We knew Vizslas were fast runners, amazing trail/obstacle racers, and we knew they could jump high, but we didn’t quite realize what an agile little bunny we had with Whiskey. Early on we encouraged her to climb up stumps, problem solve barriers, and navigate steep cliffs. We were thinking to ingrain her with a joy of climbing, yet a healthy regard about what was within her limits or unsafe. Now she loves to climb for fun!
a very little Whiskey learning to walk along logs
we encouraged her to climb
and so she was fearless!
balancing on strange shapes
All this made agility classes seem so attractive. We were lucky enough to find an agility class downtown that also mixed in intermediate obedience. In fact, there is a ton of obedience necessary to run an agility course well. A dog that is easily distracted, or doesn’t follow at heel would be really difficult to get through a course. And a super bonus and surprise was our class had 3 vizslas (out of 4 dogs!). Watch the experts here– I’m just super amazed at these dogs and trainers!
are we ready for class today?
practicing stay with distractions
Whiskey’s half-sister Millie was one of those Vizslas, and we would usually meet up for a romp at the park before heading to class so they were sufficiently tired enough to concentrate. Our first classes we started with some obedience training (heeling, staying with distractions) before trying out the course. We also switched to short leashes that didn’t trail when they went into tunnels.
I dunno about this!
our first classes had the ladder on the ground
gets raised as we go
flying Whiskey
The hardest obstacle was the weaving poles. It’s not a natural movement for these hunting dogs, and I would venture to say that herding dogs would have an easier time with the movement. Tunnels and jumps were super easy though, and we’ve had Whiskey balance on logs so often as a pup that the see-saw wasn’t a problem at all. The biggest challenges were when the tunnels got longer, or had a sharp bend in them. Also, Whiskey found the chute and sharp corners in the course (two jumps at 90 degrees) difficult not to veer off course. Our instructor changed the course several times a lesson so we never got bored.
weaving is hard!
you must tell them which way to go
see-saws can be hard for lots of dogs
waiting our turn
this chute business isn’t so easy either
One of the things worth considering was that our lessons were held indoors on a hard surface (the green was a thin layer) and a 10 month old is still developing so jolts and jumping and running shouldn’t be encouraged much. We thought once a week was ok (we only walk the course a couple times and our speed couldn’t be considered a ‘run’), especially since we do all our training and practicing in the forest. It was also great to get in the obedience training and realize our “stay” was pretty poor with distractions. In the end we were able to run the course mostly off leash (except for the weaving poles. Did I mention our class uses no treats? That’s not easy for Whiskey! We were also the youngest by far and we did pretty good, if I may say so myself.
We’ve been instructed by our breeder how important it is to trim Whiskey’s nails and keep the quick short. She suggested us to trim every week with a Dremel and although it’s been a 2 person task, we can finish it in 10 mins.
Moo watching on while Whiskey gets her nails done
The noise of the Dremel and being constrained is scary for a dog not used to it. The easiest position we’ve found is having her lying on her back on someone’s lap while the other person works around and does the manicure. Press down on the pad so the nails come all the way out and get as close to the quick as you feel comfortable, rounding out any sharp edges. We start with her back paws so the tool isn’t in her face straight off.
take your time and round out edges
Even though we’ve done it since she was a puppy, she doesn’t love it and still struggles and grunts.
Whiskey shows you her paw while her back nails are done
Taking photos while you hold on a struggling puppy getting a pedicure is a challenge
Here are some tips for Dremeling your dog’s nails:
-Whiskey always gets a special treat in the end. I put the treat in my pocket so she can smell it the whole time and she knows it’s coming. You can also give her a smaller treat with each nail, or each paw.
-Get more people if possible to help. I typically hold Whiskey while Thierry works the Dremel.
-Work the back paws first as they are further from their head not as scary as starting near the face.
-Talk to your dog and tell them how wonderful they are in a low voice during the whole time.
-Have some styptic powder on hand in case you trim too deep.
-Make sure you have lots of light!
