “Yeah!” and take you out of the moment.

And because I’m an Equal Opportunities Doggie (hey, we’re not all cracker doggies who are happy to work for nothing…us Danes need a pretty good reason to expend any energy! ), I’m not going to put those stupid rules like at the club trials. Nope, in my contest, you can use whatever ‘motivators’ you like during the routine. This means if you need your human to hold some treats to help you focus or even your favourite ball or toy -- whatever it takes to make you keen, happy & enthusiastic - go for it! "

It looks like lots of fun, the rules are simple and you've got 2 months to get a 1 minute routine sorted and videoed. Plus there are some wonderful prizes on offer.

Now, Greyhounds and doggie dancing aren't words you would usually put in the same sentence but hey, Honey is a Great Dane (a breed not usually associated with doggie dancing either) and she's a whizz with her dancing routines. And here is a video of a Greyhound doing Canine Freestyle (the offical name for Doggie Dancing) and having a blast

So I'm mulling over the idea of having a go at this with Beryl and maybe bringing Frankie in somewhere, but I'd better not mull too long or it will be June 15th and I won't have done anything!

Why not pop over to Honey's Blog and check it out. She's got a few videos on the page for inspiration and if the little dachshund getting down doesn't make you smile I don't know what will:)

And I'll finish with a couple of photos of Beryl playing fetch with some of her little mates at the park the other night. They all had a blast:) I was trying out some different settings on my camera and none of the moving shots were in focus but you get the idea with this one ....

Shadow, Beryl, Lucas and Nugget

Lucas, Ted and Beryl

Are Your Dogs Creative?

noreply@blogger.com (Greyhounds CAN Sit) — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 02:35:00 +0000

I came across this page a couple of weeks ago but only got around to reading it today and what a wonderful, thought provoking post I found it to be. It's what I would call long, which is why I didn't read it immediately. But I hope you will have a read of it and let me know what you think. And I'd love to know what creative things your dogs do:)

Frankie is more creative than Beryl, which is to be expected as he was only 10 months old when I got him and has been living here for a bit over 2 years now. Beryl was 3 1/2 years old when she came to live with us (a year ago) and I very much doubt any sort of creativity is encouraged in Greyhound kennels:) He's the first one to suss out any sort of 'thinking' toy I get them but Beryl is getting better at thinking about things with practice.

Here's a recent example of Beryl's creativity when she found something to amuse herself with while waiting for me to take them for a walk!

Beryl's abstract art!

It's not like she didn't have plenty of stuffies lying around to play with. Can you see Frankie in the TV screen? He looks rather horrified. Probably because he's more inclined to amuse himself with mobile phones and remote controls, which I think I've finally learnt to keep out of his reach, touch wood!

Madam is quite pleased with her efforts:)

I love to see Beryl have fun and get into mischief, even when it results in a mess for me to clean up! If you ever come visit don't expect a tidy house, we have a messy, happy HOME:) And I bet yours is too!

An example of Frankie's creativity is where he likes to eat his meals. He soon discovered that Beryl didn't appreciate him going to check out what she's got. I expect her coming to check his meal out would have resulted either in him letting her have it or some unpleasantness between them. So he figured out that if he eats in her crate then it's all good for everyone:) It took me a few nights to work out his plan. I'd be calling him for tea, and would take their food bowls into the loung room, wondering where he was and he'd be lying in her crate waiting for me:) I shut the door and everybody is happy and I don't have to stand around and supervise and growl.

So, tell me, what do your dogs get up to that surprise and amuse you?

Blog The Change - My Passion

noreply@blogger.com (Greyhounds CAN Sit) — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 08:47:00 +0000

My first passion is my dogs. As you all know, Beryl is a Greyhound. My second passion is helping people become aware of what wonderful pets Greyhounds make, so I'm probably preaching to the converted here as most people who read my blog are already slaves to their own Greyhound(s)!

But are you taking every opportunity offered where you could demonstrate the fact that they are one of the easiest and most versatile breed of dogs on the planet? Could you take your Greyhound to visit nursing homes? To school to help children read? To every dog friendly event you possibly can?

There are Greyhounds who excel at obedience, agility, tracking, rally O, CGC, therapy dogs etc as well as the majority who excel at being family pets alone. About the only thing I haven't heard of any Greyhounds doing well at is pulling a dog sled! They can live on farms or in apartments.

The general public often don't think of Greyhounds in the context of being a pet, they're just running machines and they never consider what happens to them after racing. Until a couple of years ago I was part of the general public. That soon changed when I met my first Greyhound (Louie) and got to know his owners, sister and lots of foster Greyhounds. I became a convert and Beryl has turned out much better than I dared hope she would. While I don't know of anyone who has actually gone and got a Greyhound after meeting Beryl I do know there are plenty of people who are interested in their next dog being a Greyhound since meeting her:)

Anyway, I hope this post might get some people coming up with ideas of what more they can do to get Greyhounds 'out there'. I'm sure I've only scratched the surface of ideas. What do you do to publicize your wonderful dog?

