Happy Birthday and best wishes to the 6 puppies born May 31, 2011 to Mama "Miska" and Papa "Brick". Four boys and two girls (the exact same combination as in Miska's first litter): Bentley (Mr. Green), Bodi (Mr Blue), Charlie (Mr Black), Elsie (Miss Yellow), Stella (Red) and William (Turquoise).
Bentley, first born and just minutes old
Exhausted Mama Miska with her six newborn whelps on May 31
The following head shots were taken on June 4, 2011 when the pups were four days old.
Sasha with his Parade of Titleholders rosette (2003)
At each national event held by the Vizsla Club of America is a Parade of Titleholders. This is a non-regular and optional event in which one can enter a titled dog and receive a very lovely rosette in return (of course one pays a fee for this!). The dogs get to parade around the ring to the applause of the audience. I have done it in the past with our dearly departed and wonderful Sasha and this year (2012 in Huron Ohio) was my opportunity to pay tribute to his daughter, Miska. I was only allowed to put her American titles on the entry form but below, in full form, is her latest official reg'd name with all her titles (22 in total as of May 20, 2012 - 1 more than she had at the time of the entry). And below is the blurb I submitted for the catalogue (restricted to 50 words max).
Int'l BIS & RBIS (Veteran), AKC/CKC/Int'l/UKC CH Varazs Kiralyi Kedvesem
FDJ, FD, NAVHDA NA Prize III, JH, AKC/CKC CD, AKC CDX, AKC/CKC RE, AKC
RAE, AGNJS, CGN, CGC, TDI
"Miska has earned 21 titles in various venues in two countries. She just completed her CDX and will start competing in agility. Since Miska loves to retrieve the damned bird before another dog does, she would have had her SH by now. Miska is a joy and taught me to be careful about what behaviors I reinforce!"
For the first time in 8 years, I entered and ran some agility trials. The hiatus was largely due to:
knee injuries involving surgery and casts
too busy raising and showing puppies
too busy doing other stuff with my 3 dogs such as rally, conformation, field and obedience.
So it was really wonderful to return to competition with 8-year old Miska and her 3-year old daughter, Diva at the same venue in Kitchener-Waterloo ON where I had previously trialed with my Vizsla, Keira who was awesome at agility. In all, despite very high heat and lots of sun this past weekend. we survived our first weekend of agility trials, returning home with 2 new titles and 2 legs towards another title for both Miska and Diva.
Miska
In the five trials Miska ran (the club screwed up our sixth), Miska placed 1st every time! And she had 3 clean runs.
May 20, Judge Joan Greenwald, Trial 4: Novice Select, 16": 90/100 & 1st. Trial 5, Novice JWW Select: 90/100 & 1st. Trial 6, JWW: 100/100 & 1st. New title: Agility Novice Jumpers - Select (AGNJS). This is Miska's 22nd title.
Miska with her 1st place rosettes and finishing title rosette
Here is Miska running her final Jumpers With Weaves run for her title. She misses the entrance to the weaves but did them successfully.
Diva
Diva ran 6 trials and she's got lots more speed than her mom but she needs more focus on me and also needs to perfect her turns, contacts and jumping technique. So she actually didn't do as well as her Mom Miska but still managed to get 5 Q's with two 1sts and 3 second place finishes along with a new title of Agility
Novice (AgN) so I was very happy.
May 19, Judge Danielle Levangie. Trial 1, Novice B Standard, 20": 85/100
& 2nd place. Trial 2, 100/100 and 1st. Trial 3, Novice B Jumpers with
Weaves DNQ - overtime.
May 20, Judge Joan Greenwald, Trial 4: Novice B
Standard, 20": 90/100 & 2nd. Trial 5, Novice B, Jumpers with Weaves:
100/100 & 1st. Trial 6, JWW: 90/100 & 2nd.
In addition to honoring two-legged mothers on this special Mother's Day, I want to pay tribute to our four-legged mothers (or dams as they are referred to in the doggie world). All of these female Vizslas, owned and/or bred by Varazs Perm. Reg'd Vizslas, were wonderful mothers to their puppies, which is such an important contribution to the offspring's temperament and behaviour as future adult dogs.
Here's to you: Nekah, Abby, Tasha, Nova and Miska!! Thank you for being such wonderful dams to your whelps and for producing such beautiful and wonderfully talented offspring. (Notice that each of these female Vizslas is titled at both ends of their names which means they meet and/or exceed the breed standard and are versatile and talented in performance events.)
Our foundation dam, Am/Can CH Maritza of Kezdet Nekah Am/Can CD, CGC, "Nekah" who produced 21 puppies.
Nekah with her first litter, born Dec. 31, 1992
Nekah winning the Brood Bitch class with daughters Keira & Abby at the 2000 Vizsla Canada Specialty Show
It's taking me a little while to post since we just arrived back in the Great White North from a long sojourn in AZ and I am still unpacking and getting settled in. On our way back to Canada, we did a detour via Huron Ohio where I attended the Vizsla Club of America's 2012 National Specialty show with two Vizslas from my 2003 litter, Vadasz and his sister Miska. And Miska's son, Bodi, from her 2nd litter was also there. More about Miska and Bodi later!
Here is a tribute to Vadasz whom I showed in Veteran Sweepstakes and the Best of Breed competitions. What a sweetie he is!
Here's a link to the Youtube video if the link below doesn't work for you (it won't open on my computer for some reason).
