Slovakian Rough Haired Pointer Discussions

Slovak pup watch! We went to an antiques fair a few weeks ago. Bumped into someone with a 5.5 month old (not with them) pup. I looked it up when I got home and found loads of ads for the litter in the summer in local press. It wasn't from Bo's litter. Such a shame with numbers of overall dogs quite rare that they are being advertised in puppy for sale ads. Surely dogs this rare, there should be a waiting list? But was there a lot of pups at once this summer?

Another woman stopped me at the fair and asked what Grey was and she said 'oh yes, they're always being advertised.'

Grey had an accident this week. Ran into a concrete post on his shoulder. He's ok. Just winded. How is everyone else?

Hello everyone!

How are you guys and the doglets doing?

Grey recovered from his collision with the concrete post ok.

Can I ask you guys how leadwork is going? I never know how much of Grey's stuff is down to him, me or the breed or the sex. I've met really bouncy bouncy slovaks and then a really calm one. I've seen grey's brother quite strong with him and Grey the same with other less strong dogs in the same way.

Lou
x

Hi Lou

Glad to hear Grey is ok; silly dog!!

Bo is fine, as hyper and bonkers as ever. Still having some separation issues with her. Unfortunately we have made a rod for our own back in that someone is nearly always around, meaning that when she is occasionally left alone she kicks up a real fuss. Not her fault though and hopefully we'll work through it.

Lead work isn't her specialty LOL. We use a Halti and, despite her occasion protests, she walks well on it. Without it, forget about it, and that is with all the bribery in the world. She just loves being off lead (man does she RUN like the wind) and doesn't see why she should ever be put back on it.

Hi Everyone

I'm sorry i haven't been on here earlier, i had a really bad experience in late Sept, where my partner was away so i was walking the dogs on their own, basically to cut a long story short, they were both on leads and another dog (a fighting breed) came over and semi savaged my terrier, i had to pile in to separate them and got bitten quite badly on the chest. So have been working really hard to get both dogs to trust others again.

Anyway onto the Slovaks!! Glad to hear Grey is ok, i can just imagine Cheska doing a similar thing!
Its so funny that you refer to Bo as Bonkers, ours could easily be called Crazy Cheska, she is so funny and a complete comedian, her training seems to be going ok, she has not been as hard work as the terrier, she can still be strong on the lead but on the whole not too too bad, her recall is quite good and off the lead she too loves to run, although she will normally stay closer by then the terrier and if she loses sight she will turn round and come back to find us, usually whining at us and groaning as if to tell us off for disappearing!! She is very cheeky though and lives for food, she's really easy to bribe if food is involved! Her favorite is checking the kitchen worktops for left overs after a Sunday lunch, we've also caught her licking the drain when we have poured meat juices down the sink! (Lovely!! Very lady like!!) Wouldn't change her for the world though, she's fab!!

I took some photos at the weekend, but on my partners camera, so as soon as i get him to send them to my PC i'll post them on here.

Kim

Hi Kim

Would LOVE to see some updated pictures of Cheska. She must be as big as Bo I'm guessing, who is about 22" at the withers now...a teensy bit taller than my Lab!

Cheska sounds a lot like Bo...lives to run, eat and bark, in that order!

Forgot to say, your incident sounded horrible but glad your terrier is making a recovery.

Hi

Glad to hear Bo is doing well, does anyone know how Anya is doing? Have just tried to measure her but she thinks the tape is a new toy!! I think 22 inches to the withers is about where she is. I can't remember what height Violet & Bruce are? I would guess ours still have a few inches to go before they start to fill out, she's gone quite hairy on her face and her body is getting a bit hairier, legs & chest mainly!!

The terrier is getting there, he is still a bit defensive now & again when on the lead, but making huge steps compared to a few weeks ago, just glad that i ended up letting go of her lead so she didn't get hurt too!

Anyway i'll get those photos on here soon.

Kim

Not seen Dawn on here for a while. If you are reading this, do check in as we would love to hear how you and Anya are getting on.

Bo sounds like the same as Cheska in regard to hairness. She has a very hairy face and is just starting to get a bit more whispy hair on her legs.

