Summer wildflowers

Nine puppies for Penny and Billy

Yesterday (June 25, 2012) Penny owned by Brigitte Walkey from British Columbia, Canada, whelped naturally 9 puppies:  4 girls (3 wild boar and 1 red) and 5 boys (3 wild boar and 2 red). Everybody is doing great. Billy is a proud sire of the litter, and this is the most puppies in a litter that he has sired.  Congratulations to Brigitte and Penny, and good luck with the pups!

Penny is Can & Aust Ch Ozbree Penelope Spring Wire JE. FC Billy von Moosbach-Zuzelek, SchwhK, Wa.-T, BHP-1, BHP-2, BHP-3, is Deer Search certified and is used for tracking wounded deer and bear. For more information contact Brigitte directly at  wiredax@hotmail.com

Penny is red, but she carries wild boar color, therefore, some of her pups are red and some are wild boar. The ones that are red carry wild boar color just like she does. 

This is how Penny looked like when she came here to Berne for breeding.

Nine weeks later while carrying nine puppies!

Summer training in retrieving for the two mini trackers from North Carolina

It was very good to hear from Samantha Allen who wrote recently:

I would like to give you a short update on the mini trackers (Ollie and Cabela). The weather here in North Carolina is starting to warm up pretty quickly. We are running practice tracks every few weeks to keep Ollie and Cabela in shape and in good practice for the up and coming hunting season. They both are doing very well with their training lines and they both have decided since the warm weather has hit that creek crossings are the best things ever now.

 

Cabela has been a little cautious of water since I got her in November but now that it is consistently around 85 degrees she quickly changed her opinion on getting wet. She does swim more like an otter than a dog and sometimes she worries me a little because she will actually twist and go under water. I am not sure if she is just a poor swimmer or this is her swimming method. I am pretty sure Ollie has fins on her somewhere! If there is a puddle Ollie is going to get in it. I find this very interesting seeing how they are both from the same litter but have such different personalities. I enjoy watching them and at some times find it funny how they react differently to the same situation.

 

In between tracking I decided to teach the girls a little about retrieving. I have purchased a few books and educated myself on retriever training. It is going pretty well and they really enjoy it. Just maybe I will have me some mini retrievers for dove season in September! We still have a lot of training if we are going to get to that point. Well I better get back to work!

Lore Schlechtingen: March 8, 1931 - June 9, 2012

by John Jeanneney

Frau Lore Schlechtingen passed away on June 9, 2012. She was a highly intelligent woman who focused the second part of her life on breeding and promoting Teckels. I came to know her in 1982 when I purchased one of her Zwergteckels for tracking and underground work. Olive vom Dornenfeld was the first of a number of Dornenfeld Teckels that I acquired from her as my passion for blood tracking  grew.

Frau Schlechtingen was a hunter, who leased hunting rights  in a large forest near her home west of Cologne in western Germany. She tracked there with her own Teckels and gave me valuable advice in the early years when I needed it most.

Frau Schlechtingen was a hunter (picture taken in 1975)

Jolanta and I visited her several times in Germany, and she was the catalyst in the formation of the North American Teckel Club. It was Frau Schlechtingen who approached Wolfgang Ransleben, then President of the Deutscher Teckelklub, and told him of the plight of Americans trying to develop the German version of the Dachshund as a hunting dog in North America. Jolanta and I met with President Ransleben in 1999, and  arrangements were made to set up NATC, first as an extension of the DTK Group Embken. Frau Schlechtingen was President of Group Embken at that time.

Frau Schlechtingen also took a great interest in New York’s State’s Deer Search Inc.,  which was the pioneer blood tracking organization in the United States. She donated the Schlechtingen Prize plaque that is awarded each year to the Deer Search member who goes out on the most deer calls.

In my files I have more than two inches of typewritten correspondence from Frau Schlechtingen, who must have stayed up late many nights writing to inform and advise me about training and breeding.  She was always a formal person addressing me as “Mr. Jeanneney”, and I reciprocated always with “Frau Schlechtingen”. And I always signed my letters “Your respectful apprentice”. I meant it. More than anyone else, she was my mentor.

Lore Schlechtingen and John Jeanneney in Spetember 1999 (Germany)

Happy 13th Birthday Asko!

Today our FC Asko von der Drachenburg, Vp,V, will be celebrating his 13th Birthday. Asko was bred by Steffen Matthai from Germany. He has always had a lot of puppy in him; his playfulness, high spirit and engaging personality make him an ideal companion. Extremely biddable and versatile he is a hunting dachshund that can do it all. But as a compulsive retriever, he loves the water above all (the picture was shot two days ago). He has contributed to our breeding like no other dachshund in the last 20 years. Many happy returns Asko! We love you!

