Larry Gohlke's Nix vom Nordlicht wins the 11th Annual Buckeye Invitational Field Trial

Huge congratulations are in order to Larry Gohlke, a breeder, co-owner and handler of "Nix" (FC Nix vom Nordlicht JE) on winning yesterday the 11th Annual Buckeye Invitational Field Trial! This is a great accomplishment. I don't have a current picture of Nix so I am posting my favorite picture of Larry and his dog taken in 2007. Nix is out of "Buster" (FC Clown vom Talsdeich) and "Rika" (FC Fredrika von Moosbach-Zuzelek). 

Larry Gohlke with Nix

Reserve winner was Sherry Ruggieri's "Niya" (FC Tusoksori-Ugraszto Husniya), and Oscar's Award went to Scot Davidson's "Vimy" FC Vimy Ridge von Lowenherz (sired by our Tommy). Congratulations!!!

The format of this trial is different from a "regular" AKC trial. Twenty best field trial dachshunds from a previous year are invited to compete in this annual event. They are braced for the 1st and 2nd series. Each brace is judged by two judges who determine which dog loses and which one wins a given brace. After the 2nd series, dogs with two losses are eliminated from the further competition, and remaining dogs get braced again. This process goes on until in the end there is only one brace and the dog winning that brace gets the title of Winner of the Buckeye Dachshund Club Invitational Trial.

These are the top 20 field dogs from 2013. The numbers following their registered names indicate points and placements accumulated in 2013. Not all of them competed yesterday. Michael Pitisci's super-talented and accomplished "Brooke" passed just a week ago and Shawn Nies' Pixie was too advanced in her pregnancy.

1 HOPI   DC Rellih's Hopi Kachina Spirit-MW TD CGC 470 26
2 NIYA   FC Tusoksori-Ugraszto Husniya 411 21
3 LILY   FC Diamant Lily von Lowenherz 319 15
4 AUGGIE   FC Augden von Moosbach-Zuzelek RE ME 251 14
5 BROOKE   DC Town Farm Water Wings 242 8
6 ZUNI   GCH DC Rellih's Little Indian MW TD SE CGC 240 13
7 DANIKA   FC Danika vom Nordlicht TD ME 221 13
8 OSLO   FC Audi Oslo Von Dorndorf CA 206 13
9 GYPSY    DC Short Shadows Runaround Sue CD RE TD AX OAJ NAP OJP JE 205 13
10 DIXIE   FC Anja von Moosbach-Zuzelek RN SE 186 11
11VIMY   FC Vimy Ridge von Lowenherz 186 11
12 CARMEN   GCH DC Siddachs Carmen MW CGC 178 8
13 LANCE   DC Wingover's Lancelot Du Lac ML RN TD OA OAJ NF JE CA CGC 170 8
14 HUNTER   FC Windspirit's Hunter Von Wingover 168 12
15 EMMETT   DC Town Farm Emmett Sweeps the Spotlight JE CGC 160 11
16 NIX   FC Nix vom Nordlicht JE 146 10
17 STROLCH   FC Strolch von Lowenherz 141 7
18 STANZE   FC Stanze von Lowenherz JE 132 7
19 MIEKA   FC Annamieka vom Jagdfeld 128 8
20 PIXIE   FC von Schatten Knight of Mischief 106 7

Theo wins the Deer Search 2014 Blood Tracking Competition

Last weekend, April 12 and 13, 2014, Deer Search of Finger Lakes hosted the Annual Blood Tracking Competition at Campbell, NY. The judges were Ron Hausfelder, Gary Neal and Kevin Fisher, all members of Deer Search. The DSI competition is open to Deer Search members only, and eight dogs and handlers participated over the course of two days. The dogs competing were Standard Wirehaired Dachshunds (5), a Labrador Retriever, Bavarian Mountain Hound and German Shorthaired Pointer.

All dogs passed, and the table shows results with scores, time and placements. A winner of the competition was a two-year-old dachshund Theo von Moosbach-Zuzelek, owned and handled by Darren Doran from New Jersey. As Theo's breeders we could not be happier, and we are very thankful to Darren for all the training and work he put into Theo.

A big thank you to Andy Bensing and Darren Doran for pictures from the event. 

Deer Search of Finger Lakes modified slightly a traditional scoring system.

Darren Doran with Theo and a beautiful trophy for the 1st place (92 points, Prize I).

Eibe handled by Andy Bensing placed 2nd with 90 points, Prize I.

Our Tommy handled by John Jeanneney placed 3rd with 83 points and Prize II.

Garry Huber with his Bavarian Mountain Bloodhound Beya (73 points, Prize II).

Casandra was handled by Dale Clifford (70 points, Prize II).

Remington handled by Joe Dallas scored 67 points, Prize III.

Braylee handled by Paulene Eggers scored 60 points and Prize III.

Buddy was handled by Kevin Ulrich and received 52 points, Prize III.

Congratulations to all the participants, and especially to the winning team! A big thank you to members of Deer Search of Finger Lakes for organizing such a fine event.

