Sunday, June 14, 2009

For the love of running

Lure Coursing is an opportunity for Whippets (and other sight hounds) to enjoy their natural instinct of chasing rabbits. In this case, the "rabbits" were white plastic bags tied to a remote controlled pulley system.

I finally got to see Lure Coursing yesterday, when Dennie brought her whippet, Zetta, down to Dixon. At a fenced school yard, a course of 900 yards was laid out where the hounds could run as fast (or slow) as they desired. They chased the white plastic bag on a zig zag course.

When the the bag stopped, they would touch it with their nose. Then the handler would put a lease back on and lead the smiling dog off the course.



Jm clocked the whippets at 45 MPH. I had trouble taking pictures of them as they were so fast by the time my camera clicked, I got a lot of pictures of just grass.



Little Zetta loves to run. Abby, my previous whippet, would do anything to have a safe place to run off leash. Bailey, on the other hand, doesn't care that much for running, she would rather just stay by me. So, we sat under a tree and watched the sight hounds enjoying the natural activity of chasing "pry."












2 comments:

  1. Great picture of Zetta, you even caught her smile. Too bad you didn't catch the Scottish Deerhounds doing their "pogo stick" impression while waiting their turn. That was so funny.

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  2. Just for you, Dennie. I added a picture of the Scottish Deerhound that could jump straight up. Unfortunately, someone was standing in the way so I only got the front legs, but the rear legs were off the ground as well. They were so excited to start the run, they did look like they had springs for paws.

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