Happy Holidays

 

Happy Holidays,  2013 from our pack to yours. Hope all of your Christmas wishes come true. Kanzu clearly had some wishes he wanted Santa to hear!

Linda, Ema Kiwa, Kanzu and Kuyu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2012 was a very special year for Kanzu’s agility Gal Pals.  Vicki LePenske,  Kanzu’s friend and agility handler teamed with her Weimaraners to achieve the amazing accomplishment of having the #1 and #2 Weimaraners in the 2012 agility rankings.  Scarlet  (MACH6 Pearl Essence Scarlet O’Hara CD RAE MXG2 MJC2) was the #1 Weimaraner and her sister Echo (MACH8 Pearl Essence Aurora’s Echo CD RA MXB3 MJS3) was close behind in the #2 slot.  (Mind you!… those MACH numbers in front of their names mean the number of times each girl has achieved the 20 Double Qualifying scores and 750 points to earn an Agility Championship).  So Scarlet is an agility champion 6 times and Echo 8 times.  That is a lot of parties we have had to celebrate Scarlet and Echo’s accomplishments.

In 2012 the girls also ranked in the top 5 and were invited to the prestigious Annual AKC Invitational Agility Trial in Florida.  This year, the Weimaraners were accompanied by Sneakers (Crossroads Hi Heeled Sneakers MXP OJP) who was the high scoring Basset Hound at the invitationals.  Last, but not least, in Vicki’s amazing handling accomplishments this year, Vicki and Kanzu earned the 2012 #1 Rhodesian Ridgeback ranking at the preferred jump height.
Huge Congratulations to Vicki, her girls and Kanzu for their placements in the 2012 rankings and invitational performance.

Kanzu and Kuyu’s gal-pal Frankie is the featured Ridgeback on Doglopedia.

Frankie (BIF Orangewoods Francesca Moondancer at Old Ranch CGC) is a beautiful ‘liver-nose’ girl (meaning she has a brown nose and amber eyes instead of a black nose and darker eyes). Congratulations to Frankie’s owner Gayleen, and breeder/co-owner, Orangewood Kennel on Frankie’s wonderful representation of the breed. Frankie is not only beautiful, she is an accomplished lure courser and therapy dog.

Click Here for a link to the YouTube Doglopedia Video

You may have noticed the various letters that appear before and after some dog’s names. These are called “Titles”. There are several Clubs and Associations that offer titles. The most notable in the United States is The American Kennel Club (AKC). The AKC has many events in which titles are offered. AKC titles become an official part of a dog’s AKC record and are listed on the dog’s pedigree, on official certificates, and in event catalogs. Other titles are offered by other national associations and breed clubs and also become a part of the dog’s name but are not recognized by the AKC in the dogs official pedigree record. Some titles are listed as prefixes and some as suffixes. A listing of the various official AKC titles with their abbreviations can be found on the AKC website at: http://www.akc.org/events/titles.cfm

For example, this is Kanzu’s official name with all of his titles, a description of each and the granting association:

GCH TC Tigris African Treasure, RE MC FCh JOR CGC ET HIC VC

GCH Grand Champion
25 Grand Champion points and at least three Major wins under three different judges
AKC

TC Triple Champion
Received Dual Champion and awarded Agility Champion (MACH)
AKC

DC Dual Champion (Combination of Ch – Champion and FC – Field Champion)
AKC

RE Rally Excellent
Received after Rally Novice and Rally Advanced
AKC

MC Master Courser
AKC

MX Master Agility Excellent
Received after Novice Agility, Open Agility, Agility Excellent
AKC

MXJ Master Excellent Jumpers with Weaves
Received after Novice Agility Jumper, Open Agility Jumper, Excellent Agility Jumper
AKC

FCh Field Champion
American Sighthound Field Association (ASFA)

JOR Junior Oval Racer
National Oval Track Racing Association Other Breed (NOTRA-OB)

CGC Canine Good Citizen
AKC

ET Endurance Title
Rhodesian Ridgeback Club of the United States (RRCUS)

HIC Herding Instinct Test
Orange Coast Rhodesian Ridgeback Club (OCRRC)

