Not very scary

Happy Hallowe'en!

UKC photos

When I saw the United Kennel Club's High in Trial rosettes hanging on the wall in the obedience/rally building, I really, really wanted to have one. Is that wrong??

Miska came very close on Saturday to earning one with her score of 100 in Rally but she was beaten in score time by a Corgi mix who moved much faster around the ring.  The Corgi team won two of these tosettes on Saturday.  All I wanted was one but Miska delighted me by earning two in the two obedience trials on Sunday.  They are HUGE! Bigger and taller than Miska but just the right colour for a Vizsla, don't you think?
  

2X High in Trial

Miska's handler & hu-mom, Isobel Hutton (judge) and Miska

Miska's Total Dog rosette (the black, red & white one) and her Group 3rd (on the right).

L-R: Miska & Tyro - new RO2 title; Diva - new RO1 title

W.A.W.

What A Week!

As weeks go in the life of dogs, this was one incredibly busy and very successful week for Varazs-bred Vizslas!!

Saturday, October 20, 2012

• Miska completed her Cdn Companion Dog Excellent (CDX) title. That was her 26th title!
• Miska's daughter, Stella (2011 litter) finished her Rally Novice (RN) title in the Cdn Association of Rally Obedience with a score of 190 / 200.  

Sunday, October 21

• Miska earned her (and mine) highest score ever in obedience with a 197 / 200 in Open and a 2nd place.  That put her in #1 position for a Vizsla in Obedience in Canada for 2012 according to Canuckdogs.com.  Woo-hoo!!

Thursday, October 25

• Diva, Miska's daughter from our 2008 litter, completed her Cdn Agility Intermediate title with a first place and the only dog to qualify in her height division.  This was my first Intermediate agility title ever - so another first (for me).

Saturday, October 27

• Another of Miska's offspring, Bodi (also from our 2011 litter) was Best Male and Best of Winners completing his United Kennel Club (UKC) Championship. This is Bodi's 7th title and he's only 17 months old!
• Tyro earned the second and third legs of his UKC Rally Level 2 (URO2) title with two fourth placements. This is his 14th title.
• Miska also completed her UKC rally URO2 title (her 27th title) with two perfect (100 / 100) scores and a second and first place.
• Diva earned two legs towards her rally URO1 title with two first place finishes.
• Stella earned her first two conformation points taking Winners Bitch and Best of Winners.

Sunday, October 28

• Miska earned her first two legs towards the UKC novice obedience title and finished in first place in both trials AND earned not one, but TWO High In Trials!  Her first score was a 194.5 and her second a 197/200!  Awesome work Miska!
• Diva completed her rally URO1 title (her 10th title).
• Miska took Best of Breed and a Group 3rd in UKC conformation in show #1. 
• Miska earned a UKC Total Dog award for earning wins in both conformation and performance wins.
• In UKC show #2, Bodi took Best of Breed over his mom and two other Vizslas.

That amounted to five completed titles in one week on my dogs and two titles on Miska's kids.

Congratulations and big thanks to the owners of Stella and Bodi and kudos to my three dogs for their wonderful accomplishments! 

Autumn colours

Perhaps one reason I love the fall so much are the colours, which remind me of the rust gold hue of my breed, the Vizsla.  Our Japanese maple always looks so spectacular at this time of the year and so do my dogs, posed in front of the tree in our garden last week (October 2012).

Miska and Tyro

Miska, Tyro, Diva

Highest score e v v v er!!!

Who?   Miska

What?  Score of 197/200 in Open B

When?  October 21, 2012

Did I earn that??

One day after finishing her Cdn Companion Dog Excellent (CDX) title, Miska did a brilliant job in the Open B class under Judge Paul Townsend, scoring 197 out of 200. This is the highest score EVER that one of my dogs has earned in formal obedience competitions and the highest ever in the Open class for my dogs.  Years ago, my Vizsla Keira earned a 196 in Novice in the US and a 195 in Open twelve years ago.  Today Miska did a fantastic job and broke a long-held record by 2 points.  What a terrific weekend - well, except for the speeding ticket this morning.  Seriously officer, don't you know that punishment, i.e., fines, doesn't change human behaviour permanently?  We need to have a serious talk about that.

