The whole sport and world of pointing dogs, field trials, and bird hunting has confused me since I got a Vizsla. Growing up in the suburbs of Toronto with an immigrant family, we knew nothing of animals and hunting and were instead stereo-typically concentrated on good math scores and playing piano. Jump to a couple years ago when I was looking for what kind of dog I wanted, I kept realizing I was drawn to working bird dogs. I was attracted to their sleek and fast physique, their work ethic, velcro and gentle demeanor at home, and endurance to keep up on long hikes. We chose a show-dog line as we didn’t want a firecracker who needed to work everyday and Whiskey turned out to be one of the most mellow Vizslas, but then she really likes to work. We’ve been lucky enough to get Whiskey introduced to birds a year ago, but haven’t done anything since. Outside of birds I’ve been working on sniff training, and Whiskey is also very eager to fetch balls and sticks.
Happy 2nd birthday Whiskey!
my foray into the world of bird dogs
So all put together, we had a very clueless human, a dog that was almost new to birds, and out of curiosity, for Whiskey’s 2nd birthday I decided to sign us up for a training day and some tests with the BCABPC (British Columbia All Breed Pointer Club). I was really nervous on our first day since we still didn’t understand what the test was, and what was involved. We arrived for the training day with about 15 other humans/dog pairs, some with more or less experience than us. During the day we worked on different stations that started from just a “stay”(or “whoa”), a “stay” with a bird, finding a bird within 5 meters of high grass, finding a trapped bird in a small field, and finding a free bird in a small field. Everyone there was so nice and helpful but there weren’t enough trainers to go around and we waited quite awhile between stations. There were several people that had travelled from quite afar (one from Calgary?) some in trailers to attend the 3 day event and title their dogs.
working dogs staked out
training day
bringing the birds and bird dogs out to the field
the first step is to stay in place on an object
Whiskey’s classmates
bird on a stick method (I feel bad for the birds!)
lining up to watch and try
really nice instructors today
The best part was was seeing so many beautiful dogs, all very healthy of all ages. Something that was difficult was understanding these weren’t all pets for everyone, but working breeding dogs that weren’t treated as gently as I’m used to.
meeting friends
Lovely working dogs
long haired weimaraner
a gsp puppy
a family event
puppies play while adults work
So this is what I found happens in field test in layman’s terms:
You approach the field with your dog on leash and wait until your turn and a judge comes up to you with a clipboard and will walk you to the “start”. When the judge tells you you’re starting, you unleash your dog (put the leash in your pocket) and tell your pup to start looking for birds. You cannot have anything in your hands and your starter pistol is supposed to be in a holster (oops). Your dog is supposed to run off and look in a good searching pattern until they find and point a bird. The dog is not supposed to rush the bird, pick it up, and is supposed to hold their point until you arrive. You are then to flush the bird in the air (pick it up and release it) and shoot the pistol while the bird is in the air. Ideally your dog is supposed to hold their point while you do all that (not expected in Juniors). Then you go off and find another bird and do the same. After 20-30 minutes your judge will tell you you’re finished and you put your dog back on leash.
higher levels have two dogs running together in a test
“planting” birds is a strange concept for me
hitching a ride to the field tests
Whiskey took a couple minutes each time to establish her searching pattern (all her sniff training paid off!) and over time she got into her groove. She found 2 birds on each test and pointed 3 times but almost caught one the 4th time. Her points were steady but as soon as I flushed the bird, she went after it. On the other hand, the shots didn’t seem to phase her too much (especially since this was new). At the end we got a score sheet with everything broken down but I won’t receive a copy until later. I did notice she did get perfect marks for responding to her handler (me) so yey!
first test was in very high grass
we were the first test of the day
getting some feedback from my judge
I’m terrible at flushing and shooting
Whiskey on point
galloping around finding birds
I’ve never seen her run for so long
demonstrating to the judge
thankful to have nice judges tell me what to do!
There are several different levels of testing and as we were brand new we did the easiest one- the JFD (junior field dog). You need 3 passed tests to acquire your title and move onto the next level. In order to properly train a dog for the higher levels, people work with their dogs several times a week and keep birds at home for that purpose. Seeing as we live downtown and have so many interests, we likely won’t take this to the next level, but if we do have an easy opportunity to find birds again I’ll take Whiskey out.
Since the weather’s turned a little drier, we took the opportunity to plan a couple higher-altitude hikes where we might have enough luck to catch a view these cloudy days. We tried to head towards St Marks but was turned away by avalanche warnings so then turned to our trusty Eagle Bluffs hike that I’ve blogged about several times already.
