Tuesday, January 28, 2014
A rare sunset
These two pics were taken yesterday at sunset. John and I stood in front of the house with our jaws open. The colors disappeared within 5 minutes. The whole experience was quite incredible.
Friday, January 24, 2014
Meet UBT members in Grand Rapids, Michigan this weekend!
January 24-26 in Grand Rapids, Michigan - come and meet United Blood Trackers members at the Huntin' Time Expo at Delta Plex Arena. Friday, Jan 24th 1-9, Saturday, Jan 25th 9-7, Sunday, Jan 26th 9-3.
For more info go to:
http://www.huntingshows.net/
For more info go to:
http://www.huntingshows.net/
Seminar on Blood Trailing Dogs in Texas
Texas Blood Trackers is hosting their annual event again this year in Hamilton, Texas.
2014 Blood Trail Seminar
2014 Blood Trail Seminar
March 1st, 2014 in Hamilton, Texas
Blood Trail Seminar:
10:00 am: Blood Trail class starts (Please arrive 30 minutes early to sign in.)
12:30 pm: Lunch Break
1:45 pm – Last dog ran: Finish up Blood-trail class
$100 for each handler and dog team running blood-trails for the day.
$50 for each handler without dog. Both include lunch and dinner plate.
TBT & UBT Testing & Evaluations: 28th - 2nd
10:00 am – 12:30 pm & 1:45 pm – 4:30 pm
TBT 1 $50, TBT 2 $75, TBT 3 $100
UBT 1 $75 , UBT 2 $100
Must have deposit in before 2/22/14. NO WALK ONS. We can only take so many dogs, and there is a cut off, so book as soon as possible to better insure availability.
10:00 am: Blood Trail class starts (Please arrive 30 minutes early to sign in.)
12:30 pm: Lunch Break
1:45 pm – Last dog ran: Finish up Blood-trail class
$100 for each handler and dog team running blood-trails for the day.
$50 for each handler without dog. Both include lunch and dinner plate.
TBT & UBT Testing & Evaluations: 28th - 2nd
10:00 am – 12:30 pm & 1:45 pm – 4:30 pm
TBT 1 $50, TBT 2 $75, TBT 3 $100
UBT 1 $75 , UBT 2 $100
Must have deposit in before 2/22/14. NO WALK ONS. We can only take so many dogs, and there is a cut off, so book as soon as possible to better insure availability.
To sign up contact:
- Paul Coffman-paul@texasbloodtrackers.com (214)289-9741.
- Troup Bishop- troupbishop@yahoo.com (325)642-5160
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Alabama blood tracking dachshund puppies
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| This picture of Tom Munoz was taken at the 2011 UBT Trackfest in Arkansas. Tom is holding Jack (Joeri/Greta son) and Meg (mom to the current puppies). |
Dam of the litter, Meg, is a granddaughter of Agata v Moosbach-Zuzelek, and she was sired by Nicki von Velbert, who was imported from Germany. The pups were sired by eight-year-old Fred (Frederick der Trakker Yergz), a full brother to Gail Berger's Pepper. Fred's lines go back to Asko von der Drachenburg, Sabina von Moosbach-Zuzelek, Traelborg's Herbert "Skyder", vom Dornenfeld and Springwood's.
Tom and Jackie Munoz's website is at www.alabamadeertracking.com. They can be contacted at deertrackingdog@gmail.com or 256-426-3199. Pups are in Alabama.
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
This is how puppies should be raised: Remi is a super dad to his pups
This short video posted by Justin Richins from Utah shows his wirehaired dachshund puppies at the age of five weeks. They are out of Remi (Remy von Moosbach-Zuzelek) and Macaria Raptor. The video shows how good Remi is with his puppies. Not all males are like that! The pups are being raised in a right way, by both parents. And they are fully socialized with Justin's six kids. For more information about these puppies bred for blood tracking contact Justin at 435-655-5484 or justinrichins@gmail.com.
