Why did the Vizslas cross the road?

It was a pretty chilly morning in Phoenix with high winds when I took Miska, Tyro & Diva out for their walk. When I say 'chilly', it was actually 60 deg F or 15.5 C, not really that chilly but I've acclimatized to AZ weather so it felt chilly to me, especially because of the winds.  Therefore I was really surprised to see something like this on the road right next to the sidewalk in front of a house that borders onto the desert. (This was around the corner and a few doors down from our house.)

Gopher Snake

Whoa I thought!! BIG SNAKE!  It wasn't curled up so I didn't know if it was dead or alive.  I also didn't know if it was a rattlesnake or not.  It was pale coloured and perhaps about 4 ft in length. and usually those are harmless Sonoran Gpher Snakes.  I couldn't see a rattle on its tale but then again, I wasn't going to go up to it and ask.  Or even poke at it to get it to move. 

So I decided we should give it a very wide berth and thus we four crossed the road.  When we returned from our walk, it was gone.  So the photo above isn't an actual picture of the snake we saw but a photo of a Gopher Snake.

Swimming in AZ

While AZ is largely desert, there are several lakes in the state, many of them created as a result of dams.  Our closest one is Lake Pleasant and indeed it is very pleasant.  It's fairly large and quite deep - about 1,700 ft deep. Today when the temps were supposed to hit 97 deg., we decided we'd take the dogs there for a swim since it would be pretty quiet during the week.  They had a good time, especially when swimming out to to try and catch the Mallard.  It was their first time swimming since we've been in AZ.

Tyro (L) and Diva (R) decide a Mallard is more interesting than a ball.

V

Tyro swimming back to shore

Tyro, reluctantly leaving the Mallard

Video showing Miska being called off the duck; Tyro is also in the water & Diva is on shore

Miska-Brick puppies!

Take one very handsome and talented hunter by the name of Int'l BIS BISS Int'l & Am CH Pirok Tegla MH aka "Brick"

and mate him with a very versatile, pretty and good hunter Vizsla named BIS (Veteran) Am/Cdn/Int'l/UKC CH Varazs Kiralyi Kedvesem FDJ, FD, NAVHDA NA Prize III, JH, Am/Cdn CD, Am/Cdn RE, Am RAE, CGN aka "Miska" . . . 

and the result is that 5-6 puppies are now expected on June 1, 2011. These puppies should have very good hunting instincts and be gorgeous in the show ring too. After all, life is too short to hunt with an ugly Vizsla. And they should also be very versatile like any good Vizsls should be. Oh - and also have awesome temperaments.

It's official! We're expecting!!!

I'm going to be a "grandmother" again!  Miska visited the vet's this morning for an ultrasound and she's definitely expecting! We counted 5 pups for sure; maybe 6. These procedures aren't always accurate.  But I am relieved it's not going to be a huge litter of 10 or something like that. Miska had 6 in her first litter and given she's going to be 8 years old soon, a medium-sized litter will be just perfect for her and me.  Oh yes, puppies are due June 1.

Mozel Tov to Miska and papa Ch Pirok Tegla MH ("Brick")!

To see more photos of Brick, the dad-to-be, click here which will take you to the Varazs website.

Agility training

I had to repeat Intermediate 1 classes at the Jumping Chollas Agility Club because neither Miska nor Diva had mastered the weave poles.  That was OK because there was a lot of new stuff that I'd never done before after being out of agility for many, many year so it was as much for my benefit that we repeated the course as it was for them.

Well after considerable practice over months, they havealmost  fully mastered the weaves.  At week 4, we did a mini-course - well, not that mini because there were 17 obstacles and a couple of the setups were really challenging for novice dogs:  a discrimination exercise with a tunnel and the dog walk and a box jump. Nevertheless, in her first run-through, Miska had a clean run!!!  I was so proud of her, especially as she is almost 8 and much of this is still new for her plus she's pregnant. (Don't worry, she only jumped 12" high jumps.)

This is the first part of  Miska's run. My hubbie was more intent on watching us than filming so part of our run didn't get taped!



Here is Miska coming off the dog walk and over the last jump.



This is Diva running her course (she has a lot of difficult with the box jump layout and misses the weave entry).

Hoppy Easter!

Wishing everyone a very Hoppy Easter!

And may the bunnies that are consumed today be chocolate ones only (only by humans because chocolate is toxic for dogs!