-Do it often so they get use to it
-Don’t stop the session as soon as they struggle, otherwise they learn if they struggle, they get out. If you need to release your dog, do so after they are calm.
-Trim nails when they are calm, relaxed, after exercise
push on each toe so the nail comes out and trim close to the quick
Here are some tips if you’ve never done it before:
-Get our dog used to being flipped over on their back and held. Give treats and talk in a soothing voice only letting them up when they are calm.
-Turn on the dremel and give treats to get them used to the sound
-Touch and handle each paw until they don’t mind (we clean her paws all the time when we get back from a wet/muddy walk).
-Just trim one paw at a time, and work your way up.
-Keep a bag of treats next to you and give them a treat for each nail when they are calm (reduce treats over time). Be generous with the treats at first.
-If when you release the dog, they don’t run off, and are immediately interested in snacks, you’re doing great!
start young and it’ll be easier!
Finally…
Be calm yourself. Whiskey is easy to do since she’s still a puppy and we were able to train her. Moo (my cat with attitude) is another story. We need to be in a zen mood to trim Moo’s nails. Make movements, slow and deliberate. If you are scared or anxious, the animals pick up on that. If you are confident and calm, they will be more receptive.
It’s funny how the basic commands can also be the hardest. We sometimes have problems getting Whiskey to “lie down”, or “sit” quickly but as soon as we say “find it!” or “where’s daddy?” she immediately stops what she’s doing and starts looking.
I’ve started introducing a chain of commands now with her sniff training since she loves it so much. First, she’s told to “come here”, “sit” and “stay”, sometimes on an unstable platform. I’ll let her sniff the item I’m hiding, then I walk around, up to 5 meters away and drop snacks (lamb lung) in high and low places. I’ll then walk back and tell her to “find it” and after each find I’ll praise her and repeat “find it” until she gets them all. Now, as soon as I say “find it” she starts sniffing with her nose. When she’s found all the treats I then throw a party and tell her “that’s all!” and she knows the game is over. (hint: only as many treats as you can remember where they are)
Do you want to work?
SIT STAY and then I bobble the springs so she needs to keep her balance
staying while I position the treats
sniffing them out (she never remembers where i put them even if she is watching)
there’s one in the slide!
I like using the playground because it also becomes and agility work too
At first I would wander around the area where the treat was dropped as a hint to search more in a specific place. It was challenging to keep her in a stay while I walked around at first. If she broke her “stay”, I would try to get her to go back to her “stay” place and so it’s easier if the spot is in a defined area. She’s learned over time to search both high and low areas and it’s so much fun to watch. On the downside, she’s gotten extremely good at sniffing out food people have left in the parks. Did I mention sniff work is pretty tiring for dogs? Great for rainy days!
another sniff location
use locations that have a visual boundary
she will ignore people and dogs while she is “working”
searching high and low places
she loves this game!
At home we do this in a larger and larger area. It’s harder though, because we have a hungry cat and we don’t want them both competing for food. While Whiskey won’t jump up on the counter and steal food from a ziplock in my purse, Moo won’t let any barrier stop her! (Moo just stole a sausage from a pan as I typed this)
We’ve had to get another coat to keep up with her growth
Little Whiskey is growing up fast and is getting a better sense of her balance, aim, and speed. Today we’ve decided to bike inside Stanley park with her on and off leash to see how she does. It’s also practice for me, since I’m just starting to learn how to bike outside of paved roads. I must say, Whiskey was 1000x better than I!
My partner was holding her leash when we were doing a bit of the on-leash biking since he’s the most coordinated. She was pretty good following, even on a busy path with lots of bikes going both directions. As soon as we got into the forest we let her off leash and she was wonderful again for the most part.
We had only once incident in 2 hours when she jumped on a poor child, give the frightened kid a lick hello, and kept speeding along. Thank god the parents were amused and not angry! It happened so fast and she was off leash. We must have passed 100 people so it could have been worse. Otherwise she ignored all dogs, people, bikes and kept following or in some cases leading.
