Summer fun

Last week, the pups and I headed up to the Muskoka lake area to visit Eileen Wilkes, owners of Bowsers and also the breeder of our beloved Nova who is the puppies' maternal grandmother.  It was a nice chance for me to relax a bit and for the pups to learn to swim and have fun by a lake. Needless to say, a great time was had by all and all the pups learned to swim although none ventured into the lake on their own. But they were greatly aided by Eileen's 8-year old daughter, Erin, who is half-fish herself!

Great-grandma Bree

Our Miska-Brick puppies visited their maternal great grandmother, Bree (CH Gardenway Celtic Breeze) who will be turning 14 on August 27!  A very happy birthday to you Bree!!!

They were more thrilled to see her than she was to see them but Bree cooperated for a photo with 3 of the pups.  The last time I visited Bree at the cottage was when I took her other great-grandpup, Diva, born 2008 to see her and I took a picture of them together.
http://varazsvizslas.blogspot.com/2009/08/divas-awesome-adventure.html

Bree, almost 14 years old in her favourite chair

Bree with 3 of her great-grandkids

Budding agility competitors

As soon as possible, I expose puppies to a couple of pieces of agility equipment - the teeter totter (or see-saw as some call it) and the tunnel.  The teeter is placed on a four-inch pipe so there is a little up and down movement but initially pups are too light to move it. So I let them run along the board and when they get close to the end, catch it so it doesn't move and then gently lower it to the ground. If they continue to stand or sit on the end of the board, then I manually raise and lower it so they can feel the sensation of movement. It doesn't take them long to start running along the entire board and as they get bigger and heavier, they can make it rise and fall, particularly if there is more than one puppy on the board!

Under rather than over the teeter

Mr Black is a real natural

Team effort

Stopping to snack on a leaf

Vizsla pups attack boy

Vizsla pups attack boy; boy survives

I obviously need to breed Vizslas with better temperaments. These puppies are definitely NO good with children!! Ha, ha!

Thanks to Liza Armstrong who owns Miska's sister, Ruby, for allowing us to visit her son Ethan and her nephews, niece and sister-in-law all visiting from N. Vancouer, BC.  Originally Liza was going to come out to my place but when she told me she'd put her back out and couldn't drive, I thought - hey, it would be great to take the pups into Toronto to a completely new environment.  We were all amazed at the puppies' great bite inhibition. I don't think they nibbled a single toe and no hands!  Since I don't have any young kids or even any grand-kids, I have to 'borrow' children to play with the pups.

Ethan with Mr Green

Liza, wishing she could have another Vizsla!

And for more photos of our horrible puppies mauling more children, please visit this link: http://mosaicworksca.blogspot.com/2011/07/who-could-resist.html

BIG big day #2!

Yesterday was vaccination day and also puppy socialization day! All the VIP's were called in by my vet to assist, hold, cuddle and plays with the puppies while each was examined and vaccinated. Big thanks to Dr. Wimmers of Limestone Valley Animal Hospital, his receptionist Emma who had her hands full with puppies and managing the telephone, and his 3 beautiful daughters who were all thoroughly delighted to be a part of making the puppies' experience a very positive one.  I am thrilled to report that all the puppies checked out A-OK in terms of their health and handled their first needle well.  The 'crown jewels' on all the boys have appeared so there are no worries in that department. Puppies also received Sentinel Heartworm medication since we live in a hot spot for this parasite and they all checked out negative for parasites.  A clean bill of health! Woo-hoo!

Along with this important visit, they had a very short visit to our conservation area and were introduced to dog crates, 2 puppies per crate during their daytime naps. And on the weekend, they saw an agility tunnel and got to run through it.

Organized chaos in the vet clinic; Miska (mom) gets her once-over from the vet

Miss Yellow waiting her turn for a needle

Now it's Yellow's turn

Mr Black calmly being examined

Emma and Dr, Wimmers' daughters

Emma has her hands very full!

Trying to sneak a drink from the milk bar.

Mr Green is tuckered out

Mr Black's turn to fall asleep

Happy Birthday to the Sasha-Lucy litter!

HAPPY 12 BIRTHDAY TO 

MILA, ELLIOTT, KOSMO AND 

THE OTHER SZUNI VIZSLAS BORN JULY 25, 1999

Mila - M-OTCH Szuni's Shooting Star CD CDX UD FDJ FD FDX TD AGN AGI AGDC AADC CGC
Elliott - CH Szuni's Star Gazer
Kosmo - CH Szuni's Rising Star FD ADC CGC

These Vizslas were sired by our wonderful Sasha (Am/Cdn Ch Varazs Kiraly Sassy Sasha Am/Cdn CDX, Am RAE, FDJ, CGC, CGN) and whelped by Cdn Ch Pozsony Csongrad Lucy CDX FDX TD AGN CGC ("Lucy") on July 25, 1999. Their breeder is Susan Scobie of Szuni Reg'd Vizslas in Vancouver, BC.  These photos were taken in August 2010 when they had turned 11.  Sasha lived into his 16th year and I am hoping many of his kids live to that grand old age too.