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Gwendoline von der Dohlmühle, the best working dachshund in 2013 in the DTK Wiesbaden-Mainz Gruppe
Great news from Germany: Gwendoline von der Dohlmühle, Kunox's dam, got a diploma as the best working dachshund of the DTK Wiesbaden-Mainz Gruppe in 2013. She also received a challenge trophy, a bronze wild boar. Congratulations go to Annelie Grauer on Gwendoline's accomplishment! Gwendoline's dam, owned by the Grauers, Elsbeere von der Bismarck-Eiche out of Stefan Fuß's breeding was 3rd (she was 1st five years ago). We feel so fortunate to have Kunox!
Friday, January 17, 2014
Walt Dixon's Dachs is a very promising young tracker
Today our friend Walt Dixon and Chris Daley visited
us at our hilly snowy home in Berne. We helped Walt prepare a PowerPoint
presentation which he will be offering at the Professional Bowhunters Society Convention in March.
Walt brought along his young male
dachshund, Dachs von Tierspur (born August 1, 2012), which he purchased from Genti and Beth Shero. Dachs was sired by our FC Billy von Moosbach-Zuzelek and is out of the Shero's Mae (FC Mae von Munterkeit).
 |
| Walt Dixon is holding Dachs, and Chris Daley |
Dachs looks a lot like Billy and has
excellent leg-length and body proportions for a tracking dog. In our 11-acre running enclosure we
liked his hunting drive and working style. Dachs has already found several deer, and we think that
he is a dog to watch for the future.
 |
| Mielikki and Dachs had a lot of fun together. |
 |
| We like Dachs' conformation - correct size, excellent coat, beautiful head, long neck, very nice topline, great proportions and ground clearance... and Billy's eyes. |
 |
| Mielikki and Dachs hunted hard! |
 |
| No offense to Mae, Dachs' dam, but we do not see much of her in Dachs. |
 |
We never posted this picture and message from Walt from October 15, 2013: Today I got a call on my cell for a bowhunter I
tracked for last year. Ari and I recovered his buck in 2012 and when he got to
it he got on his knees and began to cry. Finally, embarrassed, he looked up and
apologized. He explained he had been diagnosed with cancer and had gone through
all the treatments and thought he would die and never be able to hunt again.
That buck last year represented something special to him as a cancer
survivor.
Today when he called I took both dogs, unsure of
which I'd use. The trail was 9.5 hours old when we met the bowhunter so I
decided to run Dachs solo and give him a chance on his own. As a teenager (he's
one year and two months old) he's been exhibiting a bit of a reckless teenage
spirit and I didn't know if he'd have the discipline to buckle down and work
this line.
I'm pleased to report that when given this chance
he rose to the occasion! Dachs ran this trail well and you could tell he was
proud to take over the as primary tracker today. The deer was hit in front of
the rear leg, exiting the bottom, leaving 8 inches of entrails hanging out.
Dachs tracked about 400 yards from the hunters last blood and did a good job of
working the countless circles and beds this deer made in a thick, thick swale
field with Buckthorn everywhere. At the deer he showed good possessiveness and
aggression and adopted the "this is my deer" attitude. He warned the bowhunter
away when he got to close. Dachs was visibly proud of his accomplishment! With
gaining Deer Search Certification at just over 8 months old, subsequently
working with Ari, and now beginning on his own I think he's going to be a good
one! Ari is tracking as well or better than any dog I've ever had! Now, we've
been on 5 calls and have been blessed with 4 recoveries! This run of good luck
is great fun!
|
As it turned out in the end, Walt took 19 calls in 2013 and had 11 recoveries with his tracking dogs, Ari and Dachs. Ari is Dachs' aunt as she is Billy's sister.
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Longhaired dachshund Tasha succeeds on a difficult and confusing track
A big thank you to Cliff Shrader from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for sharing his tracking experience with us. Cliff's tracking partner is Tasha, a longhaired dachshund he imported from Denmark.
