Yesterday John and I went to the beagle club, something we have not done for many months. My knee is getting better; MRI showed that it is a ligament injury and it does not require a surgery. Actually feeling better I am planning to go to a field trial in Maryland this coming weekend.
John and I wanted to know how Paika would run rabbits now, after such a long winter break. We have very few rabbits around our place, and it has been a while since she had a good workout. John was working with Joeri at another part of the grounds, and I handled Paika. Right now she is just one year old, but she showed a lot of interest in rabbits at an early age. She did well last fall so I was curious how she would do this spring.
Overall I was very impressed. She is a dog with a lot of hunt and excellent mouth. Her conformation right now is not what it used to be but let's hope that it will improve. She is going through a severe false pregnacy and her mammary glands are really enlarged. Yet, she ran rabbits very hard and in a good style.
The first video clip shows Paika working the brush pile. She detects rabbit scent and is trying to find the rabbit. She works around the brush pile, then goes in. It is a huge and dense brush and I try to shake it. She works the rabbit in the brush, flushes it (we did not see it on the video) but cannot follow it through the brush so she makes exit and follows the rabbit on the grassy path, tonguing nicely. She overshoots a check and corrects herself almost immediately. All in all a nice job, which shows Paika's drive and intelligence.
The second video shows Paika trailing a rabbit. This rabbit ran in front of me (I did not catch it on video) and I heard Paika following so I just waited to see whether she is going to come my way. She did and took the rabbit a long way. She works fast, but so far her line control is very good so the speed is not a problem. In my opinion she is showing a lot of promise.
To see these videos in other resolutions click here.
To read about the voice in dachshunds go to http://www.born-to-track.com/our-writing/jola/spurlaut1.htm
3 comments:
Love this! My first hunting experiences as a young boy were with my grandfather and his beagles; I have been addicted ever since. Hope to be able to run rabbits again soon--this time with a WHD!
You are very lucky to have rabbits near you! We are still waiting to find out if Freddie will open on rabbits. After 2, 4+ hour practices, we saw only 4 hares for 7 dogs and one ran back into the line making it impossible for the dog to follow. We're hoping that with another practice season we might be more lucky and he'll actually get a few more hares to chase. Let's hope that the myth of the Spurlaut fleck (the white patch on the chest) is right!
I feel for you! Here standard dachshunds are not used on foxes (as American foxes' dens are too small) and in many states we don't have wild boars, but we have rabbits and dogs love running them.
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