 

Redeemed with a CDX!

Miska redeemed herself today after yesterday's roll in the smelly crud by earning her final Open leg for her Canadian Companion Dog Excellent title (CDX).  Woo-hoo!!!

Breeder mom, Miska & Judge Cheryl Bishop

Miska's reward - Hamburger

Yumm!! I deserve this!

All I wanted was a pass or Q (qualifying score). The minimum to pass is 170 but she did very well with a score of 193.5 and I was thrilled.  Were it not for the fact that some of Canada's top handlers and dogs were in the same class/ring with us, she would have had a placement but it's very tough to compete against these other dogs, some of which had come straight out of the Utility ring with high 190's. So way to go Miska!  It's been a long journey but worth it.

PS, she was "tied" for 5th place overall in the class.

Stinky pointer

Look carefully at this photo. The first is easy to spot.

1. Smelly crud on Miska's collar. Pee-yoo!! It's either skunk or raccoon poop that she's rolled in. Definitely needed a bath after this walk in the woods!

2.  The second is not so easy to spot. It's a baby garter snake that Miska is pointing.  It's located bBetween the two young saplings and it's a black and yellow 'thread'.  That's the snake that she smelled - a garter snake.  She held that point a LONG time.

Toby - time flies!

Toby, 12 years 5 months old

Toby (Ch. Varazs Tobias Barat FDJ) is from our 2001 litter between our Abby and Cyrus (Am CH Voros Vadasz Cyrus Barat MH ROM).  He turned 12 years old in February and his owner, Kris, sent me this photo of Toby taken this summer (2012).  I haven't seen Toby since he and Kris moved out to British Columbia several years ago.  I handled Toby to his Championship.  He's a wonderful dog with a great temperament.

Toby has had some mast cell tumours which have been diligently removed and another was recently found on his ear flap with another lump found near his anus.  Kris called me this week to discuss the situation and was fearing the worst.  A couple of days ago, Kris got great news as an x-ray showed no signs of cancer internally - in fact the vet was very impressed with how things looked internally - we should all be so lucky!! And the lump near his anus is benign.  Both lumps will be removed next week; unfortunately part of Toby's ear flap has to be removed in order to get clean margins around the mast cell tumor site.  Kris isn't very happy about this but I tried to help him put things in perspective.  Toby is a good age for a Vizsla and while he won't look as handsome with part of an ear, his quality of life is  very good and if the vet is right, he should be around for a while longer. And it won't interfere with his abilities or movement. Removing part of an ear flap is not as drastic as, say, amputating a limb which is what I had to do with one of my Vizslas.  That was really tough.  But as they say, "God gave dogs 3 legs and an extra."  God gave us two ears too; maybe one is an extra.

Toby at around 10 days of age

6 months old

3 months old

I urged Kris to have Toby participate in the pilot research project on Mast Cell Tumours in Vizslas and he has agreed.  These are the most common type of tumours in dogs according to some statisticians and they were worrisome enough for the Vizsla Club of America to initiate a pilot research project into this cancer.  A few of the dogs I've owned and bred have had them but since this is a brand new project, we didn't have an opportunity to participate.  It's hoped that one day, the gene for this disease will be mapped.

Thanks Kris for being another great owner of a Varazs-bred dog! And here's to Toby and to several more years of being a terrific Vizsla companion to Kris and his 7-year old son who both love Toby dearly.

The winners

And the winning toys that withstood the jaws of two young Vizsla puppies as well as 3 adultsand remained intact, are Ballistic toys made by Kong!

The Ballistic Tug demoed by Miska

The Ballistic Ring demoed by Tyro

Small ring; they also come in a large size

The losers

These toys didn't survive visits from two 1.5 year old Vizsla puppies (Elsie and Charlie) last month.

Elsie liked to pull the stuffing out of Big Brute.

Tyro loved this Kong Airdog ring toy!!  His absolute fav!!

The remains of another Kong Airdog toy. RIP.