It's Saturday morning and the phone hasn't rang yet....we'll just one time and that was from my son who forgot this was Saturday and I do not get up at 4 am on Saturday. I got up and made a wonderful cup of coffee (from by buddy Norman in Nicaragua), started some deer sausage frying (a gift from a hunter after tracking his dad's deer) and put some biscuits in the oven. As I sit here I have time to think about a few of the tracks that Tasha and I have made this year. I have been fortunate enough to get to track with three different trackers this year and I learn things all the time from them, their dogs and their stories.
Donnie called me the other morning and asked if I wanted to make a track with him. This track was for a friend of his son, Peyton. Although Peyton had killed deer before, he never harvested a buck. He shot a buck this morning, made what looked to be a good hit but the deer couldn't be recovered. Now in all fairness, if his dad Scott could not have gotten a tracker....or two in there, I am sure that he would have trampled the woods down looking for the deer. An interview about the shot and the deer's reaction was not formal because some tracks...like a child's first deer or first buck....you are going to make this track regardless of how good the potential for a recovery sounds.
Tasha and I met Donnie and his Blue Lacy Ruby. We took the short drive over to the hunting club. We talked to Scott and Peyton and headed out on the track by four wheelers. The place where we would be tracking is a large field over a hundred acres that is about 200 yards wide and very long. One side have thick grown up cutover and woods, and the other side is a tree lined dirt road with open woods and palmettos interlaced on the other side. The ground was pretty wet. The ditches and low spots held some shallow standing water. The shot was taken from a stand on the tree lined road side of the field on a buck that had crossed over from the cutover chasing a doe. This was the last buck leaving this field. The gun was a scoped single shot rifle shooting a 7mm 08 caliber 165 grain Barnes X bullet. The buck jumped and kicked when he was hit. Scott was watching through the binoculars as his son Peyton shot said he thought the deer was hit hard.
We were brought to the hit site. There was blood in the field as well as on the briars. There was blood crossing the road and into the woods behind us. This blood was a dark shaded red but had red blood mixed in it too. I found some white hair at the hit site and on briars. Scott said he definitely saw lung blood on the other side of the road and I said that this hair could possibly be from the exit but it is definitely white belly hair. Donnie started out with Ruby and she had no problem hooking up on the trail with ample blood on the ground although she didn't seem as intense as she usually gets on a track.
After a few minutes, I started Tasha into the track. We found a small piece of what appeared to be gut crossing a log. Tasha never really hooked up on the track like she should have. We would run about 100 yards until we ran out of blood and then she would backtrack. She kept trying to bring me back into the field. We asked Scott if the deer could have possibly crossed back into the field after he had shot. Scott said it was possible but they didn't see anything like that. They were busy high fiving and talking about the shot. After repeated attempts to get the girls to hook up and track, we started branching out a little at a time. There are so dang many deer in these woods and trails worn deep from heavy usage were everywhere. Ruby jumped one doe that was bedded up and also found a dead fawn in another area. We don't know what killed the fawn.
As we branched out, Donnie found a blood line that went back into the field about 75 yards closer to the stand. This was really confusing as it appeared that the deer had run into the woods, went closer to the stand and crossed back into the field. The blood stopped, started, stopped and started. I took Tasha to the other side of the field where she had been trying to bring me. There were two deer feeding the entire time we were in this field. I was very glad that Tasha never gave them a second look. She hunted hard but did not hook up. As I approached Donnie at the place where the deer had crossed back into the field he said....this is where the deer was shot at. We found blood and some good brown rib area hair at this site. I told Donnie to go on, we would hold back a minute or two because the girls compete if we run them together. He said - no, take Tasha on ahead because so far on this track he has pulled Ruby off of live deer, dead deer, live rabbits, guts, blood and lungs. Right now she doesn't know what I want her to do!
