Activities - Cali Whippets

Lure Coursing

We participate in both AKC and ASFA lure coursing events. We belong to 2 local clubs - MAHA (Mid-Atlantic Hound Association) and CLCS (Carolina Lure Coursing Society). We started lure coursing in 2004 with our first whippet, Cali. This special red brindle girl introduced us to a wonderful new hobby and many new friends. While she loved the sport and never lacked enthusiasm, she was never competitive with the larger and more in shape dogs.

Despite, Cali's lack of success, we were hooked. When Cali was around 4 years old, we were fortunate enough to be offered a puppy from an exciting litter. This puppy turned out to be "Spirit". While my hope was a puppy that was competitive enough to compete as a "top 20 whippet", she exceeded all of my expectations.

At just over a year of age, Spirit started the 2009 year by going Best of Breed at the AKC Lure Coursing trial at our American Whippet Club National event. Later that year she was also the Sunday Best of Breed winner at the 2009 AKC National Lure Coursing Championships in Texas.

She ended the 2009 year with 12 AKC Best of Breed wins and she defeated 738 whippets - a new AKC record for # of dogs defeated in 1 year!.

She also earned the title of the 2009 - #1 AKC Lure Coursing Whippet and Sighthound! Spirit was only 2 years old when she accomplished this. We are very proud of Spirit and can't wait to see what the future will bring for her.

Not to be out done, Morgan, another of our young girls, was also ranked in 2009 and and ended the year as the #12 whippet and #19 Sighthound for AKC Lure Coursing. She finished her field championship title in May of 2010.

2010 turned out to be even more exciting than the year before. Despite limited coursing during the early part of the year, Spirit continued to prove herself on the field and went on to win 17 of 21 BOB's, defeated 659 whippets, earned her LCX2, LCX3 and LCX4 titles,

and went on to be the #1 Whippet/#1 Sighthound for the second year in a row!!! She, however, was not done there, and went on to go Best in Event at the 2010 AKC National Lure Coursing Championships in November of 2010. We couldn't be more proud of this special red girl! She has accomplished more than I could ever have imagined on the coursing field.
In 2011, we did not spend a lot of time on the coursing field. However, during our limited time we accomplished some pretty exciting goals.

Mystic and Amos - 2011 ASFA Region 7 Invitational: BOB winners - Mystic on Saturday and Amos on Sunday!

First, both Mystic and Amos finished their Field Championship titles and in the fall of the year, they each earned the title of BOB at our ASFA Region 7 Invitational (Mystic winning BOB on Saturday and Amos winning BOB on Sunday). Spirit only ran the second half of the year, as she was busy showing during the first half, but in that short time she managed to earn her LCX5 title! In the end, all three were ranked in the AKC Lure Coursing Top 20! Spirit was #3 and the #1 Dual Champion, Mystic was #10 and Amos came in at #19! As always, I am proud of our crew and the accomplishments they have earned!

2012 was a quiet year for us. We did not travel much, coursing mainly locally, as we were busy having "Spirit" puppies in the fall. We did take one trip, to the AWC National in Huron, OH, and Spirit earned the High Scoring Dual Champion award, both on Saturday (AKC) and Sunday (ASFA) at those trials. Blondie (Cali's Blonde Ambition) earned her Field Championship title - to become our FIRST "Bred By" Champion! Finally, Both Spirit (#13) and Mystic (#18) were ranked again in the AKC Lure Coursing Top 20!!! This is Spirit's 4th year in a row and Mystic's second year - in the rannkings!!! Congrats to both of these girls.

"Spirit" - MBIF NFC DC Cali N TNTs Spirit of the Wild of Nitro MC LCX6 FCh

"Morgan" - GCH DC Ableaim Morgan Le Fay, MC RN CGC

Conformation

We have been participating in dog shows for only a few years. In that short time, we have been very lucky and successful thankful to the addition of our two beautiful foundation Bitches - "Morgan" and "Spirit".

Morgan - Ableaim Morgan Le Fay - is our first "show dog" out of our special boy Tyler. She amazed me by earning some very big wins at a young age. She earned a Group 2 placement at a Hound group specialty at just 9 months of age. She finished her championship in March of 2010 with a total of 2 BOBs and 4 major wins. She has gone on to earn her Grand Championship with very limited showing. Since this girl loves to show, she will probably venture out into the show ring again someday as a veteran!

Spirit - Cali N TNTs Spirit of the Wild of Nitro, while only shown a limited number of times the first 3 years of her life - placed in large open classes at the 2009 Mid-West specialty and earned the title of "Best Performance Dog" and a First Placement in the "Lure Coursing Bitch Class" at the 2010 AWC National Specialty! In 2011, we decided that it was time for Spirit to take a break from running and focus on the show ring. With the help of her new friend "Phoebe Booth" - Spirit quickly earned her Dual Championship title in June of 2011, with 3 Major wins and several BOB wins. Then, to our delight, Spirit was awarded the 3rd Award of Merit at the 2012 AWC National Specialty! What on honor to be recognized in such a large group of high quality whippets! When we can pull her away from the field, we will continue so show Spirit at select shows.

Dylan at the AWC 2012 National Specialty in Huron, OH - By Steve Surfman

In August of 2011, Morgan provided us with some beautiful puppies - we look forward to spending some more time in the show ring in 2012 as we think this crew has great potential. FLASH - the puppies have started out with a bang! Henry placed first in his 6-9 mo puppy dog class at the AWC 2012 National out of 18 entries. Dylan did equally as well, she placed 4th out of 33 entries in her 6-9 mo puppy bitch class. Big congrats to these youngsters.

"Henry" - Cali's On Golden Blonde

Rally

Near the end of 2010, I was looking for a new activity to do with Morgan. She had finished her Dual Championship title in the early part of 2010. While we were looking towards a possible litter with her, Morgan likes to be the center of attention and does not like to be ignored, so we were encourage to try Rally. Morgan loves to EAT, so motivation was not a problem, however, I had never done any type of obedience training so this was very new to me.

With some help from some good friends, we quickly learned the "signs" and in March of 2011, we entered our first Rally trial. On Saturday, Morgan earned a score of 94 the first time in the ring! and placed 2nd in her class. I was thrilled! However, we made the mistake of entering 2 days in a row and by Sunday, Morgan was not as excited about our day's activities and while we qualified, her score was only 73. We took a break and decided to enter again at our AWC 2011 National a month later. Morgan did not disappoint me and did great! She scored a 95 and again placed 2nd in her class and also earned her Rally Novice title! I am very proud of both Morgan and myself for accomplishing this goal.