Thursday, October 1, 2009

"I Read They Were Good With Kids"

On the Vizsla walk last Sunday there was a family that came along on the walk that asked about our Vizslas. They had two small girls, about 3 and 5 and didn't know much about the breed but how beautiful they were.


I thought of how Bailey is going through the "teen" years and how a young family with kids would handle a strong-willed Vizsla like Bailey. Not well. Chloe also should not have gone into a family with small children as she is a bit flighty at times. Other Vizslas could.

This is where the breeder should evaluate each family to each dog. Not an easy task.

Bailey and Chloe were each evaluated by Rita Martinez, CPDT at about 4 weeks old and a write up of the type of dog to expect. She was "right on" about both of their personalities.

Here is a write up by Rita for the "Vizsla News" titled "I read they were good with kids".


http://www.vccne.net/files/Articles/goodwkids.pdf



Good article to share with those thinking of getting one of these great hunting dogs.

3 comments:

John Connelly said...

We say here that there is no such thing as a bad dog - only bad owners. The better question would be "Is the family good with dogs?"

Unknown said...

you call your dogs your "children", but you have a shock collar on them. those don't feel very nice, try it on yourself.

Rod Michaelson said...

Bertha,

Actually before I ever put the training collar on Bailey I put it on myself and had my wife use it on me. Guess what. It isn't that bad.

I would not and never have used it on my "soft" Chloe. But she isn't as DRIVEN as Bailey and doesn't need that level of correction.

Given the choice of: Bailey chasing a rabbit across a busy road or following a lone coyote into an ambush or a rancher shooting my dog because he bothered his cattle. I'll take the training collar every time.

Field trial dogs have to be given very large amounts of freedom to range "way out there." The training collar used correctly in Bailey's training is completely humane.