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.

New York State Outdoorsmen Hall of Fame Honors John Jeanneney

New York State Outdoorsmen Hall of Fame

Press Release, Feb. 25, 2011

The New York State Outdoorsmen Hall of Fame proudly announces that its class of inductees for 2012 will include John Jeanneney. Jeanneney will be honored at the annual banquet April 28 in Canastota, NY.

The New York State Outdoorsmen Hall of Fame is an organization dedicated to honoring sportsmen who have made significant achievements in outdoors-related fields.  More importantly, they are recognized for their long-time service in preserving our outdoor heritage and helping others experience it.  The NYSOHOF is also involved in programs such as kids fishing derbies, clinics, seminars, and similar activities.

John Jeanneney of Albany County was the co-founder of Deer Search, Inc. with Donald Hickman (1940-1995).  In New York Deer Search is an organization of individual volunteers who are committed to reducing  crippling loss of big game. Individuals use their skills and tracking dogs to locate wounded deer and bear. Fueled by his love of hunting and his respect for the game, the outdoors and dogs, John worked tirelessly to demonstrate and get the DEC to recognize the benefits of such a program.  Finally the NYS legislature approved this program in 1986.

Through United Blood Trackers his influence has extended far beyond New York State  into over  22 other states and  several Canadian Provinces. With his leadership and experience he helped get this practice established  in many areas. John personally spoke on behalf of the program and helped to train many of the initial volunteers. 

He continues to be active and personally went on 1007 searches in the past 35 years, including 45 in 2010 and 34 in 2011.  John also has a strong influence on regular  tracking skills and ethics with his many speaking engagements and with his books on tracking and the use of leashed tracking dogs.

The annual banquet and induction will involve sportsmen and organizations from all across New York State.  It will be held April 28 at the Rusty Rail in Canastota with registration and social hour beginning at 5 pm and dinner at 6 pm.  Guests and interested parties are welcome.  For information or reservations please call (315) 363-3896 or (315) 829-3588. 

___________________________

[for additional information on individual inductees, or the New York State Outdoorsmen Hall of Fame please contact Leo Maloney, 321 Robertson Road, Sherrill, NY 13461, phone (315) 363-3896 or e-mail – lmalone1@twcny.rr.com.]

___________________________

We would like to extend our thanks and appreciation to everybody who supported John's nomination, and especially Gary Huber of Deer Search of Western New York, who spearheaded the idea and gathered support. We hope to see you all at the Banquet!

Rest in Peace Lolly. The final farewell.

FC Ulrika von Moosbach-Zuzelek, SE, ROMX  "Lolly"
May 16, 1996 - February 17, 2012
(Zalud Staccato x FC Gerte vom Dornenfeld CG, JE, SW/I, ROMX)

Where did the time go? It seems like it was not that long ago when Larry Gohlke came to our place in Clinton Corners, NY to pick up his new puppy from our "U" litter. Well, the truth is that it was almost 16 years ago, and now we are saying goodbye to the wonderful dog that touched many people's lives and has left a great legacy. With a very heavy heart we are reporting that Larry Gohlke's Lolly is gone. She lived a long, good and productive life, the life that made a difference. We wrote about her on the occasion of her 14th birthday and you can read that post click here. I am not going to repeat what was said there.

This picture was taken in November 2011 in Ohio. I was there to attend field trials, and Larry had Lolly with him. We knew that she was not going to last much longer.

Lolly excelled at field trials, and I asked Larry for more information about her accomplishments. This is what he wrote: 

"She earned 1058 Lifetime Field Trial Points and she won twenty 1st places over the years.

Her son, Czar has earned 649 Lifetime Points, and her grandchildren, Danika, Ana Maria and Nix have earned 1463, 1291, and 659 Lifetime Points, respectively. Lolly and her granddaughters make up 3 of the 12 dogs to have earned 1000 Lifetime Points or more. Her “family” also includes the three youngest field champions - Lolly’s son, Czar, finished his field championship at 5 ½ months of age, her daughter, Rika, finished at 4 ½ months of age, and granddaughter, Ana Maria finished at just under 4 months of age.

Lolly won the DCA National Field Trial in 1999 when there was a total entry of 125 (the 4th largest National FT entry to date). This was the only National Field Trial that she was entered in.