We took some side trails where I struggled, and Whiskey gained speed. It was amazing to see how fast she can leap over obstacles. She kept coming back to check on me when I had fallen or was extra slow. We’ll have to wait until she’s older before we do anything more sustained but I’ve never been prouder of my little girl!
So ever since we’ve had Moo and Whiskey, one or both of us has been off work. We’re lucky we both work as contractors and it’s easy to take time off. Last week marked the start of everyone going back to work full time and our poor pets have lost their 24/7 cuddle service. Aside from the tough choices of what to do with a puppy while we’re both working, we’ve really enjoyed the time off bonding with our furry babies.
While Moo-cat had been refining her insane treat-sniff-and-recover abilities (she opens zippers, kitchen drawers and zip locked bags of kibble), Whiskey had been getting in some crate practice for the inevitable time where we have to face reality and go back to work.
8 weeks
11 weeks
19 weeks
22 weeks
Crating
Whiskey hasn’t liked her crate since we’ve got her. I think it’s partially because she’s very confident and doesn’t need it as a “safe” place. She’s never slept it in by choice. She much prefers our bed, our couch, or her bowser bed, even the carpet or hardwood floor than her crate! We’ve lined it with blankets, soft foam bed, even our worn shirts. We’ve covered it with a blanket and played the radio. She prefers sleeping stretched out taking the entire couch. Since the first night, we’ve had her sleeping during the night in her crate and she gets to come to bed in the mornings for snuggles. We eagerly await the day she will be old enough to be left in our bedroom while we’re at work.
Daycares, hikes, boarding, petsitting
While we are at work we’ve been trying doggy daycare, dog hiking services, personal pet-sitting, and just leaving her in the crate with a lunchtime visit. We are quite spoiled for choice in Vancouver since there is a huge pet industry here. So far, she’s only peed in the crate once during the last week, but she’s never been in the crate for more than 4 hours. We’re now facing a difficult period because we’ve chosen to wait until she is older before we spay her. Many daycares don’t accept unfixed dogs over 6 months and we are also worried that her heat could happen while we are on vacation in a couple months. We are currently interviewing dog boarders for our upcoming vacation. Our bouncy baby’s going to be a teenager soon!
This is our second time meeting up with Eric and his hunting Vizsla Yoffi. Eric had suggested trying out birds with Whiskey to see if she had interest and drive. Guess what? She totally does!
very interested in the pigeon
sniffing out the bird launcher
It was really dark so the pictures are all blurry but we basically gave her a quail to see what she would do with it. The bird flew off a couple yards from the path and Whiskey ran off, sniffed it out, played with it and killed it. She even retrieved it, but didn’t want to give it back (we didn’t ask persistently). So we’ve got a bird dog!
The goal thereafter is to make sure she doesn’t catch a bird again. We also watched Yoffi train with pigeons, working on his hunting and pointing. Yoffi moved like a pro! When Yoffi was done, we told Whiskey to “find it” and Whiskey even found the pigeon (just made it fly up) in the bush. It was pretty far away so I was well impressed. Whiskey was on a bird high for the next hour, all excited and silly. We aren’t hunters and don’t think we’ll pursue this much, but were really interested to watch a Vizsla work at what they were bred to do.
*The next couple days Whiskey was very bird crazy and hunting (sniffing) everywhere. She was a bit more “wild” but thankfully wouldn’t chase birds that were at a distance.
Whiskey is 4.5 months old now and we are increasing the length of our hikes a little. We tried Eagle Bluffs which is 8kms with a 350m incline. It has a beautiful scenic viewpoint of the whole city and is a great place to bring friends new to Vancouver. Taking it really slow, we spent most of the hike talking to friends (usually we add more training and stick throwing in a hike). Whiskey had no problems finishing the hike and we took her on a walk in the evening as well.
playing on the ski slopes
the view from the top
water please!
the former olympic site
well tired afterwards
We’re started introducing Whiskey to bicycles to get her used to walking or running next to them. Eventually we would like to exercise her next to a bike but right now we are not using this as a form of exercise, rather just up and down a parking lot for training. We also want to start maybe mountain biking with her through the forest but since I would have to learn how to mountain bike, we can assume the pace would be slow enough for a puppy. Also, the other day we introduced her to skateboards! She’s a pretty inquisitive pup.
