Round Two...

There just wasn't enough of Remus to go around. We were always bribing him away from each other for a good Vizsla-cuddle or to play a game of fetch. By the time Remus was a year old, we had learned about the importance of going to a responsible breeder and had done lots of research on which pedigree we wanted our next Vizsla to come from. We came across pictures of Cassidy (BISS CH Rivercity's Quenton Cassidy MH ROM) on the Internet as well as some of his accomplishments and decided we wanted a puppy out of him. We went to Judy Hetkowski of Boulder Vizslas, the guardian of Cassidy, to find out where we might find a Cassidy kid to add to our family. Judy put us in contact with Sarah Barr of Derby Vizslas because Sarah had just used Cassidy in a breeding. We filled out Sarah's puppy questionnaire, crossed our fingers and hoped, hoped, hoped we would pass the scrutiny and make it to Sarah's wait list. HOORAY!! Sarah deemed us worthy and arrangements were made to bring our newest V-baby home.

Hold on tight for the ride we were about to hop on! From the day Kosmo (aka Mel's "Lil' Baby") came home, raising him was a completely different ball game. Knowing we would have two intact males (three if you count Aaron! Hee hee!) in the same house, we needed to make sure the new pup's temperament would fit easily with Remus' true alpha and confident nature. We never wanted Kosmo to challenge Remus and make living together a series of tense moments. Sarah picked the perfect pup for us. The moment Kos laid eyes on Remus, it was love at first sight! Remus, on the other hand, gave us the "what were thinking!?" look as this energetic little puppy became his "mini-me."

While Remus was our "Old Soul" from the time he was just a little puppy, Kos was quite the different. Kosmo worried about a lot of things in life and we weren't experienced enough back then to help him see that the world wasn't all that scary. Sarah helped us along answering pages and pages of emails, talking for hours and hours on the phone, and recommending all sorts of literature for us to hone in on our dog parenting skills. We worked hard to hear what she told us but were only ready to accept about a third of it. Sarah was patient and allowed us to make the stupid mistakes we had to make without too many "I told you so's". From those many hours of emails and phone calls, another friendship was born.

From Kosmo, we learned you DO NOT baby or coddle a dog's uncertainties. Whatever it is s/he is worried about, it's critical to help your pup work through those fears while they're still young. Okay, so we didn't do a great job of helping Kos with his uncertainties when we first saw them but we eventually understood we could make a bigger mess of things or really dedicate ourselves to understanding dog language. By doing so we could help Kosmo learn that he was a part of a strong pack and he needn't worry. This knowledge came from so many different pieces, parts, and people. When one technique didn't seem to be working, we tried another until we found the tidbits that did work. Stringing them all together so they became habit for us as well as Kos was the key to getting us all back on track!

Kosmo taught us how to speak better "dog" and how important it is to be the strong pack leaders dogs need. He taught us the importance of consistency when training and just plain everyday living with dogs. He taught us how to start seeing the world as a dog would--what an incredible shift in perspective from how were used to seeing things.

Kosmo also taught us how easy it is to train a dog when s/he is food-motivated. There is one true love in Kosmo's life--FOOD! We're certain he spends most of his waking hours trying to figure out how to get to his treats. If given the opportunity, he would happily eat himself into a full belly-busting engorgement. Sadly for him, he's never been given that opportunity. However, he has succeeded in grabbing food from the counter and table a handful of times. Thankfully, we learned early on not to leave any unattended food within Kos' reach or else it would disappear. Upon conducting further investigations, we found he comes by this trait honestly! (E-hem...Derby side of the pedigree.) Fair enough--this was one of the easy lessons we had to learn. Because of Kosmo's almost religious devotion to the kitchen and his devotion to monitoring it for any activity, he is now the Davis/Reveles household "Sous Chef". He takes this job quite seriously, positioning himself at the ready for any morsel that might fall from the counter. He'll watch, with so much hope in his eyes (and drool collecting in his flews), as we prepare even the simplest food item. He feels he's mastered his "Sous Chef" role and is negotiating for an increase in responsibilities--namely, the official "Taste Tester." Little sister Amante has offered to assist Kos but being the micro-manager he is, delegating responsibilities isn't his strongest suit.

Next to food, his other great passion is hunting upland birds. And if you ask him, he'll tell you he's quite good at it, thank you very much. While we're certain he spends his waking hours plotting how to get to his treats, he dreams of packing his bags and hitching a ride to Deepwater, MO. This is where Lin Kozlowski and Jean Thomas of Everedi Vizslas live on a little slice of bird dog heaven. When he stays with Lin and Jean he gets to sharpen his hunting skills everyday. Working hard, being made to think, and held to a regular schedule are what Kosmo thrives on. He is a very hard worker. Lin and Jean tapped into this early on and became a couple of Kos' favorite people on this earth.

There are things about each Vizsla you wish you could burn into your mind forever, without losing a single detail. For us, it's his stunning headpiece and the expression in his eyes that make him uniquely "Kosmo". We know we will never have another Vizsla with eyes like Kosmo's. His are truly the windows to his soul. What he sees, his thoughts, and how he's feeling is so perfectly reflected in his beautiful eyes.