Six for Six!

We have 3 birthdays in June!  Today one litter has a birthday and tomorrow, another does. And then in 10 more days, our 2003 litter turns 11.

Six for Six!

Happy 6th Birthday to our 2008 litter born June 16th.  The 6 puppies turning 6 - hence 6 for 6 are:  Andras, Blaze, our Diva, Gunner, Quest and Piper. They are out of Ch Hubertus Quality Control FDj (Ozzie) imported from Australia and our Miska (Ch Varazs Kiralyi Kedvesem etc etc etc.) 

My Diva (taken in May 2013)

Blaze taken earlier this spring - in Monument Valley, Utah

Diva & brother Quest taken in May 2013 (age 5)

Diva hanging loose (taken just before her 6th birthday)

Bet you can't do this!

I bet YOU can't touch your eyes with your tongue! [Diva] 

Strange bed fellow

Shortly after breakfast not long ago, I was startled to see something furry in a dog bed next to Diva.

On closer inspection, it was definitely NOT a dog toy.

Sad to say, it was a dead baby chipmunk. Most likely Diva had brought it inside and I didn't even realize she had it in her mouth. Fortunately, she doesn't eat them!

Awesome agility weekend!

Miska, Diva and I had a fantastic 4-day American Kennel Club agility trial in Romulus NY at the end of September.  Miska, especially, dazzled me with her performances except for Friday when she was totally 'off her game'.  Don't know what had happened that day but the other 3 days, she was magnificent.

Miska came home with:

1.  A Novice F.A.S.T. Preferred title   - NFP
2. An Excellent Jumpers Preferred title - AJP (this is Miska's 37th title)
3. Two legs tiwards her Excellent Standard Preferred title

On the last trial of the four days in the Excellent Standard class, I mismanaged Miska on a 180 degree turn and as a result, she went past the 2nd jump instead of over it which resulted in a Refusal and not qualifying.  Otherwise, she would have had a perfect, clean run and her title!!  Aaaaarrrrrgggh!! Oh well!!  Miska earned first and second places for all of her qualifying runs (7 of them!).  I was  thrilled with how Miska did, exceeding my expectations for her and for me.

I earned all those rosettes!!! (Miska)

And Miska's daughter, Diva, didn't totally disappoint.  She also earned her Novice FAST title (NF)  and two legs towards her Open Standard (OA) title.  She was a train wreck in all of her Open Jumpers trials so control, focus and weaves are what we have to work on before she goes into any more trials. When she Q'd, she also earned placements in every pass - two firsts, two seconds and one third place.  And she also earned one leg towards her AKC Lure Coursing Ability title.  And her younger, half-brother Bodi earned his AKC Coursing Ability (CA) title at this venue. 

All in all, it was a great Wine Circuit weekend!

Diva

Wonderful Weekend

Last weekend (September 13-15), I tried (and succeeded) to be in two different towns on the same days (Saturday and Sunday) to participate in dog events with three different dogs.  Because of the schedules and timing, it worked!!!  We had a very successful weekend overall.

Announcing

NEW CKC CHAMPION

Miss Elsie

(now aka CH Varazs Kedvesem Grand Finale)

Elsie

Elsie was Reserve Winners bitch on Friday at the Oakville Kennel Club's show but came back on Saturday to take Winners Bitch, Best of Winners and Best of Breed for 3 points.  AND the judge, Marjorie Mortrrella from the US, pulled Elsie out in the sporting group too.  Marjoried commented that she is "a very pretty bitch".  It was a nice way to finish Elsie's championship.

Congratulations to Best of Breed - Charlie! 

Congratulations to Elsie's littermate / brother, Charlie (Varazs Kedvesem Final Frontier), who picked up 3 more points towards his Championship over the weekend at the Oakville show after taking Best of Opposite Sex on Friday over a Grand Champion for 1 point and Winners Dog, Best of Winners and Best of Breed on Sunday for 2 more points!  Now he is sitting on the 'dreaded 9' meaning he needs only 1 point to finish.  We call it the 'dreaded 9' because it can sometimes take a long time to get that final point.

Charlie taking Best of Breed under Mexican judge Dr. I. Castro

Announcing 

new UKC Agility title holder -

Diva!