One huge advantage to getting a Greyhound is that Greyhound owners rock! You are joining a world-wide family who all love their dogs and care about each other:)

I'll finish with a couple of photos I took at a Rally O competition Frankie, Beryl and I went to today (do you sense another blog post coming on?). This is Beryl with Candy, who is a 4 month old Bichon X Tibetan Spaniel (bought from a pet shop!) who has no fear or manners and is like a coiled spring. She just didn't stop.

If I ignore it will it go away?

Mum, make it disappear, please????

This is a blog hop, won't you join in?

Well, I've Really Stuffed Things Up This Time!

noreply@blogger.com (Greyhounds CAN Sit) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 08:01:00 +0000

So, Intense Debate wasn't a success on a few levels, mainly nobody could comment, which kind of defeats the purpose! But then when I uninstalled it I totally lost my comment box and can't get it back. I even changed the template but still no go. But just now I got a comment on a previous post so I'm putting up another post just to see if the comment box returns in a new post. If it does I promise I'll stop fiddling ... if it doesn't you'll probably see me with a Wordpress blog before long!

And, of course we have to have a photo:) I just happened to take some nice ones of Beryl on our walk this afternoon.

Beryl loves her Maccas! The bag was empty, poor Beryl:(

What's Frankie Doing?

Helping Frankie hunt for mice!

Wish me luck, fingers crossed my comment box has found it's way home:)

Oh YAY, it's there, whew!

Well, This Could Be Interesting?

noreply@blogger.com (Greyhounds CAN Sit) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 02:07:00 +0000

One of the things I find a bit frustrating about blogging is communicating via comments. For example, if someone asks me a question on my blog or makes a comment I'd like to reply to then I have to go to their blog and comment that way. Or else answer them in my blog and hope they come back to check:) And the same goes if I ask a question on another blog, I have to go back and see if they've replied. All quite fragmented and time consuming!

So I'm trying this Intense Debate comment form which I think I've only really seen on Jet's Blog and it seems to work well. I get an email of all the comments posted and I can easily keep track of what's going on there:)

Of course, this relies on bloggers wanting to know of any replies and further comments and if you do this will hopefully make it easy.

A couple of neat features which you can use in Intense Debate are emoticons and also it should show the title of the last blog written by the commenter. I've seen both on other blogs but they're always Wordpress.

Which leads me to explaining something that's a bit confusing, to me anyway. I've got a Wordpress account as before I got my blog going I didn't know if I would be with Wordpress or Blogger. Obviously I decided on Blogger but Intense Debate wanted to use my Wordpress account to log in so I did and now I might have the Wordpress "W" by my Avatar (or is it Gravatar?). Who knows, lol? I don't yet. Anyway, Greyhounds Can Sit is me with or without the "W".

Can I have some feedback on this please? Do you like it or prefer the comments how they were? If it doesn't work for you then I certainly want to know and you can send me an email via the little 'contact us' envelope in the bottom bar. I'm interested in anything you're thinking about this 'improvement':)

And, you know me, there has to be at least one photo in a blog post of mine so here's one I took of Beryl at the river yesterday.

OK, here goes, I'm about to hit Publish! Hopefully the whole thing won't crash and burn, lol!

When will I learn not to fiddle? I uninstalled Intense Debate as it was causing some problems and now I don't have a comment box at all, grrr. It's my own fault, I should know better, lol. It has been interesting for me anyway! Hopefully my blog will have it's comment box back soon ....

Wordless Wednesday - What On Earth Is She Doing?

noreply@blogger.com (Greyhounds CAN Sit) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 02:01:00 +0000

I'm not impressed!

Thank You:) And a Few More Details About CGC

noreply@blogger.com (Greyhounds CAN Sit) — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 09:56:00 +0000

Beryl and I were totally blown away with all the congratulatory comments about her CGC success:) We'd like to thank everyone who took the time to write something. It means a lot to us!

As a matter of interest to hopefully some readers I thought I'd copy and paste the New Zealand requirements for CGC (Canine Good Citizen) as they seem to differ slightly from country to country.

But before I do that, in Saturday's Post I forgot to mention that the handler also has to do a short written test before the tests with your dog start. The questions were all quite basic but the one that had me thinking was "describe in one word how dogs learn"! It's hard to narrow it down to just one word, lol. At least it was for me. I ended up putting 'repetition' and it must have been near enough:) And also I forgot to mention a test we had to do where Beryl was supposed to play with a toy and then calm down again. Well, she wouldn't play with the toy that was her favourite the night before! Typical Princess, lol. It's OK if they don't want to play though, that's not a fail.

Since the 1950s, Dog Obedience Clubs have been at the forefront of dog training throughout the country. Clubs provide basic Domestic Dog training classes for responsible dog owners. They teach the owner how to train the dog while showing people how to ensure their dog becomes a great lifetime companion.

'Canine Good Citizen' goes a step further. Dogs are trained and then tested in simulated everyday situations in a relaxed atmosphere. Dogs and their owners are identified and rewarded for the training and demeanour to be reliable family members. Canine Good Citizen ensures that dog can be a respected member of the community because the dog is trained to be well mannered at home, in public, and around other dogs.

