# Vizsla found along the roadside



## Shandroid (Sep 10, 2011)

Hi everyone, I need all your help desperately! My family live in Nebraska, and tonight we were heading home from dinner and decided out of the blue to take a new road home (this road is in the middle of cornfields with no home in sight), when we saw this absolutely gorgeous russet-colored dog just walking on the road! He had a collar, no tag, but he was skin and bones. Of course, we decided to stop (we have 4 dogs already). He came to us instantly and attached himself to us, was sweet as sugar and totally non-aggressive, and wanted desperately to get into our car, so we took him. I thought he looked just like a vizsla, and he absolutely does (after comparing him to pics in a book and on the net), however, he has one paw that has a small patch of white with freckles just like a pointer has. This patch is only about 3 inches in diameter. Can a purebred vizsla have a patch like this?

Anyway, we have brought him home and blessedly, he and our dogs all got along smashingly well and played right away (well, except for our 16-year-old rat terrier, Scooter, who didn't like him one bit, but he mostly stays in my hubby's den in a diaper anyway ;D) We aren't sure how old he is, but he isn't neutered (grrr) and he is very energetic and playful. When he got to our house (we live on an acreage) he peed 50 million times, but wouldn't drink any water or eat dry dog food. We got some of Scooter's canned food and he went crazy for that, so I mixed it with dry food, just so he could get some nutrition, poor thing. He went off and had a poop and explored our property a bit, but didn't wander too far, and really seemed like he liked our place and felt at home.

Next, we brought him into the house, and naturally thought his bladder would be empty, but he peed small amounts in two places! Arrgh! We can't tell how old he is, but he seems young. His teeth, though, have brown stuff on them, but don't look like they have tarter, nor do they look old, like our 11-year-old adopted Lab (she was a working fire marshal dog before we adopted her at age 9). Could he have the brown stuff because his previous owners never fed him dry dog food? 

We needed to control his marking and make sure he didn't get into stuff, so we put him in a good sized metal kennel in our house, and he barked and barked (we went in to reassure him a few times) because he wanted to be with us (my hubby said we are ferberizing him!), but he has finally stopped (barked for about 30 minutes) and I believe he is sleeping now.

We aren't sure why he was wandering out in the middle of nowhere, except for the sad, obvious reason: he was dumped. There are many hunters in Nebraska and vizslas are fabulous at this, so perhaps he was first bought for this purpose, but maybe they had trouble potty training him (or didn't even bother trying). I think I should put a "lost dog" ad in the paper with no mention of breed or collar or anything to see if perhaps, he got lost and a family is searching for him. We doubt that a dumper would call and want him back.

We would be happy to give him a good home with young boys and a dog pack to live with, and it doesn't matter if he isn't actually a vizsla, he is still a great tempered dog, who was obviously meant to find us. I would love it if any of you nice folks could help me with the issue of the small "pointer patch" and if this is common with vizslas, ideas about his age and those brown areas of his teeth, and I would love tips on the breed as well. I will post some pics of him very soon, as my hubby took some tonight. I'm sorry I don't have the pics now, but it is bed time for my boys. Any help would be great and thank you!!


----------



## redrover (Mar 17, 2011)

I'm so glad you found him! Poor thing.

For your first question, yes, Vizslas can have those white patches on their toes. Technically white patches that extend above the toes are a disqualification, but that's really neither here nor there for this particular question. Jasper (my boy) has little white toes too! There's a picture of those cute white toes attached, but the sun was so bright it can be difficult to see.

I have no idea what the brown stuff is. Does it brush off if you try to brush his teeth?

I would suggest taking him either to your vet or local rescue, for both a general health check-up (they'd have a good idea what the brown stuff is, too) and to get him scanned for a microchip. Dogs can be pretty wily, and it's entirely possible he escaped and has been running around on his own for a while now. Ideally a dog that loves his people would never think of running away...but I also know that a dog that's after some prey can sometimes end up lost without realizing how far away he's gone. I don't know that people would be checking newspapers, and if he was lost while the owner was traveling/moving, they might not think to check those local papers. If he does have a chip and someone dumped him, well, then, hopefully they'll at least be human enough to acknowledge that fact and give other good people the option to rescue him, instead of taking him back just to dump him again.