I put Tasha on the trail. She hooked up immediately. There was some lung as the deer crossed a ditch. The blood trail grew space and ended but Tasha never checked up. About 60 yards into the track a rabbit jumped and ran past Tasha about 20 yards away. I didn't think that she saw it and I was now afraid that she was trailing the bunny. She stopped where he jumped at, sniffed the ground and then went on with her track. I was relieved. I never had a rabbit problem before but that was huge temptation. She headed into some thick palmettos and about 50 yards later delivered me to a nice buck dead on the ground. He was shot just forward of center mass probably taking out one lung and busting up a bunch of other things inside. I called over to Peyton and said we had his deer. He ran all the way over there and asked where. He is over there a little ways. Peyton looked around until he saw him. With wonder and amazement he quietly said to himself.....Wowww! I love being able to see this. After the initial finding of what was going to be the one that got away, Peyton now had his buck. The swagger now sets in and we had a nice photo shoot.
When we got back to the camp, we had another photo shoot and talked to the other hunters. When we told them about our confusion with the track they smiled. There was a doe shot the evening before from that stand. She was shot at least twice and hit in the guts. She crossed the road and went into the woods where she was recovered and dragged back down the trail to the road. No wonder the dogs and trackers couldn't put the pieces together. This was a great track to be a part of. I thank Donnie Morales, Ruby, Scott, Peyton and Tasha for allowing me to be part of it.
It's Saturday morning and the phone hasn't rang yet....we'll just one time and that was from my son who forgot this was Saturday and I do not get up at 4 am on Saturday. I got up and made a wonderful cup of coffee (from by buddy Norman in Nicaragua), started some deer sausage frying (a gift from a hunter after tracking his dad's deer) and put some biscuits in the oven. As I sit here I have time to think about a few of the tracks that Tasha and I have made this year. I have been fortunate enough to get to track with three different trackers this year and I learn things all the time from them, their dogs and their stories.
Donnie called me the other morning and asked if I wanted to make a track with him. This track was for a friend of his son, Peyton. Although Peyton had killed deer before, he never harvested a buck. He shot a buck this morning, made what looked to be a good hit but the deer couldn't be recovered. Now in all fairness, if his dad Scott could not have gotten a tracker....or two in there, I am sure that he would have trampled the woods down looking for the deer. An interview about the shot and the deer's reaction was not formal because some tracks...like a child's first deer or first buck....you are going to make this track regardless of how good the potential for a recovery sounds.
Tasha and I met Donnie and his Blue Lacy Ruby. We took the short drive over to the hunting club. We talked to Scott and Peyton and headed out on the track by four wheelers. The place where we would be tracking is a large field over a hundred acres that is about 200 yards wide and very long. One side have thick grown up cutover and woods, and the other side is a tree lined dirt road with open woods and palmettos interlaced on the other side. The ground was pretty wet. The ditches and low spots held some shallow standing water. The shot was taken from a stand on the tree lined road side of the field on a buck that had crossed over from the cutover chasing a doe. This was the last buck leaving this field. The gun was a scoped single shot rifle shooting a 7mm 08 caliber 165 grain Barnes X bullet. The buck jumped and kicked when he was hit. Scott was watching through the binoculars as his son Peyton shot said he thought the deer was hit hard.
We were brought to the hit site. There was blood in the field as well as on the briars. There was blood crossing the road and into the woods behind us. This blood was a dark shaded red but had red blood mixed in it too. I found some white hair at the hit site and on briars. Scott said he definitely saw lung blood on the other side of the road and I said that this hair could possibly be from the exit but it is definitely white belly hair. Donnie started out with Ruby and she had no problem hooking up on the trail with ample blood on the ground although she didn't seem as intense as she usually gets on a track.
After a few minutes, I started Tasha into the track. We found a small piece of what appeared to be gut crossing a log. Tasha never really hooked up on the track like she should have. We would run about 100 yards until we ran out of blood and then she would backtrack. She kept trying to bring me back into the field. We asked Scott if the deer could have possibly crossed back into the field after he had shot. Scott said it was possible but they didn't see anything like that. They were busy high fiving and talking about the shot. After repeated attempts to get the girls to hook up and track, we started branching out a little at a time. There are so dang many deer in these woods and trails worn deep from heavy usage were everywhere. Ruby jumped one doe that was bedded up and also found a dead fawn in another area. We don't know what killed the fawn.