Does Cheska bark a lot? not necessarily just barking, but whining and making (what I call) Chewbacca noises? Bo is very 'talky'...loves to bark and vocalize, much to the neighbours horror!

Hi

It would be great to hear how Anya is getting on.

Cheska does love to be vocal and she does tend to bark at the terrier if she wants something he has or if he disappears after a rabbit when we are out walking, she tells him off like mad when he reappears! She does make some really funny noises somewhere in between groaning,whining & barking anything to get attention, i dont think she is too vocal when we are out as she is with the terrier in the garden with access to an outbuilding, we have had builders working next door since we got her and they've not said anything, although she has been very vocal if the door has blown closed when she's been outside on her own. Mind you when the terrier barks at any noise coming from the front door she stays in the kitchen well behind him and barks! (Not the bravest!!)

Just wondered what you feed Bo? Just that Cheska seems to go to the loo a lot and its not as firm as i would like it to be sometimes!

Kim

Kim

Hahaha, they sound like two peas in a pod!

We have just made the (slow) switch to Skinners Duck and Rice. She was on James Wellbeloved Junior Turkey and Rice, which she did really well on (nice poos 3 times a day), but it was just too expensive. She gets through 15kgs in less than a month, so Skinners is far more reasonable. Things seem to be going well so far, but she is a dog with a naturally sensitive stomach...any additional 'extras' (like cat turds!) tend to make her loose.

What are you feeding Cheska on then?

I've been feeding her Burns, i know its not everyones favorite but i fed my Great Danes on it in the past and they did really fab on it and they had delicate tums too! Although when i lived in the UK i did feed Skinners at one point and they were fine on it, so may give it a try!

Something i meant to ask was how Bo is in the car! I know this is going to sound funny, but Cheska is the biggest dribbler/drawler i have ever seen, the moment you open the boot the shower starts, before she is even in it and continues till you get where you are going and for a good 10/20 mins when you get there, occasionally being sick too, although we had been travelling her in a cage and have just this weekend tried her without the cage and just in the boot with the dog guard up and admittedly she wasn't sick on any journeys, she did drool possibly not as much, have even tried feeding her daily in boot with the boot open and she drawls like a mad woman! I wonder if it isn't something to do with the very long time she spent in the car when we picked her up?

I wouldn't have thought that Burns would cause a problem, given that there isn't much in it apart from rice! but it could just be one of those things. The James Wellbeloved Turkey and Rice definitely worked for Bo though, so that is well worth a try. If only it wasn't so blimmin' expensive.

As for car journeys, the longest she has ever been in the car since picking her up is about 20 minutes. I notice that she does start to drool (meaning she she feels sick obviously) after 15 minutes or so but she never actually has been yet. Hopefully she'll grow out of it so we can make the trek to the 'good' beach which, with traffic, takes a good 40 minutes by car.

They sound so similar, when we walk she seems like she would keep going forever and still wants to play when we get home, then she must realise she's tired and sleeps for ages!
We are quite lucky that we have a beach albeit a small one a five min walk away and the bigger ones are only a 5/10 min drive, but believe me thats enough for her, the terrier comes out the car looking like he has been for a swim as she tends to drool all over him! Although not so bad now he can get away from her and not in cage.

Thats interesting about the food, i may try her on the JWB!

Just out of interest, does anybody happen to know where Ansona Griff is? He's Flynn's dad and got sold by Flynn's breeder shortly after producing the litter. She claimed he had a poor hip score (6/6 maybe?) so he was no use to her basically (incidentally, she also sold Flynn's mum when her KC 5 litters was up but I know she had more litters than this, not all registered).

I've tried Googling his name but it doesnt come up with anything. I'd love to know how he's doing.

Hi Leanne,

Sorry, no, not heard of where he is. Come to that matter, any of the older dogs that are in the UK. I wonder where they have ended up? It's hard to keep up with the pups being born isn't it, as not all are on the site called Champ then the word dog yet you see ads in the local press for them, so there are more pupsters from this summer than are linked on the individual bitches and stud pages.

In other news, someone posted on the site called the face and the book group that their three year old slovak had the same teeth problems as my Grey had and that they hadn't let the breeder or breed club know. So there are some that aren't included in the stats.

