Top 20 Field Trial Dachshunds for 2012

Congratulations to the Top 20 Field Trial Dachshunds, their owners and handlers (and breeders)! A recipe for success includes a talented dog plus great dedication on a handler's part to train the dog and attend many, many field trials.

1. FC Danika vom Nordlicht TD ME owned by Cheri Faust and Larry Gohlke Danika 343 points/17 placements. Danika was the top field champion for the third year in a row, and she also won the Buckeye Dachshund Club Invitational Field Trial. Danika's parents are FC Clown vom Talsdeich (Buster Keaton) and FC Fredrika von Moosbach-Zuzelek. She was bred by Larry Gohlke.

2. DC Rellih’s Little Indian MW TD SE owned by Linda Snyder and Sherry Ruggieri Zuni 340/22

3. FC Anja von Moosbach-Zuzelek RN SE owned by Sherry Ruggieri Dixie 270/17. "Dixie" and her brother "Auggie" (#4) are littermates and they are out of our breeding.

4. FC Augden von Moosbach-Zuzelek RE MEowned by Sherry Ruggieri "Auggie" 239/14

5. FC Audi Oslo von Dorndorf CA owned by Stan Knoll 237/11

6. FC Diamant Lily von Lowenherz owned/bred by Laurel Whistance-Smith 224/10. Lily is out of our FC Asko von der Drachenburg.

7. FC Viola von der Hardt-Hohe JE owned by Baerbel Wills 186/8

8. GCH DC Siddachs Carmen MW owned by John Merriman 168/8

9. FC Stanze von Lowenherz JE owned/bred by Laurel Whistance-Smith 165/8. Stanze is Lily's half-sister and she is out of our Alfi von der Hardt-Hoehe.

10. FC Rosie’s Little Trooper, Bonnie Mercier  163/10
11. FC Sagerun’s Keturah MW, Patsy Leonberger 158/ 11
12. FC Rosie’s Odie on the Run, Bonnie Mercier  144/ 9
13. FC Town Farm Emmett Sweeps the Spotlight JE, Cynthia Yeager 133/ 6
14. FC Vimy Ridge von Lowenherz, Scot Davidson  128/ 8
15. FC Melwyn Under Wing Darter ML ME, Lorraine & David Simmons  127/ 5
16. FC Apple Hill Digging Down Under MS, Heidi Meyers  126/ 8
17. DC Wingover’s Lancelot Du Lac ML RN TD OA OAJ NF JE, Alice Moyer  126/ 7
18. FC Barnabas of Kotate Hills SW NAJ OF SE, Patricia & Gerald Price  115/ 9
19. DC Town Farm Water Wings, Michael Pitisci  110/ 4
20. FC Clown vom Talsdeich, Susanne Hamilton  107/ 4

Points are earned for placements in the Field Champion stakes at AKC licensed or member trials. They are tabulated using the Delaney System +1 for first through fourth place, based on the number of starters. In the case of ties, dogs receive the same place award, with the next place(s) being skipped. A minimum of two placements in Field Champion stakes during the award year are required to earn an award, and / or be included in preliminary listings.

A big thank you to Tracy Freeling for keeping all the field trial stats. Not an easy job, that's for sure.

From a goofy puppy to an accomplished tracker: Happy 5th Birthday Tommy!

Today Tommy has turned five years old. He has undergone amazing transformation from a very goofy puppy to an accomplished mature tracker. To read more about Tommy go to http://www.born-to-track.com/dogs/tommy.htm. To see his pictures click here.

Happy Birthday Tommy!

Pictures of dachshunds in the snow

Today (Sunday) we had a really nice day and dogs managed to get out and get some exercise. We still have a lot of snow, and it will be a while before we have bare ground. How different the beginning of this spring is from a year ago! Anyway, the picture above shows Mielikki running rabbits in our pen. Hopefully Mielikki is pregnant as she was bred to Sky two weeks ago.