Age would be difficult to tell, at least weight-wise, especially if he's underweight right now. A vet would probably have a better idea of roughly what age he is. They're technically puppies until about 2 years old!

Some quick and important things to know about Vizslas:

1) They are absolute lovers--they love to show you that they love you! They really like to be with their humans/pack all the time. They're called Velcro dogs for a reason! If you do end up rescuing him, then he probably should not sleep outside the house, unless maybe your other dogs do and he likes to sleep with them. That being said, they don't have an undercoat or an overabundance of body fat, so they get cold easily. Make sure to bring him inside to sleep in the winter!

2) Ridiculously high energy. If anyone in your family is a runner, biker, or just generally outdoorsy person, they will have a constant companion! They're hunting dogs, so they do all the things that hunting dogs like to do.  They are very birdy and can be pretty prey-oriented! 

3) They can be extremely sensitive. Negative reinforcement should be avoided, while positive reinforcement works exceedingly well with these dogs.

4) They can be picky eaters! Not something I would concern myself with if trying to put meat on a dog's bones, but something to be aware of in the future. They can also have sensitive stomachs, especially with certain grains or fillers in lots of dog foods.

This forum has helped me immensely in raising my Vizsla. Lots of good people with good advice here, and I'm sure others will have some for you! Keep us up to date and let us know how things are going!


----------



## kellygh (Oct 25, 2010)

Redrover gave you a great response, but I just wanted to add one thing. You mentioned the large number of hunters in your area. I agree with you, & I would avoid advertising the Vizsla/Pointer breeds with any attempt to find an owner. You might say you found a med size, male, red dog? IMO, I would just try and eliminate any potential attempts to get a free hunting dog through dishonesty. Even if your red man is reunited with a good owner, you have saved him! If he remains with you, I hope you & family have a wonderful time with a great breed! As said, Vs have a soft temperament and need LOTS of mental & physical stimulation to remain balanced/healthy. Good Luck


----------



## mswhipple (Mar 7, 2011)

Shandroid -- Well, bless your hearts for saving this poor guy!! Like you said, it seems it was meant to be.

Yes, plenty of Vizslas do have white on their toes, or little patches of white on their chests.

Lots of good advice above from redrover and kellygh! My first impulse was to say get him to a Vet or shelter for a microchip scan... but then, what if he was dumped!? I wouldn't necessarily place an ad in the paper, but I would read the ads for something about a lost/missing Vizsla. If he's not neutered, he's probably not microchipped either. Peeing in the house could indicate that he was actually an outdoor kennel dog who got away, and maybe he was never house trained (or like you said, he could be marking). Dogs are not good at making generalizations about house training. He should learn quickly, though. Vizslas are smart dogs!! Be very kind to him while training, as they don't do well with a heavy-handed approach.

If you are willing to keep him and give him a good, loving home, then that is what should probably happen! Would love to see a photo when you have a chance... Thank you for saving him!  

p.s. You said he was wearing a collar but no tag... You have to wonder about an owner who wouldn't spend five bucks for a dog tag. Know what I mean?


----------



## Shandroid (Sep 10, 2011)

Hi! Thank you for all your wonderful responses! I am certain now that he is a vizsla, however he wouldn't have been show quality as his white paw goes up his ankle a bit, but that doesn't matter. I am however, concerned about his eyes/eyelids. He has watery eyes sometimes and his eyelids seem like they might be entropic. I can't imagine the agony of having that condition! Has anyone else had a dog with this condition? Is surgery expensive? If we get to keep him, then we will get them corrected, for sure. I won't let him live that way.

@redrover: All our dogs are indoor sleepers, but they sleep in metal kennels at night so they don't have accidents or get into anything (except ancient boy, Scooter, who sleeps in a hut next to my husband's side of the bed! :) 

Also, we will be gentle with his training. It appears that he was trained to get permission to eat and maybe even to drink! I think a woman gave him canned food, because everytime I do something in the kitchen, he gets all excited, sitting and wagging his tail. My 12-year-old son got him to eat some dry food but he insisted that Griff shake his paw first, but he would not eat it for me. We don't feed canned food to any of our dogs except for Scooter, who has very few teeth. I am hoping that taking the tough approach to teaching him to eat the dry food is best. Not tough as in punishing, but keeping it down and allowing only that food to eat. I can't believe such a scrawny dog would be so picky! But apparently, the breed is picky, as redrover has taught me!

