OUR TRAVEL TO THE USA - JUNE - JULY 2007
It's time to go, we are at the Budapest Airport. Probably only Angel knows what is coming. Three dogs, three crates and several suit cases - but when we came back, we had even more!
Philadephia, Pennsylvania
Our first stop and "home base"
We stayed for 6 weeks. We took a tour (without the dogs, sadly) of the Battleship New Jersey, on the ship there were a lot of metal ladders, which are not dog-friendly at all. Philadelphia is a big city, with about 1.5 million inhabitants. In the city center, one of the tallest buildings in the world is under construction. You can see it below, it is the tallest building, a crane is on the top of it.
MEETING WITH SOME OF THE GONDŰZŐ-ALKONYAT 'PUPPIES' IN THE USA - Barto, PA, AKC FSS Breed Expo
It was an incredible experience to see the Mudis who were born here with us and then traveled many thousands of miles away. We are very thankful for the love and care they get from their American owners. This is our main goal as breeders: to provide as much happiness and joy to others with the Mudis as we have been given by them.
In the top photo, Fecske is on the right, Squiggy in the Middle and Pippin on the left. They live in Virginia with Sonja. They grew up to be incredibly lovely dogs and Pippin is a smaller version of her mother. Sonja always manages to meet with me when I come home to visit, Thank You Sonja!
Smokey is the littermate of Pippin and Squiggy and lives with Karen in Pennsylvania. Since Karen is the sister of Celeste we always get to see him on trips back home. He is a ball retriever fanatic like his mom Fecske. His flying air retrieves are incredible and he is still a nice silver gray with a beautiful head similar to his mom.
Above are Rajkó (black merle) and Moki (brown merle), they are Angel sons. They have different fathers. Sharon and these boys live in Michigan and are major league flyball competitors. Moki took the Herding Instinct test, see the pictures below. He not only excels in flyball, but showed that he has strong herding instinct, too. American herding instinct tests are longer, than the Hungarian tests. Dogs should show continued interest and correct herding behavior for about 15-20 minutes.
Pennsylvania and New York are truly rich in forests - for the biggest happiness of the squirrel-chaser Mudis. We crossed one of the famous covered bridges in America, this one is in Bucks County, PA. The other photo was taken in Ralph Stover State Park, PA.
We visited a county fair in New Jersey. There was a milking competition in the barn. Many local people were fascinated by the Mudis, an unknown herding dog breed from far away Hungary. In the forests, according to the rules, dogs should be on leash, but most importantly, as you can see on the sign, no alcoholic beverages are allowed in the State Parks. The park pics are from Ralph Stover State Park, which has a rocky overlook to the forest and creek below and Delaware Water Gap, the Grand Canyon of the east.
We made a wonderful excursion to a fascinating park in New York state. The trail took us into a narrow, cool and deep valley, where the rocks were covered with ferns and moss and on the bottom there was a fast running creek.
The Atlantic Ocean, New Jersey
It is amazingly hard to find a beach where dogs are allowed to be taken to the Ocean, it was a surprise because the shore is many hundred miles long! None of our Mudis have experienced the ocean before but they quickly realized that it can be fun! Although I think Péter enjoyed it the most.
Dog Shows
The trip was a big success for Fecske - she became a UKC champion (she is the 2nd UKC Champion Mudi - the first was Angel). We were very proud of her, the dog who came from Hungary to compete in the USA. She was also the Best of Breed on the AKC FSS Expo, where she won over 4 other Mudis. Fecske and Chili both got their CGC titles as well and Chili took 4 BOB ribbons home from the UKC shows in New York too.
