Merry Christmas!

 Miles and Otto

Moose

 Otto thinks antlers are cool and maybe will make him fly

 Miles is not sure he wants to pull Santa's sleigh

 Miles and Moose at the Travelers Rest Christmas Parade

Ottobahn

Ottobahn (Miles Per Hour's littermate)

 I got some photos of Otto all grown up. I think he still has a bit of a puppy face though. These were taken at 22 months. Otto is such a good boy! He is getting calmer and seems like he is calmer than Miles. I still watch him a couple of times a week for the day so he and Miles can play. He is always very well behaved and the pups never get into any trouble. They still sound and look like they play too rough but have never hurt each other. They do run a lot but spend as much time playing mouth wars on the bed now and do take a couple of naps during the day. No more running for hours. Now they play more like typical higher energy, young greyhounds. They run for a few minutes then rest and repeat.

Otto can sit!

Otto and his dad Joe

Antlers

Miles got some hand made antlers from his friend Susan for Christmas. He was pretty embarrassed initially. You will probably be able to tell which photo was taken first. I think it helped when he heard that his heroes the police canines also wear antlers at Christmas sometimes. Petco shoppers making over him and taking his picture probably helped a bit too.  He is pretty proud of those antlers now.

He got to kiss Santa for luck and checked out his beard. Miles was pretty sure it was no more natural than the antlers on his head or his mom's hair color. Definitely something that should be tied to string with a young greyhound chasing it.

Susan also made antlers for Moose. Here is our foster Wheel McCoy modeling them at our Petco meet and greet.

 

In other greyhound news: Friday Moose and Miles went with me to Camden to the Polo Field. We were helping to set up the LGRA (Large Gazehound Racing Association) straight track. It is a 200 yard straight run where the dogs break out of real racing boxes. Miles had practiced once before months ago but we wanted to do a little more box practice and get both boys certified by a judge so they can enter competitions.

To get certified they have to run the course cleanly, no bumping, playing or other rough housing and they have to be focused on chasing the lure and not on the other dog running with them. Normally it isn't a good idea to have dogs that live in the same house certify each other because they are more likely to play. Moose was a professional racer for years and was good so I knew he would run clean. Miles has always run clean in his previous runs with other dogs in AKC lure coursing competitions so I was pretty sure he would be fine too.

Miles is always so much faster when running in the yard with Moose so I was sure I knew who the winner would be. Moose was so cool when he walked up to the box and walked in without a fuss. He was so professional and knew exactly what he was supposed to do. He was staring at the lure and was totally focused. Miles had already run a few practices out of the box and I tried to put him in a different box. He tried to back out and kept trying to get in the box we had used before. I didn't think about that small detail and hadn't trained him out of EACH box. Slapping head.

Moose broke fast at the track according to the racing records and videos I found on him. He broke ahead of Miles this time too. On this short of a track there isn't much time to make up for a bad break. The break alone can win the race and Miles couldn't catch his older brother. He is eager for a rematch though and is pretty sure he can do better next time. They both passed their certification run so will be able enter the next competition we go to.