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Janet Stringer is featured today and her versital whippets. I met a whippet when I was a teenager
and loved their personality. I was finally ready to get a dog about 8 years ago and went to the local dog shelter. I found 4 dogs from a litter - half whippet and half ?. Took
home the red brindle male, then 12 weeks old and named him JC. He taught me everything I know about raising a puppy and introduced me to doggy fun things. I started obedience classes ASAP to get
help raising a puppy. From there I learned about flyball and agility. At one agility trial, a rescue group set up a lure coursing demo and he showed immediate interest. So, we added lure coursing
to his activities. JC died in a tragic accident just before his 5th birthday. In flyball, he was a FDCh (flyball dog champion). In obedience, he had 2 legs on his CD and was trained through open.
In lure coursing, he had an SC and numerous points towards his ASFA
FCh, but was too creative to be really competitive. He was often used for certification runs. In AKC agility, he had his AX (he had an ILP and there were no jumpers classes then). In USDAA agility,
he had 2/3 legs on his AAD
and was running in Masters level games - all jumping 30".
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After JC died, I was given "Maggie" by Marti Bradford in Dallas. Maggie was bred by Steve and Eileen Hawley and was 2 years old when she came to us. I got her to mainly do agility, but our other
dog (greyhound) was finishing up his conformation championship. She even got a group placement from the classes. As long as he was entered, we figured we might as well enter Maggie and find out
what this showing thing was all
about. She was my first (and maybe last) show dog. It took us a few months to figure out what was going on, but she did finish up her
conformation title. She has been trained to play flyball and agility, but had a bad scare and has not competed. Currently she and I are learning
about open and utility obedience exercises. I love training and only use competitions to test our training. She has coursed, but doesn't really see the point of chasing white plastic. She has
also raced, but is scared of the other dogs running and barking.
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There are many great things about whippets. The most important one to me is that they are happy
to hang out, but also happy to try anything you want them to try. In the evening Maggie hangs out on one of the many dog beds in our house, but flys up when I grab the clicker and bag of
treats. She absolutely loves the "training." She has also trained me well. In the winter I hold up the blanket so that she can cuddle under. |