Dad! There are snowboarders to chase there!
lots of warnings
fetching over a mountain of snow
throw it! throw it!
my ginger girl
the steep start is a good workout
The ski slopes were surprising still open so we still had a get a “backcountry pass” for access and then we quickly headed up the snow-covered trails alongside the skiers. Crampons were very useful and Whiskey had more than her normal amount of energy chasing snowballs up and down the mountain. You would think 3 hours of running in snow would tire her…nope!
views come quickly as you climb
so excited to be out
following the boys
perfect temperature for a hike
footprints of a mysterious animal…
in some places the snow was still deep
best place for a dog!
the one soft spot in the forest
The clouds parted just as we got to the bluff where we had a nice lunch and rest before heading back. I love these shoulder seasons as the paths are not yet busy on the more popular local trails. When the crowds start coming up, we move to lesser-known trails but those are usually harder to get to.
really nice walk around the lake loop
melting snow is so beautiful and Whiskey explores
we finally get to the top!
Whiskey as usual, had no idea why her humans were so slow and awkward coming down the slippery trails, and would try to give us kisses as we sometimes slid down on our bottoms. The best part of snow covered steep trails is the quick slides coming down. We are just waiting for a little bit more melting before heading up towards higher altitudes soon!
We’ve been wanting to go camping for awhile now, but it seems that each time the weather has plagued us until last weekend. In another bout of good luck, we were asked to petsit Whiskey’s sister (different, younger litter) Sophie over the same weekend. It was the perfect opportunity to take them out of the city so they could be off leash the whole time, and we wouldn’t need to worry about the house being torn to pieces (they had already begun before we left). At first Whiskey was pretty protective of her humans and home, but soon the two became best friends taking turns to initiate play and games.
two dogs and two humans with one queen bed
playing non-stop
Sometimes they can stop for treats
I have no idea what happened
I hear we are going places…
Meeting up with a couple friends, we braved the rough forest road to Jones Lake and secured a really nice spot next to the mud flats covered with stumps and roots. The road was pretty busy with 4x4s and atvs and the muddy/sandy flats proved irresistible to those who liked to go “vroom vroom”. This ended up as free entertainment, for each day a truck got stuck and we would watch as they tried really hard to get stuck even further before a nice local would then help them out (he did 3 this week).
Jones Lake
Hmmm not too bad!
First look at their playground
Not so clean dog
Is this really sleeping in my tent tonight?
Sisters having fun
Truck #2 stuck
As hard going as it was for trucks and humans (many times we sank pretty deep), the dogs were just in heaven and ran their little butts off. Whiskey demanded sticks thrown, even swam a little, and Sophie basked in the sun on the sand. We were lucky enough to have access to a blow up paddle board that Whiskey rode (not too happily), and of course we brought out the drone for a couple shots. Both dogs got super muddy but thanks to their fur, it magically disappeared before nighttime.
Sophie gets her model moment
dino attack!
zoom zoom!
Beautiful when free
Sophie running away with the stick
paddleboard with swimming Whiskey
Kisses on the water
Take me back to land!
Dinner was shared (the dogs preferred each other’s food of course) and with lots of leftovers, the pups were more than happy to be the clean-up crew. I couldn’t believe how much energy they had as they played until it got dark and then fell asleep in front of the fire, only to wake up and bark at anyone passing by to go to the toilets (Whiskey is more protective). Of course since they are softies we brought loads of blankets and the pita bed so they were extra comfy.
Warming up by the fire
Feed me your dinner
Beggars!
Clean up crew
Sleeping was a bit difficult with a 3 person backpack tent (larger tent is on the wish list) but we managed. Sophie slept in the pita bed and Whiskey alternated who’s sleeping bag she would crawl into.
Sunrise and Whiskey wants out
Lets go Lets go!
The next door, the dogs ran and played until afternoon when we packed everything up. At some point, I threw the dogs into the car for a time-out just so they could be forced to rest for 20 mins.
I have no idea why humans are so slow!
sharing
Checking out her domain
Sophie loves it here
Play play play
Sophie rests on the sand while Whiskey keeps going
The drive back into the city was quiet with two very sleepy puppies although as soon as we got back home, play started all over again!
Now for a fun post: I cannot believe we haven’t been to Callaghan Valley’s Olympic Nordic center (close to Whistler) before! We are super lucky because they have a cross country skiing area that allows off leash dogs (isn’t that the best idea?) and Whiskey ran her little pants off.