She won the 2006 Buckeye Invitational Field Trial when she was 10 years old. At ages 11 and 12 she had 132 and 142 points and qualified for the Invitational as the #11 and #13 dog.

As a wounded deer tracking dog, Lolly went on about 200 tracks and recovered more than 70 deer."

Lolly as an old dog - always gentle and friendly

Lolly was bred three times. 

On December 12, 1998 she whelped 5 puppies: Zosia, Zoya, Zoe, Zeke and Zeiger, and they all went to blood tracking homes. The sire of this litter was FC Turbo von Moosbach-Zuzelek, JE. I still get pictures of Zosia every year for Christmas.

On May 13, 2000 Lolly whelped 5 puppies, of which 4 survived and they were Carliegh, Chadmen, Czar and Claus. The sire was our FC Asko von der Drachenburg. This breeding was repeated and on June 11, 2001 Lolly had 6 pups: Falko, Fonzo, Festus, Filbert, Filou and Fredrika.

Czar, Claus, Falko and Fredrika became field champions, and Czar, Fredrika and Falko were subsequently used for breeding. 

When Sabina was bred to Falko, Lolly's son, she produced Jessie v Moosbach-Zuzelek aka "Sabrina", who is owned by Dale Clifford from Deer Search. "Sabrina" won Deer Search's blood tracking competition three times. She has never been to a field trial, but she was bred twice and she is a dam of two FCs Mae and Mariel von Munterkeit, both owned by Gentian and Beth Shero. We own Bella vom Tierspur bred by the Sheros, a very promising daughter of Mae, and a great-great granddaughter of Lolly. 

Lolly was not a pretty dog, and a German judge would not even give her a "sehr gut/very good" rating for her conformation. It means that in the German system she was not eligible for breeding. But dog breeding is a process, which is supposed to lead to improvement. And even though you might not start with a perfect specimen, if you make right breeding decisions, and you are lucky, your progress might be amazing. This is how "gut/good" Lolly produced "vorzuglich/excellent"  granddaughter Danika, and this how Lolly's sister Sabina (also only "gut/good") produced "vorzuglich/excellent" great granddaughter Paika. I am so glad that both Lolly and Sabina had a chance to have offspring and leave their stamp on the working wires in the United States.

Rest in Peace Lolly! You will be greatly missed. Our heartfelt condolences to the Gohlke Family.

A talented dog and an outspoken hunter/handler - the two necessary ingredients for jump-starting the use of blood tracking dogs

I love this picture of Radar (Quentin von Moosbach-Zuzelek), who is owned by Craig Dougherty of NorthCountry Whitetails. Many thanks to NorthCountry Whitetails for sharing the picture with us.

I thought that this would be a good moment to reflect a little and go back to a video of ten-week-old Radar tracking a fresh liver drag.

 

Radar came from a litter of 9 puppies, and his parents were FC Joeri vom Nonnenschlag and FC Keena von Moosbach-Zuzelek. He showed a remarkable talent at an early age, and we were very fortunate to find a great tracking home not that far from us. At one point in the future we might decide to breed to him, so we are lucky that he does not live in Texas for example. And of course since he is owned by Craig an extra national exposure is not hurting us either! Thank you Craig for everything you have been doing for promoting ethical hunting and the use of tracking dogs to find wounded big game. 

Craig has been instrumental in making The National Bowhunter Education Foundation aware of John's publications and activities. Recently I came across this article The Changing World of Wounding by Dr. Dave Samuel. It says:

"Another part of those discussions was about the use of trailing dogs to recover deer. More states now allow the use of trailing dogs and other states are now considering using them. In 2010, twelve states opened up the use of dogs to trail wounded deer. The driving force behind the use of dogs is John Jeanneney who wrote the book “Tracking Dogs For Finding Wounded Deer.” Apparently he has been on hundreds of trackings and this has given him some perspective on what happens to deer hit in certain areas of the body as well as thoughts on how far they go, how often they bed, etc. Indeed, compared to most of us, Mr. Jeanneney has seen what it would many lifetimes for us to see, relative to trailing lost deer. I had to leave the discussions before they ended, but it appeared that the bowhunter education folks were going to invite Mr. Jeanneney to meet with their board and use his expertise to consider any revisions on how to improve what the NBEF teaches on blood trailing in their bow classes."

