Category: News

Today Blu ran two Barn Hunt trials and qualified for one leg of her Novice title! She even managed to place 2nd place in trial.  She's been going to practice for it and today was time to put her training to the test.  It's Blu's first experience in a titling/competitive ring, so that was a bit of pressure and stress for her with the other dogs working the other rings and the spectators, new environment.  But she managed to do alright.  Congratulations to Blu and great job to our co-owner, Jade.  Looks like everyone had a good time at the 2016 Rat-Tastic Con!

Now Blu is headed off to her appointment for OFA hip and elbow radiography evaluations.  Cross our fingers everything turns out fine.. we'll get results back in about three weeks.  Blu's trial specs can be found on her page here.

 

Little Borrasca also is getting so big!  Time is flying by - I can't believe it's already been one month since she came.  She's largely settled into her daily routine now and is starting her basic training in detection/Nosework and Rally-Obedience for some trials coming up.  So here are a few photos her growing up with Rōnin..

Blu's first trial Q!
Blu's first trial Q!

Borrasca and Rōnin are also off to 2 shows tomorrow - Borrasca debuting in the Novice Puppy class and Rōnin for the SPOT test. Best of luck!!

 

Lastly, now there is only a bit under 8 weeks left until Morrow & I head off to Europe and the CsV summer camps.  Booked all our hotels, confirmed our various rendez-vous with some friends.. I hope it will be another nice summer break spent with many Vlcak, nice weather, mountains, and a few relaxing spas.

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We had a busy long weekend holiday - Borrasca is settling in great and is such a confident and open little puppy. Along with some puppy playdates, she also had her first beach visit at Montrose Dog Beach and a day spent in the Sunday open markets at Maxwell Street in Chicago. As you can see she had a blast...

In other news, our Blu also graduated beginner's competitive obedience this week.  Morrow is also doing pretty well in her tracking classes and using some handy GPS apps, it's easy to map our tracks and see her progress.  This week was week 10 since we started weekly tracking classes and she's up to 300-400 meters with 4 turns, no food on the track.  Agility set 4 is quickly coming to an end too, with just 1 more weekly class left in this set.  I can't say we are doing amazing, but we are doing at least OK and Morrow seems to enjoy it so....  I think that at this point we've worked on all the standard agility elements except for weaves, and that will be taught as a separate workshop. 

Lastly, Morrow went to a set of UKC conformation shows hosted by the APBT SoCal Club in Claremont on Monday.  She did much better than before in terms of handling and gaiting so I'm happy about that.  She doesn't think too much of conformation shows and much prefers her classes where she's allowed to jump and run or smell things, but she put up with me well enough ..

 

Our results this weekend:

Show 1 - Junior Class 1, best female, best of breed, Group 2 under Judge Jerry Brown and

Show 2 - Junior Class 1, best female, best of breed, Group 3 under Judge Janet Fink. 

 

We were in a bit of a rush to get packed up and home before agility class, so we didn't stay for photos.  So we'll end on some miscellaneous fun photos from the weekend; Ghost in the baby pool & Borrasca meeting Rōnin 🙂

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We're happy to share that a new little one joined our Greyfarer family this week.  From the ancient port city of Cádiz, Spain comes our new girl, Borrasca Gaditana de la Manada de Tuky.  She's 13 weeks old and a confident little spitfire.

 

Borrasca traveled the 6 hours from Cádiz to Madrid with her breeder's boyfriend Carlos and met up with our friend and Borrasca's chaperone for the trip, Sebastian (with German kennel 'z Karpatsky stráže'), spending the night in Madrid and catching the flight out with her in the morning.  The Iberian Airlines crew were all very friendly and checked up on her a few times during the flight to make sure she was all OK.

First night in Madrid!
First night in Madrid!

Years ago, when Borrasca's father Volker was born, I was really interested in him so I'm really glad that we have his pedigree and the line of Enor Maly Bysterec through his daughter today.  Of the four litters of Iran Zemplínka oblast' that went on to have dogs with breeding rights, Borrasca's pedigree contains three with different maternal lines.  It makes her pedigree a tighter line-breeding but it is uncommon and can make a good outcross.  Her pedigree can be found on her page here.

 

But in any case these are all hypotheticals.. at the moment she is just a baby and settling in quickly.  She lives with Marius  and our Rōnin & company and already has a lots of plans for her in the coming months.  She will make her Novice Puppy class UKC show debut at the end of June too!

