Downhill Cycling with Dogs

Check out this downhill cyclist with his Vizsla!  Great dog!  Imagine this sport with a sighthound!

Here is their YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/norcorider2005

MachSpeed Whippets on the Beach in MuiNe

Astro, Rocket, and Lajka on the beach at Surfpoint Kitesurfing School. Feb 2012. Made by Adam Borys of HamTien Productions

Futuristic Greyhound Race – A Cool Absolut Ad in a Music Vid

I ran into this today.  Great vid.  I find it quite a coincidence that just last night i was speaking about four-legged robotic with a robotics guy.  I said how the sighthound rear hip mechanics are most like robotics… compared to other dogs.  I continued by brainstorming that a sighthound-based robot would be able to  ”run” incredibly fast.

Also, I often daydreamed what hi-tech armour would look like on a whippet or other sighthound.  In my head,  it looked a bit like the costumes in this video.

Enjoy!

Whippet Frisbee-Coursing on a Tropical Beach

Here are some shots of Rocket doing some Dog-Disc Coursing on the beach in Mui Ne, Vietnam.  We went out a few days ago in the morning.  My friend Adam, from SurfPoint Kite-Surfing school and Ham Tien Productions, took these shots.  As you can see, he did a real good job considering this was the first time he photographed Whippets in action — no small task!

We weren’t able to perfom for long becuase it was hot and sunny.  Rocket got tired.  If I were to go home for another dog, the beach would have been full of kites by the time I got back.  There is a chance we will try to take a few more shots before i need to head off to SaiGon to prepare for our move to California.

If when you are in Mui Ne, you need a photographer or a cameraman for a project, or want to learn how to Kite-Surf, you might try to get a hold of Adam.  Contact to him is on the Surfpoint internet site.  You can find the link on one of my other blogs:  www.muinet.wordpress.com

Click on the thumbs to enlarge the photos.

Rocket Launch 1

Rocket Launch 2

Rocket Launch 3

Attention! Whippets Overhead

Rocket Flies Away

Rocket on Lauchpad

I think he ended up catching this one.

When will he finally come back down to Earth?

the Tropics

Stretching Out

a View from Behind

Handling Fences

I am going to miss Mui Ne, but I am sure that a lot of exciting times are up ahead of us in California :  my new work,  the music scene,  the whippet scene, the Frisbee and Aerobie scene, etc.  I will miss the weather, but it doesn’t get very cold in California and the climate will be just about ideal for the dogs.

Vietnam Whippet-Beach-Frisbee

Here are some shots that Christophe Guegan took of the Whippets and I playing frisbee on the beach in Mui Ne, Vietnam.  He was there on vacation and happened to be there with his camera.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Rocket the Whippet in a Coconut Tree

Rocket has always been a decent tree climber.  He climbs me adnd stands like a parrot on my shoulder, he chaced a squirrel up a tree in a park in Warsaw in one swift movement and then was surprised when he reached a high perch and looked down.  I had to help and coach him down.

Now, here in Mũi Né, VietNam , Rocket has a new tree to climb — the leaning coconut trees (and the dunes and cliffs and hills too).  Below are some shots of him goofing around on one of the coconut trees on the beach near my house.  I didn’t really coax Rocket to go higher.  I think it is best that he decides how high he goes and not me.   It will be safer and, in the end, Rocket will be more sure of himself and perhaps go higher. Anyhow, I was taking the pics, therefore I couldn’t take part in the stunts.

Rocket in a Coconut Tree

Camera Looking Straight East

Rocket’s “Predicament” from a Distance

“Is she gonna take my coconuts?”

“Hey, let me get by!”

Rocket Looks Around from Low on Tree

A View from Below

Camera Facing West at Sunset

Senor Coconut Perro

Is this Why He Climbed the Tree?

By the way,  this Machspeed blog gets considerably more traffic than the actual MachSpeed website.  If you haven’t seen the main website, please check it out!  Maybe you would sign the guestbook on the main page as well and leave a pic of your Whippet or kennel in the signature?

www.machspeedwhippets.com

Extreme Flyball Freestyle (with Whippets)

Here is a little slideshow of the made-up “sport” of Extreme Flyball Freestyle.   We, theoretically are joking, but now that I think of it,  this probably would be a cool sport.  Maybe it could be played in a room with slippery floors (like we have here), no furniture, and slightly padded walls  (which we don’t have here).  Since we don’t have these conditions, and I played the role of thrower and photographer at the same time,  the photos are not very “extreme”.  Maybe someday in the future  I will get a friend to take the pics as I throw the ball.

