When you are a dog breeder...

When you are a dog breeder, sometimes you find yourself in distant places at the time that is not of your own choosing.

Keena came in heat, and since our plan was to breed her to Theo, a French teckel residing in Canada, John and Keena spent yesterday travelling to Mont-Carmel in Quebec. It took them at least 10 hours to get there. The breeding went smoothly, and it will be repeated tonight. In the meantime John spent some time with Theo snowshoeing in the woods.

Some may ask why to go into this trouble while at home we have 5 intact males. Two of them (Alfi and Asko) are Keena's grand-sires, one is her sire (Billy) and the other two (Joeri and Tommy) will have their chance in the future. The fact is that the gene pool of blood tracking dachshunds out of European bloodlines is very small, and every opportunity to expand it should be taken seriously. We are planning to keep a female puppy from this breeding for ourselves and if everything goes well, incorporate her in our breeding program. It does not mean that every imported dachshund should be used for breeding. The most important parts of the breeding process are evaluation and selection. Theo impressed us very much when we had a chance to work with him last summer. And he proved to be a talented natural tracker. Not all dachshunds are, even when they are out of hunting bloodlines. Some dachshunds that we imported failed as trackers and had to be placed as pets.

Theo is a responsive dog that handles well off-leash in the woods.

Many thanks to Alain and Marjolaine Ridel for making Theo available for breeding and for their hospitality!