Puppy love

• Cost to breed a purebred dog (not costing all her titles and training and health): $3000. 
• Cost to whelp and raise a litter of 8 puppies:  $5,000
• Puppy love and puppy breath: PRICELESS!

Breeder Mom with Miss Yellow, aka Elsie from our 2011 litter

Happy 1st Birthday!

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY to our 2011 litter. 

Minutes to a couple of hours old on May 31, 2011

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.

Bentley

Bodi

Elsie

Charlie

Stella

William

Mother's Day

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

Elsie update

"Elsie" was Miss Yellow in our last litter born May 31, 2011.  Her owners recently sent me some photos of her.  You can definitely tell she's a girl and not a boy!  Very feminine!  I can see a resemblance in her face/head with her sister Stella and also her brother Bodi.  Thanks to Elsie's owners for providing these pictures.

Miniature Vizsla?

Bentley's owners (Bentley is out of our Brick-Miska breeding born May 31) sent me a recent photo of him with his family and their other Vizsla, Jasper who happens to be related distantly to Bentley. They had visited beautiful Jasper, Alberta for a few days and took this photo there.

As his hu-mom wrote, "Bentley is doing wonderful, he remains the world's cuddliest Vizsla and we are sad to report he is growing up!! (we were hoping to keep him little for much longer!). He is quite attached to Jasper our 11 year old (from Rex & Rose) and has a hard time keeping up to him.....he is a VERY fast runner and no walk is ever long enough. Bentley remains an easy puppy, he frequents all laps in the room on a rotating basis and never shies away from the kids unending mauling of pets and kisses." I think most of us would love that our almost 5-month old Vizsla puppies stayed this small size (around 25 lb.) for quite a while longer. Of course they will grow bigger but thankfully, they never outgrow their cuddly, kissy personalities which is wonderful.

Rant for the day

The process to register a purebreed dog with the Canadian Kennel Club is far more complicated and protracted than registering a human baby with the any Canadian province.  Seriously? 

Well, how do I know that?  I know because a few years ago I worked on a mega project to computerize the baby birth process for the province of Ontario and we also researched how other provinces do it and I can tell you, it's way simpler and faster, especially now that birth registration has been computerized here!! 

Anyway, to ensure my dog litter application reached the CKC offices in Toronto, I hand delivered it because I've heard hundreds of complaints about paperwork never reaching the CKC.  The CKC offices are only about 45 KM from where I live and I was on my way into Toronto anyway so it wasn't a big deal. It still took the CKC about 3 weeks to process that one page application and issue 6 pieces of paperwork for the individual puppy registrations (Miska had 6 puppies in her litter). 

There was no information in the package about being able to do individual dog registrations online.  In fact the last time I tried to do it online when it involved co-owning and putting puppies on non-breeding agreements, it was NOT possible. 

So after completing all the bloody paperwork by hand this year, making photocopies, etc, enclosing payment for the litter registration invoice, I mailed the package to the CKC on September 9.  This morning (Sept 27), I thought I had better check to see if my package had arrived because the cheque hadn't been cashed.  I was told they never received it!!!  And I am NOT the only one as I mentioned.  Is it Canada Post or is it the CKC?

So after speaking the client services rep, she tells me I could now do ALL the registrations online! If that's the case, why couldn't the CKC have informed me of this option when they sent me the package, for goodness sake.  All they needed to do was to enclose a flyer or put a statement on the individual blank registration form.  How difficult is that????


So I spent the morning online, re-doing all the registrations for 6 puppies.  It was relatively simple although the CKC says it may require me to send in the co-ownership forms & non-breeding agreements that my puppy buyers filled out and signed in contrast to the rep who told I had to fax them in.  How confusing is that?  Can you please get your story straight and consistent?  And there were also inconsistencies in the date formats between the paper forms and the online form?  Just more inconsistencies to make me annoyed.  Sheesh!!!


I hate the CKC. I don't think I know of a single person who loves the CKC or who would extol its virtues.  It appears to be a necessary evil in the Canadian dog registration world because we have no other choice.


Anyway. that's my BIG rant of the day!  Thanks for 'listening'. 

Beautiful September day

Yesterday was beautiful!! Lots of sun, clear skies and warm temperatures. A perfect day and my kinda weather!!  Bodi (Miska-Brick litter born May 31/11) joined his brother, Tunder for a walk in one of our local conservation areas. Unfortunately Bodi wouldn't do a sit-stay so I wasn't able to capture him with his brother and mom together but later snapped one of Bodi in our garden.  This coming Tuesday, Sept 20, the puppies will be four months old.

Tunder (almost 4 mo.) with his mom, Miska

Tunder - I'm all eyes!!

Bodi in our garden.

World's cuddliest Vizsla

Bentley was Mr. Green in our May 31, 2011 litter between Miska (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) & Brick (Int'l BIS BISS Am/Int'l CH Pirok Tegla MH).  His owners recently sent me this wonderful update on him.

All ears

I love Vizsla ears. They are soft like velvet, pendulous and can flap in the wind.  With puppies, we usually say they have to 'grow into their ears' since their ear flaps are often disproportionately bigger than their bodies.

