LOL @ Xiphon!

My oldest is 9 and I already can tell she’s starting to take an interest in boys. Some of the things she’s come out with recently crack me and my wife up.

As a father of 2 girls I think that you need to educate kids into being able to say no to things they don’t want to do and understanding that just because someone says they want to do it doesn’t mean they should.

Porn is out there and you aren’t going to close the internet down to avoid it so giving kids the right skills to handle difficult situations is the approach we are taking.

I accept my children are going to experiment and good for them I say but doing it in the right way is down to how you as a parent bring them up and support them.

Tony, My Mountain King bead ripped slightly on Monday on the FoD Blue route letting all the air out – very disappointing as it’s not even that old or heavily used.

I’ll be really interested in what comes out of this as getting slightly disappointed with Conti reliability on the tubeless front as this is the 2nd one to go.

Just looking at flights and Easyjet seems cheaper than Ryanair (Who wants £100 for taking a bike)

Ianv – cheers, is it case of hiring a car once you are at Lyon (Grenoble doesn’t seem to operate during summer) or is there a way of transfering.

Is it actually easier to drive over (I live about 3 hours from Channel Tunnel)

Lilac – drop me an email as I’m curious. barnt at hotmail dot com

Cheers for the advice – will get the measuring tape and Visio on the go.

We’re out Gloucester way.

Jamie – I was thinking about doing that just to get a feel for what we could do.

Lilac – The money will be going to the owner not the breeder and plus the breeder is well recognised as a leading light in the Vizsla world of breeders – we’ve chosen very carefully hence why we’ve waited nearly 2 years.

To be honest the HVS wasn’t as helpful as I’d hoped.

Lilac – I’m expecting to pay for it but don’t know if that is the case.

Dab – we’ll need photos – how’s it going?

Interestingly I’ve been looking at that one.

Bluebird – Thanks for the input. We’re ready for the exercise piece but as mentioned in the post over here we’re not sure what he’ll be like outside of this other than what we’ve seen of dogs we’ve had contact with via breeders or other owners.

I’ll drop you an email :)

@Redwoods –

I think company, social interaction and mental stimulation is equally as important and it sounds like he might get a good dose of that

We hope so…

Yeah, with you there Mr Blobby – the bit about never knowing my name made me fill up and I’ve not even got a dog (yet)!!

Plumtouch! :lol:

One of my faves – love the angle

Great photos there 5thElefant – all you hear on the internet and speaking to people (either owners or people familiar with the breed) is how much exercise they need and you don’t hear about how active they are outside of this – we’re OK with the exercise side but my wife is starting to get worried that they never have any downtime and will be constantly on the go – I’ve always assumed they will chill on the sofa and sleep but not how much they will do that so she has a good point in raising the concern.

Your photos show they do relax.

They are a big commitment you do need to organise your every day around fitting them in

We already do this a lot because of the kids and our jobs to make sure one of us is around for school drop off or pick up.

this is dog No1 and as @flowerpower says I was a bit anxious but wouldn’t change it for anything.

Would you say your anxieties were unfounded? I think we’re concerned as we want the dog to have as good a life as possible.

They say if you want to know who loves you more – your dog or your wife, lock both of them in the boot of your car for an hour and see which one’s pleased to see you when you let them out.

I’m trying this on the wife tonight :)

LOL! I’ve heard they are really intelligent.

I’ve got 3 months gardening leave so the chance of a 7month old puppy arriving in the next few weeks would work really well to get it in that initial routine before I start my new job.

Yunki – I totally understand what you are saying and can appreciate how much of a burden a puppy and a new born would have been. Must have been a tough decision to get rid of the puppy.

Our kids are slightly older and we feel ready to have a dog join our family – one of the reasons why we want the breed we have chosen is because we want something which has a bit more zest for life and we will enjoy training and they will respond positively.

I’m really looking forward to showing it all the places locally it can walk and enjoy.

That’s good to know, we’re similar but both my wife and I have to go and visit customers but we’re normally around mostly and I’m actually keen to take the dog out for walks during the day just to get away from the PC/phone when I am working at home.

5thElefant – what do you do for work?

:)

The breeder said the jumping up needed to be sorted out with this dog but otherwise is a really well behaved dog that needs some attention.

Jonv – LOL! Yeah, we thought we were popping round for a cuppa and a chat but we ended up going for a walk in the pouring rain – I only had a jumper on and had to lend my wife my jacket. She’s cursing ruining her shoes

Samuri – this is slightly tongue in cheek but I have to ask – have you got / had kids? ;)

So far just me and the wife have met him – didn;t want to take the kids in case the breeder wasn’t keen on us having him / we didn’t like him and the kids got their hopes up too much. Next step is get the kids to visit if we decide we are happy with the 7month old.

Onza, I’m totally for the older dog, but need to convince the kids that a big dog is better and my lovely wife that going straight to insta-dog we will cope with the step change rather than a gradual aclimatisation. I’m ideally after pros and cons here :)

Cheers, the life wehave is both my wife and I work from home, one of us is around most days for the kids andif there are days where we are going to be away all day (never longer than from 8-5.30) then we’d get a dog sitter/walker to come round. We dont go away on holidays that much but the breeder who lives nearby has said she will happily board the dog for us.

One on the concerns is will the dog be active all day while are trying to work. The breed we are getting is a Vizsla and everytime we meet them they have loads of energy but we’ve not seen one when they are not excited to see us, butI know I’ve met a number of owners with similar life setups and theyhave been very positiveabout them.

Also, we’ve been offered a 7 month puppy now which needs rehoming due to his owner emigrating or a puppy puppy in 3 months time, I should mention I’ve just handedmy notice in am am going to be on 3 months gardening leave so a new puppy is goingto clash with a new job and theoldpuppy fits well now, but will we miss much with the puppy puppy stage or will we luck out with an older dog?

I think we’re worried we mightbe tied to the house even more than we are currently, but the fact so many people have dogs makes me wonder if we are getting too concerned about it all.

Demo a few as mentioned…

If you are tall 29ers might work better than a 26 and vice versa.

I do wonder about tyre and tyre pressure choices – if the root is smooth and wet surely this is akin to what tyre for ice ;)

I think speed is the key – its the off camber ones or the root gardens which throw me.

Cheers for the tips.

Jonv – I’ve tried the push and tumble technique myself a number of times…

I’m also really good at the front wheel wash out and face plant on the hardest object I can find.

SLX ordered – thanks for the advice everyone!

Hmmm… thinking of a trip to the Alps so might go for SLX after all.

So… Icetech / Fins don’t really make much difference then?

Might have to invest then in some deores – my Juicy’s have a tendency to be very on/off when you really don’t need them to be.

Is that seriously the only difference??? a bloody allen key or twisty dials??

I love GT – great place.

If you think Spooky wood is great try Hamsterley’s Section 13