I was going though some old pictures today and a couple of them caught my attention.  They both were taken a couple of years ago.

This picture shows Tommy plowing through the snow. It was taken in January 2011.

This is a lucky shot of Gilda shaking her head. I like the effect it created. Somebody made a comment on Facebook that the picture shows "brainstorm".
On the 27th, in three days, Gilda is going to be 11 years old. Happy Birthday Gilda!

Tracking a crossbow shot moose in Quebec: Alain Ridel and Théo

I can't believe that we are still catching up with reports from the 2012/2013 tracking season. We just discovered this October e-mail from Alain Ridel, a UBT member from Quebec. Alain's tracking dog is a wirehaired dachshund Théo  who was imported from France. We bred Keena to Théo four years ago and he was a sire of our "P" litter that produced Paika. The report is about tracking a moose that was shot with a crossbow.

Hello John,
 I hope that your tracking season went very well. Up here things have been rather calm since up to now. I have had only 14 opportunities to track, and one of these was for myself as described below. This search took place on the land of the big maple syrup evaporator at Lac de l’Est. You were there with me. You should be able to recognize the people in the photo.

I shot this moose with my crossbow, and the arrow was equipped with an expandable head. He was shot in the lungs at 23 meters and the arrow passed all the way through. Both lungs were penetrated. The moose ran 234 meters before falling dead. Between the hit site and the place where we found the moose, we saw only two small wipes of blood on branches. However, you can judge the importance of the wound from the photos.

Théo had no difficulty in finding the bull moose despite the presence of two cows that were accompanying him when I shot. This moose, which weighed 834 pounds. field dressed, died a long way from everything, and we had to cut a path with a chain saw for almost a kilometer before we got to a decent wood road.

If you can write a short article on your blog about this hunt and the successful, but not very difficult search for the moose, it will demonstrate that a crossbow kills as efficiently as a conventional bow! It also shows that the same wound on a 230 pound whitetail or a 1000 pound moose produces quite different results in each case because the two species of game react differently.

Théo with his moose - lots of blood!!! clearly showing the physical capacities of a moose.

Alain Ridel with Théo

Théo sees his moose leave

On the job of opening up a pathway for almost a kilometer

Happiness after a very full day

Autumn colors in Quebec during the hunt

First day of spring does not look like spring at all

Well, it looks like the Punxsutawney groundhog lied! The pictures were taken early this morning and show quite a bit of fresh snow that we got yesterday. It is very pretty out there, but it would be nice to have green grass under my feet and be able to train our dogs. This weather is interfering with training our dachshunds for the Deer Search Blood Tracking Competition, which is scheduled for the weekend of April 6-7. It is not possible to train blood tracking dogs in the snow so this is not a good situation.

Two incidents of blood tracking dachshunds that ingested rat poison

I was to post this letter in November, but things were pretty hectic here during tracking season and the message got misfiled. Only recently when another United Blood Trackers member's dog, actually Billy's daughter, got really sick because she ingested rat poison, I recalled the first post. It was written by Dan Forystek, a handler from Illinois:

We had a bad thing happen last week and rather than see anyone else experience what we went through I'm forwarding this info in case any of you have this misfortune.

While hunting out of town I was invited to an old farm house that some friends and relatives were renting while bowhunting. They had running water, hot showers, good food and a real bed. They knew I had none of the above and although that didn't bother me much I decided to accept the offer after making it clear that where I go so does Ishi, my blood tracking dog. "By all means we would like to see this dog we heard about" was one reply. 

The first evening there Ishi was all over snooping around and I was right behind her keeping her in check, or so I thought. After she ate she laid down on the kitchen floor barely out of sight. I heard her chewing on something and jumped up to see what it was. A cube of rat poison. I quickly grabbed it and opened her mouth removing all that I could. Looking up in shock at the only other person there at the time I said good thing I caught her so quickly. The cube of poison was barely touched and I got what I figured was all she chewed off. After a couple of phone calls getting info about effects and what to look for I thought we were in the clear and kept her at my side and in sight no exceptions.