Blood tracking dogs in the press; the situation in Pennsylvania

Recently there have been quite a few articles in the printed and online press on the subject of blood tracking dogs:

•  The July issue of Dog World has an article by Darren Warner "Deer Detectives" on page 38. Darren Warner is a freelance outdoor writer, photographer and deer hunter from Michigan. The article is spread over four pages and contains numerous pictures, some of which we supplied. The Dog World has a section of extras online and there is a link to our video of Summer when she worked a line as a young puppy.

• The August issue of Deer & Deer Hunting magazine has an article "A Nose For Deer" by Alan Clemons (page 33). It mentions United Blood Trackers.

Much has been written recently about the situation in Pennsylvania. The PA House Bill 881 was passed unanimously in the House  (197-0) on May 22. Things were looking really promising, but once the bill got to the Senate it got, unfortunately, referred it to the Game Fisheries Committee. The recent history of the bill can be viewed here. the below articles deal specifically with Pennsylvania.

• Release the Dogs by was written by Ad Crable for Lanacaster Online and it was also published this week in Pennsylvania Outdoor News.

• Two days ago Lancaster Online published another article This dog is on the right track by P.J.Reilly. The article is about Kevin Lutz from Columbia, PA and his wirehaired dachshund Archie (who happened to be sired by our Billy). Kevin, just like Andy Bensing, lives in PA but is not able to help fellow hunters there. He loves to track so he travels to Maryland.

• Craig Dougherty dedicated his recent blog post on Outdoor Life website to the Pennsylvania situation. Its title is very appropriate: Pennsylvania Sportsmen Fight to Allow Tracking Dogs for Deer Recovery.

For more information about the battle in PA go to Deer Recovery of Pennsylvania.

Andy Bensing's wirehaired dachshund Eibe cannot be used for recovery of wounded deer in Pennsylvania, where it is illegal to track with dogs. Andy has to travel to Maryland to track there.

Sky gets to swim and enjoy the pond

Unlike Mielikki, Sky, who is now ten months old, is not interested in following any objects thrown into the pond. He is a natural retriever on land, but in the water he completely loses interest in retrieving. We will have to work on this, but for now we just want him to swim.

Last year when our S-litter was young, our pond was overflowing because of the storm Irene. It was a mess for a long time so Sky and Summer never got to swim when they were young. This summer when we brought Sky to the pond he was curious but quite cautious. Our mild encouragement was all that he needed. He does not jump into the pond like some other dogs do, but he slowly walks into the water. It seems that he is very visual in the pond and gets fascinated by what he can see at the bottom or on the surface. For example, the reflections of light get his attention. Also he puts his nose into the water and blows bubbles of air, which again he watches attentively.

It is interesting how every dog is different. Most of our dogs love to swim, with two exceptions. Tommy is not crazy about it, but with some encouragement and praise he'll do it. Bella, now a year old, does not want to come even near the pond. Yet, her dam Mae is a very good swimmer. I hope that she is just going through adolescence, and with time will get to enjoy the pond. It is a lot of fun for the dogs and us, and in summer swimming provides excellent exercise when it gets too hot to run rabbits.

Introduction of young dachshunds to swimming and retrieving from water.

More than three years ago we wrote an article Water Dachshunds! Yes, they can swim and retrieve.

This post gets quite a few hits on a regular basis, especially in summer. Well, I would like to update it with some fresh information and pictures.

I noticed that some handlers are concerned that their young blood tracking prospect might not like the water and he may be reluctant to enter a swamp or cross a creek when in pursue of a wounded game. I think it is very rare for a dog  tracking a wounded deer to refuse to follow it through water. Usually when a dog is in a hot pursue of game, his adrenaline and prey drive are high, and  a body of water is not perceived as a big obstacle. Under these circumstances dogs will go through water even though they might not particularly like it. yet, it is good to be prepared in advance and to know for sure what your dog is capable to do and what is reasonable to expect.

Also let's face it, in summer you do not track wounded deer, and your tracking dog might be "just" a family and companion dog during off-season. It is so much more fun for the whole family if the dog loves to swim.

We introduce puppies to our pond when they are young, but even then we can see differences in their attitude towards the water. The below video shows three 10-week-old puppies from our T-litter.

As you can see Theo's temptation is strong enough to follow me into the pond and swim after his toy. He pulls it by a string out of the water. Another pup, Thor, showed (not caught on camera) a willingness to get wet and swim. Only Tuesday so far refused to enter the pond. We will be patient with her and most likely with some encouragement she will be able to do it.

This summer we had an interesting experience with Mielikki, who just a week ago turned  6 months old. Mielikki is a ball fanatic so I used one of her balls to lure her into the water. I found an old, light ball that floats very well and is highly visible. It has two holes that you can pull a string through. When I started to play with the ball on the string in our pond, Mielikki could not help herself and had to grab it. So she ended up in the water, and swimming came really naturally to her. At the end of the first 15 minute-long session she would literally threw herself into the water after the ball and she would dive.