Puppy tails from our 2011 litter

For the second time in my career as a Vizsla breeder, I sent off docked puppy tails from a litter for DNA extraction to support the Canine Epilepsy Research Study. The proposal is to develop a genetic screening test for canine epilepsy.

Puppy tails

The first time I did this was our 2008 litter of six puppies and most recently our 2011 litter of six.  Unfortunately I either didn't know about this project with earlier litters. In 2009, I had blood drawn from Miska (who is the dam of the 2008 and 2011 litters) along with her brother Vadasz, half-brother Tyro and their mom Nova.  To date, none of these dogs have seized but it's still important to participate in health studies like this. It is hoped that one day, a genetic marker will be found for this health problem in Vizslas (as well as for some other breeds).

For more information about health issues and studies in Vizslas, go to the Vizsla Club of America's link at:  http://vcaweb.org/welfare/research.shtml.

New Jr Hunter title

Congratulations to Bodi (BIS CH Varazs Mokany Kiralyi Orban FDJ JH  URO1 CGN NAVHDA NA PZ I) from our 2011 litter between mama Miska and papa Brick (Ch Pirok Tegla MH) and his owner Corrine Sellars for earning his American Kennel Club Jr. Hunter title on October 7, 2012!! This is his first AKC title completed.  It's like the CKC Field Dog Jr. title but the differences are:

1) a dog is braced with another when being tested
2) a dog must earn 4 legs rather than 3 to earn a JH title.

Bodi earned his title in 4 straight passes.  Well done!! For more pics from the hunt tests, visit Bodi's Blog entry.

Happy Thanksgiving 2012!

If it were up to Miska, her choice for dinner would be wild turkey or squirrel on the Canadian Thanksgiving (Monday, October 8).
 

Miska's wild turkey - caught live!

How about squirrel pie?

You can take the dog out of the hunt, but you can't take the hunt out of the dog!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! 

Where's the water gone?

Our local conservation area, Burns, has a small lake and a 2 KM trail where I often walk our dogs since it's so close to our home.  We've been visiting this conservation area for over 25 years and lived near it for 24 years.  I avoided it this summer largely due to the mosquitoes (despite the fact that we had a drought, there were still plenty of mosquitoes).  Now that it's turned cool(er), I ventured there with Miska, Tyro and Diva yesterday and was shocked to see what remains of the lake which might be better called a puddle or mudflats.   The water level is down at least 5 feet, which in a small lake, makes a huge difference.  I have pictures here going back 7 years and this is the lowest water level I ever recall seeing in 25+ years.

Burns Lake, October 6, 2012

No dock diving for the dogs!! The water is usually right up to the grassy area to the R of the boardwalk

Dogs started barking at the tree stumps since they (dogs) aren't used to seeing them there

Contrast this with the similar view (below) in 2008

Overflow channel; water in spring is usually up to the top of this structure

Tree stumps now visible in the middle of the lake.

View looking back at the dock area; all this mud is usually covered with water

The 'mud flats'

 Burns Lake, May 2005

The water table is always higher in spring due to melting snow and spring rain although it wasn't as high in May as some years,

Sasha in Burns Lake, May 31, 2005

 Burns Lake, October 2, 2008 (below)

These were taken 4 years ago, at almost the exact time of year as this fall.  Notice how much water there is in the lake four years ago.

Diva & Miska

Normal water levels in fall.

Burns Lake, November 6, 2011 (below)

The lake was filled with water when we took the Varazs Vizsla family for a walk almost one year ago.

Family visits

I love seeing our puppies/our dogs' relatives.

In September, Miska's son, Charlie and daughter, Elsie from our 2011 litter between Brick and Miska were here for dog shows. After Charlie and Elsie left to go back to their respective homes, I was exhausted!!

Miska and son Charlie

Charlie gripping sister Elsie's throat!

Elsie - perfect angel! (Not!)

Then Quest from Miska's 2008 litter arrived for me to take him down to the States for dog shows at the Wine Circuit in Romulus, NY.  He's pictured here with his sister Diva, mom Miska and uncle Tyro.  He took two third places in the Open Dog class, was 2nd one day and went Reserve Winners Dog but didn't bring home any points, unfortunately.