The following day her stool showed the tiniest amount of blue die. It was just the beginning. The next sample that evening revealed an entirely different story completely died blue/green in the entire stool. It had passed through her entire system and the poison was at it's fullest effect. 

A return to the farm house revealed containers of poison hidden in every room, behind trash cans and couches and chairs. In the kitchen was a new two oz. container that Ishi snatched up the first day we visited there 48 hrs earlier. I called our vet to locate an emergency clinic that would be open all night, packed everything up and drove an hour and a half away. Arriving at midnight I provided labels and samples of two different brands of the poison used. 

She was given a transfusion of plasma and her blood platelets were checked to monitor the ability to clot. She spent the night there and the following day I picked her up and visited our vet for another blood platelet level check. She will be getting vitamin K for three weeks and R &R at least for a week unless the next blood test reads differently. Our vet said the plasma transfusion that I okayed, all though very expensive, made all the difference in a more certain recovery. Ishi is expected to make a full recovery. After many questions I learned that if you suspect your dog has ingested rat poison you can induce vomiting with hydrogen peroxide, about a cup to a cup and a half. Tilt the dogs head back and if you have a turkey baster or squirt bottle slowly squirt it into the corner of the mouth followed by some water. A visit to your vet is next.

Dogs eating this poison is not all that uncommon as the poison has a strong appeal, more than a dog can resist.Small dogs can move large pieces of furniture in an effort to get the prize according to the E.M.T.

Did you ever think you would have to ask someone who invites you and your dog to stay, " Oh by the way you don't have any rat poison lying around, do you?"

Dan Forystek

*****

Ginger's ordeal started on March 11, and I learned from Kevin Clark "Jolanta, please include Ginger in your prayers We took her into vet this morning vomiting blood coughing They X-rayed her and only part of her left lung was inflated. They are treating her as if she was poisoned. I'm not sure how or where she got into any poison They informed me that her condition had not gotten any worse today but that they were gonna give her a blood transfusion". A week later, yesterday, Kevin reported that "Every day seems to bring a little improvement. She is starting to get around a lot better. She will go in Wednesday for blood work. She's on vitamin K and an antibiotic 1 time a day."

I heard of other dogs that actually died after ingesting rat poison. Make sure that when you take your dog to unfamiliar place you ask people whether there is chance of finding rat poison around. There are many articles on the web about poisoning with warfarin, for which Vitamin K is an antidote, like this one - click here. But this is not the only poison available.

Be aware that Bromethalin does not have an antidote. It is labeled as a rodenticide, it is often used for rodent-like mammals such as moles and voles. It is often hidden inside a worm-like bait to attract moles. Learn more about it by reading this good article.

Blood tracking dogs are now legal in South Dakota

We are happy to report that on March 12, 2013, South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard signed the House Bill #1093 which says that "A dog that is leashed and under the control of a handler may be used to track and retrieve any big game animal that is wounded or presumed dead, if the handler complies with the conditions and restrictions prescribed in this chapter and the rules promulgated pursuant to this chapter."

The history and full text of the bill can be accessed at http://legis.state.sd.us/sessions/2013/Bill.aspx?Bill=1093

Many thanks and huge congratulations go to Jonathan Eckrich, a United Blood Trackers member from South Dakota, who made it happen!

Jonathan Eckrich with Hanzo, an 11-month old Shiba Inu

that is being trained

for blood tracking.

Kasey Morgan's Bloodhound Deer Tracking Services

Kasey Morgan is a United Blood Trackers member from Elderon, Wisconsin. Right now he has two bloodhounds dedicated to blood tracking, but it was a different breed altogether that got him involved in tracking wounded game. Below is Kasey's story in his own words.