As we branched out, Donnie found a blood line that went back into the field about 75 yards closer to the stand. This was really confusing as it appeared that the deer had run into the woods, went closer to the stand and crossed back into the field. The blood stopped, started, stopped and started. I took Tasha to the other side of the field where she had been trying to bring me. There were two deer feeding the entire time we were in this field. I was very glad that Tasha never gave them a second look. She hunted hard but did not hook up. As I approached Donnie at the place where the deer had crossed back into the field he said....this is where the deer was shot at. We found blood and some good brown rib area hair at this site. I told Donnie to go on, we would hold back a minute or two because the girls compete if we run them together. He said - no, take Tasha on ahead because so far on this track he has pulled Ruby off of live deer, dead deer, live rabbits, guts, blood and lungs. Right now she doesn't know what I want her to do!
I put Tasha on the trail. She hooked up immediately. There was some lung as the deer crossed a ditch. The blood trail grew space and ended but Tasha never checked up. About 60 yards into the track a rabbit jumped and ran past Tasha about 20 yards away. I didn't think that she saw it and I was now afraid that she was trailing the bunny. She stopped where he jumped at, sniffed the ground and then went on with her track. I was relieved. I never had a rabbit problem before but that was huge temptation. She headed into some thick palmettos and about 50 yards later delivered me to a nice buck dead on the ground. He was shot just forward of center mass probably taking out one lung and busting up a bunch of other things inside. I called over to Peyton and said we had his deer. He ran all the way over there and asked where. He is over there a little ways. Peyton looked around until he saw him. With wonder and amazement he quietly said to himself.....Wowww! I love being able to see this. After the initial finding of what was going to be the one that got away, Peyton now had his buck. The swagger now sets in and we had a nice photo shoot.
When we got back to the camp, we had another photo shoot and talked to the other hunters. When we told them about our confusion with the track they smiled. There was a doe shot the evening before from that stand. She was shot at least twice and hit in the guts. She crossed the road and went into the woods where she was recovered and dragged back down the trail to the road. No wonder the dogs and trackers couldn't put the pieces together. This was a great track to be a part of. I thank Donnie Morales, Ruby, Scott, Peyton and Tasha for allowing me to be part of it.
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| Happy Hounds and Happy Hunter |
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Trackfest 2014 to be held in North Carolina on May 17-19, 2014
Trackfest 2014
May 17 – 19, 2014
J. Robert Gordon Sandhills Field Trial Grounds
Hoffman, North Carolina
The United Blood Trackers is holding a three day Blood
Tracking Workshop on May 17 – 19, 2014 at the J. Robert Gordon Sandhills Field
Trial Grounds in Hoffman NC, 1 hour west of Fayetteville NC.
This workshop is for both beginner and advanced dogs and
handlers as well as anyone else interested in learning more about the use of
blood tracking dogs for the recovery of wounded big game. There will be plenty
of hands-on training in the field for dogs and handlers as well as
presentations on topics such as Training Techniques, Working with Puppies,
Equipment Choices, GPS Use, and Working with Hunters. Again this year we will
also be holding the popular Hit Site Evaluation Seminar. This new seminar will
focus on reading sign at the hit site as well as reading sign found along the
trail in order to develop the proper strategy for tracking that particular
animal. 
The United Blood Trackers will offer evaluations for UBT-I
and UBT-II on Monday, 5/18/2014. All evaluations will be done on leash. Please
check www.unitedbloodtrackers.org
for more information about evaluation requirements as
well as more details about the event as they become available.
The pictures and video show the grounds.
Friday, January 10, 2014
Thursday, January 9, 2014
January 2014 dachshund puppies: a new generation of blood trackers
We are only 9 days into January but the New Year has already brought two litters of wirehaired dachshund puppies out of working lines.
