Saturday Shoot Near Basingstoke

We went on a new shoot yesterday with Auntie Katie and my mate Ollie. Brrr it was cold when we arrived and we had a snow shower but that soon passed thankfully.
There were only 4 dogs in the beating line and we worked really hard. We were the only two HPRs and we just kept holding point after point, the beaters soon realised we were NEVER wrong whilst on point and started to look out for us going onto point. Me and Ollie havent worked together before but we were such a great team, can't wait to work with him again :-).
Here we are at lunchtime, our Mum's put our Equafleeces on so we kept snuggly warm whilst standing around, we don't wear them for working though as we would rip them to pieces diving through all the brambles.

Finchdean shoot 15th Dec

Well I am really a busy boy at the moment, me and Mum are working on four different shoots and I'm LOVING it!
Here are some pictures from the Finchdean shoot last Thursday.....

Here I am ready for the off with the beaters, it was a gorgeous sunny, but cold, day

And here is me with my 'serious' working face on, we'd just walked up a huge hill, I had to drag Mum up behind me!

Mum loves this photo of the two of us, she calls it 'one woman and her dog', kind up sums up the day as we work as a team and we have such fun together.



Sat in the back of the tractor trailer and also hanging out of the back as I love to watch where we are going!


Here I am coming back to Mum with a pheasant I retrieved. I shouldnt really have retrieved it as the picking up dogs were there but I was a little bit naughty as when I had flushed it and saw it shot I decided that it was MINE and flew off across the field (with Mum blasting the whistle trying to recall me!) and retrieved it and then brought it all the way back across the field, you can see by my eyes the 'red mist' had descended and that was that. Well I am a Vizsla after all and we can be a bit stubborn at times

My first pay packet

I went on a shoot yesterday at Chalton, it was a new one for us. The undergrowth was pretty tough in places, Mum went through some thick brambles but I decided I'm far too intelligent for that so went round the outside on the path, leaving Mum to do the tough work!

Dont get me wrong I did work hard and was pretty pooped by the end of the day.

Do you know what the best bit was though.......... I got paid this time for working, how cool is that so now my Piggy Bank has a whole £20 in it, Dad said he'd take me shopping to spend it on something nice!

My first bus trip!

Mum decided that instead of driving me and Winston to the vets (Winston was due his boosters) that we would walk from Emsworth to Havant which is a couple of miles instead. It was bitterly cold and I had my cosy coat on, it was also getting a bit dark and I wondered what Mum was playing at as the road we have to walk on has no street lights and we'd be walking in the dark on the way back!
But oh no Mum had other ideas, she gets these bright ideas sometimes, after the vets we walked to the bus station. Boy that was a busy place with loads of people, prams, wheelchairs, dogs, smells and lots of noise. Lots of people made a fuss of me and Winston which we accepted. We were very good and just stood there calmly watching the world go by.
Then a big green bus pulled up and Mum told us to get on, we went right to the back of the bus, I jumped up on the back seat but that's not allowed - puh! - so I had to sit on the floor. I was a bit nervous and had my tail between my legs for a little while as the bus juddered and bounced around (more even than dad's speedy driving).

The funniest thing was when the bus braked and Winston, who was sat beautifully, did a bum slide about 2 meters down the bus. The journey was only 15 minutes and we were fine and behaved really well. There was also another dog on the bus, he was a veteran of bus journeys his owner told Mum as he goes on it every day.

It was certainly something different and once I got used to it it was really quite fun. Dad's promised to take us on a train next - choo choo!!

Time to catch up!

Sorry it's been so long since my last post, Mum's started a new job so we don't get much time on the computer now. I have finally been allowed on here so can you let you know what we've been up to.
Well the shooting season has started again so we've been busy working on those. All my training through the summer on working tests and stuff has come in really handy. I love working and Mum is very pleased with me as I work very hard and calmly. I love doing the beating stuff but also do the odd bit of picking up too but do prefer flushing the birds up and out.
We have to get up a bit earlier in the morning now as Mum has to be at work a bit earlier so it's dark in the woods but it's ok as we meet up with Auntie Katie with Willow, Ollie and Tasha. All us dogs are wearing our flashing colours and the humans have torches, we must be quite a scary vision in the woods, five flashing colours flying all over the place like loonies.
I've been a bit poorly lately, last week my left leg was lame and this week it was my right leg, I didnt feel very hungry and was a bit down. Dad took me to the vets and they did some blood tests as my lymph nodes (whatever they are) were up as well. By the time the results came back I was back to my normal self eating like crazy and then running all those calories off up the woods. Think I just had a bit of a bug but don't worry I'm fine now :-)
Mum has spoilt me a little bit and has bought me a new coat, Dad said I was a pampered pooch but Mum explained that it is for when I'm working as there is a lot of standing around inbetween hand and I get all cold and shivery which is no good for my muscles. It also came in handy when I wasnt well last week as she put it on me when we went for short walks so I stayed nice and toasty warm. Mum has said they do a human version and she would love one as she is so impressed with mine, needless to say Dad just rolled his eyes and mumbled something about owners looking like their dogs!!! Anyhow I think I look rather smart, dont you?