How is Flynn getting on?

Flynn is getting on fine, thanks for asking!

I perhaps assumed that because they are a rare breed in this country, the whereabouts of each dog would be known but I suppose there are some people breeding them off their own backs.

I have contacted the SRHP Club and it might be worth me getting in touch with Ansona. I'm simply curious what became of him because I saw him briefly from a distance on the occassions I visited Flynn and never actually got to meet him. I have pictures of Flynn's mum but none of his dad and it would be nice to simply see what he looked like!

I'd love to see Grey's mum and dad in action. Wonder what they're like. How they work were trained. I only saw them in the kennels close up.

How is everyone else getting on with loose lead walking? I saw a quick video of someone who does agility with their weimaraner and a slovak and I noticed the slovak had a halti on in the shot. It got me wondering because I've not yet see a loose lead walking slovak and certainly not round my house! It's still my number one training problem. he can do it if I get his attention, but he's so easily distracted and still boings to the end of the lead just to get to see or sniff what he wants.

Anyone cracked it?

I wish!! Bo will walk well on a Halti Head Collar/Halti Harness/slip rope lead but will not walk well on a regular collar and lead. She is very food motivated but I struggle to gain her focus when on the lead; the reward of pulling and getting where she wants to go quicker is more rewarding than the treat to her.

Has Bo been different at lead training than your lab say? Are labs often very bouncy as adolescents and then suddenly calm down in general? (Obviously generalising here! )

He's so switched on by the environment and probably I've created a rod for my own back by allowing too much free hunting when he was little. If I had my time again I'd get a good retrieve in early on.

Grey really doesn't do well on head collars. I have them for emergencies when I really need to get somewhere and can't train him but he really suffers on them as he pulls into them constantly and you can see it's hurting him. Although the dogmatic seems to fit him best. He
's terrified of them and runs and hides no matter how much I've trained him to touch it etc with sausages!

I can see progress, it's just he's still very very switched on when outside. he still walks in his toes and is reactive to large vehicles, motorbikes and school kids in groups. I do have a zero tolerance now on pulling on the flat collar. So when I walk him I have to have time to train and so if it takes ages to get a few paces, so be it. I can't take a saunter to the shops. The 300 peck heeling thing is working where I count up 1 step, click treat, 2 steps click treat, 3 steps click treat...oh you pulled! stop, 1 step CT, 2 step CT etc. But often we don't get past say 5 steps without a pull. I'm now doing little exercises with sits and downs and spins and touches of my hand to keep him busy while we train. I bet we'll be at this for years! LOL!

I was talking to Grey's brother's owner the other day who said he too was now a nightmare of pulling, not coming back etc. His brother is also really strong willed but not as reactive as Grey. He's been trained and trained and so I wonder if these two big strong willed dogs are just still boistrous teenagers and will eventually calm down.

Oooh, this is where Flynn gets his pulling from then! Even on a head collar, he's bad. He'll do it fairly nicely off lead but as soon as you put the lead back on it's like he's forgotten any training.

I know he can do it because I took him out alone and we walked perhaps 1/2 mile on a complete loose lead with the aid of treats and it didnt take too much effort.

I just think human paced walking is too slow and he'd rather pull me along at his pace so we can get on with the good part of the walk!

Had a funny one this morning. Man stopped me and asked about Bo.

"What breed is she?"
"She's a Slovakian Rough Haired Pointer."
"Oh, right. What do they do then? are they sheepdogs or do they herd cattle?"
"Err, no. They are are pointers."

Doi. I thought there might be a little clue in the name!!

Lou, with regard to the pulling, we are definitely at the 'work in progress' stage. My Lab wasn't great as a youngster either, so I'll give Bo the benefit of the doubt for the next year or so. That is not to say that I'm not going to train her (I am), but more that I have realistic expectations for her. She is such a bouncy girl that I don't see us cracking loose lead walking for a very long time. I'm sure Grey is the same, but Bo is one FAST dog that loves RUN like the wind. Walking at a human pace is just boring for her. As youngsters they just lack that impulse control which is why they struggle.