I got my start in tracking in the fall of 1998. I was 15 back then and my father brought home a soon to be rabbit tracking machine.  The minute the beagle pup hit the ground I was glued to his side.  Following careful instruction from my father, I molded the pup into a finely tuned tracker.  From the moment my dog circled its first rabbit I was hooked on hounds.  We went on to develop some of the top beagles in the state of Wisconsin.  Along with beagling, I was slowly becoming a hunting fanatic.  Many long nights spent tracking wounded game, only to come up empty and disappointed, encouraged me to find a solution to this ethical issue.  In the summer of 2009 I began working with a slow tracking beagle on blood tracks, and slowly the hound impressed me with his ability to finish tracks successfully. 

To say I was green in blood tracking training would be an understatement.  Laying deer blood lines was as far as I went with the hound.  I knew none of the information I know now on the art of using dogs to recover wounded game.  I laid a few 100 yard lines using an astronomical amount of blood and of course the dog followed the ridiculously overdone blood trail to the end where he rejoiced over a non fleshed deer hide.  The amount of scent that was placed along my first artificial lines must have been overwhelming to the hound.  I have to chuckle at the way I started this past time that slowly became an obsession. 

Throughout the fall of 2010 I took 13 tracks and recovered 1 deer.  I learned a lot on those 13 tracks; however, I had barely scratched the surface of the finer points of wounded game recovery.  Over the next 2 years I learned basically through trial and error and  from John Jeanneney's book. I researched through literature and by prying at any tracker that would talk to me.  I continue to learn each day and take in all information.  I am a firm believer that adapting and molding training methods is crucial to producing successful dogs.  

My example of change is my decision to change breeds to become a more efficient tracker.  After experiencing numerous setbacks with beagles and water barriers, I made the decision to switch to bloodhounds.  I purchased Boomer, my prized bloodhound, in the early spring of 2012.  He had come from law enforcement bloodlines and his tracking skills revealed themselves early.  Boomer’s skills were far superior to those of the beagles I had worked with in the past.  He was completing 400 yard tracks before 4 months of age, and I was impressed and eager to get him on some live tracks.  In Boomer’s first hunting season we took over 60 tracks and recovered just over 40% of the deer.  Boomer will turn one year of age this next month.  He is my most valued possession and an excellent worker. 

I have recently added a female to our tracking team.  Her name is Riley and she is 3 months old.  She will be slowly worked into the equation this next fall, but so far she shows incredible tracking prowess.  I have also taken on the task of training a hound for a client in western Wisconsin.  I lucked out on this dog because the pup is a natural.  The training has been a huge success.  I am excited about the upcoming tracking season and eager to see what we are capable of achieving.  You can follow Bloodhound Deer Tracking Services on Facebook  click here.

Riley and Boomer

Sportsman's Dinner provides an opportunity to educate hunters about the use of leashed tracking dogs

The picture is supposed to catch your attention :) It was taken on October 21, 2010, and it was Tommy's first "real" deer that we found for a local hunter Dan Hardin. 

Since then Dan has become a good friend, and our Keena has fallen in love with him. Now Dan has his own tracking license, and Keena has become his tracking partner. 

On MARCH 16 Dan and John Jeanneney will be giving a PowerPoint talk with video in conjunction with the Sportsman’s Dinner at the Westerlo Baptist Church. There will be two presentations: 2:00 and 4:30 PM. Dan and John will be talking about the ethical importance and also the adventure of using leashed tracking dogs to locate wounded deer and bear that would not be found by eyetracking. The address is 618 State Route 143, Westerlo, NY 12193. Call Terri for tickets at 518-797-5126.

 

 

Coyotes and dachshunds' encounters do not always end well

Anybody who tracks wounded deer with dogs in the Northeast sooner or later will face the situation when the blood trail leads to a dead deer that had already been eaten by coyotes. We have written about coyotes quite a few times on this blog. Recently I came across our trailcam video of a coyote, which was taken just outside our enclosure where we run our dachshunds on rabbits. The video was taken on October 2010, and it shows a well-fed coyote, which seems to be in excellent shape.

