I would just like to wish Elise Good luck with the CaniX competition today. GO ELISE!

Thanks for everyone's best wishes for my CaniX race.

Well Banrigh and I managed to finish it in 8 min 2 sec. We had a great time and Banrigh was absolutely excellent. We had a few steering problems - basically at every corner Banrigh went one way and I went the other (as per the youtube clip). But after a quick gather up with me getting hold of her collar we headed off together in the right direction. I hadn't used the X-back harness on her before and with hounds being quite deep chested you need a large harness to cope with the depth of chest. This ends up with the harness right at the end of the dog's back which means that you're really trying to steer the dog from the tail. Not too easy when you're out of breath and too nervous to remember to give any direction commands to aid steering. However, we didn't end up in the lake and when going in a straight line Banrigh was brilliant pulling well and ahead of me most of the time only running at my side at the finish. The dogs running ahead of her really captured her attention and got her going.

The main arena start was the highlight for me and Banrigh headed off at a great pace nearly pulling me over. I was certainly thankful for the agility special non slip surface at that point and with the harness I had on my waist I managed somehow to stay upright!

Thank you very much to CaniX for organising such a good day and I do recommend taking a Deerhound to these events. I know it's not traditionally what they were breed for but with the harness I really don't think it puts them under any adverse strain.

Eight minutes and two seconds? that's a very fast time, going by your comments earlier. Well done, both of you.

Well done Elise!

I don't know anything about CaniX and times and things but 8mins 2secs seems pretty fast to
me. Well done Elise!

The fact that you and Banrigh had fun together is all that matters IMO. Congratulations on a great run! It was fun seeing the youtube clip.

Yes, I was pleased with my time. Better than I thought and I was just pleased Banrigh and I got round without too many disasters. Just shows you what a bit of dog pulling power will do. The winning woman in my age category finished though in 5 min 26 secs. I don't think I'd manage that regardless of the number of Deerhounds pulling. Unless I took up Bikejoring - now there's a thought.

Well done Elise and I'm glad you had a good time. What is Bikejoring??

Congratulations... what a great time! Well done

It was lovely to meet you at Crufts Sorry that we did not have a chance to come and watch you friday, but we were thinking of you

Bikejoring basically replaces your running legs with an adapted bike. As I understand it the dogs this time are attached to the bike which they then pull with you peddling. The dogs again need to be in harness as per CaniX. I have also seem some bikes which are more like scooters which you need to push along.

I haven't tried this with the Deerhounds - frankly I'm not too stable on a bike. But have tried with Hettie our Lurcher but just holding a lead when on the bike. Hettie is actually quite a lazy dog when there's nothing around for her to chase so taking her out with us on the bikes either on or off lead gives her a bit more exercise. She's not always as keen!

Over here that is called Endurance. We have endurance trials but I think it is with only collar and lead which you hold while cycling. The Endurance trial is done over 20km I think, but done in 5kim legs. At the end of each leg the dogs are vet checked for lameness and pad sores and a chance for rehydration. There is a Deerhound on the mainland (Australia) which has it's ET title.