1. We were happy to learn that on January 5 Gail Berger's "Bee" (a daughter of our Billy and Gail Berger's Pepper) whelped 6 puppies, 3 girls and 3 boys. Everything went smoothly (this is Bee's first litter), and Bee is a good mother. A sire of this litter is our Tommy (FC Tom vom Linteler-Forst). All the puppies are spoken for.
2. Congratulations to Tom and Jackie Munoz from Alabama on their 5 puppies that were born yesterday (3 boys and 2 girls). Dam of the litter, Meg, is a granddaughter of Agata v Moosbach-Zuzelek. She was sired by Nicki von Velbert (imported from Germany). The pups' sire is eight-year-old Fred (Frederick der Trakker Yergz) bred by Mike Yerger. Fred's background includes our Asko von der Drachenburg, Sabina von Moosbach-Zuzelek, Traelborg's Herbert "Skyder" and vom Dornenfeld line. Tom and Jackie Munoz's website is athttp://www.alabamadeertracking.com/. Good luck with the pups!
1. We were happy to learn that on January 5 Gail Berger's "Bee" (a daughter of our Billy and Gail Berger's Pepper) whelped 6 puppies, 3 girls and 3 boys. Everything went smoothly (this is Bee's first litter), and Bee is a good mother. A sire of this litter is our Tommy (FC Tom vom Linteler-Forst). All the puppies are spoken for.
2. Congratulations to Tom and Jackie Munoz from Alabama on their 5 puppies that were born yesterday (3 boys and 2 girls). Dam of the litter, Meg, is a granddaughter of Agata v Moosbach-Zuzelek. She was sired by Nicki von Velbert (imported from Germany). The pups' sire is eight-year-old Fred (Frederick der Trakker Yergz) bred by Mike Yerger. Fred's background includes our Asko von der Drachenburg, Sabina von Moosbach-Zuzelek, Traelborg's Herbert "Skyder" and vom Dornenfeld line. Tom and Jackie Munoz's website is athttp://www.alabamadeertracking.com/. Good luck with the pups!
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| Meg with her newborns. |
Friday, January 3, 2014
A long holiday break is over! Books, puppies, and our plans for 2014.
It is very hard to get back to frequent blogging after a long break, and this is my first attempt! Let's start with pictures of showing John and me with our German puppy Kunox. The two pictures were taken just few days ago. We like Kunox a lot, and have high hopes for him.
We had a very nice holiday break that filled us with warmth and good feelings as in the last two weeks we went out or met with various friends just about every other day. It was great to catch up, eat good food, drink nice wine and altogether being able to relax. We wish all our readers and friends a Happy New Year - may it be healthy, peaceful and prosperous.
We love living in the country but winters here in the Helderbergs can be tough. It seems that the current winter started a long time ago even though officially it has been just two weeks.
The three pictures above were taken in the first half of December, and all this snow melted when we hit really high temperatures just before Christmas. In the end we ended up with a very green/brown Christmas Day. This, of course, was not going to last, and now a true winter has arrived. Yesterday we have a foot of snow, and temperature plunged to -7 F (around -22 C). Tonight is supposed to be even colder. This picture was taken this morning:
All dogs have been staying inside, and they have not been complaining. Thrill of the first snow has been long gone.
This is going to be a very busy year for us. John has been working for a long time on the 3rd edition of Tracking Dogs for Finding Wounded Deer, and he should be done soon. When he completes his part, my work is going to start: editing and preparation of the book for production. Also we are planning to do a new, short book on dachshunds. This is the breed that we are most familiar with, and we'd like to pass our experience to new owners, handlers and breeders. And we also are planning to have two litters of puppies. All in all it looks like my photography is going to take a back seat in 2014, and probably we will not make it to too many dog events.
We have eleven dachshunds now, and our oldest is FC Asko von der Drachenburg, who is doing well at 14.5. Knock on the wood, but at present all dogs are fine, except for some minor ailments that our older dogs have.