 

 

First moments after landing at Chicago
First moments after landing at Chicago
Getting ready to board in Madrid
Getting ready to board in Madrid

I hope that Sebastian enjoys his mini-vacation near Chicago and helping Marius settle her into the family.  She's so funny-looking and awkward now at 13 weeks, all feet and ears, but we look forward to watching her grow up.  She comes from a litter of only two and the final litter of Kimaris Kay.  Her sister Bahia de Cadiz stays with her breeder, Berta, and we're really grateful that she's let Borrasca come to us, so far away.  We're also really thankful for all the help that Sebastian and Iris have given to safely transport Borrasca to us in person. 

 

Today Rōnin also turns two years old.  Happy birthday Rōnin!! Hope you enjoy your special present!!

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This morning we had a nice surprise.  When I checked the FCI page for their weekly update on the registration of permanent kennel names, I saw that our kennel made the list!  Finally, our little hobby kennel is now properly registered.  Months ago I submitted three choices for names in order of preference, and luckily the one I wanted most was also the one that was approved.  Since no national kennel club in the USA is a participant to the FCI, our kennel is officially a co-owned venture.

 

I'm looking forward to receiving the official documents and so on in a few weeks' time.  But it's fair to say - yes, now we are official!

 

Update June 31, 2016:

 

I received the official certificate..  Greyfarer is FCI kennel registration number 691/16 issued on March 28, 2016 for Czechoslovakian Vlcak.

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I finally have a free moment to update all the things since the last entry... maybe there's a few things missing but first things first: the third SoCal/Pacific Rim Gathering was this weekend.  We organized and hosted a long hike ending by the Pacific Ocean, had an introduction to tracking-trailing workshop, good food, drinks, a visit to the local dog-friendly Belgian-style brewery and a Barn Hunt practice.  It was great to see our active Vlcak and their owners on the West Coast.  Tried as hard as I could but under the relentless SoCal sun I'm still sunburnt!!!  I would like to thank everyone for attending and sharing their weekend with us.

 

We did extend a personal invite, of course, to our co-own boy up near Chicago, but unfortunately he could not come.. still, he made a little productive weekend..

 

Over the weekend, Rōnin ran his first Nosework/detection trials for Exterior and Vehicle elements.  Prior to now, he'd only done trials in Interiors and Container elements due to the Chicago winter...  I'm super happy and proud to share that Rōnin successfully completed his Advanced Vehicle (with two 3rd place high in trial!!) and his Novice Exterior search title (with two 4th place high in trial!!!!!!!!). 

 

This means that Rōnin again makes breed history becoming the very first Czechoslovakian Vlcak to earn his Novice Nosework title - completion of all elements (Exterior, Vehicle, Container, Interior) on the Novice 5th degree level...  

 

Also: our Blu went off to her OFA CAER eye exam the last week, and together with Morrow went to their cardiologist exams today for the new OFA Advanced Cardiac database.  All exams passed with flying colors! The results have been sent along to OFA and will show up publicly searchable soon. 

 

In the last couple of weeks, both Ghost and Blu received in the mail their invites to 2016 UKC Premier for placing #1 (tie) Czechoslovakian Vlcak of 2015.  It's Ghost's 3rd Invitational and Blu's first.  And for a few laughs - Morrow placed 70th female Czechoslovakian Vlcak in the Open Slovak Cup 2015!! We were actually not last despite her ring antics and 'rough looking' adolescence.. 😆 

 

Now we also plan to take the Ausdauerprüfung (AD) exam in June with Morrow.  Although it's the 20km endurance exam for German Shepherd Dogs, it's only half of the first-degree 40km SVP1 breed endurance exam for Czechoslovakian Vlcak.  But it's what is available state-side, so we will do it because we are not usually in Europe in the Fall or Spring.

 

The other training courses are going great.  Morrow recently added two sharp turns and variable surfaces to her tracking-trailing repertoire, and exterior and vehicle searches for her detection-nosework courses.  In agility, we're now working on the contact obstacles in detail. 

 

Lastly, we also made and booked concrete plans for the summer.  We hope we will see our friends in Europe and both familiar and new beautiful Czechoslovakian Vlcak. 