L-R, Mila, Kosmo, Elliott

L-R, Mila, Kosmo, Elliott

Sasha when he was 12 years of age

More photos of Kosmo, courtesy of her owner Arlana Taylor.  What a beautiful senior Vizsla!!

Kosmo looks a lot like her dad in her face

Kosmo keeping warm

Kosmo posing so beautifully

Which is Will and which is Bentley?

Two families who are getting boys have come up with their call names:  Bentley and Will(iam).

Yesterday Bentley's owners visited from Calgary, AB yesterday and their son Trevor wanted to know, "Which puppy is Bentley?".  Of course I couldn't tell them which of the 4 males they would be getting yet since we haven't done the evaluation. They thought that Bentley has a nice regal tone to it and I agree. They also have a 10-year old male Vizsla named Jasper who is out of Rex.

And another family from Oshawa, ON who have had 2 dogs from me - Bob and Rita - visited today to see the puppies for the first time.  Rita was a Vizsla I imported from Joy Lyons of Lyons Vizslas in Florida and she is almost 15 yr old! She's going to get quite a surprise when a puppy arrives home in about another week. They narrowed their name search down to William or Will - very nice, especially if they were thinking about Prince William, Duke of Cambridge.   Here they are visiting our puppies.

Keeping Kool Pt 2!

The wading pool isn't just for the puppies! After a good dig in the woods, Diva, Miska & Tyro were more than ready to cool off in our continuing heat wave.  Fortunately the dangerously high temperatures have done but it's very hot and still humid.

L-R Diva, Miska & Tyro

Family visit

Miska visited her 3-yr old daughter, Piper (aka CH Varazs Kedves Quinn), yesterday after Miska's puppies from her second litter (DOB May 31/11) got tattooed.  Piper is from Miska's first litter born June 16, 2008.

Miska (L) with daughter Piper

BIG big day!

Yesterday was a big, somewhat traumatic and also FUN day for the puppies. It was TATTOO day! In accordance with the Animal Pedigree Act in Canada and the CKC regulations, each purebred dog must be individually identified with either a tattoo or a microchip. I don't like to microchip and so continue to tattoo my dogs although this practice is dying out in favour of the microchips. After the old fellow in Toronto who used to do tattoos for me retired and sold his business, I had to 'shop around' and finally found the Graham Animal Hospital in Hillsburgh, Ontario where tattooing is done with a tattoo pen (like in human tattoos) rather than a crimp tool. 

So after their breakfast, mom Miska and all 6 puppies headed north to Hillsburgh for their tattoos.  Except for 1 puppy who shall remain nameless, the rest were quiet through the procedure and while a couple struggled a little, they were very well behaved, aided of course by tasty Zuk's Mini Peanut Butter treats (a higher value treat than mere Nutro's Natural Balance Small Bites kibble that I blogged about recently).  The vet staff were wonderful and were so amazed at how beautiful and clean the pups were.  I said to them, "But aren't all puppies like that?"  Not according to them!

Miss Red. I'm on the hind legs while another tech is at the front & the 2nd tech does the tattoos.

Getting Mr Black settled

Wow, that's almost art!

The vet tech in action.

Tattoo artist, Alysse and her helper

I think I'd like to keep BOTH these puppies!

Then after the tattooing was done, we stopped in to see my dog clients/friends, Cynthia and Greg and their 2 beautiful daughters, Lauren and Rae-Brynn, along with their dog Piper who is Miska's daughter from Miska's first litter.  That makes Piper the puppies' half-sister.  This is the fourth litter that has visited them after getting their tattoos. In fact, it was our 2003 litter (of which Miska was a puppy) that was the first litter which visited them and that was so memorable because shortly after I left Greg and Cynthia's to return home with Nova's 10 puppies, the huge blackout of 2003 occured just a few minutes before I arrived home and we were without power for almost 4 days with a litter of 10 puppies.  It was NOT fun!   But the puppies had a blast visiting Greg, Cynthia, Lauren, Rae & Piper and so the 45-minute ride back home was very, very quiet!!

Dad, pls don't replace me with a younger model (thinks Piper)

Piper thinks, "OK, let's play with my half-siblings"

Miska (Piper's mom), Piper & the puppies

Hey, these guys aren't so bad after all!

Lauren with Miska

Cynthia with a bundle of puppies secretly thinking, "I'd LOVE to keep one of these!"

And since it was another sweltering day, Miska, Piper and the puppies cooled off in Piper's wading pool.

Needless to say, the drive home was very, very quiet!