food for thought

I heard something about this vaguely in the background this morning on NPR, but Gina Spadafori at PetConnection has a more thorough post here about the state of the meat industry in the U.S. These kinds of conditions are the reason I didn't eat meat for over 15years.

While living in Maine, I came to understand that there were artisanal farms committed to raising organic, cruelty-free meat -- and while we rarely kept in our house because my wife remains a vegetarian, we did have access to a couple of restaurants who remained committed to purchasing seasonal produce from local, small-scale farmers and fishermen.

If you find yourself in downeast Maine, we both heartily recommend Cleonice in Ellsworth and The Burning Tree in Otter Creek.

Folks might also consider checking out EatWild.com for information and resources regarding where to find grass-fed, pasture-based farms offering meat, eggs, and dairy.

For those concerned about what they're feeding their dogs, you can check out The Dog Food Project or DoberDogs for their dog food analysis. For the record, we feed the boys California Natural... a little more expensive, but good, clean stuff.

how quickly they grow...

Rich sent me some recent pics of their Ella + Khumbu -- and yowza! I think they should maybe have called him Godzilla, or Son of Kong. Here's two pics: one from when we first met the 9week-old monster-to-be; the second of what the two of them look like now.

Rich seems to think that, seeing as his father was 63lbs, Khumbu might also break the 60lb barrier. I guess he just weighed in at 40.5lbs at 6mos old. You're going to need a bigger truck!

After talking to Rich this weekend, I called Hank Rozanek at Rozanek Kennels out in Nebraska. Rozanek is the home of Rebel Rouser Vizslas, one of the longer-established and most successful vizsla bloodlines. (Jozsi is about 80% Rebel Rouser, while Momo is about 50% Rebel Rouser.) Happily, Jozsi's father, Rebel Rouser Smokey is a modest 55lbs -- so he'll probably be bigger than Momo, but not too much.

In any case, here's a pic of our two taken while Jozsi was less than 3mos old.

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I have a new terror alert widjit on the Regal Vizsla, courtesy indirectly of Dave's Chaotic Soliloquy. Just trying to keep it real. Especially for as long as the Republican Party keeps selling fear and the Democractic Party keeps buying it (from our friends at Slate).

canine geography

To take the tangent first: I would heartily recommend Donald McCaig's Dog Wars: How the Border Collie Battled the American Kennel Club. And endorse Pat the Terrierman's opinion that McCaig certainly seems to have written a more sympathetic book than the situation merited.

I was re-reading McCaig's Eminent Dogs, Dangerous Men to find some of the phrases and sentences that made me realize that he really was a man who had spent a significant time with both words and the souls of dogs. As he says on the penultimate page: "When an eminent dog joins a dangerous man, they can create performance that is, by either standard -- dog's or man's -- beautiful. That's why the dogs do it: because it's beautiful. When a sheepdog meets a man able to help him create beauty, the dog will put up with almost anything." (p. 11)

"When Jack [Knox], or any other top dog trainer goes out with his dog, he becomes pure communication. The trainer's body and voice are the command. That this communication works for dog who never take their attention off their sheep, rarely look at the man and, over great distances, cannot possibly see him, extends the boundaries of communication or perhaps affirms the primacy of intention over fact." (p. 53)

Thinking about how man and dog communicate reminded me. in turn, of a very interesting post I'd seen a while back on the SmartDogs blog about how dogs communicate and experience their world around them.

As far as the olfactory world that dogs experience goes, I have found William Syrotuck's Scent and the Scenting Dog to be the most useful of the books I've read about scent work. It was originally published in 1972 and has not been updated (although is available in this modern re-print), but most of the newer books I've read rely heavily on it and felt as though they were written in such a way so's to mask how reliant they were. The book does detect significant portions to human tracking and detection, but it is a slim book scientific in content and tone, but relatively straightforward to read.

To take a final tangent, which is more of a coda: Steve Bodio has a nice discursive conversation with one of his regular readers on breeding, in-breeding, line-breeding, and the stakes involved in trying to preserve and solidify traits in a disparate genetic and geographical pool. (For those looking for a quick overview of these terms, try this.)

In the meantime here are a couple of pics of our boys exploring the environment: Jozsi in the park near our house right after he came to live with us; the other of Momo warming up for his hunt test out on Cape Cod this past fall.

