Two new wirehaired dachshund puppies from the Czech Republic

We spent Friday and Saturday with Lenka Fairaislová and her son Adam, who flew on Thursday to the USA from the Czech Republic. I learned of Lenka eight years ago when she e-mailed me after she had seen our testimonial about Zalud Staccato on a Czech website. Over the years we maintained our contact online, but we have never actually met.

Lenka has been involved in dachshunds for many years, she wrote two books about the breed, is an international judge, and works for the Czech Kennel Club. Even though she is a breeder of minis and kaninchenteckels, she has owned over the years some really nice standards. Her website is at http://www.kalokagathia.cz/ 

When Justin Richins who owns Remi asked me to help him import a nice female puppy from Europe, I turned to Lenka as she is very knowledgeable and has a lot of contacts there. She had a particular breeding in mind, and when pups were born on December 10, 2011 (4 males and 4 females), I actually asked for two female pups, one for Justin and one for us. She volunteered to bring pups to the States!

This is how on Friday we got to meet for the first time new puppies Mielikki and Macaria Raptor. They were sired by the male owned by Lenka, a three-year-old Revestreken's Kolja, who was imported from Norway. To read more about Kolja click here. This is his picture when he won the international blood tracking competition in Grebowo, Poland in July 2010.

The dam of the litter is Inti Raptor, who also goes back to Scandinavian lines. So even though the puppies were bred in the Czech Republic, the bloodlines used actually came mainly from Norway, Sweden and Finnland.

Puppies are lovely and really well socialized. They are good looking, friendly, outgoing, and have a very strong desire to please.

We talked with Lenka and Adam for many, many hours. Lenka knows some Polish and I could understand some of her Czech; Adam helped with English translations.

Adam, Lenka and John during our walk on our hill. Unfortunately, it was a very cold and windy day so the walk was pretty short.

Lenka is holding Mielikki and Adam is holding Macaria

Macaria (left) and Mielikki (right).

Mielikki is smaller in size, with finer bone, but really nice angulation and very good movement.

Macaria has excellent coat, outstanding head, heavier bone.

Both pups are staying here until Sunday, when one of them will fly to Utah. Most likely we will keep the smaller one, Mielikki, here.

One thing that I learned this weekend really blew my mind and showed me what a small world we live in and how interconnected we are.

One of the most important breeding we have ever done was breeding Gerte vom Dornenfeld, whom John imported from Germany, to Zalud Staccato, a Czech dog that was imported to Canada (a friend of mine who lived in British Columbia saw the dog and told me about him) in 1993. We did the breeding twice ("S" litter in 1995 and the "U" in 1996), and it produced many outstanding dogs such Sabina, Sara, Upton and Lolly (Ulrika). As it turned out Lenka was a good friend with Rudolf Kristl, Zalud's breeder, and she was the one who helped him put Zalud on the plane to Canada. When I showed her Zalud's pedigree, she pointed out a signature at the botton of the pedigree - it is her signature. How cool is that???

We owe a big thank you to the puppies' breeder Gabriela Skružná, to Lenka and Adam for all the help with locating right puppies and bringing them to the USA, and to Monika Kmetonyva-Fiore, Lenka's good friend, who helped throughout the whole process.