Greyhound Freaks » greyhound racing

Fell First Turn, DNF

Heather Vaughn — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:26:17 +0000

Bunny schooled again on Thursday.She didn’t exactly burn up the track on her first schooling race, so I anxiously and excitedly pulled up the schooling results on Friday morning. I found her race and read words that no racing greyhound owner wants to read: Fell First Turn, DNF. The DNF stands for “did not finish.” EEK! My excitement quickly drained away and my anxiety shot up quite a few notches.

Since it was still early, I dashed off a quick email to Heather at Team Greyhound to see how Bunny was doing. I knew the reason she didn’t finish couldn’t have been catastrophic (like a broken leg), or I would have heard from them immediately. Heather called me later that morning after she’d spoken with JT. It turns out, Bunny had rushed pretty well out of the box, and ended up in the first turn with the other dogs. She ended up getting banged up pretty good and knocked down. When she got up, she seemed a little disoriented, so the quickly pulled her from the track.

Physically, she’s doing fine. At this point, my worry is that she may be afraid to go into that first turn on her next time out…especially since her personality seems to be more reserved to begin with. Heather did confirm that can happen, though she didn’t seem overly concerned about it. The racing kennel isn’t schooling any dogs on Monday, so Bunny will have a good bit of time to get over her tumble on the track. I have faith that her trainer will school her back when she’s ready.

Things are moving at the track!

Heather Vaughn — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:00:23 +0000

Unfortunately, our dear Bunny doesn’t seem to be moving as fast as the other dogs…LOL She had her first schooling race Monday morning and not only did she finish without her muzzle…she finished dead last. Of course, this was just her first schooling race . Her littermate, Wildcat Alley, performed pretty much the same way in her first schooling race and went on to win her schooling race yesterday. It’s a learning process….so we’re keeping our fingers and toes crossed that Bunny will warm up to the idea of being first!

You can track Bunny’s career at http://www.southlandgreyhound.com/ (or stay tuned to here for regular updates)….

Her entry…(yay!)

Her results…(wah-wah-wah-wahhhhhhh) LOL

It’s a boy!

Heather Vaughn — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 11:37:35 +0000

Yesterday was the pup draw for the Dave the Dog x Flying Tan Time litter in which we own one puppy. There were 8 puppies, with the A pup already given to the previous owner of Tan Time as part of her sale to Team Greyhound. The pup draw is done randomly…the owners who have purchased a puppy are sent an email with the order in which we can choose a letter. When it’s your turn, you choose a letter from the ones still available and send an email with your choice to the entire owner list and then it’s up to the next person on the list. You don’t know the color or sex of any puppy until the choices have been made. Obviously, this is to keep the draw as fair and level as possible. (For those not familiar with greyhound tattoo’s, puppies are tattoo’d by the age of 3 months with a unique litter number in one ear and the birth month/year/and a letter in the other ear.)

With our first pup draw, I chose “B” for my maiden name “Brown.” This time around we chose “F” – as in FAST! It turns out F corresponds with the only black male in the litter, which is perfect for us! We love the black dogs and to own a black, male Dave puppy is just awesome.

We’ve got some pictures of the litter, but I’m not sure which (if any) of the black pups is our black male. We won’t choose a name for several more months, so for now our boy will just be called F Puppy (unless/until I think of a good call name!). We already have a definitely first choice racing name picked out, which we’ll reveal when the paperwork is processed by the NGA.

(puppy photos courtesy of Team Greyhound)

Ahhhhh…the life of a greyhound puppy!

I just love the expression on this red puppy’s face!

She’s looking good!

Heather Vaughn — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:00:20 +0000

In what’s been an otherwise sad week for us and our pack, we had some welcome news from Team Greyhound regarding our race girl, Bunny. Bunny is doing well in training, though she’s a little shy and still getting used to life in a racing kennel. Her first schooling race should be in the next week-to-10 days or so. Stay tuned here for schooling results! Two of her littermate brothers have already schooled (Wildcat Alley and JL’s Jerzeeboy).

We did receive some new photos of our girl. I may be a little bit biased, but I think she’s gorgeous! …and built like a linebacker! I may need to get some extra big collars when she finally retires LOL

She’s not too sure what to make of her first photoshoot in the turn out pen

This one’s a little bit blurry, but she still looks good