Lure Coursing

Spent a good bit of the week unpacking and breaking down boxes. The delivery company had to come back twice to pick up all the boxes. I also had to go back to the Police Station to file my work permit addendum to my residence visa. The international school has officially offered me a job teaching part time in the fall. All I have to do now is get the residence visa processed prior to the first day of school! They say it has been prioritized since I have pending work but then again it has been “on the way to Oslo” for 2 weeks – I think they use the Moose Express for immigration papers.

Last week we went to a dog show for the local sighthound group in the area. There are very few greyhounds here so sighthounds are the next closest group. We meet some people and saw lots of beautiful dogs (check out the pictures). So on Saturday we were invited to go Lure Coursing with the group. It was about 45 minutes outside the city – the drive out was unbelievably beautiful but we didn’t get pictures since we were following someone. Stretch got sick on the way out- he takes after me in the carJ. We get to the field which is actually a horse race track and the course is all set up. Lure Coursing is a “track” set up with a line and pulley that drags a “lure” on the ground for the dogs to chase.

In this case the “lure” is a bunch of plastic bags – the course has lots of turns and the person in control alters the speed of the lure based on the dog ( see a video here- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjQIqsI20MM). We are nervous to let our dogs run it since the field is not really fenced and we have been told to never take them off their leashes. So we watch several dogs (mostly Whippets) run it and we see they are so interested in the lure that they don’t have any intention to run off. So we bring the dogs out of the car and let them watch – boy are they interested! We can barely hold on to them – so after much discussion we let them try it. The course is adjusted for the first timers so there is only one turn. All the other dogs are put away (since Stretch is unsure of other dogs). Dopler goes first and is real fast but misses the turn- once he sees the lure again he gets it and goes right to Jason. I am holding Stretch and he is very

excited. Then it is his turn- he runs faster then Dopler I think and misses the turn – but he gets confused and just stands in the middle of the field not moving – after an anxious minute thinking he might bolt – he trots over to Jason. It is pretty amazing to see dogs that were never trained to race (like whippets and Italian greyhounds) get so excited to run- it defiantly proved to me running is in their blood and not something they learn or are forced to do. Our dogs are defiantly rare here – everyone wants to see them- they don’t have dog racing here so there are very few greyhounds and even fewer that have professionally raced. We have met several of the famous Spanish Galgos – they are neat dogs too. It was a fun day – a little nervous but fun. We will try again on another day.

Spanish Galgo

I have also included some pictures from our bike ride on Sunday in the “new photos”. It is really hard to believe sometimes that we live in such a beautiful place!