There is no doubt that things are moving in a right direction, and the use of blood tracking dogs is spreading.  More and more states are legalizing the activity, which should be part of responsible hunting everywhere. Sometimes the change is slow and happens in small increments. But sometimes an extra leap can be made when a talented dog is placed with an outspoken hunter/handler who is willing to put extra work into it and publicize the cause. We all in the hunting and tracking community owe these people a big thank you!



Pictures of young Red Lacy

We would like to share several pictures of Jackson, a five-month-old Red Lacy. The pictures were submitted by Gabe Navar. From my limited reading I understand that Lacy Dogs come in a variety of colors, including red. All of them, however, are homozygous for the dilution gene dd. Read more about genetics of colors in Lacy Dogs here. Lacy Dogs are a true working breed, and I salute all the breeders, clubs and associations that are determined to keep them this way. A big thank you to Gabe for the pictures.

Reunion of Achilles and Bella

We introduced Achilles of Trace-ja last September when his owners Genti and Beth Shero visted us here in Berne, NY. On Sunday Genti, Beth and their daughter Dea came back for a very nice visit, and we had a chance to get to know Achilles better. We liked him a lot - he is well proportioned, typey FCI dachshund with a great temperament and right moves in the field. He uses his nose well. We had a chance to put him in our fenced-in field. He was joined there by our Bella, who was bred by Genti and Beth, and it was pleasure to hear both dachshunds "singing".

The pictures below were taken yesterday and show Achilles now at the age of seven months.

Snowless winter in the Helderbergs, NY

Like almost everywhere else this is such an unusual winter without snow in the Helderbergs, NY. Yesterday I took a walk in the woods, and I could hardly see any color. It was overcast and gloomy, and the only vibrant colors I could see were the colors of dog collars...and of sumac.

Even without vivid colors it is still very beautiful here.

A six-month-old Sky running through the field.

A wrestling match between Sky and Summer

A lively discussion between the siblings

Retaliation

Summer's pretty face

I love the splash of color provided by sumac

A new book on Blue Lacys - The Texas Dog Manual by Sean Cockrell

The Texas Dog Manual, a new book by Sean Cockrell on Blue Lacy Dogs looks like a fascinating read. For more information about the content and how to order it, click here. Blue Lacys are popular blood trailing dogs, especially in Texas, yet there is very little written about them and available in print. We are looking forward to reading it.

Tracking with leashed dogs in Iowa - bill SF 2017

I found this request from Brian Hibbs on archerytalk blog. I asked him for permission to include it here. Brian has worked on this for a very long time, and hopefully it is going to be legal to track wounded deer with leashed dogs in Iowa really soon. If you are a resident of Iowa, please help.

My name is Brian Hibbs. I live near Oxford in Johnson Co, Iowa. I have had legislation introduced to allow the use of a leashed dog to track wounded deer in Iowa. I have been working on this for several years. The proposed bill has made progress and did make it through the Iowa Senate the other day with a 13 yea and 0 nea vote. It now has to get through the Iowa House. I am told that there is opposition in the House by some Southern Iowa Representatives. They are concerned this bill will cause dogs to over run their properties and create trespassing problems. This makes no sense because the bill contains specific language that states the dog will be on a lead under the control of the handler and permission must be obtained prior to tracking on private property. The DNR has told me they do not oppose this practice and I believe Diane Ford of the DNR actually helped answer questions to move this bill through the Senate. The bill is labeled SF 2017.

Please note I am not doing this to try and profit off of tracking or anything like that. I do breed tracking dogs and have about 1 litter a year. I have no problems finding homes for my pups because they are in high demand. They go throughout the country. I am doing this because it is another tool that can be used to recover a shot animal when the animal leaves a sparse blood trail or no blood trail at all and conventional tracking methods don’t work. In these situations a trained dog can improve the success rate of recovery quite a bit.

