Howling great Hallowe'en

Two of our dogs had howling great success this Hallowe'en weekend.

Milo (out of Am/Can CH Gardenway Gunners' Moon "Charlie" and CH Varazs Kincses Natasha FDJ "Tasha" born June 13, 2002) and owner Corrine Sellars earned Milo's 5th and final "C" leg in the Cdn Assoc. of Rally Obedience to give him Bronze Championship title!!! And this weekend, they also earned his 3rd Versatility leg - and 3rd place with a score of 191 - adding yet another title - Rally Versatility (RV). Milo is now officially known as CRB Varazs Mokany Ficko FDJ, CGN, SSGDC, SADC, AG.N.J., CL1-R, AG.N., Am/Can CD, Am/Can RA, RXCL, RAE, RNT, RV. If you want to know what all these title initials stand for, I suggest you click on the link to his name which will take you to his webpage. Great work Corrine and Milo!! Corrine, you're going to have to build an extension onto your home to house all of Milo's rosettes!!

Milo with more beautiful rosettes
(Above photos courtesy of Corrine)

Gunner (Varazs Kedves Quinn) out of CH Hubertus Quality Control FDJ (Ozzie) and Am/Can CH Varazs Kiralyi Kedvesem FD, NAVHDA NA Prize III, JH, Am/Can CD, Am/Can RE, CGN (Miska) born June 2008 and owned by Donna and Scott Hildebrant of Oakville ON, was Winners Dog two of the three days of shows at the Trillium Dog Fanciers show in Etobicoke, ON. And on Sunday, he was also selected by Judge Patricia Laurens of Newton, CT for Best of Breed! This gave him 4 more points this weekend. He now only needs 2 more pts to complete his championship. Way to go Gunner!

Gunner handled by his breeder, Sylvia Dorosh

Gunner, natural 'stack'

Gunner (R) with his mom, Miska (L) taken October 2009

Happy Birthday Rita

Happy 13th Birthday Rita!!!

Rita (Lyons Keiralea Of Varazs) was a Vizsla I imported from Joy Lyons of Florida in January 1997. She was born October 28, 1996 and that makes her 13 years young today! Happy Birthday Rita! Rita developed bilateral entropion, an inward rolling of the eyelid, and since I couldn't use her in my breeding program, I placed her with a couple who already owned one of my dogs, Varazs Summer Solstice "Bob". Rita became a fast and inseparable companion to Bob, who sadly passed away in August of this year just shy of his 14th birthday. See http://varazsvizslas.blogspot.com/2009/08/remembering-bob.html (Bob was a littermate to Jester who crossed the Rainbow Bridge this week.) Rita initially found it hard to be without Bob at her side but I hope she's adjusting now.

Rita has spent most of her 13 years happily living with Karen Johnston and Doug Wheeler. I visited Rita and Bob in August of this year and the photos above were taken of Rita that day. Below are photos of a younger Rita and Bob, taken by Karen Johnston. So enjoy your special day today Rita! Hugs and lots of love.

L - R, Rob and Rita

L - R, Rob and Rita

Farewell Jester

Varazs Starbuck's Mocha Java TT "Jester"
August 22, 1995 - October 25, 2009

Owned & cherished by Lorie Way Hrycuik, British Columbia

My deepest sympathies to Lorie on her loss of Jester. It seems like only yesterday when I was getting him ready for the long flight to Vancouver, BC back in October 1995 to meet his new forever family. Rest in peace Jester.

Jester as a 10 week old puppy

Getting ready for the flight to Vancouver

Meeting his new family

Jester hunting

Jester's beautiful head

Autumn colours

Vizslas look so beautiful in autumn against the gorgeous colours. These photos were taken in within the last week.

Below: L - R, Tyro, Diva, Miska

Below: Tyro (born 2006)

Below: Miska (born 2003)

Below: Miska (rear L) with son Gunner & daughter Diva (at front)

Below: Carol Fickling with Tucker (formerly Chili)

Happy 5th Birthday!

Wishing our Sasha-Nova grandkids, born 2004, a very Happy 5th Birthday. Mom of this litter is Shandy, (aka officially as CH Varazs Artemis Vizsandy CD, AGN, AGI, RA (CARO), CGN) and her parents are Sasha (Am/Cdn Ch Varazs Kiraly Sassy Sasha Am/Cdn CDX, Am RAE, FDJ, CGC, CGN) and Nova (CH Ferngold Varazs Innovation Am/Can CD, Can RN, Am RE, FDJ CGN).

Sending birthday hugs and kisses to Rodaidh, Pia, Okos, Polo, Drake, Genmai and Ramses, the grandkids! In this photo, Rodaidh is at the back, far L with the red collar and Pia is at the far R. Shandy is hidden from view and is behind Cirrus (2nd from R with the slightly white face). Photo is courtesy of Chrissie Diron.

Linda Sellars

Linda Sellars

I am very saddened to learn today about the death of Corrine Sellar's mother, Linda, last week. Corrine owns our Milo (Varazs Mokany Ficko FDJ, Am/Can CD, Am/Can RN, AgNJ, AGN, RACL (CARO), SSGDC, SADC, CL1-R, CGN). Linda accompanied Milo and Corrine to many agility trials and also visited our puppies from Nova's 2006 litter. Milo's wonderful temperament and funny antics helped Linda overcome her fear of dogs and she became a great 'grandmother' to Milo. Linda never hesitated to express her generosity and condolences when one of our dogs passed away by providing a donation to the OVC Pet Trust Fund in their memory. She will be missed.

Corrine, I am so sorry for your loss and my deepest sympathies go to you and your family.

Handler errors

Well, despite some stupid errors on my part, 3 of my dogs completed their Rally titles this weekend at the London Kennel Association shows & trials in Tillsonburg, Ontario. Miska (aka Am/Can CH Varazs Kiralyi Kedvesem FDJ, FD, NAVHDA NA Prize III, JH, Am/Can CD, Am/Can RN, Am/Can RA, Am/Can RE, CGN born 2003) completed her Cdn Rally Excellent (RE) title in three straight trials. I was thrilled that she did the backing up 3 steps perfectly. Unfortunately, I did some poor handling at one of the jumps and she went around it instead of over. That cost us 3 points and were it not for that mistake, she would have had a perfect score of 100 at one trial. Oh well! Notwithstanding, her scores were 98, 94 & 97.

Congratulations to brothers Tyro and Tucker (formerly Chili) from our 2003 litter. Both completed their CKC Rally Novice titles by earning their final 2 legs and are respectively known as CH Varazs Napkelte Tyrone Am/Can RN, Am RA (Tyro) and CH Varazs Nyar Hot Sauce FDJ RN (Tucker). Early in September, Tyro also earned his American Rally Advanced title which entailed working off leash and the trials were held outdoors with far more interesting smells to be distracted by. So the novice stuff was a lot easier for Tyro and you'd have thought - duh! - with all my experience, I would not be making any stupid handler errors. But I was rushing (big mistake) because of potential conflicts with having to be in the conformation ring (why does this always happen?) and so messed my dogs up. However, Tyro & I did manage a score of 99/100 at one of the trials and got an 86 (where I screwed up and did a station incorrectly). I handled Tucker and he scored 93 and 96. Well done boys!

Tyro (L) and Tucker (R)

And in the conformation ring, Gunner (Varazs Kedves Quincy) born 2008 earned another 2 points on Friday October 17 towards his championship title under Judge James Reynolds. On Saturday, he was Reserve Winners Dog under Thora Brown. On Sunday, he just didn't want to stand for the judge so did nothing more than win his class.