If you'd only heard her screaming for the bunny….my goodness. Someone said "Too bad she doesn't like this". Haha.
EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GGGG:D
Whoa time out. Nicki tells it all wrong. Here's how Zip's day REALLY went…
We get there with all 4 kids... Booger was going for his ASFA cert & the first leg of his JC, the pups were there to watch & learn.
We soon meet the only other basenji competing... a tri boy named Beck by a breeder/owner named Holly. We were a little apprehensive because Beck is a Field Champion, and so we figured it would just be expensive practice for Zip.
But then..... Zip KILLED Beck. Beck had a good run, but NOTHING compared to Zip. She was ON the bunny, perfect turns, great speed, all out, amazing. Words can not describe, although one judge by the name of Ian said it was the best basenji course he has EVER seen by far!! High praise.
Nicki is being extremely modest. All four of Zip's runs, even her "just for fun running with Booger for the ASFA cert" run at the end of the day, were incredible. She is an amazing courser; don't let Nicki's modesty fool you. She didn't win... she smoked her competition & stole the day!! We are SO proud of Zippy!!!
Zip meets her competition, Beck
Zip surveys the course & sizes up the other breeds
As Nicki previously mentioned, Zip LOVES the bunny & makes a lot of distressed noises when she can see it, but can't get to it. Nicki holds Zip & turns her face from the bunny so she'll calm down.
How does it feel to be a winner?? HIGH FIVE!!
We would personally like to thank several people for a fun and successful day… Thank you to Nicki & Liz for getting up so early for the JC & hauling us up to Tennessee!! Thank you to Bluegrass Coursing Club for hosting the event and welcoming a bunch of newbie kids & their basenjis. Thank you to all of the competitors/owners/handlers who helped make this a really fun & educational time! We can't wait to go coursing again!
Congratulations!!!!!!!!!
Wooohoooo!!!! HUGE congrats!!!! I think we can safely say that you have a courser 
Congrats to Zip girl (aptly named) :).
I can't wait for next year to see how Zaire likes chasing the bunny when it is not attatched to the end of a fishing line with daddy waiving it wildly around the back yard.
How did you get her to "love the bunny" so much? Or is this something she just did straight out of the womb? We have tied a plastic bag to the end of a fishing line (with a weight) and cast it out and reeled it back in, he chases it, but he's not CRAZY for it. If there is something more we can do to inspire him I'd like to give it a try…
And Kudos to Zip, sounds like she's really earning her name! She's too cute too!!
When I started with Zaire I would have a friend hold her or I would hold her and have a friend start pulling the line past her. I would get down next to her as the lure moved in front of her and say "Bunny Bunny Bunny" all excited like. Then as she would start to pull at me and the lure was well ahead of her I would release her to run. I should say though that she has a pretty high prey drive anyway. You should see her chasing the butterflies in the back yard, oh and the squirrels.
Congrats to Zip girl (aptly named) :).
I can't wait for next year to see how Zaire likes chasing the bunny when it is not attatched to the end of a fishing line with daddy waiving it wildly around the back yard.
Have you taken him for practice yet?
Have you taken him for practice yet?
No I haven't taken her for practice yet. I was thinking we would go up in November to the Evergreen club trial day and play a bit. It will give me a chance to see some folks up in Seattle that I would like to get together with. I do have a friend down here who I may get together with and see about some practice runs. We were going to get together this week, but she has to go down to Dallas for the week. I am looking forward to it. I may try to get out to WVBC's October trials as well. 
I don't think there was much I needed to do to cultivate Zippy's prey drive. I do think it's sort of just there…before I got her Denise Searcy had tried to course her but she said something about the sound of the lure spooking Zip. I have not experienced that at all. If anything even hearing the lure gets her more excited to chase it now. I don't remember her screaming for the lure as much at the two trials she went to for her JC. Since the last two practices I took her to in July and August she has probably sort of figured things out..she knows that the noise is nothing to be afraid of and that last time she was at a large field and there were some white bags she had a lot of fun chasing them. Eskilovr, I think bringing your B to a trial and letting him watch would have that same effect of getting him oriented. Then maybe try to practice him after the trial and see if he catches on.
Mauigirl, I was going to ask that very question. Does the excitement of the seasoned coursers excite your dog even more? If the spectators (what ever you call them, humans and dogs on the sidelines) are quiet do you get a less excited Basenji and/or a slower run?
I really need to get out more :o and find some events in my area to watch.