Team V. reunion

Sadly there were no dogs present for the occasion -- but, as hoped, I was able to meet up with Rich (and his uncle, Bob) at Thunder Mountain Skeet Range over in Ringwood, NJ. Rich was in the neighborhood for a wedding -- and while Adrian, being part of the bridal party, was obliged to attend a post-wedding breakfast, Rich took the opportunity to come over and get some shooting in.

Now, if you've never shot skeet, it can be pretty intimidating. But for a guy who hasn't shot a lot -- and not at all with his new shotgun -- Rich did pretty great. (Bob looked like a complete ringer after his first eight or so shots from High 1, but sadly faded.) I shot somewhere between Roy Orbison and a mole. Most importantly, though, we had nice weather and good conversation.

And Rich showed me some pics of their 'little guy'! Holy Christmas, Khumbu's going to be a tank. And a fine looking young fellow, too.

And yes, I am growing a beard again in the vain hope that it might stop my face from freezing in Mongolia.

vizslas ahoy

This lovely young lady is Barben Sugar Magnolia, a.k.a. Maggie. Maggie lives with Kat + Rich in Louisiana. Kat was in the Peace Corps with my wife, Meg, in Kazakhstan -- as they say, before Peace Corps got all cushy out there in Central Asia.

From what I gather, Kat + Rich got Maggie after hearing how great Momo had been as a pup. And now they know just how awesome their old golden love-monster is.

From what I gather, Maggie has had some exposure to birds and has even done a hunt test. And, the funnier part is, she has even spent some time (unbeknownst to us until this point) with Bob at Cliffside. The Barben dogs sure are good-looking, and Maggie looks like the belle of the ball.

In related news: I hope to do some skeet shooting with Rich from the Team Vizsla -- Eastern MA chapter. He and Adrian are nearby for a wedding, but sadly Ella and Khumbu are at home being spoiled. We'll see how he does with that fancy new shotgun of his.

In unrelated news: if whoever the folks are who are visiting this site from what looks like Nunavut in northern Canada and from Talinn, Estonia, on my Feedjit map, please leave a comment. I hope there's something interesting here for you on the Regal Vizsla.

beer + cycling + football + dogs

Beer: one good favor deserves... beer, every month! So I got home last night and found a heavy square box on my doorstep. I didn't recognize the sender's address and thought 'what the heck?'. I opened the box and there there was... beer!

I had offered some space in our garage to a friend to store their motorcycle and, instead of any payment, asked for beer. And now, I get selected microbrews every month! This all courtesy of our friend, Joey, and the Beer of the Month (BOTM)club. I'm blogging right now enjoying a Left Hand Brewing Sawtooth ESB. BOTM describes the Sawtooth as follows:

"Left Hand B.C.'s flagship beer presents notes of caramel, just-baked bread and citrusy hops on the nose. As it warms, expect additional fruity notes to evolve. The flavor opens with caramel flavors and the subtlest bit of chocolate, followed by the herbal earthiness of hops... A great brew to pair with fish and chips, mild English cheeses like Lancashire, or grilled chicken, sweetly glazed."

Definitely got the just-baked bread yeastiness and the herbal earthiness... and I would drink this with some lovely fish and chips. Last night, I enjoyed a very nice Otter Creek Pale Ale last night. Not too hoppy, but with nice flavor and the lovely grapefruity highlights. Incidentally, while still its own distinct brewery, Otter Creek is now owned by the nice folks at Wolavers (who may some good organic beers, too).

If you like beer, you'll probably enjoy Eric's Brew Log. (Eric and Brad have a dream of opening a brewery and are just experimenting with home brewing. They're also doing some nice taste research.)

Cycling: the professional cycling season opened this week with the Tour Down Under. This is the first year the TDU has been part of the ProTour -- which is great recognition for the TDU seeing as it has earned a great reputation as a shorter week-long stage race. While most of the major teams are present, hardly any of the bigger names (Evans, Rebellin, Freire, Menchov) are there because it is so early in the season -- so it is a great showcase for lesser known riders, especially those looking to do well in the Spring Classics.

With the cycling season opening, so too has the Fantasy Cycling season. I have played in this league for the last four years. It's free and its only prizes are the occasional flash of glory and bragging rights over your friends. (I play with three other UM alumni, two of whom I used to play soccer with, one of whom I used to ride bikes with and who was kind enough to stand up at my wedding. That doesn't mean that I still don't enjoy beating Dan.)

