It’s been a productive 6 months for us at Cesky Fousek New Zealand. In November 2020, one of our females, Perdita of NewBohemia (aka Frankie) owned by Brandon and Megan Fiebig in Queenstown gave birth to no less than 10 puppies. Five puppies were male, and five were female. This was the first litter sired by our new male dog Art ze Stoprounských vinic. Art arrived in New Zealand from Czechia in March 2020. Fast forward only 4 months and another of our females (Koha of Newbohemia) whelped 8 puppies on 28 February 2021, also sired by Art (his second litter). Koha’s litter has 6 females and 2 males. They are currently 2 weeks old and are just starting to try and walk about on their very wobbly legs.
There is a real range in puppy size but the little ones are pretty feisty and don’t allow the big boys and gals to bully them off the teat. Mind you, my wife and children have helped out a bit by giving the smallest ones some preferential teat time. This is important in helping those small ones through the first few days when weight gain is ever so important. But now, two weeks down the track, it’s every puppy for him/her self. Sometimes it is quite a racket of squeaks and growls as they vie for the best position on the boob. But after a few minutes, everyone settles down and it’s fairly quiet, except for the hydraulic slurping of suckling puppies.
We have a lot of visitors to our home. It’s no surprise that it’s always the ladies who like to hold and cuddle the pups. Sometimes you’ve got to balance the books and make sure the pups get a bit of social enrichment from the blokes! We couldn’t have too many hunting dogs being the lady’s pooch, could we? Well, not unless it’s the lady doing the hunting of course!
The Mother of these pups (Koha), is a lovely dog with a very relaxed temperament and a keen hunter. When she was 20 months old (April 2015) she won the novice class of the Waikato Gun Dog Club Rough Shooters Trial. Later that year she went on to achieve a Prize I score in the Intermediate Hunting Dog Test held by the New Zealand Versatile Hunting Dog Testing Association (NZVHDTA). Koha’s category scores in that test are one of the best that our dogs have achieved, with her retrieving and searching earning her an honorary notation.
Art (the Father of these pups) is a 5-year-old brown male and is described by our Czech friends as a very good retriever, sharp against fox, and intensively employed in the practice of pheasantry. He is a very handsome and athletic dog and has excellent breeding and test results from his home country of Czechia. Art came with a long list of hunting credentials including many Prize I scores in the rigorous Utility Field Test (UFT). The UFT is designed to test a hunting dog’s usefulness for the on-foot hunter in all phases of hunting both before and after the shot, in the field, forest, and wetland, and on different species of game. In this respect, cooperation and control are essential ingredients of the overall performance. The entire test should, as nearly as possible, simulate actual hunting conditions. Art has been proven to be excellent waterfowl and upland dog.
To finish off this post here is a few more puppy pictures just to make you really purr. If you’re a keen hunter who can provide plenty of hunting opportunities for a gun dog and would like to own a Cesky Fousek you can register here for a puppy: Register Your Interest In A Puppy. Alternatively, if you would like to ask a few questions feel free to email us at nz.ceskyfousek@gmail.com.