L-R, Quest, Diva, Miska, Tyro taken Oct. 1/12

While I was at the shows in Romulus, I stayed with my friend Pauline who owns Katya from our 2003 litter. Katya is a littermate to my Miska so it was nice to see her again after a two year absence.  The sisters get along very well.  As they age (gracefully), they are beginning to look more similar in their faces.

Two sisters - Katya and Miska taken Sept. 30/12

Then I got together with Gary who owns Vadasz, another littermate from our 2003 litter.  He's a brother to Katya and Miska and is shown below.  He is such a wonderful male dog and is so well tempered around other dogs and people, and of course, is very talented also.  It's a bit pity that no one has been interested in using him for stud.  He is still intact.

Vadasz & Miska, brother and sister taken Oct. 1/12

Wine Circuit 2012

I've been very very busy lately, doing a lot of 'doggie' stuff with little time to post on my Blog.  The last 5 days I was in New York state at Wine Circuit shows and trials at Romulus, NY.  I've been going to this venue/show for many, many years.  The grounds are beautiful, the area is absolutely gorgeous, there is lots going on at this show (conformation, obedience, rally, agility and sometimes lure coursing). plus there are lots of NY state wineries to visit in the area.  I will, however, go on record to state that Ontario produces far better wines than NY state but it's still fun to visit the wineries, if one has time.

In previous years I've done only conformation and other years conformation and rally with multiple dogs.  This year I also had multiple dogs and focused on conformation with Quest and agility with Miska (Quest's mom) and Diva (littermate to Quest).  The last time I did agility here was in 2004 with Keira and I can recall it being extremely wet and muddy.  I was so covered in mud, I had to find a laundromat to get clean for the next day's competition in '04.

Weather usually repeats itself at this show and didn't 'disappoint' in that regard in 2012.  Last year was a mud bath and so was the previous 2010 (especially muddy!) when I was last in attendance.  Of the 4 days this year, it rained for two and turned parts of the agility fields and conformation rings into muddy paths.  It simply wouldn't be Wine Circuit without rain or cold or sun or high winds or clouds. One year there was the threat of a tornado and the entire show was cancelled on Thursday.

I entered Miska and Diva in two agility trials per day - novice standard and novice jumpers.  That meant I did 4 runs per day, times 4 days which equaled 16 runs.  I was totally gobsmacked that I didn't have conflicts with conformation on any of the four days.  That's virtually unheard of there!!

I was thrilled that Miska came home with her AKC Novice Jumper (Preferred) title and two legs towards her Novice Standard (Preferred) title.  The preferred class means Miska can jump a lower jump height than her withers.  She's nine years old and jumps 16" although she measures just under 22". Due to my handling error, Miska missed the dog walk contact by a paw; otherwise she would have aced and qualified in another Standard trial and completed her Novice Standard title.  Miska  had an amazing run and was going so fast on the dog walk that I didn't want to slow her down.  She was crossing it faster than she had ever run it in her life and had only the tire jump to go through to finish the course.  I failed to tell her to "touch" at the bottom of the dog walk, figuring she would touch the contact zone on her own.  Instead, she was flying so fast, she leaped over the zone and flew through the tire jump to complete her course.  I was sooooo disappointed she failed to qualify but her speed and happiness thrilled me immensely and so that helped to make up for my handling error.  

Out of her five qualifying courses, Miska had 4 clean runs (100/100) and 1 score of 95/100. She had 1 first & 2nd place finishes in Standard, and 2 seconds and a third place in Jumpers.  I am so proud of her!!!

Miska with her rosettes

Diva earned her Novice Standard title with 90/100 (third), 95/100 (first) and 100/100 (first).  She also earned two Novice Jumpers legs, both with first place finishes (scores of 95 & 100).  Diva is very fast but needs a lot more training on her focus on me so that she doesn't take jumps on her own.  And I need to work more on my distance handling skills with her.  She will become, I am confident, an awesome agility dog.

Diva with 4 first place rosettes, 1 third and hwe finishing title rosette