Happy Easter! Tuesday's puppies are one week old.

This week has gone by so fast, and, again, I have found myself way behind with posts. Sorry about that as there is a lot to report.  Let's start with Tuesday's puppies, who are now one week old. They have already doubled their weight at birth:

Volt (lime) was 221 gr at birth, now 515 gr

Vincent (blue) was 232, now 470

Viola (pink) was 210, now 465

Vonnie (yellow)was 215, now 460

Vivica (red) was 232, now 470 gr

The first few days were a bit difficult as Tuesday was producing too much milk and puppies could not keep up with her "production".  She was uncomfortable, but this quickly passed and things have normalized.

Tuesday has a good appetite but she has not touched dry food yet. She has been living on raw venison, mixed with rice and egg, plus she drinks goat milk. Occasionally she gets several cubes of cheese. She turned out to be a superb mother, and so far she has been staying with the pups in the whelping box all the time. They are spotless clean. What I like about her that she not too possessive of her pups. She completely trusts us, and even if dogs bark outside my den, she does not get too upset about it

Happy Easter Everybody!

Tuesday and Tommy's puppies: a new litter of wirehaired dachshund trackers

We bred our FC Tuesday von Moosbach-Zuzelek, Sfk, V, to FC Tom vom Linteler-Forst, SchwhK (Prize I/100), Deer Search cert., V, twice, on February 6 and 8. Her pregnancy went smoothly; she had a good appetite and was active. She looked actually full of puppies as this below picture shows. We chose not to X-ray her as we knew she was pregnant, and a question "how many pups" would have its answer soon enough.

A whelping box for Tuesday was set up few days in advance and she stayed in it almost constantly. She really liked it. This was a relief as with first time mothers you never know how things are going to go.

I started to take her temperature twice a day, and on April 9 it went below 99 F and stayed there. Around midnight of April 10, Tuesday started to nest and scratch the bedding in the whelping box. We knew that the whelping was coming closer. But things were not progressing, and at 4 PM I called our vet for advice. We decided to give her more time since her water still did not break.

The water bag finally appeared at 8:15 PM (April 11), and first puppy arrived 45 minutes later.

This little (7.8 oz) boy was born without any difficulties and appeared very dark.

We named him Volt (he latched to a nipple right away), and we are still not sure whether he is a very dark wild boar or black and tan. We will just wait and see.

Puppies arrived in this order:
9:05 PM Volt (lime collar), 7.8 oz
11:50 PM Viola (pink) 7.4 oz
12:04 AM Vonnie (yellow) 7.6 oz
2:45 AM Vincent (blue) 8.2 oz
3:10 AM Vivica (red) 8.8 oz

We gave Tuesday a shot of oxytocin, and as it turned out she carried only 5 puppies. At this number they should not be difficult to raise.

Tuesday is taking a great care of the pups, but she suffers from excessive milk production, a painful condition called galactostasis. According to the Merck Manual: "The affected glands are warm, swollen, and painful to the touch, but the animal is alert and healthy. Warm compresses should be applied to the affected glands 4–6 times daily, and the young should be encouraged to nurse from these glands." So for the last 24 hours I have been doing warm compresses and expressing some of the milk excess. Tuesday had a slightly elevated temperature, and to avoid mastitis, I put her on Clavamox. She is doing very well, and has a good appetite. Puppies have already put some weight.

By the way, all the puppies are spoken for. 

We do not want to monopolize this blog with reports on Tuesday's litter, so from now on we will be posting them on our puppy journal at http://borntotrackpuppies.blogspot.com/

Spring brings ducks to our pond and hopefully... puppies to our whelping box

While I am waiting for Tuesday's puppies to be born (this is my second night of hovering over Tuesday's whelping box), finally I have a little bit of time to catch up with the blog.

Spring has finally arrived in the Helderbergs! We thought that it would never happen this year. Yesterday, on Thursday, was very warm, in the mid-60s, and even though a lot of ponds and small lakes in this area are still frozen, our pond is clear now. This year we have a chance to watch some migratory diving ducks, which have paid us a visit. Most likely they will be soon on their way north, but in the meantime we have been enjoying them.

The two pictures were taken three days ago, when we still had some ice on the pond. These are Ring-necked Ducks, and the small flock on our pond has three females and five males.

A week ago we had a nice visit from Walt Dixon, who brought Billy's son with him to run him in our fenced-in field.  Walt just got back from Cincinnati, OH, where he gave a presentation "Why in the World would I need a Blood Tracking Dog?" at the recent Biennial Gathering of the Professional Bowhunters Society.

Walt Dixon and John Jeanneney

Dachs is maturing nicely.

It seems that some rabbits survived our tough winter, and finally our dogs can get some runs on the snow-free ground. The two pictures below show Kunox von der Dohlmühle, who tomorrow is going to be nine months old. He is not a little puppy any more!

Kunox's best buddy is Mielikki, and my camera just loves her. Taking pictures of dogs is not easy, but Mielikki's engaging personality and her athleticism came through well in these two photographs.