Sunday, November 25, 2018

Getting Married, With Vizslas

Being engaged is a blessing, but also a lot more stressful than I thought it would be. After all the excitement of the proposal and getting our new puppy was starting to pass, I was slowly realizing how much work planning a wedding was going to be. Trying to find the perfect venue, cake, photographer, flowers, DJ etc... We also now had two Vizslas under the age of one! You may think, okay she has two dogs big deal... If you have a Vizsla, you understand that they are possibly the most energetic bird dog around. Trying to train them and keep them occupied and happy while working full time and now planning a wedding was stressful and exhausting. It also didn't help that it took us about 6 months to potty train our male! Our female was potty trained within 2. It was a lot to handle, but I also felt so blessed to have them and my soon to be husband in my life.

After a little over a year of planning our wedding, it was finally time to say I do! The day went by so quickly, but it was beautiful. When we got home, it hit me. Our puppies weren't so little anymore, Ronald and I now shared the same last name, and all the anticipation of the big day was already over. How does time go by that fast? It really makes you want to cherish every moment. Even if it is stressful, you can never go back and do it over again.





Monday, September 3, 2018

The Engagement


Towards the end of 2015, Ronald and I had been discussing adding another Vizsla to our family. After some research, he found a couple that were having a litter born in January. After they were born we went to go visit them and see the parents. Plus we wanted to meet the family
that owned them. We decided we wanted to get a male from them and with their blood line, Ronald was excited to get into the field trialing game with him, and of course Kona. We were given a date in March that we could pick up our little guy. I was excited to be adding another little V to the household. The last weekend in February, My parents invited us over for dinner, which is a weekly occurrence. Ronald had mentioned his family was wanting to have dinner too so he asked if we minded that they came over. Of course we didn't mind, and decided to order pizza as something easy to feed everyone. Towards the end of the meal my brother asked me to come into the living room and look at his dog, Jazz because she had some pink dots on her underside. I did not know at the time that this was everyone's way of distracting me for Ronald to go and grab our new Vizsla we were expecting a week later to surprise me with. I remember sitting in the middle of the living room floor with both of our families surrounding me when I looked up and noticed my mom smiling with her phone up like she was taking a picture or video. I was a little confused, but before I could say anything I got a little glimpse of red walking by me.

l looked down and to my surprise there he was!! Our boy Otto. All I could do was pick up this little guy and love on him in complete shock. After holding him for a while I noticed a black collar on him that said "will you marry me". As soon as I saw it, Ronald was getting down on one knee with a little red box in his hand. I cried in disbelief. We had been together for 5 years then, and never had a conversation about marriage. I was so overwhelmed I just cried, said yes, cried some more, and then in the moment said "thank you". It is a moment I will never forget! Surrounded by family, Kona, and now our new guy. It felt good for it to finally be me! I knew this was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Now it was time for potty training and wedding planning. Let the chaos begin!






Saturday, August 18, 2018

Kona's First Hunting Trip

After having Kona for a few months, we quickly noticed how smart she really was. We had her potty trained within a couple months, with very few accidents during the training period. We were also messing around with a cat toy with her just to see what she would do and to our surprise she pointed it!! She was 3 months old and already had her first point. It was the cutest thing. We knew with how young she was we didn't want to push her into anything and risk causing issues down the road, so we would just take her out at my parents house on a lead and just let her walk around and worked on her learning her name and to go in the direction we wanted. We also would let her walk in on some planted birds to get a smell for them without being able to get to close. She was pointing almost every single time.
On Thanksgiving morning, it is a family tradition for the guys to go out to the farm and go quail hunting. Kona was about 5 months old and we decided to take her to see what she would do and to let her have a little bit of fun. We were out of the truck and walking maybe 5 minutes or so and she went on point! We were looking at her and then each other like there is no way! Well, she had found and pointed her first wild covey! I almost started crying! I was in shock that our little pup was doing this. The guys were able to flush the birds and shoot a few and Kona just went on her merry way like "yeah, I did that". We continued walking around and had a fence to cross over so Ronald picked her up and right when he sat her down on the other side she immediately went on point right when her feet hit the ground. Again, we were in shock and actually didn't even believe it. Ronald decided to act like he was flushing up a bird and sure enough, a single quail took off flying through the woods. We knew we had found, to us, the best hunting dog around! Her raw talent and knowing to point without even trying to chase at all, was very impressive.

Ronald and I started discussing taking her to hunt tests and maybe even field trials down the road with her after she had some training and of course letting her mature and develop a little more. I always thought we would strictly just have bird dogs for hunting and family outings. Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would be going to hunt tests and field trials. I was excited, but nervous to try it. We decided to just go for it and sign her up for her first hunt test, which is basically a set up hunting experience for the dogs and everyone is on foot, except for the judges. Two dogs and their handlers walk through the designated testing area and are judged on how well their dog points, hunts, retrieves, responds to the handler's command, and backs another dog that is on point. It was a very good experience and the people we met at our first one were great. We felt completely welcomed and comfortable. This started the journey we have found ourselves on ever since. There is nothing like taking your precious dog out to make her the best hunting dog she can be and then getting to watch them kick some ass out on the field. Watching how happy all the dogs are getting to do what they are born and bred to do is easily the best part!





Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Our First Vizsla

I first met the Vizsla breed while working at my previous job. Her name was Eva. She was absolutely gorgeous. I had never seen a dog like this before, and couldn't help but be mesmerized by her looks and the way she looked running around outside with the sun shining on her golden/red hair. I instantly wanted to work with her as much as possible and learn everything I could about the breed. After working with her, I realized that not only was she beautiful and strong, she was one of the sweetest dog's I have ever met. I will never forget the feeling I had after that. Vizslas' were now all I could think about. I had been talking to my husband about it for awhile. He always said if we got a dog together it would have to be a bird dog. Well, lucky me!!! I showed him pictures and videos and finally won him over. After some research, I found a family that had a pregnant female. I was excited to learn they were born June 15, 2015. When they were 2 weeks old, I finally got to go meet them and picked out my very first Vizsla!
A chubby, female we named Kona. We decided on the name Kona, due to my husband being from Hawaii and we were actually in Hawaii visiting his family when they were born. On August 8th I got to see her again. And this time she was coming home with me! The car ride home was great. she slept the whole time and the amazing people I got her from made her a little care package that had a blanket to smell like her mom and siblings. she laid on that blanket the whole way home.

 Once I got her home and in the house, I handed her to my husband and could tell he was just as in love as I was already! I some how felt complete. We have each other, a home and now our perfect Kona girl! I was pleased to see how well she was adapting on day one. She wasn't scared of anything. It felt good knowing we had this confident little pup to control our lives now. I think she knew at the same time we did that we were now owned by a Vizsla. She ran over to her toys first thing and just played her little heart out until she couldn't keep her eyes open anymore and crashed on her new bed. It felt good. That day, I was at complete peace within myself. It was like I was in my own little world. Just me, Ronald, and our V. Little did I know how magical this breed really is. Owning a Vizsla has definitely been hard work and a lot of patience testing; but it is all worth it. LIFE IS GOOD!