(Editors small brag: Our Maggy (Ch Maggy Mae of Szep-Allat) was placed 4th out of the 14 Vizslas entered! And that was without the wonderful professional photographs used by most of the other entries!)

HUNGARIAN PRONUNCIATION

• V pronounced the same as in English
• I is not quite as short as the sound in sit , more like the short ee in feet and meet
• ZS like the s in pleasure
• L pronounced the same as in English
• A hard to describe, but rather like the sound in awe and the British hot

OWNER PROFILE

As mentioned at the start of this newsletter we are Steve & Jenny Peacocke. Both of us come from strong farm backgrounds where dogs were a normal part of daily life. However over the years we have moved away from the farming environment and ended up involved in computers (Steve is a Business Analyst/Analyst Programmer and Jenny distributes and supports accounting software). This has meant many years of hard work and city living with no dogs (except for a German Shorthaired Pointer for a short time).

However in 1990 we moved out of Auckland into our new house at Thames. With the office at home and a small block giving us a bit of space the decision to get another dog was made - but what type? We wanted a medium sized, short haired, family fixated, friendly, clean pet. Jenny was also interested in doing agility at some stage in the future (after having seen UK TV programs showing this). We liked GSP s, Labs and many other gundogs so decided to look in this group. Steve s sister mentioned the Vizsla breed and we started researching and reading every dog book we could find. We also visited breed shows when a Vizsla was showing (which was not easy to find). Eventually we contacted Jan Edwards and asked about her dogs and whether we could buy one. Like many newbies we were expecting to be able to buy one WHEN WE WANTED and were amazed when we actually ended up waiting about 12 months for our new puppy.

We were in Wellington when the litter was about 3 weeks old so excitedly we went to visit Jan and puppies. One major point of controversy happened because of this visit - the dearest, cutest little puppy that Jan pointed out as ours looked (at that stage) like a little old wrinkled potato (or Spud!). Jan named our beautiful baby Jovita of Szep-Allat . Since then she has become Ch Jovita of Szep-Allat and she is a lovely, gentle, feminine bitch. But to this day we still call her Spud !!!

In 1993 we (like many before us!) decided that one Vizsla was not enough and in 1994 Maggy (now Ch Maggy Mae of Szep-Allat) was added to our family - 8 weeks old and adorable DYNAMITE!. With the advent of Maggy we took to breed showing and have become hooked. Maggy just loves showing off and is delighted to be taken anywhere that has a large group of dogs and people.

Spud and Jenny follow the agility circuit in the top part of the North Island. Often not as successfully as we would like but always having fun. This year the goalpost being worked for is an AD and ADX. Maggy is in training for agility but (since we plan on her having puppies later this year) it will be still some time before she starts competing.

We are constantly amazed at how these lively, loving dogs have changed and dominated our way of life ... but now we wouldn t have it any other way!

AMUSING STORY

Vizslak are sometimes used in some parts of the world as seeing eye dogs. Their total commitment to their owners, their friendly nature, and their inbuilt need to please make them ideal friends and guide dogs to the blind and hard of hearing.

One such Vizsla in America had, along with others from other breeds, finally passed it s training and had been assigned to it s new owner. The owner had also been trained so along came the day when they had also passed their classes.

This was cause for much celebration, American style, with an open air stand and much speech giving by various dignitaries etc.

Imagine the picture of six or seven blind people sitting on their chairs on the stand behind the speaker; some handlers sitting on their chairs with their Golden Retriever lying peacefully on the floor beside them; others with Labradors lying peacefully beside them; and then the one on the end with her Hungarian Vizsla, it s back feet on the ground, front feet and upper body draped over it s new owner s lap, happily surveying all the other people who came to celebrate.

This epitomises the Vizsla who is there with their owner , not as the dog but as part of the team of two.

SO WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

If we get a reasonable response the next step will be to confirm that we are going to continue to those interested (and probably send out an invoice for membership - we will need to at least cover the cost of newsletters by this).

HOWEVER this idea will only work if you, the owners, are willing to be involved. We have access to many resources to find information for a newsletter but it will only be really interesting if everyone contributes. Articles, profiles, results, funny stories, helpful hints. All these, and more, are needed to make a well rounded newsletter.

Also, as mentioned previously, area get togethers and fun days would help to promote a good club feeling. We can supply the lists of names and numbers from the club list but for the rest, these will need to be organised by someone from within the individual areas.

Eventually we will need to become formal enough to elect a committee and set up a formal structure of rules but we don t see any point on doing this before we get a good core of people already involved.

We welcome any and all input into this idea. Our contact details are at the top of this newsletter and we are happy for you to phone, fax or write to us with any queries or ideas. This idea is not designed as a We are starting a club so do it our way . We are thinking more along the lines of We really want to join one but it doesn t yet exist so someone s got to start it. But hopefully there are more of you out there also willing to be involved .

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

No photos either ............ Except ours ...........

Submissions welcome. (Encouraged even!!!!)

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