Whiskey the Dog

Whiskey spent a weekend in September with his littermate Bowie and Bowie’s people, our friends Peter and Amy. THANKS GUYS! Whiskers always has a blast at their house!

[caption id="attachment_364" align="alignleft" width="420" caption="Whiskey on Left, Bowie on right."][/caption]

We have the snooziest puppy ever. He REFUSES to get out of bed in the morning, which is how we know he is actually our child. So snuggly!

  

A few weeks back I started teaching Whiskey to swim. His first day swimming was at a particularly calm day at Stinson beach. From there, he’s progressed up to swimming at Ocean Beach and even more recently, Crissy Field. Here are some pictures of Whiskey from today, swimming for the ball in the San Francisco Bay, right off of Crissy Field.

     

Today Whiskey turned one year old! He celebrated this auspicious occasion by going to the dogpark with his friends Alice and Obi. Later in the afternoon Whiskey went to Crissy Field with Bethany for an extended walk.

Here are pictures from today. Whiskey has really, really grown up!

    

It was a hot weekend in the city — so we picked up a kiddie pool for Whiskey.   See the video below!

 

Whiskey and I spent a nice Saturday morning in the park. It’s been a while since I posted anything to the blog, so I thought I’d post a few pics for everyone.

This weekend, we took Whiskey to the Santa Clara Kennel Club show where he was enterd into the 6-9 months group. He competed against two other dogs. As the saying goes, every dog has his day, and Saturday was Oli’s day. Whiskey came in 2nd behind Kiralyl Sandor Okos Kutya Oli (call name: Oli). Congratulations to Oli and his owners Sophie Koffler-Horovitz & Lynn Martin (breeder).

Sunday was Whiskey’s day. There were no other entries in the 6-9 dog group so after a quick parade around the ring, he went on to Winner’s round, where he received his 2nd show win — a 3 point major and Whiskey’s 2nd major! Thank you to judge Larry Sinclair and handler Lauren House. Whiskey went on to best of breed where he took 2nd place behind Ch. Stormwinds Namaste Warrior (call name: Tookie). Congratulations to Tookie and his owners Alis Smith, Kirsten Davis (breeder) & Beverly Wanjon.

Whiskey had a great time seeing all of his friends!

This past weekend, we decided to see if Whiskey would do what generations of Vizslas before him have done…..namely, point upland game. So we set up a time with our friends Steve and Michelle Artis of Chip’s Vizslas. We’d met Steve, Michelle and their dogs when we were first looking for a puppy (they ultimately referred us to our breeder Michelle Rochester of Red Diamond Vizslas) and were amazed at their dogs in the field. You’ve heard of the dog whisperer, I’m sure. With all due respect to Ceaser Millan, Steve Artis is the bird dog whisperer! So we took our goofy little guy out to Grizzly Island in the north bay, to see if he could figure it out.

The first pass, Whiskey had no idea what to do. He jumped around, looked to Steve for what to do next and just generally romped around. Then Steve flushed the bird (which was secured so he couldn’t fly away…but could get away from the dogs). The bird had Whiskey’s full and undivided attention. Steve let Whiskey smell the bird and Whiskey wanted it! The second pass through, Whiskey went right to the spot where the bird was the first time and sniffed his little heart out. He then looped around until he caught the scent…and he began stalking…closer and closer to the bird before finally stopping on point. This scene repeated a few times, with breaks in-between to work the other dogs. We were very happy with Whiskey’s first time out in the field! Photos courtesy of Michelle Artis and Pam Lambros.

  

This past weekend was the annual Golden Gate Kennel Club dog show at the Cow Palace. This is one of the larger dog shows in the country and one of two large “benched” shows (the other is Westminster KC). This was also Whiskey’s first dog show. Our goals for the show were very simple — ensure that Whiskey has a good time and gets exposed to the show environment. Whiskey hasn’t had any formal training…and has never practiced with a handler. We’ve started trying to teach him to stand-stay and have worked a little bit (a very little bit) on the proper way to “stack-up”. Given that, our expectations were appropriately low. We simply hoped that he wouldn’t pee in the ring.

Whiskey was entered into the “6-9 month old” puppy class competing against two really great dogs. We were shocked when the judge chose him as the top 6-9 month old puppy. Bethany and I were very excited….but we soon had our excitement cooled as Lauren (a professional handler and friend of our breeder Michelle) told us that it was not time to be excited, that Whiskey would be competing immediately for “Best of Winners” against the winners of all of the other classes. Neither Bethany nor I thought our little goofball puppy would survive another round. Turns out Lauren knew better…as Whiskey was chosen best of Winners. Now it’s time to be excited, right? Wrong. Lauren again said we should hold our excitement for a little while, as Whiskey would soon be competing for “Best of Breed.” Again, we assumed our little guy would not win. The previous wins were great, but now Whiskey would be competing against dogs with Championship titles. Then something crazy happened. As the late Harry Carey would say “HOLY COW!” Whiskey won “Best of Breed” to give him a “4-point major” toward his 15-points and 2 majors that he needs for a championship title. Our breeder Michelle squealed, jumped and then was in tears she was so excited. Bethany and I stood there dumb-founded…and Whiskey jumped around. Seems like Whiskey probably had the most appropriate reaction.

Whiskey went on to show in the “Sporting Group”, but the little guy was so wiped out, all he wanted to do was sit down or play. To keep him entertained when the judge wasn’t viewing him, the handler who showed him at group (Laurie) was playing with a balled up paper towel. He wasn’t selected for the top-4…so his show day was done…and it was time to go home for a relaxing evening on the couch! We are very proud of Whiskey — not because of the show win — but because he’s such a great dog, who is a great friend to us and brings a lot of joy to our lives. We are proud of his show win too..

Whiskey wishes to thank “No-na Michelle” for her support, Lauren for her expert showing, Laurie for playing with him during group and Judge Patricia Trotter for “giving him his props.” Whiskey also wants to thank his brother Bowie, for sharing his bone with him while they were between shows — “you’re my dog, dog!” Whiskey also wants to thank Uncle Peter & Aunt Amy as well as his friends Sawyer, Aimee and Dane for cheering him on — “You guys are the best!”

Whiskey and Lauren zoom by!

Whiskey and Lauren jog for the judge.

Strike a pose!

“I hear my people cheering for me….I hear them….they’re up there!”

Whiskey and Laurie run by the main desk during group.