Mielikki at the end of the first swimming session.

Today Mielikki graduated to a small bumper, which is much easier for her to grab and fetch. She showed as much interest in it as in the ball few days ago.

She has no fear when it comes to getting submerged fully in the water. She is a very confident swimmer, and even when she goes under for a few seconds, it does not have any effect on her.

We have some big catfish in our pond, and today I threw some dry dog kibble for them when Mielikki was with me. They came really close, and Mielikki had a chance to see them for the first time.

She was fascinated by the catfish and wanted to go after them so badly. I did not let her though.

The catfish is our pond are not afraid of dogs as you can see in the picture below. It shows Keena and Bernie swimming after they got quite hot running rabbits in our field. And in between the two dogs there is catfish.

Tomorrow, I will write more about how we introduced Sky to the pond. Last year when he was a young puppy we had a close encounter with the Tropical Storm Irene, so the S-pups never got an early education in swimming.

FC Tom vom Linteler-Forst and his perfect score on the DTK blood tracking test

On Saturday it was Bella's birthday, and on the same day her sire "Tommy" FC Tom vom Linteler-Forst scored 100 points and Prize I on the DTK/NATC blood tracking test held at Maricourt, Quebec. Judges were Stefan Stefik from Slovakia, Andy Bensing and Carrie Hamilton from Pennsylvania. It took Tommy an hour and seven minutes to complete over 1000 meter long track. Everything went right, and John was thrilled with Tommy's flawless performance. All in all there were eight tests given over two days, and four dachshunds passed. Tommy's score was the highest.

From left: Stefan Stefik, Carrie Hamilton, John Jeanneney with Tommy, and Andy Bensing.

Tommy is four years old now, and thanks to him we learned a couple of new things. As readers of our two blogs know, a lot of our puppies are very precocious when it comes to their tracking and hunting ability. We start to work with our puppies early, and when we sell pups at the age of 10-12 weeks, they usually can track fresh liver drags or blood lines with several turns in them. When we see this level of performance in the pups, it reassures us that they are good blood tracking prospects. But not all puppies are precocious, and Tommy was not precocious either.

Four years ago we imported two male puppies at the same time - Joeri and Tommy. Joeri was 14 weeks old at the time and Tommy just eight. While Joeri was a super-achieving puppy, Tommy was not. Joeri tracked blood, hunted rabbits, retrieved from the pond, and Tommy could not do any of these things... for a long time. We never put pressure on him, and just let him develop at his own pace. Only when Tommy turned one year old, his hunting and tracking instinct really kicked in. Now at four, the only area that Joeri surpasses him is retrieving from the water. Tommy turned out to be a better rabbit dog with better line control and voice, and on artificial lines he is a better tracker too. On natural lines they are probably on the same level.

So what have we learned here? Well, it is nice to have a precocious puppy, but sometimes patience gets rewarded in a big way. What counts ultimately is the quality of mature dog, and I don't think anybody would argue with this statement.

Tommy at the end of successful track.

There is one more thing, which is different about Tommy. Our dachshunds usually show the same working style on deer blood and on wild rabbits. For example, Sabina was a slow, deliberate worker on both. Billy is fast on rabbits and he is fast while tracking wounded deer too. Tommy, who is a high-energy excitable dog has very different speeds and modes depending on what he tracks. On rabbits Tommy is extremely fast (and he voices strongly). On artificial blood lines his working style is completely different - he is slow and meticulous. On natural lines, he has a moderate speed. In my experience he is the first dog that has completely different working speeds on different scent lines.

Congratulations to John and Tommy!

Happy Birthday Bella!

Today we are celebrating Bella's First Birthday! She was bred by our friends, Beth and Genti Shero, and is out of our FC Tom vom Linteler-Forst and  FC Mae von Munterkeit, who was bred by Dale Clifford. Mae is a daughter of  Jessie von Moosbach-Zuzelek aka "Sabrina", a three-time winner of Deer Search's blood tracking competition. I have always liked Mae a lot. By the way, to see Mae and her sister Mariel swimming click here. It is a nice video.

Bella reminds me much more of Tommy than Mae. At no more than 18 lbs she is much smaller than her mother, which is a good thing, but not as laid back as Mae is. Her high energy level, excitability are very much like Tommy's. Her conformation is more of Tommy's than Mae's. Bella  is very talented and very engaging, and we are lucky that the only female in the litter of three ended up with us.

Below are some pictures of Bella taken in the last few days.

This picture shows the next generation of born-to-track dachshunds. On the left we see a ten-month-old Sky, and Bella is on the right.