Its kind of amazing how quick they react to the deflections in random directions off the furniture.  It would be great to film this with a slo-mo cam — especially considering how slick the polished rock floor is!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

First Trip to Vung Tau – part 2 (Visiting the Greyhound Farm)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The following morning, Sunday, the Deputy director of the tracks took me to the farm in the Ba Ria province, outside of Ba Ria City which is between Vung Tau and SaiGon.  We went by car (approx 40mins).

I got to see the countryside by car for the first time since i’ve been here. It’s all quite tropical and alien.  It makes for interesting scenery.

The farm is pretty big.  It has some buildings for the workers, about four or so buildings for the dogs, a straight practice track, a round practice track, a swimming “pool” (channel really) for the dogs to cool off in, a water tower, 2 busses for transport of dogs and workers to the racetrack in VT,  a lake, and landscaping.  Its all quite clean and quiet.  And although the dogs might not get as much social time as they would like and are not “pets” per se,  they do have clean, relaxed, healthy conditions and seem pretty emotionally stable.  I saw two litters of 2 different ages, and a third litter of older pups that are no longer kept with their mother.  For many people, it may seem strange thhat the dogs spend so much time on cement flooring, but in fact, in this tropical climate, it keeps them from overheating.  Remember that it is NEVER cold here.  The temperature on Sunday wasn’t too hot, and I magine that the cement helped keep the temp cool enough.  On hotter days, they probably use water as well.

This trip has brought me closer to the breed of Greyhound.  What a wonderful dog.  I visited and wrote about the track and the farm, not in support nor in opposition to the racing.  I visited out of curiousity and wrote about it so that the information is there for my friends and colleagues.

First Trip to Vung Tau – part 1 (Greyhound Racing)

Sat/Sun I went to the beach city of Vung Tau which is 90mins by russian hydrofoil from SaiGon.  I departed at 14:30 on Saturday, arriving at the port in VT at 16:00.  I was kinda impressed by this little city.  Wide open, very smooth roads, uncrowded, filled with parks, etc.

As some of you already know, one of my main interests in Vung Tau is the Greyhound Race stadium.  So, yes, I went to the races Saturday night at 19:30.  Before that, I had a nice vegetarian meal at a nearby veggie vietnamese restaurant which was pretty tasty and very cheap.  If I end up living in VT, i guess I will be going there often!  Also, before that, I had a beer at “Tommy’s” and met the Australian owner Glenn and his wife.  I had hear about them in blogs and so on, and wanted to meet them.  Through them, I met some other locals including some of the players for the Swans — and Australian Rules Football team from the area.   Turns out that they will be playing before the races later this month and were therefore set to meet with the track director that night just as I was.  (Small town, huh?)

At the races themselves, I had a good time,  took a few pics and films with my phone, placed a few bets and came close to some exacta wins.  During the races, I met some english teachers that turns out heard about me (and that I was gonna be in town) from their friend who is a mutual friend of my friend’s (small country, huh?)

The greyhounds looked pretty good.  Don’t believe the stories about them being too skinny.  They are of proper weight.  Pretty dogs, fun time, nice stadium, lots of people of all ages.

Here are the shots from arrival in VT and from the stadium/event.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The pic of the penguin trashcan is from the ferry port in Saigon, the other street shots are from the ferry port in VT, and all other shots are from the greyhound-race stadium.

In the next blog entry, I will show you the pics from the greyhound farm which I visited the following morning.

More about the Greyhound Racetrack in District 11, HCMC

I thought i might give a little more info about the Horse and Greyhound racetracks in northwest Saigon (district 11).

Here are some more pictures.  The greyhound track is within the oval of the horse-track.  This means, that if a dog-race were to take place, the onlookers would most likely cross the horse-track to get up closer to the dog-track.  Horse-races are watched from the grandstands.  Dog-races, for the most part i assume, would not be watched from the grandstands.  The view would be rather distant.

I hope this beautiful track will finally be put into use soon.  And if it isn’t, i hope i will get to experience it in some way anyway…  Like maybe with the Whippets?

In Polish:

Oto kilka fotek.  Tor wysigowy dla chartow jest w srodku kolka toru konnego.  To znaczy ze jak jest wyscig chartow, widzowie prawdopodobnie byliby przy torach na boisku a nie w widownii.  Jak sa wyscigi konne, widzowie sa przewaznie w widownii “grandstands”.

Mam nadzieje ze ten przepiekny tor dla chartow bedzie uzywane w krotce.  a jak nie, to mam nadzieje chociaz ze bede mial okazje doswiadczyc go w jakis sposob.  n.p. z whippetami.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.