Thought you all might like to hear about our lovely day out today at Lodge Park.

The weather was kind (for a change) not hot, but dry and ideal coursing weather for the hounds.

Lodge park is a beautiful setting for Deerhound coursing and most of the owners who had hounds running were dressed in period costume, which with the back drop of the lodge makes a wonderful sight.

We were not competing with our hounds, they will not run on a lure (at least that is what we thought) although they are very good on live quarry. We just thought it would be a nice day out for the oldies as they don't get out much since they have been retired from the show ring.

We took Amber, Cara and Ruag had to come as well because we had left a bitch in season at home and we didn't trust Charlotte not to leave the dog gate open.

We packed some sandwiches and a flask of coffee and off we went. When we arrived the racing has already started so we found a couple of bales of straw to sit on and watched the rest of the heats. To our surprise, Amber and Cara were very keen on watching the lure zip down the course with a pair of Deerhounds in hot pursuit. And then, disaster struck! As a pair of hounds were slipped, Alan said to me "make sure you've got a tight hold of the dogs". "I have" I replied. Or rather I thought I had, because in the next second there was Amber through the tape and heading off down the course chasing after the dogs that had been slipped. Oh God! I was so embarrassed, my face was scarlet.

Anyway, after all the heats and the final had been run spectators were given the chance to run their dogs, so we thought we see what Amber and Cara would do and to our great surprise and delight both of them went out of the slips and coursed the lure to it's end.

I think Cara has found a second string to her bow and Amber has found her Forte. Not bad for retirees. We are going to have a go at Lure coursing proper in October.

This is a photo of the parade of competing Deerhounds that were led by a piper in full ragalia with the lodge in the background. If you would like to see better photo's of Lodge Park with the Deerhounds in full flight take a look at Jeff and Barbara Pooles professional photography, their website is in the directory.

I've never been to Lodge Park, it sounds fun, though not sure about the dressing
up it though! Did you dress up? How embarrassing about Amber, that would happen
to me though, ha ha, that did make me laugh:lol:
I tried lure coursing earlier in the year, took hubby as thought he might like that side
of it. To my surprise, Murph was good at it, though more sure he was chasing the
Greyhound that he was slipped with, rather than the lure. I'll go again, they do
it in Newbury, not sure how far that is from you. We used to have a lure that
my husband used to take down the fields when they greyhounds were pups, we don't know
where it is, but I wish I could find it, I would have some fun with Murphy, great
excercise too!

Sounds like the dogs had a great time. You're not alone Sally, our girl has done the same thing to us, although not at a competition day (just a fun day). She would get so pent up when the lure went off for other dogs that she would buck and twist and run backwards until she got out of her collar and run off. We ended up having to put her in a harness, and she even managed to twist out of that a few times.

Sounded like a lovely day. I think I would have crawled under the bale had it been me

The BSfA (British Sighthound Field Association) is holding a lure coursing event down in Newbury in October, it is their last one of the season, but we thought we would go to that and take Amber, Mallie (who is very fast) and Charlottes' Whippet. I'm always at a bit of a loss when the show season draws to a close so Lure coursing might fill the gap a bit. I will have to check the BFSA site for the date of their event.

Bring Murphy Helen, I gather from Vanessa and Jeannie, that they are doing a bit of spread with wine and stuff so the more the merrier.

I think I wil, we went earlier in the year and really enjoyed it, I'll have to check
the website to see what date it is, it's only an hour from me.

Local paper Article :

www.thisisgloucestershire...il/article.html

I took Ben in 2006, the BBC were there filming the event for their Historic britain series. I have a copy on DVD, I'll try to look it out and put a clip on youtube. I've also seen it on youtube posted by Rogue and Rick

Sally I have found that lure coursing is, to me a lot more fun tham shows. It's amazing how the dogs will react. My Alice showed some interest in the lure and the noise from the motor. When she was slipped her she ran about a third of the course and Then came back to me. The lure just did not appeal to her. On the other hand, both Tess and my lurcher, Aeriss, go nuts when we get to the field and go like heck after the lure. And you talk about getting loose while watching, Aeriss got out of her collar during one heat and spoiled the run. That was embarassing. I finally got a x-pen which I put up around the back of the van so they can get out for air etc and Aeriss escaped twice and was out on the field. I finally found how she was doing it and now things are more secure. But it was a huge surprize to hear "loose hound" and to look up and have to reply "that's mine". At least she came when called. It must happen to a number of us. In spite of those knids of happenings, it's tons of fun and the dogs are so fantastic running. A marvelous sight.

Your right Terry, we had a wonderful day and it was such good fun. We didn't think our dogs would run on a lure.

We had only tried lure coursing once before and it was a bit of a disaster. It was one of those ones that zig zags around. Ruag was put in the slips with Cara. Ruag went about four strides and came back to Alan and Cara did go all of the way around but only half-hearted and then when she was in the second heat she wouldn't run at all. We also took our lurcher, Joe. Joe ran along side the lure, half watching it but more interested in the hedge and then when the lure turned right Joe kept on going up the field and we had to go and fetch him out of the hedge at the top of the field. Joe reckoned there was definately something more interesting to catch than a plastic bag.

We were delighted with Cara's and Amber's efforts at Lodge Park and it has encouraged us to have another go.

We had a fluffy thing on the end of our home made lure. Actually it was about 20 years ago and my friends toddler left her Gordon the Gopher puppet at our house, you guessed it, the Lurcher adopted it, before he 'killed' it, so it was attached to the end of the lure. We had to hide it whenever they came round!!

We took Ben to Lodge Park in 2006 and entered him. He panicked in the slips being in close proximity to another dog, a bitch. He seems to be terrified of most female Deerhound for some reason, I suspect he was a naughty puppy and was often scolded by his mother and remembers it well. Anyway he got a bad start and ran the wrong way, he did then see the lure and proceeded to chase, he was catching the other dog but alas he had too bad a start and there wasn't enough distance left to completely catch up. Anyway we all had a good time and that was the year the BBC were filming there.

See Rick's video on Youtube:

That year the lure was a squirrels tail and if they used one again this year that may well be why your dogs ran so well Sally.

Hi Don't worry Sally I've also let go of a lead. It's not as bad as my friend though who took her German Shepherd to a big point to point event. The horses ran past only to be pursued by my friend's dog who'd slipped his lead in his desperation to give chase! Fortunately though no harm was done. But she's not been back!

I don't blame your friend for not going back Elise, letting a dog go at a point to point is far more embarrassing. The colour of my face was the same colour as the slipper's hunting jacket.

I don't think I actually let Amber go because there wasn't a pull. I don't think I was holding her at all. The dogs were wearing those long leads that you buy from the Dutchman at the breed show and I had them doubled up in my hand so I thought I was holding three leads but in fact I was only holding two.