A LITTER of rare Hungarian vizslas celebrated their first birthday this month with a doggy birthday party extravaganza.

Early last year Janet and Michael Owner decided to breed their beloved Hungarian vizsla, Dude (official name: Marsha's One Cool Dude). The problem was finding a suitable mate. Mrs. Owner did not want to import a puppy because the law requires puppies be at least ten months old before entering Bermuda.

Mrs. Owner felt this was too late in the puppy's social development. She and her husband leased a girlfriend, Dyna, through the American Kennel Club and brought her to the island. Although this was supposed to be a temporary arrangement, Dude and Dyna turned out to be soul-mates so Dyna stayed. The rest - seven puppies to be exact - is history.

"All the puppies were adopted locally," Mrs. Owner told the Mid-Ocean News yesterday. "We did have an arrangement with the breeder if we couldn't find suitable homes locally she would take them to the United States and find appropriate homes, but it turned out to be unnecessary.

"That was our bit for responsible dog ownership. We kept one. We have permission from Agriculture & Fisheries to have three dogs in our house.

"At the party, we had all sorts of organised games for the dogs. We had a cake. They were having so much fun greeting each other. There wasn't a cross bark between them. They spent two hours running in a fenced-in area."

To a canine, any party where he's actually allowed to make off with the birthday cake is an extravaganza, but Mrs. Owner said it wasn't as silly as it all sounds.

"There was a practical purpose," Mrs. Owner said. "It gave me an opportunity to see how everyone was doing.

"Hungarian vizslas used to be uncommon, but they are gradually making a comeback. They were once hunting dogs for the aristocracy. They spent most of their days wandering about the family castle begging scraps from the kitchen workers.

"This is probably why vizslas today are indoor dogs. They became rare when the Soviets invaded Hungary and killed many of the dogs because they symbolised the aristocracy. Most of today's vizslas are descendants of the few which were smuggled out of the country.

"We keep getting phone calls from people asking if we are going to breed again," Mrs. Owner said. "My concern is always finding a good home for them. It is very easy to breed a litter. The breeders have to be responsible for them afterwards. So I don't think we will breed again."

Mrs. Owner said vizslas were very nice dogs.

"They are known as Velcro dogs because they stick very close to people," she said. "I used to work all day, but I always had more than one so they weren't left alone. They like a lot of attention and they are indoor dogs. We have a fairly decent sized house, but wherever we are there are three dogs sitting in front of us, with a look on their face that asks: 'What's next'?"

She said vizslas were a rare sporting breed because they could both point and retrieve. "They are hard-wired to point," she said. "They have very soft mouths. One day we were at Blue Hole Hill and Dude caught a wild rabbit. When we took it from him there wasn't a mark on it. The rabbit eventually got up and ran away."

Vizslas were a hyper, but easy-going breed, Mrs. Owner said.

"At the birthday party, I think they did recognise each other, probably because they are all almost identical," she said. "All the puppies particularly remember my husband, because he spent a lot of time with them. They have a different type of greeting for him than other people."

The party was such a success that Mrs. Owner is already planning to have a second birthday party next year.