Hello, just wanted to announce my newest project on Luna’s blog as well. I mean she helped inspire it after all. ( Did you know her official name is Dynata’s Bound to Inspire” ??)
” V is for Vizsla”
Head on over to my AKG Inspiration Blog to read all about it. I am looking for photo submissions for more letters of the alphabet and I need your help. Mixed breeds don’t rule yourself out either I probably won’t limit myself to just purebreds. We gotta spice it up a bit right?
Our love of shed hunting is rubbing off on our good friend Ed, master of Team orange.
Here is the furry part of Team Orange… unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of Ed, weird right? I am sure he doesn’t mind though.
This is miss Winnie
And this is Finn, do you think they enjoy running in the fields?
Sometimes all that running makes you hot and you just HAVE to take a dip in the swamp… by laying smack down in the water. This is apparently a trademark move of Finn’s but it happened so fast I hardly was able to catch it. Typical male Vizsla too, wire haired or not they all love to do it to cool off.
He doesn’t see anything wrong with it.
Luna doesn’t either, though she prefers to dip her toes and legs in it as she searches for fish and bugs. While our dogs are off hunting and chasing anything that moves, we continue our search for antlers… sometimes we get lucky, but more often than not we just find parts of deer
I love watching dogs run the fields and woods, and boy do our dogs love it (really hard to get photos of them too) When we are out a ways in the woods and away from other possible hikers I usually just let Luna range. I make sure I can see a glimpse of her every couple minutes. Honestly that is usually how I keep track of her, I stop and just scan the woods for movement. You can’t usually hear her moving around the woods unless she is a couple feet from you. She is like a little deer running around the woods, I love watching her. And somehow she always manages to keep an eye on where we are at and never gets left behind. And if it’s been too long since I saw her I just call her and she comes running, usually from the opposite direction I thought she was.
I often make her sit and wait, wipe her clean of spit on her face and the occasional pricker that she gets on her face… then I release her to go back to what she loves, running the woods. She sometimes is required to come over and get some loving, but really she much rather do without that when it comes to being in the woods. She is such a different dog in the woods compared to the house, which I love and hate (tests me a lot more in the woods than house since it’s so enticing to her).
This outing was the first time our two dogs have met Ed’s two dogs… we were slightly worried about it as both our girls are kinda picky and more serious about other dogs, and both our boys are rather oblivious and goofy. So we just made sure everyone just gave everyone else space. No greetings needed really, just go be dogs and run the fields and ignore eachother. I am very proud of how everyone did outside of a couple greetings to the humans causing interactions there were no problems. And as the hours wore on they began to run the fields together checking in with various humans that were nearby. So fun to see and good for everyone.
And while the dogs ran around like typical Vizslas… the humans scoured the grounds for antlers… Which leads to neat bone finds
And sometimes those jaws can lead to old “dead heads.” This one would have had antlers on it but it was so old they had fallen off. Dead heads are basically a skull with antlers on it. Not exactly like a shed but they still count for something in the shed hunter world.
And sometimes we even find antlers. After 3 hours of walking the woods and fields chris came up with a nice one.
We encourage the dogs to take part too
If chris and I are separated when we find one, we will often get Wyatt to bring the antler to the other. It’s pretty fun to pass antlers and bones back and forth for the other to see. Wyatt loves it too and has begun to automatically take it. Now we need to work on him bringing them to other people for us too. Like our friend Ed.. But maybe not an antler as big as this next one.
Why you ask?? Because it may just seem inconsiderate since our awesome friend Ed has yet to find a shed.
His girl Winnie found one though… and decided to pose with it.
Really though she found the one I placed in the grass to take a picture of, and she Refused to budge from that spot. She was going to have a picture with her antler. Such a ham.
After all the running in the fields and mud we took the pups to the creek to wash off. Really steep banks lead to this creek but the dogs don’t mind at all. At one point Finn climbed out of the river and up a bank that was 90 degrees steep, no joke. And he didn’t have a problem with it at all. Wish I had a good picture of that.
But since I failed at recording Finn’s awesome bank climbing skills I will leave you with a picture of some pterodactyl tracks 
(PS. do you know what made those tracks???? who can guess it. )
( PSS. this weekend we spent 9 hours and some odd minutes in the woods shed hunting… the dogs are totally wiped out. WHoot!)