The Emsworth Crew

Well here we all are this afternoon at Standsted Forest, Rowlands Castle.

We were made to sit still for this photo - so not fair!

Left to right - Tasha, Willow, Ollie, Winston and Me

It's ok though as once the photo had been taken we were allowed to resume our mad running and games. We all love getting together and running as a pack we are all such good mates.

Privett Working Test

We headed off again yesterday for another working test, this time at Privett which is only a 30 minute drive away from home.
The weather was much kinder than last week's test. The ground was fabulous, when we arrived me and Ollie went whizzing across a field of stubble like a couple of lunatics.
Mum and Auntie Katie registered and then we were told that we had to drive to the water test as it was 10 minutes drive away. We all jumped in the car and headed off, trying to follow the route map we'd been given. Well Mum was useless at map reading and we had to do a U turn at one point on a single track road!
Eventually found the place, the water was really icky with green sludge all across the top of it and boy was it stinky!!!!
Here's a picture of it.....


Mum set me up on the bank, the judge threw the dummy, I'm afraid I didnt wait and dived straight in, swam to the dummy and brought it back to shore, I did spit it out at the water's edge instead of presenting to hand. I then shook stinky water all over the judge and Mum, Mum had turned a shade of green herself when she got a whiff of me!

We then all jumped into Auntie Katie's car and headed off down an ever narrowing single track road, there were dumb pheasant everywhere just wandering down the middle of the road, Ollie and I were going beserk in the car trying to get to them, Mum and Auntie Katie had to put the windows on the car up as they thought we were going to jump out so the car was really stinky!

We then did the hunting, the field was great loads of open space and a really strong head wind. Here's Auntie Katie and Ollie doing their test.


And here's me and Mum doing our test


nce again I was a bit of a velco vizzie and stayed pretty close to Mum.

Then after lunch it was time to do the retrieves. The blind was first and I went steaming out, stood right next to the dummy, Mum did the 'lost' screechy thing but I came running back emtpy handed (well empty mouthed). Mum tried to send me back again but I went all silly and started jumping all over her :-(

Then we walked down to the seen split retrieve. A spinone came shooting out of the undergrowth which made me jump. Then when we got to the judge I was really spooked, I was shaking all over and didnt want to sit at all, the judge was lovely and kind but I was having none of it. The dummy was thrown under shot but I wouldnt go any further than 4 paces away from Mum, Mum wanted me to feel I'd acheived so she walked out with me and I finally picked up the dummy, then there was another shot and another dummy was thrown, I was really down by now and just wanted to get away so Mum walked with me to the dummy and then gave me big cuddles when I retrieved it.

We all went back to the car where Mark with the lovely Mika (a very pretty girlie viz) gave me and Ollie a pheasant to practice retrieves with. Oh that was more like it and we had fun with that.

I'm afraid once again my scores were pretty dismal, zero for both retrieves, 15/25 for the hunting and 13/25 for the water. There were 13 dogs running and I had the honour of being in last place..................

Mum said she knows its pilot error (ie her fault) and she is going to take me right back to basics on retrieves as that is really letting us down, hopefully the light will go on soon.

We do have good fun though and we've learnt loads and met lots of lovely people and dogs.

A huge thank you to Auntie Katie for introducing us to the working test circuit and showing us the ropes, we wouldnt have done it without you x

Laverstoke Working Test

Me, Mum, Auntie Katie and Ollie went to Laverstoke Working Test last Sunday.

We turned up and the weather was a bit overcast but not raining. Here's everyone registering.


About 5 minutes after the photo above was taken the heavens just opened and everyone scarpered to find shelter under the trees. The rain was really heavy and it just poured and poured.