From my experience, which is still pretty limited, I don't think that noise from the humans and/or dogs watching has a huge effect on the hounds coursing. And people don't make noise with the intention of encouraging the coursing hound. When I mentioned noise in my post above I was referring to the sound of the lure whipping around the pulleys. For example, between runs they have to "bring the lure around" from the end point of the previous run to the start point of the next run and it goes through maybe 6 close pulleys and the wheels that make it go. It has a whoosh whoosh whoosh noise. I don't remember if the motor is ever very noisy, I don't think so.
I wasn't there when Zippy was spooked by the noise but I would guess that it had something to do with the equipment. Maybe it was unusually loud. Might have just been that it was entirely new. If anything a slower run might be because the hound is tired or lost interest. I would be interested in others' thoughts on this.
I would have to say having a stranger walk your dogs sibling on the sidelines barking doesn't help…but my experience is limited to Salukis (or whatever it was). :p 
-Andrew
LOL!! Totally forgot about that. Good thing because I felt HORRIBLE!
To the forum: Yesterday at the trial there was this man JC'ing his two Borzois, apparently they're brothers. He had Carrie hold one while he ran the other, and when he switched them out I took the one that had just run and I figured he needed to walk it out having run oh about 800 yards. We walked along the back of the field on the other side of a temporary fence, there was a road there where people often walked their dogs. The second Borzoi spotted his brother in the middle of running his JC and let the bunny get away to come say hi. Whoops. $20 mistake. My mistake but not my $20.
I apologized profusely when the owner came over for him. He was not pleased.
LOL!! Totally forgot about that. Good thing because I felt HORRIBLE!
To the forum: Yesterday at the trial there was this man JC'ing his two Borzois, apparently they're brothers. He had Carrie hold one while he ran the other, and when he switched them out I took the one that had just run and I figured he needed to walk it out having run oh about 800 yards. We walked along the back of the field on the other side of a temporary fence, there was a road there where people often walked their dogs. The second Borzoi spotted his brother in the middle of running his JC and let the bunny get away to come say hi. Whoops. $20 mistake. My mistake but not my $20.
I apologized profusely when the owner came over for him. He was not pleased.
Oh please… it was my suggestion to go for a cool down walk so at least give me partial credit/blame for this oops. I also thought back on the events tonight, and realized while he was running the first dog, we kind of wandered away with his second dog & he had to search a bit to find us. That's what you get for trusting the newbies with your dogs. Andrew adds this: While I was walking to go pout by myself over Booger's failed attempt at JC, I noticed you two walking the dog & thought to myself "Uh oh... this can't be good," but was too far away to stop you. Also, the second hound is $12, so it was only a $12 mistake... his first hound made it! Luckily for him, he won't have this problem anymore as one dog will be running open & the other will be going for its JC (again).
Leave it to Nicki & me to share a brain.
Mauigirl, I was going to ask that very question. Does the excitement of the seasoned coursers excite your dog even more? If the spectators (what ever you call them, humans and dogs on the sidelines) are quiet do you get a less excited Basenji and/or a slower run?
I really need to get out more :o and find some events in my area to watch.
IME, the excitement of the seasoned coursers may excite the dog but not actually help it become any more interested in chasing the lure.
Nicky, was about 18 months old before he showed any interest in the lure. At 5 months old, we took him to the BCONC puppy match and they had a puppy practice lure set up. Nicky ran the opposite direction and tried to drink someone's Pepsi. We persevered and brought him to other trials, he continued to act as if he didn't even see the lure. Then one day, we were at a lure trial like many times before and the light finally went on. He was like, "Hey mom, why didn't you ever tell me about that!!!" He has made the AKC and ASFA Top 20 when he was younger and at 10+ is still coursing.
Rally, was at her first trial at 10 weeks old and showed some interest. Her second trial was at 12 weeks old, and all it took was seeing 1 other dog chase the lure for her to be screaming for the lure. She has passed that screaming gene on to at least 3 of her offspring. Last year Rally was 6 and made the ASFA Top 20. This year at 7, she is still hanging in the ASFA Top 20.
Rio was more like Nicky, it took her awhile to warm to coursing but when she is on she is a sight to see. When she is uninterested, she is still entertaining.
Sophie is like her mom, intensely focused, screams like a banshee and is currently only 1 defeat ahead of her mom in the standings.
Thanks Ivoss, like mauigirl I was lol at your colorful description.