My husband just remembered that recently, it is the start of bird season (we are not hunters), so I suppose it is possible he was separated from his owners, but as you all say, a responsible owner who takes a dog out for adventures like that would tag him. We will check for a microchip and check bulletin boards around the towns, just to be sure.

We are happy to have rescued him! We would have at least tried to rescue him no matter what breed he was. We are all falling hard for him, so I really hope we can keep him. Here is a pic of him, it's not really good, but I will try to include more very soon. My husband was opening up the trunk of the car to put leftover food in it so the dog could ride up front and not be food crazed, and he jumped in the trunk! He REALLY did not want out of there. We think he was so desperately wanting to go with us that he was afraid to come out and be left alone again. My hubby ended up picking him up and putting him up front in between us, but it wasn't easy!


----------



## Shandroid (Sep 10, 2011)

We took another photo of "Rusty" to show his emaciated body, poor little thing. :'(


----------



## redrover (Mar 17, 2011)

Vizslas do sometimes suffer from eyelid problems. I think there are a few people on this board who have had the surgery done on their dogs. Poor thing. Could you imagine?

I don't know if this is the right approach to take with a dog that's underweight, but a quick way to "cure" pickiness is to put down his food for 30 minutes in the AM. If he doesn't eat it, pull it back up. He doesn't get anymore until dinner time. Put down the same food. Again, if he doesn't eat, pull it back up. He'll quickly get the picture. 

Vizslas are ridiculously skinny dogs! It might be the angle of the picture, but he doesn't look too underweight. Slightly visible ribs are very common among the breed, though lots of people have very different opinions about how visible is ok.  As a highly active, energetic dog, it can be a challenge sometimes to keep the weight on them. They do not get fat easily.

Edit: I'm not saying he's not underweight--he does look too skinny! Just don't expect him to fill out the way a lab might.

That picture of him in the trunk is adorable! I'm glad he's doing ok so far!


----------



## deeco3307 (Jun 13, 2010)

Shandroid-

It is wonderful that you rescued this pup. Vizslas are wonderful dogs, but they do require a lot of attention and exercise. They are very different from many other dog breeds. Right now, he's probably fatigued, tired, malnourished, and a little timid in a new environment. Once that all becomes corrected, you may realize you have your hands full. Especially if he is a pup.

You owe it to the dog and the previous owner to try and re-unite them. It is absolutely impossible to know how they were separated (ran-off, lost while off leash running or hunt training, etc...). I personally don't think dumping would be my first thought of how this dog ended up on his own. If an owner were to just purely dump a dog, I don't think they'd leave the collar on. V's are naturally very skinny, so the fact that he doesn't have a lot of weight doesn't really indicate that he has been on his own for some time. It is just as possible that he was lost a day or 2 ago.

As far as tags go...he may be untagged because he is microchipped. I have both, but some may not feel tags are necessary if the dog is microchipped. Also, the tags could have gotten caught and ripped off in the woods. Being intact as nothing to do with being microchipped. Many quality breeders microchip their pups before sending them to homes at 8 weeks.

My point in all this is that our pup has gotten away in our neighborhood twice. Both times we were able to get him within 15 minutes, but he could have easily found his way to the highway at the end of our road, or the interstate 1 mile away in the same amount of time. It would crush me to know that he would have been out there to find, but the people who found him didn't do their part to re-unite us.

Just do the right thing and check for a microchip, put out signs that you found a vizsla, and make the owner describe every possible feature of the dog. The white toes make him somewhat unique for a V, so you can weed out those trying to pawn him.


----------



## mswhipple (Mar 7, 2011)

Very cute pictures, Shandroid! He did endure a period of hunger, to be sure. Who's to say how long he went without food, poor fellow!

My boy, Willie, was also lost, but he ended up in a high-kill shelter (dog pound). I adopted him from the dog pound after the waiting period, since his owners never came looking for him. He is gun shy, so he could have been dumped by a hunter. ("This dog won't hunt.") Nice. 