Holy cow it’s been forever since I have posted! How has everyone been? Is there even anyone reading anymore? I wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t. But even if there aren’t any readers I shall share what we have been up to.
Shed hunting season is here again! This is the time of year we spend extra amounts of time in the woods, by we I mean me and the Mr. and the dogs. Yes we get out pretty often anyhow, especially on weekends, but the outings lately usually have a certain purpose in mind. Antlers! It takes a loooooottttt of looking to find them but I think we are getting better at it somehow. Here are some finds from this year and some other fun photos. Those that follow me on Instagram probably have seen all of these already.
Chris found this really nice one smack in the middle of the trail, if I had looked right a second before him I would have seen it.
And we are becoming quite talented at finding chewed up ones. I will share our entire collection to date once the season is over. A fair share are chewed on by critters.
This one came right after I had just said “where are all the antlers at!” I looked up and there it was in a patch of grass. Too funny.
Sometimes I find other neat finds… the plants were growing into this bottle on their own. Seems like something that someone would try and sell on Etsy
I have always loved finding feathers too, many of them end up being brought home. Not sure why I didn’t bring this one home, my dad would have liked it for his art. I tend to collect too many things already. This is a Turkey feather btw.
After finding antlers we always get the dogs to hold them for photos too. Wyatt looks proud of this one, hopefully next season he will be helping us find them. (forgot to train him before this season)
Luna seemed more interested in eating this one than holding it for me. Everyone always asks if ours like to chew antlers, and I feel kind of sad when I reply with “not really” and here we are with a pile of antlers. They just don’t like to work that hard for their chews I guess
I love her expression in this one, classic.
Lots of deer sign, but nice rubs like this don’t usually result in a shed right under the tree like I hope. So we just keep looking.
And other times in the middle of a field you will find ones like this. This is the antler we are calling Bubba, our biggest find to date size wise. I love how it curled around Luna’s head in this shot.
This is the Mr.’s latest haul, from ONE outing. In the SAME general location we had just spent 4 hours scouring with 3 sets of human eyes (our friend Ed joined us this past weekend, I shall share photos from that later on)
This is pretty much what our dogs looked like after our outing… the entire rest of the day.
Luna is not shy about taking over my spot in the bed, pillow and all. Thanks for the mud you left in the bed Luna.
Guess how much I love having a dog this tired though? Only took 4 hours of running the woods off leash. She could have kept going too. Hopefully the snow will melt before this weekend so we can shed hunt more, I can’t believe I just said that. I love snow, darn the adult in me.
Something I really really enjoy doing is helping people decide on a dog breed. I have always loved learning about dog breeds, and when you add further investigation into behavior and personalities of these breeds it just gets all the more interesting. I have collected several breed books, and this is one of my favorites.
It’s not a complicated book, it breaks things down into categories such as: 9 to 5 dog, city dog, high input high output, good dogs that are hard to find, companion, watchdog etc… guess where the Vizsla falls in this book?
High Input High Output. To me it comes as no surprise that it also is part of the Watchdog category.
Here is what this book says about the breed, keep in mind we all know how complex this breed can be so this is just a brief look into the breed.
Let me know if you are having problems reading it, but it appears the photos of the text came through pretty decent (thank you new iPhone)
I think the possible drawback section really hits on an area that is not too commonly talked about among Vizsla owners.
“Sensitive though fearless with a strong protective instinct. Although this description sounds great it is fairly hard combination to pull off”
Soooooo true, this breed is so complex and this sums a lot of it up quite well. This is why I tell people it often is not an easy first dog for people and still may not be for those that are a bit more seasoned too. The combination of physical AND mental exercise needs as well as their above average brains and awareness can make them quite the challenge when these needs are not met. I researched a ton before I settled on the Vizsla breed for myself, months and months not to mention all my interest before I ever looked to getting a dog for myself… and I STILL wondered if I got the right breed those first two years. I also think in some ways I got more of a “True Vizsla” than others… don’t eat me for that statement but she is very much the hunter, independent thinker, and not overly canine social (when given the option of hunting/exploring). I don’t hold it against her, but I feel she likes to be the exception to the breed more often than not. She is far too much like me too 
In any case the protective instincts can make for a challenge when a firm consistent leader does not step forward in the family. It’s our job to teach them how to discern threats and non threats. But I feel that is the case with all breeds, but especially those that already have strong protective instincts, more often than not they will not be able to discern properly without our guidance in this complicated world.
