Gorgeous Gilbert and Lovely Lucy

When I first started to visit other pet blogs I was amazed to find what SOME greyhound get up to.

Take the energetic pack over at Never Say Never Greyhounds! They make me tired just looking at their pictures. I mean, running round in a big circle is one thing, but all that pole weaving and jumping. Wow!

But this weekend the Lady Of The House came across two lovely dogs (with a lot of greyhound blood in them) doing equally energetic and special things.

Let me proudly introduce to you, Gilbert.....

............and Lucy...

The LOTH was at a Heelwork to Music weekend in Leicestershire (just watching you understand - not competing. I was safely back home taking it easy and dreaming of camels....).

She met Lucy first of all on the Saturday - and thought she was a greyhound at first, but her owner Jenny told her that Lucy was a mixture of Greyhound, Whippet, Deerhound and Bedlington Terrier - although Jenny said she did not know the quantities.

Jenny got Lucy when she was about 10-months-old from someone who lived on a small holding and her job up to then had been to chase and catch rabbits. Lucy didn't even know how to walk on a lead...but now, at the age of six she can do complicated Canine Freestyle 'dance' routines with Jenny.  As well as entering competitions she does demonstrations for charity days. The LOTH told me her routine was really good and there was lots of fun with props like picnic blankets and buckets and spades, because it was all about the Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer.

Lucy - who competes under the name Lucy Lollipop - came 6th in that class. Jenny said Lucy didn't 'work' much last year because she lost a toe. But she's fine now.

When she'd finished her routine, Lucy adopted this familiar pose which makes me think there must be a HIGH percentage of greyhound in her genes.

Bright and early on Sunday morning, Lucy Lollipop was competing again in Heelwork to Music - and this time she was 3rd! Here's an action shot of her.

But the dog who won the same class was Gilbert - or to give him his performing name Beachbum Bertie. Gilbert is five-years-old, and was billed in the programme as a crossbreed and the LOTH (who knows less than she thinks she does most of the time) thought he must have Irish Wolfhound blood in him. But his owner, Gail, told the LOTH that his DNA had been tested and he was more than 80% greyhound - and the rest was American Wire-Haired Pointer.

His Heelwork To Music routine was fabulous, the LOTH said.

She seems to have had a great time without me. If you are interested, you can read her report and all the results here on her Lost and Fond website (she seems a teeny bit obsessed with what music everyone was performing to, if you ask me).

I'll just finish with a couple more of the LOTH's pictures of Border Collies - who of course always do so well in these competitions.

But, I think this first chap needs to open up his eyes as he seems to be VERY close to a large cat.

Lucy's owner Jenny was trying to encourage the LOTH to start training me. She said nine wasn't too old to start a Heelwork to Music career and she had once trained up a 12-year-old Lurcher.

I think I'll just gaze blankly at her, as if she's speaking a foreign language, if she mentions it to me. That's my usual ploy when I don't want to do something. It's worked a charm so far.