Having so many dogs puts a lot of restrictions on our life, and especially our ability to travel, but I don't know how else one can have a multi-generational breeding program. Only through multi-generational evaluation and selection a breeder can have a breeding program with specific purpose and direction. The continuity of our breeding can be illustrated by Asko's descendants:
Asko--> Gilda--> Keena--> Paika--> Sky and Tuesday
and
Asko--> Elli--> Billy--> Keena--> Paika--> Sky and Tuesday
Elli goes back through Agata, Kuba to FC Fausto de la Grande Futaie (imported from France in 1990). Gilda goes back through Sabina to FC Gerte vom Dornenfeld (imported from Germany in 1988).
Speaking about puppies, we are swamped with inquiries about puppies, and at this time we are not taking any more reservations. However, Justin Richins from Utah just had a litter of pups sired by Remi (Remy von Moosbach-Zuzelek), out of our Mielikki's sister - Macaria Raptor. Justin can be reached at jrichins@thehuntingcompany.com. Also Gail Berger from Pennsylvania is expecting any day now puppies out of Bee (a daughter of our Billy), who was bred to our Tommy (FC Tom vom Linteler-Forst). Gail can be contacted at grammyberger@gmail.com.
We had a very nice holiday break that filled us with warmth and good feelings as in the last two weeks we went out or met with various friends just about every other day. It was great to catch up, eat good food, drink nice wine and altogether being able to relax. We wish all our readers and friends a Happy New Year - may it be healthy, peaceful and prosperous.
We love living in the country but winters here in the Helderbergs can be tough. It seems that the current winter started a long time ago even though officially it has been just two weeks.
The three pictures above were taken in the first half of December, and all this snow melted when we hit really high temperatures just before Christmas. In the end we ended up with a very green/brown Christmas Day. This, of course, was not going to last, and now a true winter has arrived. Yesterday we have a foot of snow, and temperature plunged to -7 F (around -22 C). Tonight is supposed to be even colder. This picture was taken this morning:
All dogs have been staying inside, and they have not been complaining. Thrill of the first snow has been long gone.
This is going to be a very busy year for us. John has been working for a long time on the 3rd edition of Tracking Dogs for Finding Wounded Deer, and he should be done soon. When he completes his part, my work is going to start: editing and preparation of the book for production. Also we are planning to do a new, short book on dachshunds. This is the breed that we are most familiar with, and we'd like to pass our experience to new owners, handlers and breeders. And we also are planning to have two litters of puppies. All in all it looks like my photography is going to take a back seat in 2014, and probably we will not make it to too many dog events.
We have eleven dachshunds now, and our oldest is FC Asko von der Drachenburg, who is doing well at 14.5. Knock on the wood, but at present all dogs are fine, except for some minor ailments that our older dogs have.
Having so many dogs puts a lot of restrictions on our life, and especially our ability to travel, but I don't know how else one can have a multi-generational breeding program. Only through multi-generational evaluation and selection a breeder can have a breeding program with specific purpose and direction. The continuity of our breeding can be illustrated by Asko's descendants:
Asko--> Gilda--> Keena--> Paika--> Sky and Tuesday
and
Asko--> Elli--> Billy--> Keena--> Paika--> Sky and Tuesday
Elli goes back through Agata, Kuba to FC Fausto de la Grande Futaie (imported from France in 1990). Gilda goes back through Sabina to FC Gerte vom Dornenfeld (imported from Germany in 1988).
Speaking about puppies, we are swamped with inquiries about puppies, and at this time we are not taking any more reservations. However, Justin Richins from Utah just had a litter of pups sired by Remi (Remy von Moosbach-Zuzelek), out of our Mielikki's sister - Macaria Raptor. Justin can be reached at jrichins@thehuntingcompany.com. Also Gail Berger from Pennsylvania is expecting any day now puppies out of Bee (a daughter of our Billy), who was bred to our Tommy (FC Tom vom Linteler-Forst). Gail can be contacted at grammyberger@gmail.com.
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| These two pictures show Bee at the 2013 NATC Zuchtschau, where she received the excellent rating for her conformation. |
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