And lastly, Diva and I participated in United Kennel Club agility trials in Puslinch Ontario and she earned her Agility Level 1 title with scores of 196, 198 and 199 out of 200.  Diva is the first dog ever to earn a UKC agility title in Ontario (and possibly Canada) since this was the very first UKC agility trial held in this province (and possibly this country).  She earned 3 first places finishes and a High in Trial on Sunday. (Yes, the UKC gives out HIT rosettes for agility although this club didn't have the rosettes to give out that day.)  This was Diva's 18th title!!  She's now officially known as CKC/Int'l/UKC CH Varazs Kedves Quickstep CKC: FDJ, AgNJ, AGI, RN, PCD, CGN, AKC: JH, NA, NAJ, RN, CGC UKC: URO1, CA, AGI

Diva with her owner/handler & the judge, Peggy Stutz from MI

Versatile Vizsla

Diva - 

new UKC Coursing Ability (CA) title 

and titled now in six disciplines!

1. Conformation  (UKC, CKC, Int'l)
2. Field (CKC, AKC)
3. Rally-obedience (CKC, AKC & UKC)
4. Obedience (CKC)
5. Agility (CKC, AKC)
6. Lure coursing (UKC)

Diva showing below just how excited she is to run a lure course!

 Here's her third qualifying run on September 2, 2013 at the United Greyhound Club's coursing ability test.

Rufus Reunion

Rufus (CH Blackbullets Varazs Grof Rufus), a senior Vizsla born February 2, 2004 whose owners are now both dead, came to stay with me for several days this past week while I assessed him and helped the breeders find his new forever home.

I am pleased to say he is a wonderful dog! He's in great shape - perhaps a mere 1-2 pounds overweight (I wish I was so lucky!!) and from his records, he seems to be very healthy.  Part of one toe - to just above the nail - was amputated, there is one small fatty lipoma on his chest and he has some black spots on his eyelids. I will discuss these with his vet as they can be malignant, but not always.  Rufus was wearing an anti-bark collar when I picked him up. Rufus was, understandably, stressed to have his owner die as he was living alone with him at the time of the owners death.  I hadn't seen him in about 7 years and doubt that he remembered me at all.  His owners always brought him to the dog shows when I showed him so he never stayed with me.

Day 1 -  At my place, he was introduced to his slightly older cousin, Miska and our other two Vizslas.  Miska and Rufus share the same maternal grandmother (Am/Can Ch Maritza of Kezdet Nekah Am/Can CD CGC) which makes them cousins. Miska is 7 months older than Rufus; Rufus is now 9.5 yr.  I wasn't sure about Rufus' recalls so I kept him firmly and safely on a Flexi to ensure he didn't run away. He didn't really respond well to his name or to a recall command but I chalk that up to too many distractions and stress.  Rufus DOES love treats and does love to eat and his appetite certainly wasn't affected.  A dog after my own heart!!

Day 2 - Rufus cried a couple of times in his crate overnight. Strange place, still strange smells but he quickly settled until about 8 AM. He was much more relaxed today.  Rufus was an only dog so it's taking him a little time to get used to 3 other Vizslas, all similar in size.  Rufus was friends with a Cocker Spaniel but Vizslas, as we know, are different.  He's had to tell my dogs to give him some space and that's OK.

Day 3 and beyond  - Rufus is settling in better with me and my dogs. His only problem is, he does not seem to like my husband very much.  This is causing some concern, especially for my husband.  From all the reports we received from his family and an acquaintance of mine who owns Vizslas and who occasionally met up with Rufus and his owner at a local dog park, Rufus has always been good with other people, males and females. and dogs.  So at this point, I am chalking up this behaviour towards my husband as something that isn't ingrained in him (likely due to the sudden death of his owner and the stress and grief he's going through) and hopefully, he will become positive towards males again.  He's a very smart Vizsla (already learning self-control and other new behaviours) so I am very confident his faith in men will be restored.

Here are some photos and videos of Rufus.

Rufus at the back, with Diva (L) and Tyro (R)

Rufus with his relatives: cousin Miska, Tyro, Diva

Tyro, Miska, Diva and Rufus

Hives

Poor Diva!!

Swollen eye

Now the hives

Benadryl didn't work, so off the emergency vet we went.

Waiting for the vet. Can you spot all the bumps on her body?

Poor baby. Her right eye is even more swollen.

The culprit?

A yellow jacket.

3 of our dogs - Miska, Diva & visiting Elsie - got stung.  Tyro was lucky and didn't.  Elsie only had 1 sting but Miska and Diva were stung several times.  Diva had the most stings, including one over her right eye and several on her rump.  I administered Benadryl to all 3 dogs and it seemed to work at first, but after 3 hours, Diva started breaking out into hives and she was terribly, terribly itchy.  Of course, it was late on Friday night so off to the emergency vet we went for a shot of steroids to deal with Diva's hives.  Now, we have Prednisone on hand, just in case!!