Football: I got to congratulate Eli Manning on the street today. He was with his fiancee, Abby McGrew, and they were looking like they were off to do some shopping. It didn't look like anyone else had recognized him, and so having met him before, I quickly wished him congratulations and good luck. (But not too much, because I am still a Patriots fan.)

Dogs: training update! I made my weekly call to Bob at Cliffside to find out how the Mominator, in particular, was doing. Force-fetching a dog is stressful for everyone involved, even parents hearing about it at a distance and so while Bob doesn't want us to come visit yet, Momo is now apparently retrieving the stuffed duck on command now. Once that feels set, Bob is going to start him on actual birds, slowly taking him from restricted spaces (where Momo can really only go to the dummy and back to Bob) to the great outdoors. We are very proud of him.

Jozsi continues to romp, roam, and go in search of birds. This pic is of the Evil Genius running the tall grasses in search of quail down on Cape Cod.

that's a good dog

In case anyone doesn't get my blog-voice, my comment about the AKC and vizslas should have been heard in a Norm McDonald SNL Weekend Update 'Germans love David Hasselhoff' voice. Shockingly, no-one has posted a YouTube clip of one of Norm's most famous one-liners.

The comments from my previous post prompted me to do some more research about what alternatives there are to the monolith that is the American Kennel Club. To back up slightly, I started this blog to document my travails as a new bird-dog owner, trainer, and hunter so that others can take what they can from my experiences and make their own decisions. Our breeder had already registered Momo's litter with the AKC when we picked him up -- and we took that as a certification that his breeders were legitimate, that they had an established history of breeding vizslas. And, as I mentioned before, their pups were only available on limited registrations -- which is to say that if we had faked out of our commitment to neuter Momo and had tried to breed him, neither he nor his offspring could have legitimately been recognized as 'vizslas'. As a strategy to deter backyard breeding, I have no problem with this.

And while we did register Momo (and Jozsi) with the AKC, we had no expectations that our connection to the AKC meant a whole lot more than that. It certainly said nothing about whether our dog was 'good' (in any dimension); certainly now, when I have questions and need a recommendation about anything concerning our dogs, my first source is our breeder. And if I have a single piece of advice for new dog owners, interview your breeder. If you can't communicate with them, if you don't like or respect them, then who cares how 'good' your puppy might be.

Nevertheless, when you have a single organization, with an established history, with a virtual monopoly on registering, testing, and certifying pure-bred dogs, there are bound to be issues. (The debate at/over the Wikipedia entry for the American Kennel Club is a good illustration.) Pat the Terrierman has more than a few comments (and God bless him for the fortitude to say what's on his mind and, as far as I can tell, for also putting his money where his mouth is). In his review of Donald McCaig's newest book, Dog Wars: How the Border Collie Battled the American Kennel Club, Pat discusses how the 'breed standard' for border collies was, from its outset, determined by how the dog looked rather than how it worked. And as that show standard became established and dogs bred to it, their working abilities suffered.

The only significant criticism I have is one I made in my comments on my previous post, that humans began determining what dogs should look like before entities like the AKC emerged. This is not to minimize the leverage that the AKC has put on breeders and breeds, but it is to say that the AKC was a catalyst that legitimized an existing streak of human manipulation over dogs. I think one of the difficulties navigating all of this, for me, is that the counter-argument to the AKC also implies that dogs that work well are somehow more genuine examples of their breed than dogs that merely show well. This, too, smacks of a kind of contrarian eugenics.

The other variant of this argument, that AKC pedigrees and titles mean little or nothing when one is looking for a 'good grouse dog,' for example, is that the only way a new prospective owner can get a dog of decent quality is by talking to an 'expert', someone who really knows what a good grouse dog looks like and can see through the smoke-and-mirrors of AKC-style fluff -- and who presumably has dogs for sale, himself. (And I am paraphrasing a conversation I myself had with such an 'expert'.) Again, while it might have some element of truth to it, and the fellow I was speaking to has chased more grouse with dogs than I may likely ever do, this is merely a different kind of monopoly -- and arguably a more insidious one.

After all my conversations with various folks about this dilemma, there is some consensus that if you are looking for a working dog, then the best predictor for how a pup may turn out is to watch both its prospective parents work. Pedigree and titles will merely reinforce how prominent their performance ability may be. If you don't have the luxury of this option (like us), then once more the prospective owner is obliged to interview breeders and try to decipher pedigree charts.

