Theo von Moosbach-Zuzelek is a handsome and talented young tracking dachshund

Darren Doran is home recovering from a minor surgery, and is getting ready for another one. Our thoughts are with him - we wish you a speedy recovery Darren! 

We could not be happier with all that Darren accomplished with Theo in 2013. Even though Theo is going to be just two years old in April, he found 20 deer of the 43 he tracked. Also he scored Prize I, 92 points, on his Deer Search certification test, is only two points away from his field championship and was rated as "excellent" in conformation at an NATC Zuchtschau.

Theo's parents are FC Nurmi von Moosbach-Zuzelek (Moose owned by Chuck and Kim Collier) and FC Paika von Moosbach-Zuzelek. We converted Theo's registration from limited to full, and now he can be used as a stud dog. To contact Darren, you can e-mail him at darren@rvwsinc.com. 

Steffi is a great family dog... and so much more

Steffi is going to be 16 soon. These pictures are too good not to share. Thank you Danny!

Dachshunds clowning around in the snow

The picture was taken yesterday when a little bit of new snow was coming down. It is cold, in the morning it was 5F (-15C) and the snow crust is so thick and hard that dogs can run on the top.

Bernie, Mielikki and Kunox are very playful dogs and like to clown around.

Congratulations to Brigitte Walkey on Naya's Canadian Championship

We don't venture into a show ring but can appreciate a good looking dog. 

Congratulations to Brigitte Walkey and her new Canadian Champion  Springwood's Naya Everdeen, who was sired by our Billy. Naya is out of Can & Aust Ch Ozbree Penelope Spring Wire JE bred by Brigitte. You can get more information about Springwoods dachshunds at http://springwoodkennel.weebly.com/

Tim Nichols and his Bavarian Mountain Bloodhound Bruno are a great tracking team

This is just a sample of pictures showing Tim Nichols and his Bavarian Bruno. This is one of the hardest tracking teams around. In 2013  Tim while holding a full time job Tim took 77 calls and recovered 27 deer. He is a member of Deer Search and United Blood Trackers. Congratulations Tim - we admire your dedication to tracking!

Evaluating Eibe's nose - part 1

by Andy Bensing

Some of you may know that about 1 ½ years ago I started to suspect that my dog Eibe was having trouble with her nose every time she had to take a course of antibiotics.  The problem seemed to be getting worse and worse.  She would recover but it took longer each time.  By this past season opener it became very detrimental to her tracking and was preventing her from finding deer I absolutely knew we should.  I eventually found an experienced sports medicine veterinarian and have been working with him since October 2013.

I set this exercise up to help determine the current condition of her nose.  I used tracking shoes only because the problem she was having was focused on her ability to smell hoof print scent.  Blood scent gave her a little trouble but hoof print scent was nearly impossible for her to detect and differentiate between different deer.  A previous similar track I ran a couple of weeks ago before the snow got too deep indicated that her nose was recovered.  I really don’t have a lot of experience to say how easy or difficult an artificial track laid in snow tire tracks is so I set this exercise up in such a way that my artificial trail would be mixed in with tons of natural deer tracks forcing Eibe to have to differentiate between the two.  Differentiation of hoof print scent was next to impossible for her at the height of her condition last fall.  I will run this track at 24 hours and see what happens and report in the comments.

I set up misdirection exercises in the snow by laying the line in the right hand tire track and then at the intersection just stepping into the left hand track and going straight instead of bearing to the right.  The dog will naturally bear to the right taking the path of least resistance.  How quickly and easily Eibe makes that turn will tell me a lot about the condition of her nose.

Approaching a deer feeding area.

Right in the middle of the deer feeding area I made a 90 degree left hand turn.  This is a difficult situation for any dog but when Eibe’s nose was normal she worked this type of problem out many times both in training and natural tracking.  In MD and NJ where I track deer are legally shot over bait.

Following the tracking shoe line through this will tell me a lot about how well her nose can differentiate scent.

Results of the exercise will be posted in comments.

Uta von Moosbach-Zuzelek is a new field champion

Last year we had one litter of seven puppies - out of FC Sky von Moosbach-Zuzelek and FC Mielikki Raptor. They were born on May 10, but it seems like it was just yesterday. Many of them were already tracking last fall and found quite a few deer. We are very proud of them and their owners, who had determination and commitment to work their young dogs on real deer.

