In our case, this might actually be true!  Gumbo has an amazing memory and never forgets!

Gumbo, like most male dogs, likes to mark his territory.  He often smells Ilsa’s potty spots immediately after she’s finished with business and then hikes his leg over that area.  Ben and I discourage marking so we pull him off it with a strong “Leave it!” command.  Sometimes, we even have to physically redirect his attention off the potty spot by grabbing his collar and removing him.

He now fully understands that he isn’t allowed to lick or pee over Ilsa’s potty areas.  Today, as Ilsa did her #1 business very politely, Gumbo came and stood next to me without putting up a fight.  He just looked me in the eyes and seemed to say “I’m such a good boy!”

We completed our first lap around our townhouse community and then started our second.  When we turned the corner and were within 100 feet of Ilsa’s potty spot, Gumbo surprised me by taking off.  He dove with all his might to that grassy patch and hiked his leg as fast as he could!  Oh my goodness!  This boy totally planned, plotted, and schemed…

His sudden movement caught me off guard so he got to mark the spot!  What a clever and gross little boy!

So, in case you were wondering, my vizsla is smarter than your honor students!  Now, the challenge will be harnessing these brains for something good

Greetings from Huron, Ohio! As Dr. Seuss wrote – Oh the places you’ll go! Just a few years ago, I couldn’t imagine traveling to the edge of Lake Erie for a dog competition, but here we are and loving every minute of it. The schedule has been busy, and we have seen so many amazing vizslas competing in conformation, agility, obedience, and rally. I just wanted to give you a quick mid-week update on the excitement.

Today Gumbo showed in the Open class and was handled beautifully by his co-breeder to a 4th placement out of 17 entered in his class!!!! It is such a huge honor to us for Gumbo to take a home a ribbon from Nationals among such an impressive group. He is sleeping well tonight after having to work hard in the ring today :-).

Another highlight of the day was Ilsa’s trip around the ring in the Parade of Titleholders to celebrate the completion of her recent Junior Hunter title.

Other highlights of the day included the Parade of Therapy Dogs (what an incredible group!) and Sweepstakes (puppies and veterans). Off to get some rest before cheering on our friends tomorrow!

In preparation, almost all training time for the past couple of weeks has been dedicated to conformation. We haven’t entered Gumbo in a show since early March because we’ve been focused on bird training. To get Gumbo ready to show, we have been attending a conformation drop-in class for the past couple of weeks. We thought this would be beneficial to Gumbo because he always tends to get very excited the first day of a show and settles in better each subsequent day. Hopefully, the recent exposure to the ring environment will make showing easier for him.

We’ve also been doing cavalettis with Gumbo to help him with his movement (same idea as used for horses but without jumps). We thought that all the recent running and conditioning we’ve done for the field could throw off the timing of his feet, so we brought out the caveletti poles to help him with his footing. Incrementally spreading the poles also helps with reach. To set this up, we just pulled apart a set of weave poles that we made out of PVC for agility.

The last major thing we’ve been working on has been Gumbo’s free stack. The free stack is done the end of a down and back to show how the dog naturally stands without being stacked by the handler. I enjoy the free stack because training can help improve the presentation. Gumbo knows how to stop on cue, and we’ve also been working on the command “step”. If the dog is off balance during the free stack, it won’t make for a strong presentation but teaching them to move a foot can help them adjust themselves into a better stance. It is probably my favorite aspect of dog shows because watching a dog hit a free stack perfectly or watching a dog/handler team adjust into a perfect stack quickly and easily is a thing of beauty. Figuring out what works for Gumbo is a lot of fun. The more confidence he gains in what is asked of him in the ring, the better his expression becomes. And although the dogs are judged against a standard, there is an element of subjectivity to dog shows. The dog beaming with pride as if to say “PICK ME, PICK ME!!” often has a better chance of being selected than the dog that looks miserable in the ring (all other things being equal).

We’re making this trip without any expectations to bring home a prize, but of course it would be nice to win a ribbon. It is such a wonderful celebration of the breed and so exciting to watch so many red dogs all in the same room. We will keep you updated on how things go!

Gumbo’s bracemate was a no show, so he got bumped to the bottom of the running order to run with a bye dog. While waiting, we watched a number of dogs go birdless. I was a little concerned by this, but the course seemed pretty straightforward. It was basically just a grassy field. However, it was lacking in objectives. I did learn a trick from the long grass though – follow the 4 wheeler tracks :-).

Gumbo had a pretty nice honor in the back field. I wasn’t expecting it and although I have been calling him away from other dogs on point (since it is not a requirement in juniors), I let him work in the area because he made it pretty clear he wasn’t going to bust in on the point. The other handler was nice enough to work around a little bit and Gumbo ended up sharing the point. I wasn’t sure this would be enough to qualify though.

We took the lead entering the bird field, and Gumbo found a bird within the first two minutes. The judges yelled “got it”, and I knew we were home free. He found a second bird shortly after his first, and I slowed him down to work the untouched part of the bird field until time was called. He came across a third bird and hit an absolutely stunning point. He held it beautifully and let me flush it without trying to bust in at all. The judges called time immediately afterwards and congratulated me (knowing this was Gumbo’s last leg). It was a really fun way to end our junior hunter adventures.