I don’t understand this contraption but I’ll kiss you
Yesterday we met up with a fellow Vizsla owner Eric, and his 1.5 year Vizsla Yoffi for a romp in some fields. We drove 45 mins to arrive at this huge field in Maple Ridge where Yoffi normally runs and trains with birds. We didn’t have birds this time but thought the dogs would love to run and perhaps flush out their own.
As soon as Yoffi jumped out of the car we could immediately see the difference between a Vizsla from a hunting stock and one from a confirmation stock. Whiskey’s parents were both shown in confirmation shows where the goal is to conform to the breed’s published standards. In shows they are handled by strangers, shown in front of crowds, and need to stay relaxed in these situations. Hunting Vizslas are bred for their drive and endurance and are tested in the field. So while Whiskey is very mellow for a Vizsla, Yoffi shot out of that car like there was a free bacon festival ahead.
Yoffi pulling and ready to hunt
As we let the dogs off leash in the fields, Yoffi took off bounding around happily monster-trucking through the fields and bushes. Whiskey stayed close and sniffed alot, at first keeping close to us in an unfamiliar environment, then eventually running after Yoffi. Yoffi was playing pretty rough with Whiskey- more from held-back energy than anything else. He also headbutts humans for hellos!
Whiskey leaping over the grass like a rabbit-antelope
a huge space for dogs to roam
Ears flying, dogs diving
Vizsla play is full-on
Pros of Confirmation/Show dogs
-in general these dogs would be better for city life as they are bred to show well and have a temperament conductive to have lots of strangers touch and inspect them
-they must also show good character to be tested (no aggressiveness, shyness)
-they are bred for their looks so they are beautiful!
-they usually need less off leash running and roam closer to you during walks
-they don’t need to work as much
-these dogs will not be bouncing through the walls as fast as a hunting dog if they don’t get a walk
-might be better bet if you have small animals like cats in the house (although probably fine if grown up with one)
Whiskey’s Daddy
Pros of Hunting/Field dogs
-obviously if you want to hunt, you would look for a breeder that hunts and has Field Trail Champions
-these dogs are amazing to watch do the job they are bred for. They are still couch potatoes at home, but are on full “work” mode outside
-bred less for looks and more for personality and intelligence
-I’ve heard show dogs are smaller, more sharply muscled, noisier and more generally hyperactive (Whiskey is smaller, vocal, but very mellow, not hyperactive)
-you may have heard with other breeds, working dogs are usually healthier and living older because they are bred for physical purpose but Vizslas are a very healthy dog that has been much better bred than Labs, German Shepherds, Dachshunds for example. Check this article out!
Vizslas were never overbred and trendy like Dalmatians and are generally a very protected healthy breed. In conclusion hunting dogs have not been proven to be “more healthy” but they certainly have more endurance and energy!
Yoffi’s crazy energy in a picture
practicing “Whoa”
Best of Both Worlds
Of course confirmation dogs can be hunters and hunters can be confirmation dogs if you get the right bloodlines that is! I’ve shown examples of extremes, but every dog is unique and with a good breeder you should have a well balanced dog. For example Yoffi is a beauty with great muscles and amazing fur while Whiskey was pulling like crazy when she saw a deer and flushed out a little bird the other day on a walk. Also with breeding you are increasing a chance, of a specific trait and it’s not a guarantee at all.
So driving home that evening we reflected we were really happy we got a confirmation dog, as Whiskey is not “calm” but she’s practically comatose compared to Yoffi. With both of us working full time jobs and not hunters it would push our limits to have to drive out of the city everyday to exercise her. Of course we’re both avid hikers and Whiskey gets plenty of exercise a day. On the other hand, Eric says Yoffi wouldn’t do well in a dog park with other dogs and people around, and that he was really crazy as a puppy. So although Yoffi is an incredible athlete and intelligent hunter, we’re super happy Whiskey’s been so “easy” to fit in our lives. As I’m typing this, she’s sleeping at my feet.
