Hey all
I found your forum here this afternoon and decided to jump in. Hope that's okay.
A little about myself and Vizsla's.
I've owned Vizsla's for going on 23 years, all have been good honest hunting dogs, triathlon and mountain bike training partners, greatly valued family members, truck seat stealers, and my best friends. All of my Vizsla's were trained to be on foot hunting dogs.
I currently have two new Vizlsa's. One is a 23 month old female that due to unfortunate circumstances was kenneled for most of her life. No social skills at all, humans or dogs!. She was a blank slate 3 months ago, but we're filling up the chalkboard quickly. Having a dog like this is interesting. On one hand she knew absolutely nothing, but on the other hand she had no bad habits, because she had no "habits" other than pulling like a freight train. She's steady now, whistles up, retrieves nicely, heels up well, walks with a slack lead, has been introduced to quail, very birdy! and she's so pretty it hurts, but she's toughie too. She's gonna make a real nice fall woodcock and grouse dog. Right now though, she's still learning to be a dog,and is being allowed to have fun. Real training starts in a month or so.
My other new Vizsla is a one year old Female. She's had some pro training, but just wasn't deemed a long term field trial prospect, which is fine with me. She's gonna be a real rock and roller in the field, one of those take your breath away dogs. Strong, athletic,powerful, very smart and already displays the latent instincts a good bird dog needs. She has the most intense eyes that don't miss a single thing going on. She just challenges me to be "good enough". She's going to be **** on pheasants,and maybe coastal ducks.
In case it isn't obvious, Vizsla's are pretty special to me. I try to meet them halfway on a physical and mental level. Taking each dog's individual personality traits and physical attributes into account and not push them into something they can't physically, or mentally handle.
I'm an "old school" type trainer. Time, patience, persistance and praise. Let the dog work through desire,and obedience naturally follows. Define their "box" and boundry and let them work it out. I don't believe in "roughing them up", unless they bite,( but that's an entirely different matter that needs to be immediately and decisively corrected). I believe in consistent, firm, black and white rules (the boundries). It's unfair to the dog when the rules change, sets them up to fail.
Well that's me and my quick philosophy on dogs. I hope I can both learn and contribute here.
Mike