Family visit - Will

Today, William (aka Will) from our 2011 litter with Brick & Miska came for a visit. I hadn't seen him in about a year and a half so it was really wonderful to see how nicely he had turned out.  (He was Mr Turquoise as a puppy.) In the photo he is on the far R.  Thanks for the visit Karen!!

L-R Uncle Tyro, half-sis Diva, Mama Miska & Will

A(nother) First!

Bodi (a Brick-Miska puppy born May 31, 2011) earned a lure coursing title yesterday!  He is the first Varazs-bred dog to earn such a title and can add the initial CA (for Coursing Ability) behind his registered name. Way to go Bodi and owner Corrine Sellars!!  And today, they passed two more United Kennel Club lure coursing tests on their journey to a Coursing Ability Excellent title!

Here's a video of Bodi in action. (For some reason, the camera didn't focus well on the close ups at the end of the video.)

Gathering

Extending

Typically only sight hounds have been allowed to compete in lure coursing (chasing a mechanically operated lure such as plastic bags/rabbit fur around a field) but two organizations in North America - the United Kennel Club and the American Kennel Club - now permit non-sight hounds to enter and compete in trials which is rather neat!

I tried the course today with Bodi's mom, Miska and his sister, Diva. Miska started to chase the lure but got distracted by all sorts of smells in the field and decided she would rather mark her territory and/or hunt for game than chase a lure.  Diva was much the same in her first run but then the light bulb went off in her head and she did extremely well and passed on her second try.  Yay!! Despite a third attempt for Miska, Miska just didn't 'get it'.  We'll try again next month!  Here's Diva's second run when she passed.  It was great!

Nose

Diva - "Does my nose make my face look fat?? 
 Maybe I need rhinoplasty."

 

A walk at Burns Conservation

It's been an extremely wet and buggy spring / summer so far and a challenge to find places to exercise my dogs where we don't get eaten alive.  We ended up at wandering around the lake at Burns Conservation in Halton Region, Ontario. Here are some scenes from our walk.

New family of Canada Geese

Garbage left behind by a visitor.  Grrrrrr

A plant called Joe Pyeweed.

Diva & Tyro in the water

Tyro

Large willow tree

Don't know what this flower is

Diva - happy girl!

How to . . .

How to tire out 3 Vizslas when it's too buggy to take them for a walk in the woods . . .

Happy Doggie Daddy Day & Happy Birthday!

Happy Doggie Daddy Day 

to the sires of three of our litters 

which are also celebrating birthdays today and tomorrow!

Happy Doggie Daddy Day to:

Ozzie: CH Hubertus Quality Control FDJ who is the father of our 2008 litter with Miska.

and to

Hudson: CH Kizmar Touch of Evil RA JH who is dad of our 2006 litter with Nova

and to our beloved

Sasha: Am/Can CH Varazs Kiraly Sassy Sasha Am/Can CDX, FDJ, Am RE, Am RAE, TT, CGC, CGN who sired three litters, including our 2003 litter with Nova which produced our wonderful Miska.

HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY!

Celebrating their fifth birthdays today, June 16, are:

Piper

Photo of Piper courtesy of C. Nielson

 Diva and Quest

Diva and Quest

 Blaze who himself is a daddy too.

Blaze - photo courtesy of B. Tanko

Andras who has sired two litters and is a daddy.

and Gunner (I don't have a current photo of Gunner.  This was taken in 2010.)

Birthday swim & romp

Two puppies, Elsie (Miss Yellow) and Charlie (Mr Black formerly known as "Tunder") from our 2011 Brick-Miska litter met up today for a walk and swim at Charlie's place after almost two years apart.  They just celebrated their 2nd birthday on May 31.  They were accompanied by their mother, Miska, and big sister, Diva (born 2008) who will also be celebrating their birthdays later this month.  A great time was had by all.  Following their romp and swim, they were treated to home made mini-banana muffins.  Yum!

Pretty Elsie

Handsome Charlie

Elsie's creating the splash while Charlie & Diva swim in tandem

Charlie

Group Photos

Charlie to Diva, "Can you keep a secret?"  L-R  Elsie, Diva, Charlie & Mama Miska

L-R  Elsie, Mama Miska, Diva & Charlie