On Saturday one of the pups, Uta, finished her AKC field championship, in just three trials, with two 1st placements, one 2nd, and two Absolute wins. You might recall that Uta was the smallest puppy in the litter, and she connected with Cheri Faust  in a very special way when Cheri was visiting us last summer. Cheri was smitten with the pup too so I offered her a co-ownership of Uta, which she gladly accepted. The rest, as they say, is a history. Cheri came back to Berne, NY, three weeks later when she bred her Danika to our Sky so we had a chance to see Uta again at 11 weeks. Pictures below show Uta as a puppy. She is staying pretty small, at around 15 lbs.

Anyway, congratulations to Uta on her title! A big thank you to Cheri and Larry for working her in the field and providing so many training opportunities. 

Larry Gohlke and Cheri Faust with Uta before their departure for Wisconsin

Great weekend spent with trackers from Quebec

This winter is not going to quit! According to the National Weather Service we got 27 inches of snow in the last 36 hours. Of course this was on the top of the snow already on the ground. Crazy!!! When the snow is so deep logistics of managing 11 dogs (two females in heat) is not easy, especially in case of our old Asko and Joeri. John and I managed to shovel some paths for them in our yard, and today we got plowed so now our driveway is clear.

We got to spend last weekend with two trackers from Quebec, Benoit Blanchard and Steve Durocher, who came here to breed Benoit's tracking dachshund Fiona to one of our dogs. Fiona du Petit Bois de la Chapelle, an accomplished blood tracking dachshund from Quebec, has one of the best temperaments I have ever seen. She is not only talented but very good looking too. Fiona was imported from France along with her two sisters Flair, owned by Steve Durocher, and Foxy, owned by Bernard Demers. They were bred by Philippe Rainaud, an experienced blood tracker from France, who writes for Plaisirs de la Chasse.  

It was a good weekend filled with animated conversation mainly in French. Thanks to John and Steve, who speaks some English, I did not feel left out.

We ended up breeding Fiona to our Sky on February 8 and 9, 2014, and are really looking forward to seeing their puppies. Good luck Ben with the pups! By the way, I guess we should also mention that Tuesday was bred to Tommy on February 6 and 8.

Thank you Bernard for this picture showing Ben with Fiona and the buck they recovered.

Benoit Blanchard with Fiona

Happy 10th Birthday Billy!

Tomorrow our Billy (FC Billy von Moosbach-Zuzelek, SchwhK, Wa-T, BHP-1, BHP-2, BHP-3, SFK, Deer Search certified) is going to be 10 years old.

Where did the time go Billy? It seems just like yesterday I was holding you in a palm of my hand. Your eyes can see deep into my soul. I hate watching you getting older and hope that our journey together last many more years!

Our focus on blood tracking dachshunds: writing, breeding and education

I did not mean to abandon the blog but life got really hectic. We are working as fast as we can on the 3rd edition of Tracking Dogs for Finding Wounded Deer. The book is selling better than we anticipated, and we are running out of the 2nd edition. We really would prefer not to re-print the 2nd edition but have the 3rd one ready for printing ASAP. The time is running out.

The weather is not helping in staying focused. It just seems that we have a winter storm once a week these days, and temperatures have been staying low. Most of the time it is just too cold for dogs to be in the kennel. I don't know if you can imagine how it is to have a female in heat when all the males have to be in the house. Asko, now 14.5, is being difficult with his vocalization. I have to marvel at this old dog's life force and spirit. He does not get discouraged by any obstacles. Even with a foot of snow on the ground, he just plows through it in search of Tuesday's scent.

Tuesday is going to be bred to Tommy tomorrow, on her 12th day, and we just found out that this weekend another girlfriend is coming for a romantic rendez-vous with Tommy, all the way from Quebec. Oh boy... I hope that the weather cooperates. Today we got at least 11" of snow, and now are "officially" snowed in.

This is Benoit Blanchard from Quebec with his French tracking teckel Fiona du Petit Bois de la Chapelle bred by Phillippe Rainaud. Fiona is 3.5 years old and at a 1000 meter NATC/DTK blood tracking test in 2012 scored I Prize, 92 points. We are going to see her on Saturday. 

Part of my "free" time is spent on the online course I have just started. The course called Basic Population Genetics for Dog Breeders given by The Institute of Canine Biology. Highly recommended! From time to time I will posting some information presented there, and a good article to start is click here.

I promise to post more frequently, but for now I am going to close this with a link to a recent article featuring Adam Hostetter's Moose (Uncas von Moosbach-Zuzelek). Moose was born on May 10, 2013, and is now around 20 lbs. There are some inaccuracies in the article, but it is always difficult to present all the nuances of all issues addressed in a short piece. We are very proud of Moose and so happy that Adam is pleased with him. For the link to article click here.