The first two tests were a seen and a blind retrieve. On the seen I went flying into the woodland to find the dummy, stood on top of it and then ran back to Mum, she tried sending me again but I didn't understand what I was looking for. On the blind I was really on a different planet, Mum said it was her 'pilot' error as she hadn't set me up properly, she ended up walking all the way down to where the dummy had been put on a bench.

Then it was off to the water, the queue was pretty long and we stood around getting wetter and wetter, great weather for ducks! The dummy was thrown on the opposite river bank and I dived straight into the water, no hesitation, swam to the other bank, got out of the water, went to the dummy, Mum shouted 'lost' in her high pitch squeaky voice, I touched the dummy and then thought I can't be bothered to bring it back so swam back to Mum.

We broke for lunch, we went back to Auntie Katie's car, it was so wet that she was trying to dry her socks off on the steering wheel!


It did brighten up a bit so we could get out of the car, here's some pictures:

I was pretty fed up as was cold and wet........


Mum I'm bored now..........



My mate, the gorgeous Ollie


Good way to get dry Ollie, cuddle up to your Mum!


We then went off to do the hunting, it was in a field of long grass, I did quarter pretty well but as we Vizzies are know as Velcro dogs I did stay pretty close to Mum, the judge said I was devoted to Mum (Judge speak for a bit of a mummy's boy I think)

I dont know what our scores were but I know I didnt do very well, in mitigation this was a Novice test so pretty stiff competition.

We had fun though and that's the main thing.

Our friend Barry

Barry is a lovely gent who we meet sometimes when we are walking in the woods. He always carries beef jerky with him so whenever we see him we rush to say hello to him and his gorgeous dog Shea.

We all have to sit before he gives us our treats, here's a picture of me,Winston, Ollie, Willow and Shea all lined up ready for our treats.

We LOVE Barry!!!

SRHP Working Test, Balcombe Estate

Another early start yesterday morning, knew straight away what was going on as Mum was loading up the car with all our 'working test' day out gear which basically is everything you can imagine including the kitchen sink!!!

We headed off to Rivers Wood, Balcombe Estate near Haywards Heath for the Slovakian Rough Haired Pointer Club Working Test. Mum was armed with the route map and we made great time until we arrived in Haywards Heath, it all went terribly wrong, Mum was driving around and around for 30 minutes trying to find the way, she was getting really stressed as by now we were running a bit late. Eventually she found the turning and we made it with 10 minutes to spare. I wasnt stressed at all, quite comfortable in the back thank you very much stretched out chilled!

The ground was lovely and we met up with some familiar faces from previous tests we've been too. We'd entered into Special Beginners which was being judged by John Parnham, we really like him as he is a cracking trainer.

First up was the 'seen retrieve', I was number 3 in the running order so watched the first two dogs go. Then it was our turn. I went straight out to the dummy, picked it up and legged it back to Mum full speed, she was grinning from ear to ear so knew I'd done what I was supposed to do. I scored 23/25.

Next up was the hunting, John spent a long time explaining about running your dog into the wind, Mum is still trying to work this one out, I know what he's talking about which is just as well! I was sent off and did my quartering and went into gorse bushes and all sorts. Stopped on the whistle when Mum blasted it. Again she had that silly grinning thing going on. I scored 22/25.

We broke for lunch, the walk back to the car was pretty long. Mum shared her pastie with me and I had a few bonios before having a little snooze, it's hard work all this test lark you know!


After lunch it was time for the blind retrieve with gun shot. I was still a bit sleepy and chilled when it came to our turn (think Mum was too!) with some encouragement I eventually realised I was supposed to be running into the woods to find the dummy after the gun was fired. Problem is you see when I hear gunshot I automatically assume 'pheasant', am slowly starting to realise it can mean dummy too. I did return and present to hand so made up for the slow start. I scored 19/25

We the did some obedience work, not under test conditions, I walked to heel out and then sat, Mum threw the dummy, I had to then walk to heel back, sit again and then was sent to get the dummy. Happily did this as had blown off the cobwebs from my lunchtime siesta.

Last up was the water. The queue to do the test was massive as the Novice and Graduate dogs were still running. We settled down for a long wait and I had snoozes again on Mum's lap.

Mum woke me up to tell me it was time for us to do the water test. Mum sat me and told me to wait at the water's edge, which I did, then the dummy was thrown, Mum sent me in, you should have seen the dive reckon I could take it up professionally. I picked the dummy up but silly me I managed to swallow a load of water and started choking, Mum thought I was going to drop the dummy, oh no I wasnt!! I swam back to shore with it firmly in my mouth but spluttering all the way and then plonked it in Mums hand and then shook water all over her!!! I scored 25/25.