If you live in Iowa, I am asking for your support. If you could take the time to contact your House Representative and show your support I would really appreciate it. This could be done through a phone call or email. If you don’t know your Representative, you can find them through the Iowa legislation website. This would especially be helpful in the Southern Counties. I have included below an email I sent to the Representatives that I believe are opposing this bill. I also have included a letter written by John Jeanneney to our legislators. John has been tracking in New York State for many years and is a pioneer in introducing tracking in the states. He has written a couple excellent books pertaining to bowhunting, the use of leashed tracking dogs, and tracking wounded animals. He has had much experience in this field and does a good job explaining the misconceptions that opponents come up with to try and find unrealistic negatives about the practice. He and his wife run a website called “born to track”. I thank you once again for your support and if you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

 
Brian Hibbs
Oxford, IA
www.trackingteckels.com
319-430-8065
 ----------
 
February 1, 2012

Dear Representatives,

My name is Brian Hibbs and I live in Johnson County near the town of Oxford. I have been working to get the use of tracking a wounded deer with a leashed dog legalized for several years. In July of 2010 I presented a petition to the Iowa DNR’s NRC showing how this practice is used in many states and that it is another tool to locate a deer that has been shot and cannot be found through traditional tracking methods. I presented information that tracking a deer with a dog on a leash under the complete control of a handler has proven in many other states to be a positive tool and created no extra problems for enforcement agencies in those states. Realize this is just a hunter tracking a deer like he would now with the only difference being a tracking dog ahead of him on a leash helping him to find sign he may normally miss. This petition was unanimously approved and the rulemaking process was set to go into affect. The DNR asked me if I would mind waiting until early 2011 to start the process because there wouldn’t be enough time to get the rule into the books for the fall of the 2010 hunting season and it would make it easier to just start it the following year. I agreed it would be ok to do this as long as we did what had been approved by the NRC petition. The next year rolled around and I discovered that Gov. Branstad had taken office and that he was changing the way things had been done in the past. I was told he was not opposed to this practice, just that he wanted everything to now go before his desk. This nullified all the work I had done and halted the rulemaking that should have been a done deal.

This year I had Rep. Willems propose this bill once again. I am told the bill passed out of the full Senate Natural Resources and Environment Committee yesterday (1-31-12). It is assigned as SF 2017. After speaking with Rep. Rayhons and Rep. Smith they have informed me that many of the Representatives from Southern Iowa oppose this bill because they are worried about people overrunning their land with dogs. This proposed bill has specific language addressing these concerns. It states the dog will be on a leash under full control of the handler. The bill also states the tracker will need to obtain permission from any landowner involving private property before tracking on that property. I don’t think the bill can be any more cut and dry than that. If unethical people want to break the rules they will whether it is legal or not. If you are concerned about dogs over running your properties maybe you should address coyote hunting dogs that run wherever they want uncontrolled by a leash and people chasing them in vehicles. I understand that this is a popular practice in Southern Iowa.

I ask for your support with this proposed bill. The language is cut and dry about free-running dogs and trespassing. Please do not punish the rest of us Iowan’s in the other counties if you do not trust your citizen’s in the southern counties to follow the rules. As I stated before this practice has proven to be no problem for the enforcement agencies in other states. Diane Ford of the DNR has told me that they are not opposed to this rule as they were educated on it through my previous petition. Please ask her and she will confirm this. I am including a letter from John Jeanneney of New York as of to his experience with tracking in his state. Tracking with a leashed dog has probably been going on in New York State longer than any other state.

Sincerely,

Brian Hibbs
Oxford, IA319-430-8065

 ------

Date: January 6, 2012

Dear Representative Rayhons,

Since I am a resident of New York State, I venture to comment on the proposed Iowa leashed tracking dog bill only because I have had 36 years of experience with leashed tracking dogs. Perhaps I can offer some useful insights. In 1976 New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation issued me a research permit to investigate the feasibility of using leashed tracking dogs to find wounded big game. This method was being used in Germany and other European countries, but in the US it appeared to many hunters and non-hunters that deer hunting and dogs did not mix in any way.  The decline of deer populations that came with the use of dogs to drive deer to the gun, was well remembered.

What I proposed in New York State was something very different from deer hunting with dogs. My research demonstrated that in New York leashed tracking dogs could find mortally wounded deer when hunters could not track them by eye. The value of a good dog is that he can follow the individual scent of a wounded deer, even when there is no visible blood.

In 1986, after a long period of experimentation, the New York State Legislature passed an enabling bill to establish the use of leashed tracking dogs on a licensed basis. Since then thousands of deer have been found by licensed trackers like me.  Variations of the New York law have now been approved in a total of 21 states where the use of tracking dogs had previously been illegal.

In a state like Iowa, where professionally guided hunts are an important source of state revenue, the tracking dog would maximize an outfitter’s capability to use a wildlife resource in an ethical, conservation-conscious way while satisfying the expectations of his client.