Testing requires an assessment by a recognised New Zealand Kennel Club Assessor.

Canine Good Citizen Foundation
1. Appearance, handling and responsibility
a. Responsibility and care
b. Public cleanliness and identification
c. Examination of the dog by handler
d. Grooming and inspection of the dog by the assessor
2. Food manners
a. Person eating
b. Dog eating
3. Accepting a friendly stranger
4. Accepting being patted by a friendly stranger
5. Walk on lead through a door/gate in a controlled manner
6. Return to handler
7. Walk on lead
8. Controlled walk through people and distractions
a. Pedestrian traffic
b. Distractions
9. Stay tied on lead
10. Meeting a stranger and their dog
11. Supervised separation
12. Playing with the dog
Canine Good Citizen – Bronze
13. Responsibility and care
14. Food manners
15. Stay in one place (untied, handler in sight)
16. Stay tied on lead (handler out of sight)
17. Staying still and return to handler
18. Stationary vehicle control
a. Into a vehicle
b. Out of a vehicle
19. Control at steps2
20. Walk on lead and reaction to distractions in a public area
a. Walk on lead
b. Distractions
Canine Good Citizen – Silver
21. Responsibility and care
22. Examination of the dog by a stranger (handler at a distance)
23. Stay in a down position (untied, handler out of sight)
24. Return to handler (with distractions)
25. Stop the dog
26. Advanced vehicle control
a. Into a vehicle
b. Vehicle is moving
c. Out of a vehicle
27. Staying still and return to handler in a public area
28. Calm and controlled behaviour whilst in a busy public area
a. Walking
b. Staying in one area
c. Accept being touched by a stranger
Canine Good Citizen – Gold
29. Responsibility and care
30. Walking beside the handler, without a lead
31. Sending the dog to a known article and staying
32. Parked vehicle control
a. Into a vehicle and leaving dog
b. Distractions outside the vehicle whilst parked
c. Out of a vehicle
33. Delivering a dropped article to hand
34. Another person (other than handler) walking the dog in a public area, with distractions
a. Handing the dog over to the nominated person
b. Person walking the dog in a public area
c. Distractions whilst person walking the dog in a public area
35. Stay in a down position (untied, handler out of sight) in a public area
36. Stop the dog and recall in a public area
37. Stay tied on lead (relaxed isolation) in a medium-busy public area
38. Walking, with distractions, in a busy public area
a. Walking
b. Distractions

Obviously this is just a very brief summary. A lot of the tests are timed, it's a bit unnerving (as if I wasn't nervous enough!) having the assessor standing nearby with a stop watch while you're doing the 'meeting a stranger and their dog' and 'not molesting a stranger eating' tests and having no idea how long you have to make small talk, lol!

Oh, and for the recall at Foundation level you can ask the assessor to hold your dog's collar while you walk away, which is what I did.

Hsin-Yi from Honey The Great Dane wondered if Beryl and I are going to carry on with the CGC levels. Apart from not being at all good at staying, I think Beryl is capable of passing the Bronze so that's my training mission, work on stays. I'm fairly sure a 'down stay' is OK. If it has to be a 'sit stay' then we're pretty well sunk, lol. As for going any further, hmm, I'll wait til we pass the Bronze to make that decision. A couple of things in Silver are quite tough. And I don't even know what some of the tests entail.

Honey was the first Great Dane to get her Gold CGC level in New Zealand. I wonder if any others have got it since then?

Well, it was break up night at CGC training tonight. A fun night with some games and having time to chat to people and just relax. We both enjoyed ourselves and poor Frankie sat home by himself for the third time in 4 days:( But I was given some chicken frames and I gave him one when we got home and he was pretty happy with that! No more training for 2 weeks until after the school holidays. But there are plenty of doggy things lined up for us to do.

Yesterday afternoon Beryl and I went to the horse riding establishment where Rachel works with Fatima, Louie, Lucy and their 2 foster Greyhounds, Hugo and Snow. They all got to run around in a big paddock with Benjamin, the resident Corgi, who loves Greyhounds, especially Lucy:) I didn't get any real good photos but here's one of Beryl

Running by herself (and looking slightly Kangarooish?)

She still isn't confident about running with the pack since her tumble when she was with them a month ago.

She wanted to but she didn't! That's Benjamin being a Greyhound:)

After Beryl had a couple of hours rest she and Frankie and I went to the river where I threw a few sticks for Frankie to make up for leaving him by himself earlier.

He enjoyed that:)

And we have to have a 'Beryl is pretty' photo, don't we?

Today we went to the park with the same crew and Frankie and Lucy (his BFF) had a blast

Frankie and Lucy having a breather after doing lots of

Wrestling

Notice how Lucy's always on top!!

And running ... I couldn't get them both in one photo!!

Beryl and I have had a few quite busy doggy days lately and I've tried to keep Frankie from feeling too left out. Tomorrow night is Rally O fun night before the break over the school holidays and I think I'll just take Frankie along. He's due some 'just me and Mum' time:)

I hope you've all been having fun with your dogs too:)