Icon Vizslas Breeding Program
Our goal is to breed healthy, confident, show-quality Vizslas, some of whom we hope will make a positive contribution to our breeding program and the overall Vizsla gene pool. We only breed Vizslas of excellent quality, and we strive to improve upon those Vizslas that we do breed, through the selection of healthy, outgoing, versatile Vizslas as partners for our own Vizslas.
We are proud that Tavasz and Indi, our two foundation Vizslas, are both registered with the Canine Health Information Center (C.H.I.C.). They are two of only twenty Canadian Vizslas to be recognized by C.H.I.C. as having had all three mandatory recommended health tests done: hips, eyes and thyroid. We also test for cardiac health, elbow dysplasia, and von Willebrand’s disease.
We register all of our puppies with the Canadian Kennel Club and the American Kennel Club. We may also register them with the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association and other activity-based registries, depending upon the interests of the puppy’s new home. We also tattoo, microchip and DNA-identify all of our puppies.
LITTERS
We breed very infrequently; only once every two years or so. To date we have bred two litters, one in 2007 and one in 2009. We are currently planning a breeding for late 2010 or 2011.
HOW WE CHOOSE HOMES FOR OUR PUPPIES
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We keep a waiting list of potential puppy homes, and we place our puppies in order of the quality of the families on our list, not on a first-come, first-serve basis. -
Our highest priority is placing our puppies in loving homes that have the time, money and personalities to support a Vizsla.
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We only place our puppies in homes that agree to do key health tests on their Vizsla, so that we can use this information to help us make decisions about our breeding program.
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We require that our Vizslas be given at least minimum positive obedience training to ensure that they can become good canine citizens.
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We also consider a family’s willingness to become involved in conformation showing, obedience or agility trialing, field work or hunting, and other activities suitable for Vizslas (we hope that our puppy families will at least be willing to let us show their Vizsla, and perhaps do some field work with it).
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We utilize both the Puppy Aptitude Test (commonly called temperament testing) and a structural evaluation (the Puppy Puzzle test) in order to characterize our puppies and determine which homes they are best suited to.
If you are interested in acquiring a puppy from us, please fill out a ‘Potential Puppy Family’ questionnaire and email it to us with a cover email note, at iconvizslas@mac.com.
Icon Vizslas Owner Questionnaire.doc.zip
Icon Vizslas Owner Questionnaire.pages.zip