This will be our last hunt test of the spring as Ilsa and Gumbo need quite a bit of work before they are ready to compete at the senior level. We will continue to work until the fall season and of course keep you updated along the way :-).

When this DVD was recommended to us, we were eager to try it. Although Ilsa and Gumbo have both been crate trained since puppyhood, they tend to lose their cool in the car when they know we are headed somewhere exciting. Turning onto a gravel road usually means birds are coming – let the insanity commence. Since starting crate games, we have noticed a dramatic improvement in their behavior which is much better for them mentally before entering the bird field (and it saves us from the headache of high pitched barking ).

I was inspired by Anna and Luna over at Vizsla Inspiration (I guess Anna named the blog appropriately ) following Luna’s trick of balancing a treat on her nose and catching it the air. The key to this trick appeared to be Luna’s patience to balance the treat which Anna cued with the command “wait”. While our Vs know the command “leave it” and “free” as a release, we’ve never used a command like “wait” followed by “free” to distinguish leaving something completely from leaving it UNTIL given the okay to take it.

I thought crate games would be a fun way to work on this. It’s worth noting that I first introduced the command “wait” by using treats in my hand. Check out the video to watch llsa playing this game. She doesn’t get it right on the first try (I’m a little slow on the command), but we’re both getting better!

Ilsa continued to impress in the bird field in her second hunt test. This test was hosted by our local vizsla club, and we had a wonderful time with many of our friends along with some new faces.

The entry at this hunt test was much larger than the one we attended the previous week. Altogether, there were at least 8 master and senior braces each day. Since juniors run after the more experienced dogs, we arrived a couple of hours after the start. We made sure to arrive to watch our friends run, but the temperatures were as high as we have seen all year. We didn’t want our Vs to have to endure that heat too terribly long before having to go out in the field. Our efforts to better condition our Vs seemed futile under these conditions. Luckily, there was a pond with some water on the back course right before entering the bird field. We made sure to let each of them stop in the water for a few seconds to cool off before proceeding.

Prior to this test, we had a couple of chances to work with Gumbo to try and slow him from busting too many birds like he did in his first hunt test. We used a check cord and a remote launcher or head tucked birds on the ground to slow him down. With the launcher, we released birds the second he caught scent with the idea that this will make him more cautious. This method has been extremely effective with Ilsa, but it is harder with Gumbo because he makes it harder to recognize when he’s caught scent.

The extra work with Gumbo paid off. He showed improvement during both his runs. By no means was he holding steady the way he’s shown with birds in the bird release during training, but I was very pleased that he held point for a solid few seconds before trying to move in on the bird. As we came in from our run on the first day, the group watching us in the parking lot joked that they were worried that Gumbo wasn’t going to leave any birds for anyone else because he was finding so many. We are very proud of our boy and are excited to report that he earned two more legs toward his junior hunter.

Miss Ilsa also did well despite the conditions. Our biggest concern with her is that she has actually seen TOO many birds lately and is becoming overly cautious – leading to pointing of hot spots (where birds used to be). So she had a few bird free runs during the week to try and prevent this. She had no problem finding and pointing birds during her run and also qualified for two more junior hunter legs meaning she is now a JUNIOR HUNTER!!!! Woohoo!!!

To celebrate, Ilsa got to run as the bye dog in the last brace. Every dog has to run with a bracemate, and if there is an odd number of dogs, a bye dog is needed as a bracemate for the unpaired dog. Ilsa was happy to oblige with an extra run through the field :-).

In my last post, I mentioned that we had tried to complete Ilsa and Gumbo’s junior hunter titles this spring. The reason for this was to be able to enter them in the Parade of Titleholders when we attend the Vizsla Club of America’s National Specialty Show in May. We were most interested in entering Ilsa in this event since she has never had the chance to compete in conformation like Gumbo. We think our little diva will love being the center of attention when strutting her stuff around the ring.

We’re looking forward to bringing you updates on a regular basis again. In the meantime, hope you have a wonderful weekend with your pups!

It’s been a while since our last update. We’ve been busy with training and hunt tests among other things. I’m a little bummed that I haven’t been able to keep up with the blog because we have lots of exciting news to share. Rather than combine it all into one long post, I’ll split it into two to detail the adventures of the hunt tests we’ve been to recently.

Last month, we traveled to just south of Chicago for our first hunt test. Yes, there are a number of hunt tests in our area but we wanted to make sure Ilsa and Gumbo could complete junior hunter titles this spring – more to come on this in a future post. Plus, I think Susan was in it for the walk down Michigan Avenue ;-).

We decided to make the drive the morning of the hunt test, and although we knew that there were 3 master hunter braces and 3 senior hunters before us, we aimed to arrive close to the start so that we could follow in the gallery at least once. This meant leaving our house at 3:30 AM. Just as we were pulling out, some of our neighbors were pulling in. They asked if we were just getting home too. Not exactly the Vs have certainly changed our lives!