Pets on furniture

Sleeping on soft, cushy furniture must be in a Vizsla's DNA.  After all, they were bred and raised by the nobility of Hungary - although some of the castles I've seen in Europe were furnished pretty sparsely so I don't know about soft surfaces in Hungarian castles.  Nevertheless, Vizslas gravitate to think it's their right to sleep on sofas and beds and also think it's below their stature to sleep on something hard, 

Update on Will (Mr Turquoise)

I am like a "mother" when it comes to my fur-kids, i.e., the puppies I am responsible for bringing into this world and so I am always anxious (in a good way) to hear how they are doing, no matter what their ages.  Of course, I always prefer happy news but I know that part of being a breeder is you have to take the bad with the good.

Stella's camping adventure

Stella was Miss Red in our 2011 litter born May 31.  I am getting great reports about her wonderful temperament and great intelligence from her new owner, Teri Martin, who is really enjoying Stella.  Admittedly, I still really miss Miss Red but she is in a wonderful home so I can't ask for anything better.  On the Labour Day weekend this month, Stella went camping with her humans and her buddy Riley, a very black, black Labrador.

Bentley (Mr Green) update

Bentley - looking regal just as his name suggets

Bentley's owners sent me photos of him in his new home. Bentley (born May 31) now lives with another Vizsla named Jasper who is also pictured below. It's another version of "it's a small world" because Jaspar's father is none other than Rex (Ch Varazs Blackbullets onthe Wing), a Vizsla I bred back in 1997 and sent to Alberta to live with Sherryanne Farr and Wes Daniels. Jaspar was born February 11, 2001 so he's now 10 years old. It's wonderful that Bentley has lots of company to entertain and keep him happy.

Stella (Miss Red) update

Miss Red (born May 31, 2011) who was given the call name, Stella (L. star) now lives in N. Vancouver, BC along with a black labrador named Riley and a couple of cats.  As of this week, she weighs 15.2 pounds, slightly more than 2 of her brothers!!

Excitement!

Well, my life is very dull right now because I happened to get very excited when 12-week-old Tunder (Mr Black) went to the patio slider in our family room and rattled the vertical blinds.  As soon as I heard the noise, I dashed to the family room to let him outside. Sure enough, he had to 'do his business".  To us doggy people, that's a BIG and IMPORTANT development.  AAAhhh, the one time I didn't have a treat in my pocket but he sure got lots of happy words and praise from me!

Far more exciting on this day was a 5.8 magnitude earthquake originating in W. Virginia.  While it was felt in the Greater Toronto Area and way up in Ottawa an other parts of Ontario, I didn't feel the tremors here.  Just as happy that I didn't but so glad Tunder is almost 100% house trained!

12 weeks old

Today our six Miska-Brick puppies turn 12 weeks old!  Three months have flown by already.  While they are clearly puppies, they all resemble miniature versions of mature, adult Vizslas.  Here's Mr. Black (currently Tunder) with his mom Miska, big sister Diva and Uncle Tyro.  Yesterday Tunder and Bodi (Mr Blue) were at the vet for their second set of vaccinations and they weighed 14.6 and 15.6 pounds respectively.

The Mottely Crew (L-R Miska, Tunder, Diva, Tyro) taken Aug. 23, 2011

Self-control

If you think you can't teach an 11 or 12-week old puppy impulse or self-control, think again.  YES you CAN.

Of course, how effective you are depends on how good a dog trainer you are.  Using Susan Garrett's "It's Yer Choice" game to teach this Vizsla puppy self-control, I have transferred the principle of self-control with a handful of treats to his food bowl.  As you can see in the video, he is NOT lunging at his food. 

Big aaahhh factor

There's nothing like sleepy/sleeping puppies and dogs to create the 'aaahhh' factor in humans.  I actually thought it was Tyro who was sleeping with all 4's in the air but it turned out it was Diva!!  AND, she was being touched by her younger half-brother, Tunder!

Tribute to Moms

Tribute to Moms

Miska with one of her puppies (2011)

Miska contemplating

Mom in this case is Miska.  She's been an awesome mother to 12 puppies, six in each of her two litters.  But even before she had her own babies, she demonstrated wonderful maternal instincts when her younger siblings (our Nova-Hudson litter) were born in 2006.  At that time, Miska was 3 years old and so badly wanted to join her mom, Nova, in the whelping box to help clean and nurse Nova's 8 puppies (even though Miska couldn't nurse at the time).  It's really no surprise that she's been a fantastic mother because her mom, Nova, was tremendous, Miska's paternal grand-mother, Nekah was also an extremely devoted mother and Miska's maternal grand-ma, Bree, is wonderful around other dogs.  As well, Miska's father, Sasha, was absolutely terrific with puppies and all dogs and Brick, the father of our 2011 litter also has a terrific personality.  Adding to the wonderful temperament/fantastic mom list is Miska's sister/littermate, Shandy (2 litters), half-sister Mila sired by our Sasha) and niece Gypsy (who is Mila's daughter/Sasha's grand-daughter).  All of these female Vizslas have been wonderful mothers to their puppies.  So here's to you terrific Vizsla Moms!

It's so important to breed dogs with good temperaments.  I know of a few Vizsla breeders that haven't always done this but they shall remain nameless.  If you don't have a good stable temperament in the parents, then you are being irresponsible by breeding them.

Here's a short video clip created by Corrine Sellars of Miska watching over and trying to discipline her two puppies - 11 week-old Bodi (Mr Blue) and Tunder (Mr Black) who were acting crazy in our family room.

Bodi plays an Ottosen dog puzzle

Corrine sent me this short video of Bodi (Mr Blue) from our May 31, 2011 litter using his brains and his nose (rather than his paws for the most part) to search for treats in this Nina Ottosen dog brick puzzle.