So how did you pick your breed? Any tips for those looking?
Speaking of books this is another one I really want to buy, looks like a great book about dog body language
If I could pick one thing I wish I could do more of (with the Vizsla too of course) it would be hiking. When I first got Luna I was between jobs so we frequently went hiking down by the river.
This is where she first began to learn the art of posing for me… We had so much fun exploring together
She found her first turtle on one of these early walks. She still finds them too, probably because they are too slow to get away by the time she has tracked them down.
Can’t get much better than hiking and exploring the woods for 2-3 hours for a Vizsla pup. Sadly, responsibility soon took over and we don’t get out nearly as much as I would like. I also prefer to hike with others as it’s just more fun, but those others are in short supply too. But sometimes we get lucky and we find some 2 legged and 4 legged friends to go hiking with us. (pardon photo quality, point and shoot was acting up)
You know I HAD to pose them when I saw this. That’s Luna on the left and Phoebe with her owner Amy on the right. Phoebe was not too keen on posing by herself so high up so mom stayed to give her more confidence.
Thanks for coming with us Amy and Phoebe! Hopefully we can go back again soon
Let’s back up a bit though…. on the trail we found this random neat pile of rocks. Not sure where it was from… then again we were hiking up a mountain
We also found this tree that appears to have been struck by lightening! So I took a vertical panoramic of it. Pretty cool huh
It was a nice mildly strenuous hike, but finally we reached an overlook… can you tell neither one of our girls seemed to have much respect for the cliff edge?
Not a bad view
Luna is so not worn out, Phoebe on the other hand got quite a workout pulling her owner up the mountain
One day I will be in shape enough that I actually look half decent in a summit photo. Thanks to my friend nicole who also came on this hike and snapped these pics for us.
And of course an outtake too, Luna was barking because a treat was being waved and she had to sit… little booger
It was a great hike, hopefully I can get back there this year to get some fall shots… for today I will settle for a trip to the hiking spot along the river with the pups.
Wow has it been busy here this summer, despite that we managed to get to my friend’s pool again. Here are some of my favorite shots from the day. I didn’t feel like wearing the mask on so these were all shot blind again.
I believe she was getting ready to do a left turn here. Pretty awesome, look at her little tail rudder too
No worries Luna was not the only one getting in on the fun
I think this shot is pretty darn cool, even if technically kinda flawed, it makes you think.
LOVE this one too, I need to get some of these printed.
I have been trying to get Luna back into retrieving. Living with a Holy-Crap-I-Lose-My-Mind-For-Retrieving dog *coughWYATTcough* the focus has not been on Luna lately in that department. She did quite a few retrieves when I was kind enough to hold Tank Wyatt back, its good for him to learn to honor her retrieves too.
Half drowned ducks are especially fun to retrieve.
All that retrieving is hard work, gotta take breaks sometimes.
Two of my favorite ladies. Thanks again Heidi for letting us invade your pool!
Another trick video… cuz we can
(here if it doesn’t play above)
Pardon the dog bark in the middle of video… that would be the ringtone for the boss… who has the best timing
You can see me using the food tube here, she loves when we work with this. Usually less mess too and timing is easier with it.
If you missed the older posts with the trick bonanza here is the video with some of her other tricks
(click here if it won’t play here)
Sorry if it’s hard to hear what I am saying, have to try and keep it calm with her as she gets pretty worked up sometimes. But maybe you can catch me asking for: Sit, down, stand, touch, shake, high five, spin, bow, speak, speak softly (the lil talking part), and play dead.
She now knows peek-a-boo… and we are working on roll over but she is not keen on that for some reason. And it’s hard to make room for that one and keep her from banging into things. Just a little of what we have been up to lately, work has been keeping things busy for me. Hopefully we can get out this weekend for some fun.
