Point Pinole Vizsla Walk

The fields are free of foxtails! Yeah. Bailey and Chole joined a Vizsla Walk group for a two hour walk through the fields and paths of Point Pinole Regional Park. Foxtails have been replaced with fennel and lilac bushes. The tide was out so the mud was nice and mushy and cool. The dogs had a blast!

Could you find a better looking group? Sunday morning (this morning) and this group had been walking in the Point Pinole Park for about an hour. Around the drinking fountain by the pier the dogs had to "leash up" for the first time since the parking lot. Took the opportunity to get a jogger to grab a group picture.

As usual, for the first 15 minutes of the walk, the dogs are exploding with the pent up energy they have stored up over night. A group of Vizslas could run a small city with their pent up energy.

Here is a dog pack at its finest. They know that their humans came with them on this walk but they are with their kind.

Nothing could be better for a city or suburban Vizsla than to get to run and play like this!

Nice introduction to the Vizsla video

Great new person's guide to the Vizsla. Thought those who came across this blog and didn't know much about the breed might enjoy. For those of you who already own and love these dogs, then you know how special the breed is.

Briones on Mountain bike

This morning I loaded up the mountain bike and Bailey and Chloe for a ride in the hills of Briones Regional Park.

In the background right over Bailey and Chloe's head is Point Pinole and the SF Bay under a blanket of fog. At this point the dogs have run and trotted for about four miles and it is all down hill back to the truck.

For the first three miles or so they love exploring the hills as I rode. Here I stopped under a shade tree and let them romp in the grassy hills.

Bailey loves to run flat out! When he is roading along with me, off -leash, he stays ahead of me no matter how fast I want to ride.

We are in conditioning training with him for the field trials next month and will be doing this twice a week now that we can get back into the open spaces (foxtails are finally gone).

Want to build up his endurance for in the field trials, dogs are expected to run full out for 20 to 40 minutes.

For Chloe it is great excercise. After a few miles she is just as happy to trot along my side while I peddle on the dirt trails.

If you like mountain biking and live in the Bay area, these are some great trails. On the Yahoo Groups - Vizsla Walk I will post when we go for a ride.

Extreme Bird dog part II

Continuation of the "extreme dog" post by Ray Cooper on Vizsla FT.

... Most other breeds however, particularly the Vizsla, the gene pool of dogs with all these traits is relatively small.

Without a contingent of people willing to stay the course, minority breeds are at risk of going into severe decline as premier pointing dogs.

More than a few hunting breeds have seen this decline when a substantial number of fanciers within the breed began breeding for things like color, coat, hair length, show winning angulation or anything not related to performance.

Fortunately the Vizsla breed has had enough breeders over the years who understood the benefits of these "extreme dogs" to perserve a noble breed as close as possible to what it came here as. Some breeds have not been so fortunate.