Nordic Callaghan site
Everyone, their dogs, and even disabled skiing here
I’ve never tried cross country before, but it didn’t take too long to get the hang of things and I only fell twice going down some steeper sections. Thankfully, we didn’t need to worry about a dog on leash this first time (there are on-leash trails as well) because I still don’t have a clear idea of how to stop!
Beautiful backgrounds and fresh snow on the ground
Whiskey loved running and for once we weren’t super slow
Ears flying like wings
It looked like there were loads of locals out with their pups and lots of kids having fun. Whiskey loved zooming around the groomed trails and she spent most of her time trying to get us to throw snowballs (she even fetches them too). Her speed is just insane going up and down the runs, I think next time we need to bring some Vizsla friends!
Chasing snowballs
Checking out some larger snowballs
The off leash section is large enough that it’s not too boring and it wasn’t very busy for such a beautiful day. We brought booties and a jacket for Whiskey but didn’t need to bother with them and she spent the rest of the day sleeping…success!!!
Bombing down the slopes
What a playday!
Too bad it’s not the cheapest activity (helps if you own your own skis) but I will be back for sure! I just wish our local hills would allow dogs too.
Over the past year Whiskey has been getting bumps that appear pretty quickly and disappear just as fast. The bumps never stuck around long enough to get to a vet and so we put on our detective hats to find out what the problem was.
small ear bumps
Her bumps were concentrated on her upper head, ears, and the front of her legs and were raised but not red. They would get better within 15- 30 mins once we took her away from the environment she started showing symptoms in, and would rarely show for more than 1 hour. At the least, they were a couple round bumps on her ears, at the worst her whole face was swollen to the point she couldn’t even see, but even then, her bumps would fully vanish within 2 hours (so no time for vet). When the bumps were at their worst, (as happened about 3 times) she would be very quiet, tired, and sad looking. They didn’t seem itchy, and she would be back to normal as soon as they went away. They were like bee stings and we did try some Benadryl but it was hard to tell if it helped because the bumps always went away so fast either way. We also tried a holistic Allergy Supplement, as well as local raw honey but neither seemed to show much improvement over several months.
a medium-bad example
It was pretty clear from the get go that these were allergic bumps and since I feed home made raw, it was pretty easy to eliminate food as her allergy source. We noticed a pattern after a couple months that was interesting; if we took her to a park several times a day, only sometimes she would come back with bumps (even if we took her to the same place on the same day). Most of the times if we went into forests or mountains she would be fine, so in general she had more bumps in the city, or close to the city. I have to emphasis that although these pictures look absolutely terrible, the bumps at their worst only stuck around for about 20 mins and in 2 hours, they were gone. I hate seeing Whiskey like this and I’m only posting this as I hope this may help another Vizsla or puppy.
the worst it got with us (about 3x ever)
the worst case only happened when it rained
Something else that was interesting was the worst cases were when it was raining and if she wore a jacket, she would have no bumps where the jacket covered (a strong case for environmental allergies). Also, she had more bumps on the front of her legs, not the back of her legs where she was more exposed to water spray, or where she would have a higher chance of touching allergens. From my research, I found out that tree pollen becomes more concentrated when it rains, and comes down from the air in rain droplets. People that have tree pollen allergies react more in rain as well. Also, in the city, we plant mostly male trees so when pollen is released from male trees, there aren’t enough female trees to capture pollen so there is more pollen in the air causing allergy issues in humans (says Scientific America and Vancouver Sun).
Anyways, since we’ve both been working a crazy amount of overtime, we finally had a chance to book Whiskey in with a pet dermatologist (yes that’s a thing!) about a month ago. I find when visiting vets, I’ve learned I need to really stand up for my beliefs. Vets love to prescribe loads of tests and medications “just in case” and many times these are not needed, and not only will cost more, but you are also giving your pet unneeded chemicals. Now, I’m not expert but I do know my dog so we opted to test Whiskey only for environmental allergies (I had to insist it wasn’t food related) and I opted out of flea control (twice) since I was absolutely sure these were not fleas. We did both a skin test and a blood test. The skin test unfortunately, called for her side to be shaven, a grid to be drawn, and 40 plus tiny allergen injections to compare reactions to a placebo.