The eastern coyote is considerably larger than its southwestern relative. The latest issue of NYSCC Grass Roots News has a short report on the Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs of Sullivan County 6th annual coyote hunt, which was held February 8-10, 2013. During the three day event hunters took 48 coyotes. The largest animal weighted 55.5 lbs, and that male coyote came from Schoharie County (we live near the the border of Albany and Schoharie Counties). The 48 coyotes taken included 28 males and 20 females. Average weight was 37.3 lbs, 45 coyotes were taken during daylight hours and 3 at night. 

Obviously a dachshund is not a match for a coyote, and there have been cases reported of dachshunds killed by coyotes, even when dogs were "safe" in fenced backyards, like in this case reported in Colorado. So when I started to read a story sent to me by Brian Hibbs from Iowa, I was not sure of its ending. This fine piece of writing was authored by Edd Woslum, who resides in Idaho and owns Chui, a dachshund out of Brian's breeding:

BLOOD TRACKERS

by Edd Woslum

After about a mile of casual fox trotting down the dirt road, Tillie, without any warning shot by me with a bark, a squeal and a mad rush down the mountain.  Kahlua saw her rapid departure and decided there must be some really cool stuff down there.  She then without delay was in full flight right behind her house mate.  Chui ‘s legs are only 7 inches long, even if stretched to full length, and I didn’t even see the feisty little fur ball until she came blasting by me doing warp nine on the star trek scale.  In less than two micro flashes, with miniature legs churning at full speed, she was 100 yards down the steep cliff and accelerating with every yip.

By this time I was jolted out of my quite reverie and was whistling as loud as I could and screaming to the point of damaging my respiratory system.  At about 200 yards off the road Tillie and Jesse, being of more reasonable disposition, decided this was a totally stupid endeavor and came trotting back to the road to see what the screaming was all about.

Immediately thereafter I nearly managed to kill my fool self while chasing my run amok puppy down the steep slope. After this I slowed down a bit but continued to stumble on for another half mile or so before I heard the  yip-yips from Chui getting louder and simultaneously heard the snarling of the coyotes. Several more yips from the little dog were rapidly followed by much more serious snarls from the coyotes.   Good lord, this idiot dog actually thinks she can take on that whole pack of four legged piranhas unassisted.  By this time I was wringing wet and was nearly spent but the adrenalin flow from full blown panic kept me going.  I could not see hide nor hair of either specie of k9 but could plainly hear Chui and the marauders verbalizing their displeasure at each other.  Of course I was still screaming with all the air I had left, but this was to no avail. 

Ten more steps and I heard it.  Over the top of Chui’s mini bark, and completely smothering the snarls of the coyotes, came a rumbling growl like I have only heard a few times before.  Kahlua is usually quite mild mannered but is very protective of home and family.  When she is serious about it, this gal could inject mortal fear into King Kong.

To read the rest of the story go to Brian's post by clicking here. 

The pictures shows Chui with the buck she recovered for the two hunters.

Mielikki and Sky's rendez-vous: a new generation of blood tracking puppies on its way?

Just a short note to those on our waiting list for a puppy that today Mielikki was bred to Sky and we will repeat the mating on Sunday. If everything goes right, Mielikki should be whelping around May 10, and this this is going to be our "U" litter.

The stylized picture above is showing puppies from our T-litter in 2012.

News from Georgia where the handlers and their tracking dogs have to be tough

Randy Vick is an outstanding handler and UBT member based in Pavo, Georgia. We have written about him and his blood tracking dogs before. His primary tracking dog is an eight-year-old Annie, a Kemmer Stock Mountain Cur. This year he was also using his young Drahthaar Pepper.

Randy Vick is holding Annie, his outstanding Kemmer Stock Mountain Cur

In Randy's own words:

Here are some pictures of the 41 deer that we recovered in south Georgia and north Florida during the '12-'13 season.