Willie had ectropion in both eyes when I got him. This condition causes the lower eyelids to get very droopy, kind of like a bloodhound's eyes. (With entropion, the eyelids turn under so that the lashes are rubbing on the eyeball.) Anyhow, his eyes looked fine if he was well-rested, but got very red-rimmed and droopy if he was tired. Vizslas are prone to both of these eye conditions, which can lead to a lifetime of eye infections. Willie just had the ectropion. The only correction is surgery.

Willie's expenses at the Veterinary Ophthalmologist's came to right around $2,500. That amount included two office appointments, the surgery itself, and a post-operative visit to have his stitches out. I found the specialist just by doing a Google search for Veterinary Ophthalmology in my area (I live in Michigan). Rusty might not even need surgery, but an office visit might be a good idea.


----------



## Shandroid (Sep 10, 2011)

Thank you for all your advice! We will see about a microchip and attempt to find an owner. I would think it would be unusual for such an expensive dog to be dumped, but who knows.  Rusty has "velcroed" to me already and hates when I leave the house, or even down in the basement! We have all bonded to him and I really don't want to imagine having to give him back to an owner, especially when you don't know if he was abused or not.

We learned something that made us wonder. When my husband holds up a camera near Rusty, he turns his head away like he is fearful. He does this with bottles of water that we are holding, if we hold them to close to him too. It makes me wonder if he was abused or treated heavy handedly when trained. We will have to see how everything unfolds. We want to do the right thing by him.

BTW, he is 23 inches tall from shoulder to floor, so I would imagine he is at least adult sized at this point, but perhaps a very young adult.


----------



## redrover (Mar 17, 2011)

They do velcro quickly--such people-lovers! As for the camera thing--a lot of dogs turn their head away when they see a camera, because they expect that blinding flash to come along with it. Can't say anything about the water bottle. Some dogs just don't like things near their faces, as well. 

It's difficult, but we should all try not to judge the situation until you know more. As deeco3307 mentioned, there are a variety of reasons he could be missing his tags, etc. Also, if he is chipped, the owner ought to have all the original papers regarding the microchip. I know I keep those papers in the same place I keep my important personal papers (passport, car title, etc.).

If you or someone else ends up keeping him, you will probably need to work on desensitizing him to being left alone. This breed can easily develop separation anxiety due to their velcro tendencies, and this would probably be compounded by being lost or abandoned. Just thought of that when you were mentioning that he doesn't like it when you go down into the basement.

My (barely) educated guess is that he is somewhere between, 1/1.5 and 3 years old. Keep the updates coming--I'm glad he found someone who will make sure he ends up ok, wherever that is! If only all animals were so lucky.


----------



## gunnr (Aug 14, 2009)

Shandroid

Turning his head at the camera is "normal". If it's digital it has an optic eye that senses light and an infared sensor that senses distance. They also make a high frequency whine, probably more audible to dogs than us. 
Tika turns her head at the Camera also, and I can assure you that she hasn't been abused. My other dog Gunnr "mugs" for the camera, and our dog Vizsla before them would get up and leave the room if you brought out the camera.

As for the bottle. Gunnr turns her head away also, because she hasn't learned to drink from the bottle yet. Tika knows to drink from the bottle, so she doesn't turn her head if she wants a drink. Being hunting dogs, they have to learn to drink from a bottle. At least in my case.

Your pictures show a pretty healthy Vizsla believe it or not. Yes he may be underweight, but that could just be his picky eating habits.
I will advise you however to not get too locked in to a regimented eating schedule with V's. They can be very picky eaters, and I have had one that would go for days without eating. He could outwait the second coming it seemed. 
Gunnr gets too distracted to eat on a schedule which leaves me with two choices;
Have an underweight appearing dog because she's skipping meals, or put some dry kibble in her kennel at night and let her eat when she wants to. My experience with V's is the latter. I let them eat when they want to eat.
Is it pandering to the dog? Yes it is, but I need the dog to have the energy reserves to hunt which is more important than eating on my schedule.

