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Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Our focus on blood tracking dachshunds: writing, breeding and education

I did not mean to abandon the blog but life got really hectic. We are working as fast as we can on the 3rd edition of Tracking Dogs for Finding Wounded Deer. The book is selling better than we anticipated, and we are running out of the 2nd edition. We really would prefer not to re-print the 2nd edition but have the 3rd one ready for printing ASAP. The time is running out.

The weather is not helping in staying focused. It just seems that we have a winter storm once a week these days, and temperatures have been staying low. Most of the time it is just too cold for dogs to be in the kennel. I don't know if you can imagine how it is to have a female in heat when all the males have to be in the house. Asko, now 14.5, is being difficult with his vocalization. I have to marvel at this old dog's life force and spirit. He does not get discouraged by any obstacles. Even with a foot of snow on the ground, he just plows through it in search of Tuesday's scent.

Tuesday is going to be bred to Tommy tomorrow, on her 12th day, and we just found out that this weekend another girlfriend is coming for a romantic rendez-vous with Tommy, all the way from Quebec. Oh boy... I hope that the weather cooperates. Today we got at least 11" of snow, and now are "officially" snowed in.

This is Benoit Blanchard from Quebec with his French tracking teckel Fiona du Petit Bois de la Chapelle bred by Phillippe Rainaud. Fiona is 3.5 years old and at a 1000 meter NATC/DTK blood tracking test in 2012 scored I Prize, 92 points. We are going to see her on Saturday. 

Part of my "free" time is spent on the online course I have just started. The course called Basic Population Genetics for Dog Breeders given by The Institute of Canine Biology. Highly recommended! From time to time I will posting some information presented there, and a good article to start is click here.

I promise to post more frequently, but for now I am going to close this with a link to a recent article featuring Adam Hostetter's Moose (Uncas von Moosbach-Zuzelek). Moose was born on May 10, 2013, and is now around 20 lbs. There are some inaccuracies in the article, but it is always difficult to present all the nuances of all issues addressed in a short piece. We are very proud of Moose and so happy that Adam is pleased with him. For the link to article click here.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hopefully you can capture some pictures of Asko plowing through the snow, that must be a amazing picture especially of a 14.5 yr old dog with such spirit

Claire said...

If you decide to take the breed specific course, please count me in. Unless, of course, the wires and smoothies are counted as 2 separate breeds which I consider them, but.... In case.