The Mach-Speed Lajka Litter Prediction Contest

Well, Lajka’s all pregnant n’ stuff…

               so it’s time to have some fun!

Yep, European Imports Lajka and Rocket have expressed their love for one-another in the form of a pregnancy here in California.  Let’s have a contest to see who can guess the number of pups!  (Hint: My dear Vet did a little check early on when she stopped by to see the Whippies (without USGs or Xrays) and she seems to have felt about 5 of what I like to call “puppy-bumps”).  So guessing below 4 would be quite a gamble indeed, but I suppose it’s not an impossible result.

Surely more than one contestant will get that right, so the 1st tie-breaker question will be the gender breakdown.  Most likely, a few people will get this right too, so the 3rd question will be a second tie-breaker — the date of birth/whelping.  Background info:  average length of pregnancy is around 61-63 days and the matings were from the 22nd to the 26th of April.

The 4th question is the final tie-breaker.  Here you can write anything you want to predict about the litter  —  coat colors especially… maybe also time of day.

Now you probably want to know about the prizes!  Well, here you go.

Firstly, the first place winner gets to pick TWO prizes from the following choices:

1. A blog or website :  set up for them by me on WordPress plus a half a year of assistance with maintenance.  The initial size of this site is to be within reason (let’s say. not larger than my average blog)
2. 1-2 songs recorded in my studio :  produced of co-produced by me.  If this is with live instruments, this would be of good demo quality.  If this is with line and sampled instruments, it should be of studio quality.  You would need to provide your own transport to Atherton, CA.
3. I record my vocal to the instrumental version of the song “Whip it Good” by Devo.  Where you can change the words to fit your wants, needs, and whims.  I can help you change the lyrics as much as you need.  You might be able to convince me to do another track if I like the track enough.  NO!  NO LADY GAGA!!  😉  If you don’t have Whippets, it could be a Snoop Dog song, or “Who Let the Dog’s Out” or something like that.  Remember, we would change the words to fit your reality. 😉
4. Four hours of frisbee/sighthound disc sport training for you and/or your sighthound (or other breed for that matter) plus additional help over the net.  You would need to transport yourself to me, or catch me here or there when I travel (which isn’t too often.) 
5. A semi-pro video edit of your short films ; or slide-show of your photos.
6. For pre-screened potential owners, a “significant discount” in the fees that are required to become “owned” by a Mach-Speed Whippet.

The winner can pass along any of these prizes to a direct family member or close friend or dog-breeding/dog-world partner.  I reserve the right to ask for proof of the relationship.  Sorry, “facebook friends for 2 years” doesn’t count!…. especially for prize choice nr.6.  Many of these pries could take a while to come to fruition, given that we all have busy lives,  the distances between us, etc.  Nevertheless, you can count on me to follow through with the 2 prizes that the winner chooses.  I will also make a blog entry with the results of the top contestants — maybe a top 10?  If the 1st place contestant doesn’t want any prizes or “dissapears”, then the 2nd place contestant will pick their two prizes.  Be sure to include your email at the bottom of the survey if you want to win.

You might cleverly mix your 2 prizes.  For example, the song “Whip it Good” with lyrics about your kennel or your dogs, and then a music video to that song with pics or films of your dogs.  😉

To take part in the contest, press the button at the bottom of this blog entry.  

Consider getting background info about the parents and the pedigree from this blog and from www.machspeedwhippets.com .  Send the link to this blog to your friends so that they can take part too!

Questions about the litter and pup availability: glennskii@gmail.com

Take Our Survey!

Results of the Whippet Coat-Color Poll

At the time of writing this blog entry,  we had received 341 poll responses.  I think this is enough to list and discuss the results.

Here are the coat-color choices by percent — in descending order:

1. Brindle & White

2. Fawn & White

3. White & Brindle Parti

4. Brindle

5. Black and White

6. Fawn

7. Blue and White

8. Blue

9. White and Fawn Parti

10. Whites & Cremes

11. White and Red Parti

12. Red & White

13. Black

14. White & Black

15. White & Blue

16. Red

Notes:

• I moved up “Whites & Cremes” because of the votes this category received in the “other” section.
• Notice the “White & Red” is the only Parti that seems more popular than its more heavily marked equivalent.
• Take note of the tie that existed at the time of writing this blog entry:  “Black” tied with “White & Black Parti”.

When we group all the brindles together,  all the fawns, together, etc… our simplified results are:

• Brindles 31%

• Fawns 23%

• Blues 16%

• Blacks 15%

• Reds 11%

• Whites/Cremes 5%

Whippet Coat-Color Poll

Just for fun, here is a poll about favorite whippet coat-colors.  you can pick two.  If you wanna say “silver” instead of blue… or anything like that, then use the write-in vote at the bottom, but I suggest you pick the closest description instead so that your vote counts…. e.g.  pick blue or fawn for silver, pick brindle for red-brindle or black-brindle or fawn-brindle.

Please not that the first choices at the top are SOLID colors (no white).  In other words, read carefully before you vote, so that our data is as accurate as possible.