We’ve just finished our group of puppy classes at Oh My Dog. I’m proud to say Whiskey’s improved so much over the 4 classes and was really getting the “heel, sit, stay, come here” we were working on. ‘Heeling’ to ‘sit’ was the hardest for us since she’s not looking at me most of the time.
This isn’t the first ‘school’ we’ve tried and it’s been a bit of a tough road the first couple of weeks. We’ve worked so much on training at home and in the park with other dogs around, but in a small indoor room environment with other young excited puppies, Whiskey only wanted to play.
Over the weeks though, she got better. Her concentration capacity extended and her brains kicked in. A couple tips that helped were
coming to class early so she could say hello first
try to get her walking at least 3 times before class with some offleash running too- get her as mellow as possible
from the last point, an evening class is easier than morning class
practicing the training everyday
don’t take everything the trainer says as gospel- you know your dog better so adjust
repetition
patience!
Treats vs no treats:
The treat class (first school we tried) emphasized the importance of treats but Whiskey wasn’t very treat motivated. She’s a hunting dog with a drive to run, play and chase unlike a hound who may be better with treats. In the end we found she’s much more play motivated (she will work for a stick or Frisbee) as well as agility motivated (she will interrupt play time for a chance to climb a log). Even using different kinds of high value treats didn’t hold enough value compared to playing with the other puppies so we felt so frustrated in the first class.
We know that working dogs are not trained with treats so we were curious to try training without treats. Oh My Dog classes used pets, cuddles and praise of owners instead of treats. I was pretty skeptical at first. On top of that, there was an emphasis on only saying the command once, and then forcing the dog through the command if it didn’t volunteer the action (pushing bum down for a sit). Bonus was the class also had less puppies enrolled and didn’t allow drop-ins (12+ puppies vs 4).
I have to say it was hard to stop all the treats and even harder to say the command only once (dog is usually looking away) and follow through. My takeaway from these classes was a middle ground. We still treat when teaching a new behavior but treat very little over time. I still keep some treats around for a good recall in the park with other dogs, and also when playing children are around. On top of these situations, treats are also very useful when there is a potential “scary” situation: new animals, loud noises, dremelling her nails, baths. But overall our “treats” have been reduced from 10 treats a walk to maybe 1. I find “play” motivation much better.
I’m always searching for more ways to keep my little one out of trouble. She has a super short attention span for games like fetch or simple training exercises but still has loads of energy to burn off. I wish we could spend all day in the park, but alas…not possible! If there was only an “off” button to these little zoomies!
So other than long walks outside, I’ve been looking for things to get her tired inside. We’ve trained lots of commands but can only do about 5 mins at a time. A couple weeks ago I looked up sniff training online and decided to try. With a smelly treat (lamb lung), I first let her sniff the snack, then used a hand towel and hid it under the edge of the towel while encouraging her to “find it”. She started sniffing! Yey! I had to help her locate it the first couple times and at the end she could find it herself.
In the beginning you’re just supposed to encourage any sniffing and help them to the treat after a couple seconds while slowly increasing the time and difficulty. I’m not sure how much more tired she is, but it can’t hurt! Over the past week she’s been able to “search” for longer periods of time before wandering away and giving up. Sometimes she just loses concentration and I have to tell her to “find it” again. Overall though she loves the game and will “work” (sit, lie down) to even play.
When they become an expert, you can start hiding treats in a variety of easy-to reach places and then switch to hiding toys too. I like smelly treats to start with, or large toys. Right now I also let her watch me hide it so she knows in which area to search for. Sometimes instead of fetch, we play the “go find it” with the toy game. It keeps her energy levels lower and her brain working.
at first just hide it on the edge of the towel
over time, bring it closer to the middle and see if they can lift the towel
learning how to get “into” the towel to find the treat
