Walt Dixon's Dachs is a very promising young tracker

Today our friend Walt Dixon and Chris Daley visited us at our hilly snowy home in Berne. We helped Walt prepare a PowerPoint presentation which he will be offering at the Professional Bowhunters Society Convention in March.

Walt brought along his young male dachshund, Dachs von Tierspur (born August 1, 2012), which he purchased from Genti and Beth Shero. Dachs was sired by our FC Billy von Moosbach-Zuzelek and is out of the Shero's Mae (FC Mae von Munterkeit).

Walt Dixon is holding Dachs, and Chris Daley

Dachs looks a lot like Billy and has excellent leg-length  and body proportions for a tracking dog. In our 11-acre running enclosure we liked his hunting drive and working style. Dachs has already found several deer, and we think that he is a dog to watch for the future.

Mielikki and Dachs had a lot of fun together.

We like Dachs' conformation - correct size, excellent coat, beautiful head, long neck, very nice topline, great proportions and ground clearance... and Billy's eyes.

Mielikki and Dachs hunted hard!

No offense to Mae, Dachs' dam, but we do not see much of her in Dachs.

We never posted this picture and message from Walt from October 15, 2013: Today I got a call on my cell for a bowhunter I tracked for last year. Ari and I recovered his buck in 2012 and when he got to it he got on his knees and began to cry. Finally, embarrassed, he looked up and apologized. He explained he had been diagnosed with cancer and had gone through all the treatments and thought he would die and never be able to hunt again. That buck last year represented something special to him as a cancer survivor.

Today when he called I took both dogs, unsure of which I'd use. The trail was 9.5 hours old when we met the bowhunter so I decided to run Dachs solo and give him a chance on his own. As a teenager (he's one year and two months old) he's been exhibiting a bit of a reckless teenage spirit and I didn't know if he'd have the discipline to buckle down and work this line.

I'm pleased to report that when given this chance he rose to the occasion! Dachs ran this trail well and you could tell he was proud to take over the as primary tracker today. The deer was hit in front of the rear leg, exiting the bottom, leaving 8 inches of entrails hanging out. Dachs tracked about 400 yards from the hunters last blood and did a good job of working the countless circles and beds this deer made in a thick, thick swale field with Buckthorn everywhere. At the deer he showed good possessiveness and aggression and adopted the "this is my deer" attitude. He warned the bowhunter away when he got to close. Dachs was visibly proud of his accomplishment! With gaining Deer Search Certification at just over 8 months old, subsequently working with Ari, and now beginning on his own I think he's going to be a good one! Ari is tracking as well or better than any dog I've ever had! Now, we've been on 5 calls and have been blessed with 4 recoveries! This run of good luck is great fun!

As it turned out in the end, Walt took 19 calls in 2013 and had 11 recoveries with his tracking dogs, Ari and Dachs. Ari is Dachs' aunt as she is Billy's sister.