Our Dogs’ Other Activities
Much more than dog shows
Over the course of having our dogs, we have done many things with them other than showing.
Primarily we teach them to have good manners in every situation, onlead and in company, so that they are relaxed and people are relaxed around them. We believe good behaviour should be permanent, not just something performed on command, which factors into our recommending that a responsible owner always be aware of his dog’s behaviour, and a dog that is always alert to what his owner expects will be a much happier dog because he is permanently mentally engaged, being focussed on his job of his owner being happy with him.
Cycling, school visits and much, much more!
We have run regularly and have cycled with many of them (who are older now).
Some of our dogs qualified to visit school children in the NSW Government’s Responsible Pet Ownership program.
Dual Ch (T) Neut Ch Metropolis FanfareDe Flair RE CDX and her daughter Metropolis Noel Honey Honey RM CCD CDX have undertaken enough obedience, agility, rally and tracking activities for all our dogs put together!
We have been fortunate to be able to take our younger dogs out to test on live quail, to confirm the strength of their working gundog instincts.
We also like to take them swimming at the beach, or if that is not possible, have provided them with stock troughs to enable them to immerse themselves at home.
As an example of how easily a well disciplined and well behaved vizsla can adapt, when Robyn broke her leg, she could only walk 4 vizslas 1 kilometre around the block daily (because a further distance on crutches was too awkward). All 4 dogs happily walked along beside her on loose leads, for 6 weeks, without any behavioural changes otherwise.
We often take our dogs to Sydney to visit friends and relatives. At night, they generally lounge on the sofa or on dog beds relaxing while we are reading, or perhaps they play with some of their numerous soft toys and chew toys. That’s if they are not outside hunting imaginary mice (don’t ask!)
Our dogs are well rounded individuals who we are confident would adapt quickly to any activity or situation which is presented to them thoughtfully. This is consistent with the feedback from Our Families.
