Judy with her lovely Fish (Thrilling Fish) and also Stretch (Stretches), with GAP marquee in the background (on the right hand side, you can see Gail arranging her coat display :-)
We had fantastic three days at the National Dog Show in Feilding : our cute little town was buzzing with all the people and show dogs - there were many events organized in town square too :-) But, of course, the biggest one for us was our GAP Marquee at Manfield Center, where the National Dog Show was held.
Antony and Michelle at the GAP stand. Gorgeous black&white boy is Rozzo (Maximum); Cilla, our foster girl, is on the beanbag on the right :-)
Gail and her lovely family did a fantastic job with the GAP marquee and the shop (again!). Gail is truly a superwoman - she deserves her own blog post!
Judy with Fish and Nelly, Gail with Beryl, and Jim with Corey
We had a great turnout too -GAP hounds came from as far as Wellington :-) Many people stopped by the GAP marquee, there was plenty of interest in adopting and fostering, so we hope to see more hounds off to forever homes as a result. We were asked to parade in the main ring again today, while the announcer interviewed Michelle about GAP and the hounds. It was wonderful to see our hounds so well behaved in the ring -my two foster gilrs Cilla and Shannon (Moon Dancer) were handled by Gails's kids, whom they have never met before. I LOVE this aspect of greyhound nature, it is so lovely to see a dog handled by a child and behaving perfectly.
Zoe (Fantasy Shifter) and our foster gilrs Shannon and Cilla handled by Gail's kids :-)
Beautiful Beryl (Winsome Deluxe) and Snuffles (Baileys Dream)
Belinda and her foster boy Luke (Lauretana Boy)
Cynthia with Shannon (Moon Dancer) and Snuffles (Baileys Dream)
Joey (Slingback) came over from Wellington with his parents Marci and Walter
Cilla kept making friends with children :-)
Cilla and Sara having a break at the back of GAP tent :)
Stretch made some new friends too :-)
Cilla and Lucy being flat :-)
Our foster girl Shannon is so small that she can easily walk UNDER Stretch!
Oh yes, that was a nice shortcut !
And we even lure coursed the hounds! There was a mechanical lure (with two white plastic bags to chase) set up for demos in the field at Manfield. My Louie had a go too and he is still on a high! :-) It was amazing to watch all the retired racers do what they love (most of the GAP hounds there tried it and loved it - Beryl was an absolute champion, check out the picture below:)
Beryl (in full flight!) and Jade lure-coursing (you can see the white plastic bag lure at the left-hand side)
My gorgeous Louie (Charlston State) resting after his lure-coursing : "Mummy, I reckon we should make this a regular event!"
Louie and Lucy ::)
Back home , Lucy the Ferret was absolutely exhausted and spent most of the evening in this position:
Tired ferret :-)
Along with being day 2 of the big 3-day National Dog Show, Friday was also Rural Day and the whole town gets in behind the rural theme. The shops and businesses compete for best dressed rural themed window, there are many displays and competitions and lots of the displays included dogs. Blue's Mum Odette is a manager of Curves, a woman's fitness and health facility in Feilding, and she included greyhounds in her gym display ; she did a great job with GAP leaflets and promoting GAP, with help from Sue and Beryl, and Judy and Fish. Thank you so much for everything Odette! Check out the cute picture below, taken at Curves:
Odette with Blue (Belfast Blue) and Edna, another Curves staff member, with Beryl (Winsome Deluxe)
Finally, it has stopped raining and we were off for a walk! We took our foster greyhound Stooge (Cyclades) along with Louie (Charlston State), Lucy and Blue (Belfast Blue), who also lives in Feilding.
Below: Blue (Belfast Blue), his people, and Louie (Charlston State) Blue and his people, Odette and Ben: Below : Blue and our foster greyhound Stooge (Cyclades) Stooge, Odette and Ben: Odette and Ben with Blue, Lucy and Stooge: Lucy and Blue had lots of fun together: Below: everybody!
. Last week we took the complete Feilding GAP contingent to the velodrome in Timona Park, where they had a mighty run! Greyhounds love to race around it and pretend they're back on the track :-) We usually go to the velodrome when we want to offleash foster dogs (or newly adopted dogs) as the velodrome is fully fenced; Louie, Lucy, Beryl and Fish are all recall-trained, dont need fully-fenced areas and usually run in the park itself, with other dogs of all breeds. If you need a fully fenced training area for your greyhound -do check your local velodrome! I know that most of them have "NO DOGS ALLOWED" signs, but if you talk to the cycling club secretary or the velodrome manager, and explain that you would like to run and train your hound there, I am sure most of them would be happy to make an exception! Velodromes are great as they are big, fully fenced, with grassy areas in the middle. We trained Lucy to recall perfectly to us in the Feilding velodrome :-)
The occassion for the velodrome trip this time was Blue: Blue (Belfast Blue) is a newly adopted GAP greyhound, joining the Feilding hounds Louie (Charlston State), Lucy, Beryl (Winsome Deluxe) and Fish (Thrilling Fish). He had only been in his new home 2 days when this video was taken (4th June) and this is his first time meeting his new greyhound friends:-) He had a blast even though he didn't like having his muzzle on! These videos were shot by Beryl's Mum Sue -thanks a million again Sue! (Note from Sue: Excuse the dreadful filming, most of the time I couldn't see a thing!) Before watching, make sure you have your volume on, as Sue , as always, has got fantastic music choices :-) Hounds: Beryl is black and white, our foster girl '2 Spot' is snow white :-) Lucy is a small black girl, Fish is a handsome black boy with blue collar, Louie is Mummy's beautiful boy, a big black doggie with Burberry collar :) and Blue is handsome blue greyhound (you dont see much of Blue on these videos though -he had a short run and then went to be close to his new Mum and Nana :-)
After a gallop round the velodrome it's time for a cool down canter:-) Except for Lucy who doesn't know anything but flat out galloping and flat out on the grass after it, lol!
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