I still remember the first time that we gave Tucker a Bully Stick – we had taken him to a show about an hour away from home, he spent the day being a great boy, showing beautifully and just being a love. We saw the Bully Sticks that were for sale at the show and decided to buy him one for the ride home.  At that time he rode in his crate on long drives, and so he settled into the crate, having no idea what we were going to give him.

As you can guess, the ride home was filled with the sounds of Tuck moaning and groaning as he got to know what a Bully Stick was.  Nancy and I were laughing as we listened to him eat away at that treat and we have never forgotten the sound of Tucker and his first Bully treat. The first Bully Stick lasted quite a few days, but as he figured out the way to devour them, they lasted no more than an hour.

This was the first Bully Stick that we had given Oliver, and after taking his treat off to a safe location he spent a few hours enjoying the stick, while always keeping an eye on Bodi to make sure that he kept his distance.

Bodi has had the pleasure of the treats before, and being Bodi, he knows he can dust one in about half an hour, and then he will spend the rest of the time that (either Tucker) or Oliver finishes eating their treats walking around at a distance staring at the treat to see if it ever leaves the watchful eyes of its owner. Of course, we always keep an eye on Bodi as well to make sure that he understands that he must allow the owner to finish his own treat.

So, half the fun of giving the Bully Stick is watching the complete enjoyment of the boys as they finish them off, and the other half, is the calm that settles in as they get lost in their treats and we enjoy a nice afternoon outdoors.

Long live the Bully Stick…

Recently I pulled the CD out and took a look at the pictures again – it brings equal doses of laughter and tears as I think of the times we spent at Rick’s with Tucker, the way he loved to run through the studio to say hi to everyone – the way he’d go up to greet the models, even when they were in a state of undress, and most surprised by a typical Vizsla “cold nose” greeting. When there were children getting shots in the studio, they would play with Tucker and he would always put up with their playing, at least for a little while.

These shots are just a small sample and feature Nancy and Tucker in a more personal setting.

Tucker obviously enjoying the modeling, is putting up with a little hi-fiving, sure that a treat will be offered for him doing his neat little trick.

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After doing his trick, Tucker decides that a treat must be near and pushing his cold wet nose in to find the treat that is obviously being held back, Nancy feeling the heat, keeps the treat hidden and tries to get some more poses out of Tuck.

As Tucker gets more insistent, Nancy decides that keeping the treat out of reach would be the best move, seeing the treat being held high so as to keep it away from him, Tucker starts to re-think his decision to be a model, there seems to be a lot of tricks, with very little chance of treats, and then he hears the human models talking about starving themselves to keep a tight body… hearing how models eat, and what they eat, Tucker is worried…

And then, after hearing that to be a model, he must keep a svelte figure, he must eat very little, he must purge whenever he eats too much, he decides that he must get the treat right away… and finally getting the treat – Tucker quickly finds out that it is a veggie treat, and definitely not to his liking…

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Clearly, Tucker has made a mistake… starving himself, eating veggies all the time, sticking his paw down his throat, he has made a mistake, he was thinking of something else all together… yes, he knows what he really wants to be… a food taster!, that is what he wants to be, a FOOD TASTER must be the best job of all.

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These have turned out to be some of our favorite pictures with the Tuck-Man and he fell into the part of being our little model for the day. Nancy and I both got our pictures separately with our little guy, and then we, of course, go pictures with the three of us – Tucker was a gem, posing for us and generally putting up with the silliness of sitting indoors and having a flash go off in his face for hours.

Rick has invited us to do a posing with the pup named Bodi-O, and we have to just get our butts over to the studio to get the first of our series of memory makers with Rick and Bodi – like kids, they grow so fast and one day you are looking back and wondering where all the time went.

We took Tucker out on a hunting trial when he was but a wee young lad, and he found 2 Chuckers within… ohhh… 45 seconds, and the judge failed him, because he wasn’t crazy enough about hunting the birds, he actually paid attention to where we were in the field, he tried to stay within eyesight, all the things that we had worked so hard with him on, all the things that made him a great walking dog at the time, and an incredible walking dog now – those were the things that they failed him on, the judge stated “Whenever I let my Vizsla out of his crate he is frantic to go after the birds, he doesn’t think of anything else!”, what a wonderful way to make sure that your dog is only allowed in your life when you are hunting in the field, and choose to use him for hunting on that day.

Tucker is a fantastic hunter – if you roast up some fowl – he’s all over it, can pick it up from 100 yards away and is frantic, but still under control, otherwise, he will be laying out chewing on his toy and birds will land all around him, no reaction – unless it is a game bird, then he’s up and pointing, but still not frantic.

Now Bodi, oh man, he has a sniffer too die for, has hunting instinct that blows you away, and is always ready to hunt bird or bunny, night or day, whether you are ready or not. Taking Bodi out to the trails and letting him off leash is an exercise in frustration as he bolts off and goes after some creature…

AND I WOULDN’T HAVE HIM ANY OTHER WAY!

The beauty of watching him pick up a scent and lock into point, seeing him shaking with excitement at the thought of going after something new, watching him breath in all of the scents while trying to decipher the location, watching in horror as he dives head first into a bush without knowing what exactly is on the other side, how could anyone not love that, how could anyone not be fascinated by the idea that this is all in his blood, part of his DNA.

Bodi is getting better all of the time in dialing things down just a notch, he is trying to listen when we call him… he waits until the very last second, and then comes when he know that the next call is going to get him in trouble. Bodi is Beauty and the Beast all rolled up in one little bundle of excitement.

Tucker is, as we always like to say… Ferdinand the Bull, he knows what hunting is, he knows which birds are the ones that he is supposed to point at, he understands the excitement of finding a game bird, and he would rather stop and smell the flowers, chew on some grass, and hunt down any piece of cheese within 100 yards, and kill it good.

The Hunting Gene runs fast and deep in both Tucker and Bodi and just hits the surface in incredibly different ways, it’s funny, fascinating and beautiful to watch them both, and Nancy and I wouldn’t change either one of them for anything.

So all you birds, and beasts… Watch out for Bodi, and all you Tillamook and treats… Watch out for Tucker, they are both out hunting, and you are in danger of being caught at any moment.