Tuesday, September 8, 2009

How a Vizsla ages


After all these years I was under the understanding that dogs age about seven human years to every calendar year.

A chart that shows how pets age faster than people gave me a new understanding of how our dogs age.
















The curve is actually quite different.

http://www.npwm.com/mc_pet_age_calculator.asp?menu_id=405&menu_item_id=1


So Chloe is now a 26-month-old which equals about 25 in human years.



Bailey who is 14 months equals 17 years old in human years. Now I know why he is "testing" me. I remember those days.





So that chart shows a 50 pound dog aging as follows:


1 year = 15

2 years = 24

3 years = 29

4 years = 34

5 years = 39

6 years = 42

7 years = 46

8 years = 50

9 years = 55

10 years = 60

11 years = 65

12 years = 69

a 15-year-old Vizsla would equal a human of 84-years-old.



They grow up so fast!

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi There!!!
My family extended this year with a male Vizsla, Boomer. We couldnt be happier! However, Boomer wont eat "good" food. He has only consistently ate the food the breeder started him on, Purina Puppy Chow. We do make sure he gets ample exercise every day. But most of Boomers ribs are very visible and I'm not convinced he will put much more weight on. He cant be much over 30 lbs at the age of 6 months. Can anyone tell me if this is normal? Or perhaps a food suggestion?
Thanks so much!
Elyse

Rod Michaelson said...

Elyse,
A great way to gather information on your new Vizsla is the Hungarian Vizsla Forum. There is a great search tool that if you enter "weight" will give you hundreds of posts from Vizsla owners around the world. You can reach the forum from my "websites that I love" area.

Enjoy your pup. His weight sounds about right to me. I like to see a bit of rib in an athlete.

Kara said...

Rod,

Your response (last year!) to Elyse's question put my mind at ease. I have a 4-month-old Vizsla male. I feed him the recommended amount of Taste of the Wild, yet he's markedly more ribby than his siblings, who we see at weekly obedience course. He seems healthy and happy, weighs about 25 lbs (hard to tell when he wiggles on the scale so much!), but I sometimes get self conscious that others will think I'm starving him. If 30 lbs sounds reasonable to you for a 6-month-old, I'll be patient and not worry about Waldo's ribby-ness.

Rod Michaelson said...

Kara,
I'd increase the amount a bit. He won't get fat and as he grows he can use the extra protein. Major wiggling consumes a lot of calories. Add an extra cup or what we do is add ground turkey meat that we cook.

Unknown said...

Love this site! Our first Vizsla was Chloe and we were hooked. What a dog! We lost her to cancer 2 weeks before her 12th birthday and within a month we had Hazel because we just couldn't stand the house without a Vizsla. We have to other well loved elder dogs but there's just something about the "aire" of the Vizsla. Hazel is now a year and a half and at the end of August (6 weeks) we will be picking up Gretel and we will be a 2 Vizsla family. I love hearing all the stories, questions, issues, suggestions and solutions! Thanks to all that post.

Anonymous said...

I have 4 Vizslas. 3 females and 1 male. One of my females had the same problem and I was told to put regular plain yogurt on her food and he did help.

Unknown said...

I LOVE VIZSLAS .....I LIVE IN GREECE AND I WANT TO OWN A MALE VIZSLA ......BUT I DON 'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT GOOD BREEDERS THAT RESPECT THESE AMAZING DOGS .....I WANT TO GIVE ME INFORMATION IF IT 'S POSSIBLE .........PLEASE HELP

Rod Michaelson said...

Anna, you are a short distance from Hungary where you should find many breeders of this wonderful dog. Find dog shows and talk to breeders. You have a great chance of getting a wonderful Vizsla.

L. Conkey Shaw said...

Our Vizsla is 14.5 years old and I did not realize the arc of the age difference. Thank you for this. It has been a hard couple of months because of the many changes she is going through. But yesterday she was in the marsh mucking around like a puppy. She was so happy. Today she won't eat a thing.
Charleston SC.

phil said...

Our Vizsla is also @ 14.5 and he is going through changes too. Running around like a puppy, hurdling downed trees just last weekend. Wouldn't eat this am though, and unfortunately we found our recently that he has a tumor in his bladder. We are hoping for the best, he is on a prescription from the vet. I hope your girl is doing well.

