Onpoint Vizslas - About Onpoint

I started hunting as a child and have been fortunate to have hunted and trialed in 4 provinces, 20 states, and Mexico. I shot my first Ruffed Grouse in the woods of Northern Ontario at age 9 and my first pointed pheasant over German Shorthairs at age 11 in New York State. As a teenager and into my early 20s, I was a huge duck and grouse hunter and worked as a guide. I would take people out to the duck blinds and grouse coverts and my chocolate lab "Brandy" would retrieve and flush for hours. By the late 70's and early 80's my focus shifted from water fowl to upland game - primarily ruffed grouse and woodcock. This shift led me from the retrievers to the pointers. I purchased my second GSP, Savannah. Savannah and I went hunting everywhere. I began competing in CKC hunt tests, NAVHDA, and NSTRA trials. As time progressed, I was becoming more of a quail hunter and frequently travelled to the south to indulge in this passion.

Coincidently and quite by accident, while competing in a skeet tournament at the Winchester Skeet Club in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, I came across a Vizsla. A man had this beautiful, rust coloured dog. I really liked the look of it. Nice mid-sized, short hair dog, a lot calmer than my GSP. When I found out that it could hunt, the rest is as they say, history. The Vizsla was exactly what I had been looking for! By the mid 80's, I was already up to five or so Vizslas. Weekends were full of CKC hunt tests, dog shows, obedience trials, NSTRA trials. I was completely hooked. Calls began to flood in with people asking me to train their dogs as they were impressed by what my crew had been doing. I hadn't given this much thought before but, loved working with pointers. I just can't wait to see the next point so naturally, I said that I would give professional bird dog training a shot.

In 1986, I opened Onpoint Plantation and Kennels in North Gower, Ontario. This was a full service hunting preserve, training kennel and sporting clay range that backed onto 18 000 acreas of uninhabited crown land. I could keep 40 dogs in the kennel and limited training to 20 dogs. Much to my delight, in no time the kennel was full with Pointers, Setters, GSPs, GWPs, Brittanies and of course, Vizslas. I've trained them all.

While operating my hunting preserve, my days were packed between training dogs, running in trials and guiding at my preserve. I look back at this time with great fondness. For me, there is absolutely nothing more rewarding then seeing a dog do what it was bred for!

While operating the hunting preserve I have owned multiple GSPs, English Pointers, and Setters but it is the Vizsla that I have come to love and to breed exclusively.I do not take the responsibility of breeding Vizslas lightly. I spend a great deal of time working with the dogs to be sure that they are of breeding quality before ever entertaining the thought of breeding them. By breeding quality, I mean dogs that can hunt with STYLE, CLASS, DESIRE, AND INTENSITY while still conforming to the breed standard. Their health and temperament must be excellent, no exceptions made!

I will not just breed to a stud dog out of convenience. In fact, I have traveled as far as California, Illinois, Ohio, Colorado, New Jersey, Virginia to breed to a particular stud dog that we felt could help us improve our lines. I feel that it is important to meet the stud dog ourselves, check his temperament and see him run or hunt whenever possible. A pedigree is great but, I prefer to judge a dog for myself before breeding to him. I also like to see what he has produced whenever possible. Breeding is a serious decision and must be made carefully. I know that there is no "perfect" dog and certainly do not claim ours to be. However, at Onpoint, I make a serious effort to only breed dogs that I feel can make a positive contribution to the Vizsla as a breed.

John Reid