Vizslas have sensitive stomachs in my experience also. Three of the five I've had through the years would go through periodic phases of stomach issues and go off their food. I would mix cooked rice in with their food and spray it with warm water, or if need be change it to a different dog food to get them going again. In some instances they also got Tagament. A single tablet once a day to soothe their stomachs.In "horse parlance". Vizlsas are not "easy keepers".

You may not be seeing ads looking for the dog by his previous owner due to distance. A healthy adult Vizlsa can cover 20 miles in an hour or two. If he got lost and has been wandering for any length of time he could be a long way from home.
Unfortunately, in todays economy, pets are paying a steep price and he may have been abandoned by his previous owner as you surmised.

The Microchip may end up being somewhat of a bread crumb trail.
If he has one it will show up, and you can get the chip number and contact the service provider. However the chip could have been installed by the original breeder and a transfer would have been necessary to transfer the chip to the owner.
In order to get the client information either of the two previous parties would have had to keep the subscription to the service intact. If it is still a valid subscription then the chip service will contact the person to whom the subscription is valid for.


No matter what happens though. Thank you for picking him up and caring for him. It's a great act of kindness. 
Should he remain with you, expect it to take a few months to see his real personality, and cut him a little slack in some areas. Everything he knows has been turned upside down, and he needs a little time to adjust.


----------



## Shandroid (Sep 10, 2011)

Thank you, Gunnr for such great advice as well!  We are already hopelessly in love with Rusty, I am not really sure if our hearts could withstand the pain of returning him to his previous owner, and it sounds like it would be challenging finding him/her. We will still try, because it is the right thing to do. Someone has spent a great deal of time training him in manners and something I am not used to, permission to eat. Now, call me crazy, but isn't it a bit mean to make a dog wait for permission to eat his regular food? I guess I could see it if you have regular feeding times, in order to teach him respect for you and listening skills and such, but we are a very laid back family. We have dry food down all the time and let the dogs free feed. Thankfully, they are quite controlled and don't eat too much, and since we have an acreage, they get out and run often. If we get to keep Rusty, he will have to learn to be a "regular dog," not a regimented working dog (our Lab, Allie was trained this way when she was a fire dog, but she bounced out of that pretty quickly ). He obviously has been fed lots of canned food and prefers that since he gets very excited when I am doing stuff in the kitchen. He could certainly use more food, but I just don't want to make him a "special" pack member. I don't want the other dogs to get jealous.

The pic I posted shows a relatively healthy dog, true, but it isn't really good at showing all the bones protruding. You can see his hip bones, every spine bump and rib. However, I would suspect he was probably thin prior to getting lost, then lost weight quickly while wandering around. We'll keep working on it. Vizsla's are such neat dogs and we aren't strangers to catering to the special needs of some dogs. 

I'm glad that he most likely wasn't abused because that would just be too much given the sensitive nature of V's. We have been trying not to traumatize him and he is really bonding to us and I am not sure if that is good or not!

Since he is eating small amounts, it's almost as if he is sensitizing his stomach to the new food. He hasn't been sick at all and no diarrhea, so that's a blessing. His first poops were really dark so Lord knows what he was eating.

I can definitely believe that Rusty could have covered miles and miles of ground, he is lightning fast! We have a horseshoe driveway, and we will go out with him and he will turn the corner walking and we will call for him and start walking that way when he will run up behind us from the other direction! It's so cute! I wish I was a runner so we could run together.

@redrover: I agree with you about his age. He very much acts like a playful puppy, but not so young that he hasn't been trained for some time.


----------



## datacan (May 15, 2011)

Wow, very nice answers. 

To understand why they turn their heads, yawn, turn away... they communicate. 

http://www.vizslaforums.com/index.php/topic,2667.msg17602.html#msg17602


----------



## Shandroid (Sep 10, 2011)

Hi datacan! I read that post, very interesting! I know what you mean about the cat slow blinking, as our calico cat does this, but we haven't seen a dog do what Rusty has been doing. We have to try to remember that this has been stressful for him, even if he is acting like he is happy and content. Thank you!


----------



## Jo-Snow (Feb 20, 2012)

Just read this forum when looking up freckles appearing on my 2 year old vizsla's stomach.

Was so excited you kept the dog. Have read the most recent articles and am happy to see things are working out.


----------