After a little while the presentations were done. You'll never guess what.......... I came third, we went up and we were given a certificate, rosette and more importantly loads of lovely dog food, I started drooling when I saw the packets!!!

Mum has said that this is our last Special Beginners as we need to start Novice next, only problem is the Novice standard is so much higher and we've loads to learn but I guess everyone was new to Novice once.

Thankfully the journey home was not stressful at all and we made good time.

Winston and Dad had a lovely day, Winston had gone with him to the butchers. Dad had sat him outside the shop and went in to ask if he had any bones for dogs, he said he didnt, then he looked at Winston sat outside giving that Labrador eyes look and said hang on I'll find you something. So lucky Winston had a lamb bone.

I shared some of my goodies that I'd won with Winston too, I think he likes me going out for the day!!

Langstone Harbour

Mum and Auntie Katie were off of work today so they decided to take us all, that's Me, Winston, Tasha, Ollie and Willow, to Langstone Harbour for a splash around at lunchtime.
We had a lovely time retrieving balls and generally splashing around and cooling off!

Here's some pictures (yes mum actually remembered her camera)


I went after Ollie's ball, well it was much better than mine as it had a squeaky, poor Ollie as between me and Winston we kept racing him to his ball as ours were just boring tennis balls.


He did get to get his ball in the end though



Tasha decided that she would start pointing at the seagulls


Here are all us youngsters watching the master Tasha at work, she is really something to behold, us lot have a lot to learn to be as good as she is!!!

HV Working Test, Launton, Nr Bicester

Was woken up way too early yesterday morning, 5.30am, thought Mum had finally lost the plot! Had a quick walk around the woods with Winston, then breakfast, then loaded into the car and off we headed to the Hungarian Vizsla working test at Launton nr Bicester.

The car journey was two hours, I thought we'd never get there it was sooooo long :-(

Mum parked up and I jumped out of the car, NOT IMPRESSED, the field was full of thistles, I did the 'precious' Vizsla routine of refusing point blank to walk on the nasty thistles. Mum rolled her eyes and then carried me out of the field, much to the amusement of everyone watching, she wasnt half muttering under her breath at me about being a 'right girls blouse'!!!

Hunting was up first, we were number 30 so had to wait for a couple of hours before our turn. The judge was lovely and Mum explained we were Novice Class novices so she was really kind and helpful. I had to quarter across a field, I did kind of run out of puff though as it was mega hot and I'd been waiting around for so long but I still did a reasonable run so Mum was pleased. The judge gave us a few pointers for future training.

As I was so hot Mum decided the best plan was to do the water test next, oh yes I thought that was a good idea too some cool water to splash around in. Couldnt understand why Mum was making me sit and wait at the water's edge though I was desperate to dive in and cool off. I had a right wiggly bottom but did eventually sit still and mum took the lead off, she told me to wait which I did for a while but then the call of the water took over and I dived in just as the steward threw the dummy. I retrieved the dummy no problem and swam back to shore but was still mega hot so stood up to my armpits in the water cooling off and refused to come out until I was good and ready. Finally came out and gave the dummy to Mum.

We broke for lunch and Mum had set up a sheet over the car to keep it cool so I had a nice little tent thing going on.



Ok Mum I'm fully rested and ready to go again now.............


We then went on to do the split retrieves. I'm afraid we were a bit out of our depth on this, the first dummy was thrown the other side of a hedge and I was supposed to run through a gap with wire across it and retrieve it, Mum was pretty useless with her directions and I simply did not have a clue what she was on about, she walked up to me and that was better but I still wouldnt go through the gap without her.
Then the other dummy was thrown into a pen, never done anything like this before, I could see the dummy but didnt understand I was supposed to jump into the pen to get it, so Mum jumped in and showed me how to do it, I then followed her in, I must say my jump in was MUCH more elegant than Mum's jumping into the pen LOL!

Final test was a retrieve with gun shot, I sat perfectly still, even after the gunshot and the dummy throwing, great progress for me, then Mum sent me on to get it, I thought I was flushing pheasants so worked the hedgerow all the way down to the dummy, then realised it was only a boring dummy and not a pheasant I had to retrieve. Mum walked down and encouraged me to pick it up, I did so as I realised there wasnt any birdies. I did retrieve to hand and Mum gave me loads of praise and fusses so that was good.