VC Versatility Certificate
Rhodesian Ridgeback Club of the United States (RRCUS)

(This story originally appeared in the ORANGE COAST RHODESIAN RIDGEBACK CLUB Newsletter Fall 2010 edition)

In case anybody reading this has not awakened at 4:30 AM recently, here is the pertinent information. It is quite dark out. In fact, on September 21st, the day of the Endurance Trial, or ET, the sun would not be gracing the sky until quite a bit later. So what was I doing up at such a ridiculous hour? Preparing to take my Ridgeback Peyton for a nice 12-mile jaunt, of course. So I guess it makes sense to start early to avoid the heat. Then again, the trial was being held in the fog of Ventura where the highs that day were in the low sixties. But I guess I am getting ahead of myself. Let me step back a few months in time to when I decided to enter Peyton in the ET.

As background information, Peyton is a very fit three-year-old male Ridgeback, who barely breathes hard after a serious rabbit chase or a long hike. I, in contrast, am a fifty something year old male whose peak athletic days are more good memories than current fact. Yes, I have run a marathon, and yes, I still do jog now and then, but I am no match for Peyton. Still, the idea of the two of us teaming up for the ET sounded like a good idea at the time we signed up. After all, we do live in the foothills where we often go for fairly long hikes, along with occasional trail running. So how hard could a 12-mile jaunt really be?

Hard! The ET requires the dog and the handler to complete a 12-mile run, broken into three four-mile segments. The handler may either run with the dog, or ride a bike. The dog is not given the choice, they must run. I felt this was somewhat unfair, so Idecided that if Peyton was not allowed to ride a bike, neither would I. Each segment must be completed in forty minutes orless, with ten to fifteen minute breaks between segments. During the breaks the dog’s temperature and heart rate is checked to make sure the dog is fit to continue. There is also a simple obedience drill before the start of the trial and at the end the trial to see that the dog is still willing to work after the trial. For some reason these tests are limited to just the dog and not the handler.

To train for the ET, Peyton and I went for morning runs, starting at a few miles, and working our way up to a complete 12-mile practice run. I learned that running with a male dog on a leash is a lot more difficult that off leash running. Perhaps Peyton was a Boy Scout in a prior life, because he certainly has a desire to mark his path so that he does not get lost. This habit resulted in my shoulder being nearly dislocated on a few occasions. Eventually we came to a compromise where he would be allowed unlimited marking during the rest periods, but not during the running segments. We also settled on what seemed a good pace, around 9.5 minute miles. There is really no reason to go much faster, since this is not a race. It is a trial, and as long as you finish with at least a 10-minute mile pace you win. Things seemed to be falling into place by the time September 21st approached.

So how did we do? Too well. Peyton is apparently more competitive than I am. He insisted that if we could see other dogs running ahead, we should catch up and say hello. The trial was organized into three groups of 7 teams, with the groups beginning the trial with 10-minute gaps. Peyton and I began in the last group to start. However, because of Peyton’s ability to pull me along, we finished with some of the second group. I have to blame Linda D’Antonio and her wonder dog Kanzu for our crazy pace. The two of them really kept the pressure on Peyton to drag me at their insane pace.

The picture you see of Peyton and me is from one of those rare moments where Linda and Kanzu are actually behind us (only because the turnaround required Linda to dismount her bike). So now Peyton has an ET after his name and I can get back to training so that we can get our girl Kali to earn her ET at the Nationals next year in South Dakota. Note: Photo by Kim Buchbinder-Strid. Additional photos from other 2010 Nationals events can be found at www.lurecoursingphotos.info Congratulations to the following OCRRC members who completed the Endurance Trial at this year’s Nationals in Ventura:

Linda D’Antonio & Kanzu
Debra Driza & Skye, Stingand Diamond
Jennifer Gysler & Maxx
Jim Wallace & Peyton
Kate Zimmer & Kobe

The Endurance Trial was cochaired by OCRRC member Jean Spengel and could not have run without the volunteer help of many OCRRC members including Dick and Barbara Rupert, Maril Suess and Debbie