We were met by an extremely friendly group of people when we arrived at the test and opted to follow the first brace to stretch our legs after letting the dogs out to potty. The course was extremely wet, but we got a good look at what the back field looked like. We were able to see the bird field from the parking lot, so we spent the rest of the morning meeting people/talking.

Gumbo’s run on the first day started off well. He had no interest in his bracemate and was clearly working/hunting for birds. But on our entry into the bird field, things started to go downhill – for both of us. There was a lot excitement being in this new environment, and Gumbo bumped into a bird and it flushed without him pointing. He found one more bird, and he flash pointed (or at least I would call it a flash point). We worked the rest of the field until the judges called time. Almost immediately, the gunners/bird planters came out to offer me some advice. It turns out I never fired my gun because I thought Gumbo never really went on point. They told me to have my gun out and fire on any flush. Lesson learned – gotta play the game. The judges also offered some advice to get him to hold and were otherwise very complimentary.

On day two, Gumbo and I faired much better. He was more familiar with the territory and better understood what we were set out to do. He had two decent points. He didn’t hold them for more than a few seconds before busting the birds, and you better believe I fired this time ;-). It was enough to qualify earning Gumbo his first leg toward his junior hunter title!

The weekend really belonged to the girls though. Susan and Ilsa were fortunate enough to be braced with a very friendly/helpful handler who gave Susan advice periodically during the run. Ilsa did a wonderful job finding and holding point on 4 birds despite Susan trying to move her to the edge of the field to give her bracemate a better chance at finding birds.

Ilsa’s performance continued on the second day, again finding 4 birds. She was chased around by a 6 month old puppy that was far more interested in playing than hunting for a few minutes. Fortunately, the handler was gracious enough to pick up his dog rather than jeopardizing Ilsa’s run.

At the end of the weekend, Ilsa had picked up two legs toward her junior hunter with scores of 8 or above in every category! (The categories of hunting, bird finding ability, pointing, and trainability are judge on a 1-10 scale.)

Needless to say, we are very proud of both our Vs. As always seems to be our experience, the best way to learn something is to go out and do it. We definitely learned some tricks about hunt tests that can only be learned by doing it. And as obvious as it seems now, a bird on the ground is far more tempting than a bird in a bird release :-). Stay tuned for our most recent hunt test adventure.

If you’ve been following lately, then you are aware that we have been spending quite a bit of time training Ilsa and Gumbo for their upcoming hunt tests. No complaints from them – believe me :-). And if you live almost anywhere in the United States, you are most likely enjoying an incredibly mild winter and now an early spring. While the weather is wonderful and gives an added excuse to spend more time outside, it adds an extra challenge to our training.

“Better” weather usually means higher temperatures. These conditions are not necessarily ideal for bird dogs. In reality, this isn’t an extreme concern for a junior hunt test because the runs are short (15 min) and our Vs certainly won’t get worn out in that time. However, Gumbo tends to start panting easily when it is hot outside. This means his mouth is open making it much harder to use his nose to find birds.

Since temperatures have been reaching the 80s this week, we decided it would be best to get out Vs in better shape before hunt test time comes. It’s not that our Vs our really ever out of shape – life would be pretty miserable if they didn’t get their exercise, but we haven’t been running them quite as hard lately due to Gumbo’s recent conformation show. A lot of muscle tends to make it harder for sporting dogs to present well.

So Gumbo and I are enjoying the additional hour of daylight in the evenings by running together. He makes quite the excellent running companion – I just put a leash around my waist and we’re off. Ilsa would much rather run in pursuit of something than run with me. Luckily, warm weather tends not to affect her nearly as much as Gumbo.

Hopefully, this additional exercise will make us better prepared for any situation. We can’t control the weather, but we will do our best to be prepared for it. I hope you and your pups are enjoying nice weather where you are.

Canine Coats: RuffWear!  You can’t go wrong with RuffWear cloud chasers or K9 over coat!  Their products are tough and very practical for active dogs!

Dog Collars: Up Country Dog Collars.  We just purchased a new collar for Miss Priss and are LOVING it!  Great colors, cute design, and durable!  Check them out!

Dog Beds: Before Gumbo joined our family (almost 2 years ago), we purchased a Bessie and Barnie bed from a local pet boutique.  We purchased the large size in the hopes that our two Vizslas would share the bed and snuggle together.  Ilsa, the Little Red Dog, quickly claimed the large bed as hers and normally doesn’t share with Gumbo.  (Poor little boy!)  We’ve washed this bed, inside cushions and outside covering, and it has lasted beautifully!  Ilsa LOVES her “bagel” bed!  This bed, in fact, is so comfortable that Ben and I have also napped with Ilsa in it!

Handler Bag: We recently discovered an awesome company called Mud River Dog Products.  This bag has pockets for all our training gear and doesn’t show dirt (it’s already brown!).  Santa actually brought us two of the Dog Handler bags this past Christmas.  One is stuffed with check cords, field collars, e-collars, etc.  The other is our first aid kit.  I love that all our stuff is organized and easy to find.

All the items listed in this post are the best quality and can last in life with two active vizslas!  These are a few of our favorite things… what’s top on your list?