 

 

Rōnin on a vehicle search.
Rōnin on a vehicle search.
Weekend haul!!! So many Q's and placements!!
Weekend haul!!! So many Q's and placements!!

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As March is wrapping up, there are a few recent bits of news.  For one, I've been updating the blog even though this site isn't even public yet.  The reason is because I'm still waiting on the official return of our kennel name registration with FCI.  The application was finally sent in at the beginning of March, so there's still a bit to wait (estimated 4 months..), but it is what it is.. Fingers crossed that our first pick does turn out also to be FCI's pick as well.

 

In other news, Rōnin went to a veterinary ophthalmologist for his OFA eye clearance last week.  Although he did get a passing evaluation, the veterinary ophthalmologist noted (as we had suspected, too) imperforate lacrimal punctum - lack of a sufficient opening to the tear duct. It's why Rōnin has had persistent unilateral staining from his left eye. It's a congenital disorder that OFA classifies as passing with a "Breeder Option" code A-6 for the specific condition: "Imperforate Lacrimal Punctum: Entity is suspected to be inherited but does not represent potential compromise of vision or other ocular function."

 

Rōnin is due back to the ophthalmologist's office this week for a small surgery to correct this defect.  We're glad he passed his eye exam despite a little hiccup!  His PennHIP and OFA hip and OFA elbow evaluations have also been scheduled in for the end of May.  Those are the biggies, so.. fingers crossed all comes back alright.

Over the weekend, Morrow also went to an Introduction to Tracking workshop hosted by AKC-VST tracking judge Pia Paulsen and the Hollywood Dog Obedience Club.  It isn't our first venture into tracking, as several years ago we also started Ghost on it, but Morrow is so much more enthusiastic and a natural at it, so... The 3-hour workshop was really interesting, and had a really nice demonstration of a Versatile Surface Track by one of the other instructors, Susan Bagley and her Beagle, and many opportunities to run beginners' tracks.  Morrow ran a few and she loved it, and we were able to make some contacts and will begin regular weekly tracking sessions starting this coming Saturday.  She enjoyed it so much that I've been laying out short tracks outdoors since yesterday for her to practice on with start and end leather articles we received from the workshop.

 

Plans for the summer are also coming together nicely.  So on this first day of Spring, we look forward to many exciting events and watching the pups learn about their world.

Drive thru Pup Patties for a job well done!
Drive thru Pup Patties for a job well done!

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Yesterday marked the 10th weekly session of foundation work in agility with Morrow.  This is our first serious venture into agility and so we are taking lots of time to build proper foundations, since I am learning the handling as well (caveat: I have horrible coordination..).  It looks so easy on other people's videos!!  Hopefully eventually we will graduate to novice coursework.  It's much different than recreational/non-competition 'agility' fun classes where you just get the dog to go onto and jump over things.  That part is really fun but also the really easy part! 

 

Our instructor/trainer is the amazing and practical Ms. Noriko Aso with Aso Agility.  I remember going to class on Session 1 right before the 2016 new year, and all we did was practice sit-stays, and some wobble-board work.  I felt then that we would never get anywhere but I had my mind up that we were going to stick with it and go as far as Morrow was willing to cooperate.  We mess up a lot, have a lot of stupid handler errors, but in all I think Morrow enjoys class and agility so we'll continue to go.  Noriko is great about addressing our individual problematic spots (of which we have many) and she has a lot of different, useful techniques and patience in excess.  More than once, Morrow has used the agility field just for zoomies..

 

So far we have had introduction to jumps, winged jumps, A-frame, teeter-totter, dog-walk, tunnel, pause-table, and tire-jump.  We haven't had introduction to weaves yet or a few of the long/broad jumps.  A lot of it is building foundations in correct entry and exit and contacts, and communicating with your dog on how to maneuver the obstacles in correct order and strategies in handling like leading out (considering the dog is always faster than a human, running along side for all obstacles is not feasible). 

 

We haven't been able to practice much outside of class as I don't own an agility equipment set outside of the single simple jump I brought to practice the pivots on.  So I'm really happy with Morrow, so far we keep up in class.  Our two previous obedience levels really set a good foundation.  The class is very limited in size, normally only about 3 teams, so we get a lot of time to practice new skills and reinforce older training.