Poor girl is also on her heat
Her side is shaven and a grid is tested
Whiskey was given a reversible sedation and I was able to watch the whole procedure. Afterwards we needed to wait 3-5 more weeks for blood test results, and then depending on the results we would have to order either drops or injections to give Whiskey to help her allergies. We ended up with drops and the ordering took another 3 weeks, so a month and a half later, we picked up the drops. At the moment we are just giving her a little drop a day in her mouth and that’s it. We are supposed to see noticeable results from 3 months to 1 year and this is all covered by insurance 80% (I really recommend insurance). Whiskey’s highest reactions seem to be to a mold and some tree and weed pollen. Without insurance this would have cost about $1400 (for all tests and 5 months of drops).
she was half sedated and I was there every minute
For the past 3 months though we’ve not seen seen much allergy reactions at all so we are wondering if this is more a fall/winter thing (or wet season thing) but we are trying the drops (one set lasts 5-6 months) for at least a year to see if this improves. For the time being, we are taking one sided photos while we wait or Whiskey’s hair to grow back!
I’m so late in posting this but I’ve been working like crazy. Here are some photos and video of our latest Vizsla meetup in Vancouver. We met at Cypress Falls this time, and we were about 29 Vizslas!
Awhile back, we had a scary episode where Whiskey was suddenly limping and wouldn’t use her left hind leg. We had taken to her to emergency and had no answers after a rather large bill (xrays were fine). It strangely only lasted a day and she seemed 95% back to normal by the next day.
her first limping episode
However, this happened again a couple months later in late November and while we didn’t go to ER again, we did keep a very close eye on her and like before, it resolved within 24 hours. At this point, I really wanted to get to the source of the issue. We’ve had two tentative diagnosis as a back stress injury (reason why the recovery was so fast, from our vet), and/or soft tissue trauma (ER vet). A friend had a recommendation to a well known vet/surgeon that specialized in lameness assessments as well as chiropractic therapies and orthopedic surgeries, so we called him up to make an appointment. Let me tell you, this is a very rare find indeed!
all is well now!
We made the date to head to Whistler (about 2 hours away) and took Whiskey for her first appointment with Dr. Lane. My goal was to pinpoint the underlying issue that was causing her periodic lameness and hopefully treat it without any drugs. I know many people might think that this issue “isn’t so bad” since she doesn’t consistently show symptoms; two days of limping isn’t the end of the world, especially with active dogs. However, I would much rather solve this now then wait 5 years and have this become a chronic issue. Also, we are covered by insurance (80%) with Pets Plus Us, which I highly recommend since we’ve tested their claims very very thoroughly.
Vizslas are pretty active
Since Dr. Lane is extremely busy and was only working once a week, it took about 1.5 months for us to secure an appointment. He started the appointment by listening and recording our issues and watching our video of her which we had filmed to record the limping event. We then took Whiskey out for a walk to demonstrate her walk, her trot, and then went up and down some stairs. Dr. Lane noticed that going down stairs, she had less “wiggle” in her lower back which seemed tight. He started treating her by feeling with his fingers all over her as well as extending her legs. Whiskey wasn’t too sure of this strange man so we needed to bribe her with treats. Acupuncture as well as massage, lasers and chiropractic therapies were all used and we even ended the session with some IMS. At the end of it all, poor Whiskey was ready to leave, hugging the door with sad eyes 🙁
acupuncture and laser treatment
Dr. Lane narrowed down the problem to a hip misalignment that was causing her to put stress into her back that would eventually lead to a limping episode after too much explosive activity (ie jumping and sprint starts). The activities we toned down were jumping and continuous fetch although we never did too much to begin with. He thinks that perhaps there was an incident that caused her hips to move out of line and over time her body just got used to it. We were working to correct her hips and let her body ‘remember’ the new alignment by having less activity for awhile. This was pretty easy since she happened to have also started her heat, so it was on-leash walks away from other dogs for a month anyways.
her second heat has her very mellow
After the initial consultation, we went back twice more and were given the all clear (and to come back 6 months-1 year just to check up). After every consultation, I could see a difference in the way Whiskey was running (less so on the last one). She seemed a bit looser. We’ve not had any limping since, and hope this is all over. At the worst, we’ve got a clear explanation and someone that can help us out if anything happens again. I think the hardest part was not knowing the problem and throwing money at an ER vet that didn’t have a clue.
Did I mention that we ended up in Washington during a crazy snowstorm? We almost lost Whiskey except for her day-glo jacket in the snow (chillydogs.ca). She can barely surface to breathe…joking!