The picture was taken at the end of the outstanding 70-hour old track that had been rained on for 3 hours the night before we tracked it. It was a gut shot and all blood was washed away but Annie followed it 1200 yards on lead. The only sign was a half dozen drops of intestinal matter along the track and finally 6-8 beds along a 100 yard stretch. The buck had only been dead a short time when found.

Several deer were bayed alive, off lead, and though we did not know it when this picture was taken, my Drahthaar, Pepper, had been gored by the buck pictured in the cypress swamp (picture above, which is showing Annie with the buck). She quickly recovered from her wounds.

On one track I did shoot wrong deer that Annie jumped on the trail, but the hunter excused me and we went on to recover his wounded deer. He paid to have my buck processed.

Pepper was gored in the back and hip, Annie lost one front upper tooth, somehow, and I have fell and bruised/tore my kneecap twice.

Luckily, all fairly minor injuries, and we are all healed and ready to go tracking. At a 46% (41 for 91) recovery rate, we were blessed with another great tracking season.

Promotion of the use of blood tracking dogs in Maine: Thank you Lindsay!

Many thanks to Lindsay Ware who represented the United Blood Trackers at the Cabin Fever Reliever sportsmen’s show in Brewer, Maine, on February 23^rd and 24^th. Lindsay says:

The show went very well. There was high attendance all day Saturday and on Sunday morning. An afternoon snowstorm slowed things down later on Sunday, but overall the show was very busy, with many people stopping by the UBT booth.

Comments from people approaching the booth ranged from “I didn’t know you could do that in Maine,” to “Hey look, it’s the blood trackers!”  My dog Gander did a great job of greeting visitors at the booth, and I had a lot of fun explaining what we do.

Many interested deer hunters visited the booth. There were a few in particular that stood out for me because they were just so appreciative of the fact that there are people out there that spend their time and effort tracking for others. I was also able to speak with a few guides who were very keen to discuss blood tracking. Interestingly, the guides seemed mostly interested in utilizing tracking dogs for bear.

UBT will be at another Maine event coming up soon: the 75^th annual Eastern Maine Sportsmen’s Show in Orono on March 8^th, 9^th, and 10^th www.conservationassociation.org/sportsmensshow/sportsmensshow.htm. This is one of the largest shows in Maine and it will be a great opportunity to spread the word about United Blood Trackers and the use of tracking dogs in Maine.  

Big Game Blood Trackers Ontario is a new tracking club in Canada

Tracking wounded big game with dogs is becoming more and more popular. Just recently a new club has been formed north of the border, in the province of Ontario: Big Game Blood Trackers Ontario. We wish Ontario trackers best of luck!

Our plans for two litters of puppies in 2013

In 2011 we had only one litter (Moose by Paika), which produced five "S" puppies. In 2012 we repeated the breeding and had four "T" puppies. It looks like the 2013 spring and summer will be much busier with two litters of puppies we are planning to have.

The above pictures show our FC Mielikki Raptor who came in heat on February 26 and will be bred around March 9. The sire of this litter is going to be our FC Sky von Moosbach-Zuzelek. We are very excited about this breeding as in our opinion these two young dogs are going to be a very good match. This is going to be a complete outcross, and all puppies should be wirehairs as Mielikki carries two copies of the gene for the wirehaired coat.

Our second litter this year - FC Tom vom Linteler-Forst, SchwhK by FC Keena von Moosbach-Zuzelek is also going to be a complete outcross and should produce exclusively wirehaired puppies. This is going to be Keena's last litter (Sky is her grandson).

We don't know how many puppies we are going to have. Both females come from very fertile lines but you never know an outcome in advance. We decided to take "only" 10 deposits (we have them - thank you!), and then have a reserve waiting list in case we have more than 10 puppies. We still have some room on the reserve list. We also know of several litters that other breeders are going to have this spring/summer and will be happy to refer you to them. For more info contact us at info@born-to-track.com .