As other states have considered and ultimately approved leashed tracking dogs, certain questions and doubts have been raised. Below are responses that have been accepted as valid:

1. Experience with the use of leashed tracking dogs has shown that this has not been used as a cover when  poaching deer. The deer jacker knows that there are better ways of doing this.
 
2. The availability of a tracking dog does not encourage irresponsible shooting any more than availability of a retriever encourages irresponsible long range shots at pheasants and waterfowl.

3. Some have wondered whether a tracking dog on a leash would be illegally used to drive deer out of heavy cover to posted hunters. Anyone who has handled a leashed dog in the woods knows how impractical this would be. There have been no reports that this is being done.

To sum up, the use of leashed tracking dogs to find wounded big game has now been time-tested around the United State for many years. It is not a crazy new idea. Writing as a man who has taken over a thousand volunteer deer calls, and who has dedicated much of his life to this cause, I urge you to give the Iowa tracking dog bill your serious consideration.
 
Sincerely yours,

John Jeanneney, Vice President, United Blood Trackers
1584 Helderberg Trail
Berne, NY 12023
518-872-1779

What it took to breed Moose and Paika

The distance from Berne, New York, to Hillman, Michigan, where Chuck Collier lives, is 700 miles, which is 1127 km (one way). John left with Paika on Thursday and he will be coming back tomorrow. Paika and Moose "connected" two times, and hopefully we will have puppies in 9 weeks. This is a repeat breeding that produced our S-litter last year.

You might wonder why on earth we are making it so difficult for ourselves while we have our own stud dogs that live with us. We firmly believe that our obligation is to produce the best pups we can, and for Paika Moose (FC Nurmi von Moosbach-Zuzelek) is a better choice than any of our own boys.The picture below shows Chuck with Moose (on the left) and John with Paika last summer.

2011: Chuck with Moose and John with Paika

We actually were very lucky that the weather cooperated as the beginning of February can be really nasty. But this year our winter has been very mild, and John reported that the drive to Hillman was smooth and easy (just very long).

While in Michigan, John and Chuck went to visit Scott Leindecker, who lives in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, Canada. Scott has been working very hard on making the use of leashed tracking dogs for tracking wounded big game legal in Ontario. He also owns a wirehaired dachshund Arwen, who was sired by our Tommy. The men had a good visit with lots of talk about tracking and work on legalization in Ontario. Thank you Scott for all your hard work!

From the left: Chuck Collier with Moose, John Jeanneney, and Scott Leindecker with Arwen.

Please support the use of tracking dogs in Kansas

Mike Martien, a UBT member, let us know that Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks is asking for comments on the use of tracking dogs for the recovery of game animals. Please click here and enter your KDWP number. Mark that you “Strongly Support” the use of tracking dogs to recover game animals when you get to that part of the survey.

Ten puppies for Anna and Fred, wirehaired dachshunds out of European lines

Today, on February 3, 2012, "Anna" (Diestel von Moosbach-Zuzelek) whelped a litter of 10 puppies: 4 females and 6 males. This is absolutely amazing as it is her first litter, and she was born on October 15, 2005 so she is over 6 years old. Also the mating was done through AI. It proves again that fertility runs through a female bloodline as Anna is a daughter of Elli, who has always had large litters. Elli's dam Agata also had eight pups per litter. 

 

Anna and her ten newborn puppies

The pups are sired by Fred (Fidget von der Bismarck-Eiche) who was imported from Germany and lives in Neosho, MO. He was bred Stefan, Vanessa Fuß and Nadja Frazier, and his pedigree is  here.  I saw Fred in 2007 when I went to visit his owner Cameron Kruse, and I really liked the dog. 

 

Fred (Fidget von der Bismarck-Eiche) is a nice dog - alert and driven in the field, low key and relaxed at home.

 

We also liked Anna a lot when we had a chance to see her at Trackfest in Quincy, IL in 2006. Her pedigree is identical to Billy's, and you can see it here.

 

Anna at the age of 8 months at Trackfest 2006 in Quincy, IL.

Rick McCollum with Anna.

More info about puppies is available from Rick McCollum who lives in Greenbrier, Arkansas. His e-mail is rickmccollum55@yahoo.com. Good luck Rick with the pups!