So I’ve seen so many beautiful photos online of this park and I was really excited to visit. Unfortunately, the worst part about this beautiful snowshoe is the parking price!! You must get a confusing number of two passes (sno-park pass and discovery pass) the total of $30 USD, for just one day of parking which becomes a very expensive hike (and we did see rangers who were checking).
Otherwise, the park was lovely and empty besides a couple cross country skiers, and a couple visitors just taking pictures at the entrance of the lake. I suppose no one brought their own snowshoes to explore for we explored a very easy snowshoe trail with interpretive signs and met no one. The trail would normally be very easy to follow had we not had 50cms of fresh snow, but even then we had no problems at all once we found the “start”.
From the amount of photos online of this lake, I would suspect this park is normally very popular and busy. Here’s to getting outside when everyone else is sleeping in after a snowstorm!
In fact it was so beautiful we went a second time while waiting for the highway to open up again on our way out (there are alot of closures with the snow storms). Here are some photos the day later.
This Christmas holidays my mom visited and we took a little trip into Washington state to get away from the rain and into some snow. What we hadn’t anticipated was the amount of snow! Our first stop was Mt. Baker and with a fresh snowstorm, most of the trails we had wanted to try had vanished into hip-deep fresh powder hidden by 7 feet of snow banks. We did try our hardest to visit Picture Lake but this is about what we saw (assuming we were looking at the lake and not on top of it!)
This is Picture Lake (we are probably on top of it)
Even with snowshoes we were sinking
Mom wasn’t too amused by our attempt to hike
Whiskey was quite happy for her jacket!
We eventually found a really nice and easy mom-friendly snowshoe trail to try at the Salmon Ridge Sno-Park. The trail was called Elk Snowshoe trail and crossed a couple cross country trails.
Elk Snowshoe trail had much less snowfall
the trail wasn’t very well maintained but it was easy to follow
the little balls of snow are covered pebbles
on leash while the drone flies!
There was only one other car in the parking lot and we met no one on the snowshoe trail.
The river is so beautiful
A very nice easy trail
The road to Glacier town
The trail itself was very flat and easy with a couple obstacles and was easily done in crampons or snowshoes. The part along the river was fantastic and we even got a little drone footage.
My partner and I both work full time jobs. Our work is by contract, so sometimes we get a month or two off, and sometimes when there is a deadline we work alot of overtime. Lately we’ve been both working overtime which means 50-70 hours and 6 days a week, and we all live in an apartment so how does this work? I assure you Whiskey is a very happy dog that gets out more than any of us. Besides, every hour of overtime means time off with mom and dad at a later date and extra monies for treats.
We have a lovely walker that takes her to the forest for a hike everyday with 5 other dogs and she still gets her 2 walks on top of this. We stagger our overtime hours so there is someone home with Whiskey just like in a normal non-overtime work week. On the one day we have off, we go hiking rain or shine. Of course this means we don’t have much of a social life outside of dog friends and hiking buddies, but who needs that?
This involves some creative scheduling especially when we also like to socialize, take classes, and do normal errands etc.
Here’s a normal 40 hour workday
7:20 – alarm rings, crate is opened for morning cuddle time
7:50-8:40 -walk to the park mostly off leash
park play
8:45 Breakfast!!
9:00-12:30 Crate rest time (I am suspicious Moo takes this time to walk around and on top of Whiskey’s crate to tease her)
12:30-3:30 Dog walker comes and takes her for 3 hours, 1.5-2 hours off leash hiking in the forest with 5 other dogs, the rest 1-1.5 hours is transit time.
getting ready to be released into the forest
out for her daily hike while I work
3:30-6:30 Free roam of entire apartment (she usually sleeps)
This. While I work!
6:30-7:30 Evening walk in a park, off leash
7:30 Dinner!!!!
7:30-8:30 bother mom and dad for attention, food, and playing
8:30-11 nap
11pm- last pee outside
11:30-12am evening cuddle time, then Whiskey usually crates herself
12am-7:20am crate for the night
Crate- Whiskey has never been destructive (in a year she’s only shredded my sheepskin slippers) and she doesn’t “need” a crate, nor does she like hers much. She never goes into her crate unless it’s a scheduled “crate time”, otherwise she is on her pita bed or our bed. I believe the crate is a good habit to keep up though, and it’s also nice to have a peaceful sleep.
On the weekends we will do longer walks, usually in a forest or mountain, sometimes on-leash in the city with some off leash sections. About once a month we will do a larger adventure if we aren’t working too much.