Daisy Kennedy said...

I rescued a female 11 years ago. I think she's about 12ish now. We moved cross country 6 months ago. She's been stressed by the move. Not crate trained anymore and is SUPER clingy. Her energy is getting lower fast. I had all her labs done recently and while everything looks good, I can't help but think this move really took the light from my girls eyes. She's also had a couple of episodes (neurological?) where she can't get her muscles to work the way they should (inability to move forward, could not get her foot under her leg, couldn't bear weight on hips). Could those episodes be brought on by stress?

Unknown said...

I got a 2.5 year old female Viszla from a hunting buddy earlier this year because she would not hunt. She had a litter right before we got her and she is still not fixed yet. I have owned her for about 4 months and she was showing all the signs of a good hunter; loves to run, listens well, lots of excitement in the field, good pointer, knows how to find birds, gets birdy, etc. But she is gunshy. The first time I took her out was a couple weeks ago and, although we didn't shoot, there was a lot of shooting around us so she took off for two hours. Fortunately, we got her back! Yesterday I had a friend shoot a 22 pistol about 60yds away while I played with her and she immediately went right to my side with her tail between her legs. What can I do to help break her of the fear of gunshots?

Rod Michaelson said...

Todd,
If she is gun shy, like my Chloe, she will never hunt. She is fearful of loud sounds such as fireworks and thunder. Just who she is. Bailey is my bird hunter and Chloe is his best friend and ball hunter and retriever. There is an article on "guy shy" in this blog but I don't think you have your hunting buddy in her. What part of the world do you live?
https://redbirddog.blogspot.com/2009/06/get-yourself-great-trainer.html

Unknown said...

Rod, She has too much hunting drive for me to not at least try. I have heard from a few trainers that it is possible to break them, depending on the severity, by using a variety of techniques. One fellow told me he was able to break his dog using sound CD's by Masters voice (and his dog is no longer even afraid of thunder) so that's where I'm starting. I'll let you know how it goes. Another guy I know who has worked with bird dogs for many years told me to take her out in the field and get her birdy then have a friend stand about 200 yds away with a .22 and shoot while she's after a bird, watching for her response. If she doesn't respond, you move closer until you get a slight response then stop for the day. Next time you start a little closer to the sensitive distance and see if she'll let you get slightly closer. I'm going to be very patient and take the long view with her. Worst case, like you said, I have a buddy and a great dog in her. I wish I could get another one to train up to hunt, but I don't have the space in our little home for another one and my wife would not be keen to the idea since she has to do much of the work with her during the day while I'm at work. Pittsburgh, PA.


Best, Todd

Rod Michaelson said...

Todd,
Best of luck. You may just win. We wanted the second dog, as they keep each other company when we are out so it was easier. We tried the CD series you talked about. If I can still find it I can mail to you.
I think the second approach could work given enough time and that she has a HUGE bird drive.
Either way you've got a great dog in her. She will give you everything she has.
Rod

Unknown said...

Update on my gunshy dog (Jaz); I found that she goes bonkers over laser pointers and have been using it in conjunction with the Master's voice CD's to distract her and she did quite well. The CD took around 6 weeks for me to do and I did not see any signs of nervousness from her. She will actually sleep through the CD's now. Last week we were at my father-in-law's and folks were shooting handguns right outside. Three months ago she was afraid and sat on the couch. This time I brought the laser pointer and played with her while the shooting was happening and she took notice of the shooting, but then played and was OK. I will use the same approach until she is totally cool with guns outside, then get a bunch of birds and start working in the field. I'm just gonna take my time and be cautious. Todd

Rod Michaelson said...

Fantastic work Todd. Yes, slow and easy. Best of luck in 2018!

Anonymous said...

I have a male viszla Also, he is now Nine years old. he was a very finicky eater and wouldn’t eat. It took us so long to find out that he is allergic to chicken cut out the chicken. He’s a whole new dog now loves to eat

Anonymous said...

I have a male vizsla Who’s been a bad eater most of his life he’s nine years old now. at the age of seven I moved and brought him to a different vet. She told me to cut out all chicken from his diet. She said if a dog isn’t allergic to chicken given him chicken, he will get allergic to chicken. I cut out all chicken from his diet. He’s been eating great ever since!