All in all a great fun day and we learnt loads from the judges and just generally chatting to people.

Next working test in a couple of weeks so Mum and me are going to work on the things we learnt yesterday.

Winston's 4th Birthday

It's Winston's 4th birthday today.

His favourite toy ever was a burger squeaky one that was my birthday present way back in January but that was relegated to the bin a couple of months ago. Well Mum and Dad spent ages trying to find another one the same for him, they searched high and low and eventually Dad struck gold when he found one on Ebay. Well done Dad!

You can imagine the joy on Winston's face when he was given a nice new shiny squeaky burger toy this morning.


In this picture you can see what is left of the previous burger, just a flat piece of yellow plastic BUT it is still Winston's fav toy.


Don't worry I wasn't left out as I had a 'non-birthday' present of a squeaky iced doughnut. In under a minute I had mutilated it and killed the squeaker, so proud of myself.


Happy Birthday Winston my best mate and partner in crime, love ya loads WOOF WOOF!!!

Brogenslade Reunion

Me, Mum and Dad headed off to Auntie Christine's in Fordingbridge, New Forest, on Sunday, well what a surprise I had waiting for me. It was a Brogenslade reunion, there were about 20 of Bob and Pippa's offspring. We had such a lovely time.
It was great meeting up with everybody.
I've put a smile box together............

Personalize your own free digital slideshow

First Working Test

Was very excited yesterday morning as Mum walked me round to meet Auntie Katie, I haven't seen her in AGES as my girlfriend Willow has been in season (some girlie thing I dont know much about!) Willow wasnt in Auntie Katie's car but her handsome big brother Ollie was. Mum was loaded up with the backpack full of training dummies, the flask and lunch etc so I knew we were in for another fun day.

We drove to Elstead in Surrey and Mum told me that she had entered me in my first working test, no pressure she said, all I had to do was remember everything we'd been practising in the woods.

Ollie and Auntie Katie went to the Novice test whilst me and Mum went to the Special Beginners test. There were 19 dogs in our group.

I remembered what Mum and said and put my 'game face' on and really knuckled down to it. We did blind and seen retrieves, recalls, hunting and heel work.

We've been working hard on my stop whistle command, it's something we've only just started doing in the last month or so. The judge asked Mum to send me out and then to stop me, sure enough I was belting along full speed and was quite a way off when Mum was told to stop me, she blasted the whistle, I span round and sat my bum down pretty damn quick. I could see by the grin on Mum's face that she was really proud of me, we'd never done it at that distance. When the test was complete Mum made such a fuss of me and was laughing and cuddling me so much, wow if I'd known I'd get that kind of reaction I would have learnt the whole stop thing a lot earlier :-)

Here are some photos of me on the seen retrieve:

Mum listening to the judge explaining what we had to do, I've got my eye on the dummy tucked under Mum's arm


Here I am bringing the dummy straight back to Mum's hand:


Test complete, time for a pat on my neck


When it was all over we met up again with Auntie Katie and Ollie, me and Ollie sunbathed for a bit and then Mum and Auntie Katie got very excited because the ice cream van turned up, honestly these humans are weird!

Do you know the very best bit though...... we were watching the presentations at the end of the day and they were reading out the results for my class, well they read MY name out, FOURTH PLACE!!!! Me and Mum were so pleased and we had to go up in front of everybody and get a certificate and rosette plus some yummy dog food and a lovely new slip lead for me!!! People were clapping and everything it was awesome



What do you think to my rosette then..........

Stoughton Down

Mum n Dad are on a mission at the moment to find new places to go walking, so out came the OS map yesterday and they decided to try out Stoughton Down, about 15 mins drive from us. When we arrived there Dad realised he'd been there as a little boy and got very excited as he said it was a lovely walk so off we set.

I did my usual running along in front exploring everywhere, Mum n Dad were taking in the great views and Winston was checking out the stick situation!



It really was a gorgeous place, just the type of walk we all love, loads of woodland to explore. It was like we had the whole place to ourselves as we didnt see anybody for ages.
It was a bit steep in places, me being me of course I set the pace way out front, Mum n Dad were behind and then Winston was bringing up the rear with a mammoth stick in his mouth, nothing new there then.

Here's us at the top,



Mum did make me do a couple of Sit n Waits and recalls, I did dutifully obey but really wanted to keep on exploring.


In the distance you can make out Portsdown Hill and even the Isle of Wight!


We'll certainly be going there again it was mega cool.