Congratulations to Sherry and Phil Ruggieri and their dachshunds Auggie and Dixie

Sherry and Phil Ruggieri will remember the weekend of June 2-3, 2012, of field trialing in Western Pennsylvania for a long time. Their nine-year-old Auggie (FC Augden von Moosbach-Zuzelek) won a FC Dog Stake on both days and was a "double Absolute Winner". Auggie's sister Dixie (FC Anja von Moosbach-Zuzelek) was first in a FC Bitch stake on Saturday. Huge congratulations!!!

June 2: Art Flick, a judge, is presenting Sherry and Auggie with the Absolute Winner's Rosette.

June 3: Sherry Ruggieri is holding Auggie while Pat Warble is presenting a rosette to the Absolute Winner. To the left Mike Hockenberry, a judge.

June 2: Art Flick with Phil Ruggieri who is holding Dixie

Sunday sunset produced surprising pictures

Some of the best pictures are really simple, just like this one. I held a dandelion in my hand against the sun that was setting down in the background.

Our ten-month-old Sky was running a rabbit in our field when the sky above was getting dramatic. This is a view from our hill.

Tracking wounded hog with a young dachshund Spike

Ed and Barbie Wills of  Kearsarge Mountain Teckels  (New Hampshire) shared with us a letter that they have received from Mike. Mike is an owner of one-year-old Spike that came out of Ed and Barb's breeding. Thank you for sharing the letter with us, and congratulations on such a talented dog!

Hi Ed and Barb,

Just thought I'd say hi and let you know how Spike is doing after his first year.

Spike took to tracking deer quite well. The very first live deer track last fall was a success, it was an easy track. The deer was hit good and left a good blood trail, exactly what I hoped for for his first track. It was dark but that didn’t bother Spike as he took me straight to the downed deer, about 75 yds. Since then I’ve been on several other tracks as well as fiends called to find their wounded deer. Two tracks that impressed me the most were when the deer  left very little blood and traveled long distances.

The first tough track was a deer hit in a swampy area. At first Spike was more interested in playing instead of tracking until I scolded him. He then  put his nose down, circled the area in the direction the deer had traveled, about 100 yds from the initial hit, and started pulling. I still wasn’t sure if he was on the track or not, until I saw a tiny spot of blood. We went a couple hundred more yards and found the downed deer. The second difficult track was a deer that I knew wasn’t hit that good because of the angle of the arrow. It suggested to me that it was a flesh wound.

We picked up the track right away, the blood trail was decent for a while but slowly disappeared after a couple hundred yards. The hardwood forest started to change to a swamp. Spike picked his way through the first small swamp, every 100 yards or so there would be a small spot of blood, which confirmed that we were still on track. Well we kept going for quite a distance when we came to another swamp, very wet. We entered. At first the water wasn’t that deep until I looked up ahead and saw it was all water too deep and too thick to move through. When I  turned to head out Spike pulled the leash out of my hand and started heading away from me. I couldn’t get him, the last I saw of him he was swimming away and disappeared from view. The swamp was in a basin surrounded by hardwoods. I circled around to try to intercept him on the other side. As I made it to the other side I was looking down on the swamp, I could hear him splashing through the water, when he emerged I ran down to grab him. He still had his nose to the ground, when I got to him; I couldn’t believe my eyes, I looked down and saw another spot of blood. Spike had tracked this deer through about two hundred yards of knee deep water,  the deer kept going along checking its scrapes so we  finally ended the search. We had a GPS, and as the crow flies we traveled about one and a half miles, through three swamps. At the time Spike was only nine months old.

 

We just came back from Texas from a hog hunt. We were there for 21 days, and Spike had a great time. At first he didn’t show any interest in hogs. There were other hunters that had wounded hogs and when I took Spike out  he didn’t track at all. Even when some one would come back to camp with a dead hog Spike wouldn’t show any interest.

I finally hit a hog, and before I went and got Spike I had tried to find the hog on my own. Hogs don’t bleed very much because of the fat layer they have; it closes the wound up right away and very little blood is visible. The brush and grass make it difficult as well, so I looked around for about an hour with no success. Got Spike and a few other hunters, we spread out and started to search. When I brought Spike to the area the hog was hit, he put his nose down, looked at me for a brief minute and started tracking. I was very excited 75 yds later I saw blood, now I was really exited. One hundred yards later, wouldn’t ya know dead hog! Spike jumped on the hog’s back and started to rip fur. That was great.

We  had a few more hog tracks by other hunters and Spike did awesome; it just took him a while to figure out the difference between deer and hog.

Spike is a good companion, he has a very good disposition he loves people, dogs, even cats. He’s been a great inspiration, his tracking abilities are incredible, far more than I could have imagined. Wat’s he going to be like when he gets more experienced and mature!

Ed and Barb if you need any referrals let me know, I’d be happy to do so.   Great logo not quantity but QUALITY.

Thanks lots

Mike

Mike with Spike and his hog