 

Recently, I found that Morrow's nosework facility rents out their agility yard for practice, so we will be able to start going to some practices outside of class soon.  We also started with raised jump bars recently.  Up till then the jump bars were placed on the lowest slot, since foundation work isn't so much focused on the actual jumping but the handling and taking to the course and obstacles.  Now the jump bars are sometimes set to the AKC regulation height for the dog's height, so I feel reassured about having taken Morrow in for her PennHIP scoring and OFA hip preliminary evaluation at the beginning of January.  Everything looks great, so I don't worry about her jumping and potentially exacerbating any hip joint issues. 

 

This week's class was also the first while it was still daylight, thanks to daylight-savings, so hopefully we will be able to get some better photos than what I currently have..  Looking forward to session 11 and beyond!

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Two guests in 2015.

It's that time of the year again! We're organizing the third Czechoslovakian Vlcak meeting for the SW/Pacific Coast region to take place mid-April.  This year, it is earlier in the Spring to (try to..) beat the California summer heat. 

 

These annual meet-ups are at the moment mainly a two-day breed social with planned activities such as hiking, playing in the ocean, and of course, good food and drinks.  As the breed numbers are still generally low and young, official activities such as organizing a breed specialty show or a bonitation have not really been on the table, although in the coming years it is something we can definitely look into.  In the past we have organized also health clinics, and training demonstrations can also be made a part of the curriculum...

Last year, the plans were organized around a Saturday hike in the beautiful Rancho Palos Verdes area, followed by a catered lunch and some good drinks overlooking the Pacific Ocean at Portuguese Bend.  Our night wrapped up with some take-out sushi, a raffle, some more drinks, and a lot of fun conversation.  We had a record number of individual owners in attendance along with some breed fanciers and owners of other breeds coming from mainly Southern California, but Las Vegas and Seattle as well.

 

Sunday was a fun day for the dogs at Huntington Dog Beach, after which they were also guests at Park Bench Cafe and Diner, a dog-friendly brunch spot a short trip from the beach.

 

Anyway, this year we will again organize it as a social.  In our plans already is an evening at a local new dog-friendly brewery... the rest of the plans are in the works...

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Vlcaks at Huntington!
Vlcaks at Huntington!

The past weekend was busy, tiring, but lots of fun for the dogs.  Here in California, Morrow went to her first Lure Coursing events hosted by the AKC Southern California Ibizan Hound Club in Chino over the two-day weekend.  She qualified in three 550m (600 yard) courses in good time and finished her first official title in coursing ability!  It's also the first coursing title for a CsV in the USA.  She had a lot of fun, although there were a few hiccups - for example when she stepped on the active line and proceeded to bite it out of indignation...

 

So little Morrow at 14 months old is now officially "Łojma II z Peronówki CA".

 

Right after her Sunday morning trial she went to Nosework class and had a couple of really slow and tired interior search practices... I think she had a good weekend.. but that's not all the news..

 

Up in Joliet, Illinois, our Rōnin also had an amazing weekend at his UKC trials for Nosework/detection.  In short, he qualified for not only the pre-trial tests in Master and Elite levels, but also two 3rd-degree Superior level Container searches and two 4th-degree Advanced Interior searches, completing his titles in both elements in their respective levels!  He also managed to earn 2nd and 4th place in trials in his interior searches.  Since his first detection trials in February, Rōnin has already completed a whooping five titles in individual elements.  You can see his trial runs from this weekend on Marius' YouTube channel:
Trial 1 Advanced Interior  | Trial 2 Advanced Interior

 
Rōnin's next trials are in April, for the first time in the Novice-level for vehicle and exterior searches.  Congratulations to Team Marius & Rōnin, and happy training!

 

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We're soooo excited to announce that Rōnin became the very first Czechoslovakian Vlcak to title in Nosework/scent detection over the weekend!

 

At his very first trial weekend, Rōnin not only qualified 6 times, earning his Individual Element titles in both Novice Interior (NI) and Advanced Container (AC), but also placed in 2nd and 3rd in two of the trials!

 

Our little Rōnin at only 21 months is now officially AC NI U-Ch. Drake Darkstar Amant Gris!

 

Rōnin is our co-own who lives near Chicago with his amazing owner Marius Geykman.  You can see more details on the trial times, qualifications, and other information about Rōnin on his page here.

 

Congratulations to Team Rōnin and Marius!!!

 

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