As ever, my favorite touchstone is Pat Burns. In a more recent review of an article in the Canadian Journal of Veterinary Medicine asking for reforms in the AKC, Pat makes the following summation:

"The purpose of cynological associations is to give out ribbons. Dogs are simply a mechanism for the humans to get the ribbons.

Take away the ribbons and awards, and no one would go to a dog show at all. To do what? To pay money to stand around all day, to have your dog looked at for 5 seconds by someone who does not own or work the breed? Forget it.

In fact, it's entirely possible to be in the "sport" of dog showing without even showing up at a dog show at all! Unbelievably, it's done all the time."

Now, while Pat is primarily railing against show dogs and their owners, he could easily have extended his argument to AKC-sponsored hunt tests and field trials. And I don't mind saying that I am proud of Momo's hunt test performance -- and know that the ribbons mean nothing to him. I hope he knows that I love him just as much when he points pheasants and woodcock and chukar and grouse and quail and birds..... birds, birds, birds. Sorry. Got a little excited.

I know several breeders who, for example, express concern that the AKC can pronounce a working dog a champion without the dog ever having to prove it can work OR that the Junior Hunter category exists largely for show dogs to get some kind of working certification. I think the first part of that makes a lot of sense to me, the second less so. If you have a standard and a dog meets it, it may not meet it well, but it meets it and so be it. Again, I have no illusions about what JH means after Momo's name and frankly got more satisfaction from what his judges said to me about his performance after the test was over than from his ribbons.

The question to me remains: if Pat is right (and I think he is) that the AKC is unlikely to engage in the reforms suggested in the CJVM, what are the alternatives? How does a relatively new owner determine which litter to get a pup from with some kind of level of assurance about its likely performance if that prospective owner can't actually see both parents work? What kinds of worth do all those letters surrounding a dog's registered name really have?

The largest alternative breed-registry for hunting dogs is The American Field Field Dog Stud Book. Their emphasis is clearly on performance, but performance through the field-trial format. My gut feeling is that I don't really care if my dogs are better than someone else's dogs, but whether or not they can find birds. But, if as Pat suggests, a lot of dog ownership is about projecting one's feelings and aspirations onto one's dogs, then maybe I will go check out one or two to dispel my own prejudices and insecurities and see if I still feel the same way.

The National Vizsla Association exists under The American Field umbrella. The pictures in this post are borrowed from Bill Gibbons's Magma Kennels site. Bill is well regarded as a dog trainer of a variety of breeds and was a founding member of the NVA. Now again, as all these pictures from Bill's site illustrate, the NVA has its own ways of recognizing a particular dog's achievement -- so the prospective owner still has to wade through their codebook. My own feeling is this: a dog with a bunch of letters before and after its name has at least done something -- and even if the owner's motivations were selfish or financially motivated, the dog has been kept active, engaged, and has proven itself in front of a critical audience. However, that still won't guarantee that your pup is worth a hoot, or at the very least, worth a hoot in your hands.

I chose this picture of Mason (Upwind Kismet Rapid Fire) because he's out of Lisa DeForest's Upwind Farms kennel in NH. (Sadly Lisa doesn't have a website.) Jozsi's mother, Gem, was co-owned by Lisa and Chris & Wendy at Widdershins. Because Lisa arranged the breeding for Jozsi's litter, he could have been just an Upwind dog, but we wanted to recognize Chris & Wendy's love and care as well: hence he is registered as Widdershins Upwind Jozsi. I love all three of these pictures: holy heck, that's three vizslas just jacked for birds!

At least from a superficial glance, one organization that appears to restore the balance of good-looking and well-working dogs by breeding "through performance to standard" is the Verein Deutsch Drahthaar. It's well worth checking out the US chapter of the VDD's website, as much as anything to help understand why a Drahthaar isn't a German Wirehaired Pointer.

So, in short, before you get your new bird-dog, be aware of the limitations of paper information, watch our for scheisters and experts, and be sure you want a 'Ferrari' before you get one. And go watch some dogs. If hunt tests do have a purpose, spending a day in the gallery will let you see how different dogs do their job.

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Incidentally, while writing this I discovered that the word 'cynology' (the study of dogs) shares the same root as 'cynic'. It seems strangely appropriate that while we question various organizations' commitment to dogs that it might make us a little cynical.