Four field trials and four Absolute wins

These days it is not easy for us to get away to attend field trials so it was a real treat when Emillie, John's daughter, agreed to come and stay with our dogs two weeks ago. John and I took Kunox, Tuesday, Mielikki and Tommy to field trials held at Niagara River Beagle Club in Alexander, NY, where beaglers running the club feel like our own family.

There were 9 entries in the Open All-Age stake and our Kunox von der Dohlmühle placed first. He also was Best of Open and then to went win the Absolute run over the best Field Champion of the day, Laurel Whistance-Smith's FC Lykke von Lowenherz SE, who is our Joeri's daughter. It was a great day for Laurel's dogs as her FC Diamant Lily von Lowenherz ME placed 2nd in the Field Champion stake of 31 (Lily is our Asko's daughter) and FC Stanze von Lowenherz SE was NBQ.

The picture me with Kunox was taken with John Merriman and Alice Moyer, who were the judges of the Absolute run. 

John and Kunox celebrating a good day.

Lykke bred and owned by Laurel Whistance-Smith was a winner of the Field Champion stake.

On Sunday, September 14, Kunox was not called back for the second series, but Tuesday was called back high (she had a very good run against Sherry Ruggieri's Niya) and she held on to the first place. She won The Absolute run, just like Kunox did a day before. Our Tommy placed 4th.

This picture shows John and me with Tuesday and Phil Kirby (left) and Bob Patterson (right), the judges of the Absolute run. Thank you!

This past weekend I made a trip to New Jersey by myself and took with me Kunox, Tuesday and Mielikki. Entries were similar to those two weeks ago. on Saturday at Bay Colony Dachshund Club field trial there were 9 open dogs, 9 open bitches, and 29 field champions. On Sunday at Dachshund Association of Long Island trial we had 9 open dogs, 10 open bitches and 27 field champions. 

On Saturday Kunox placed 3rd in the open stake, and Tuesday was called back 3rd for the second series. She had some great runs and ended up first and then winning the Absolute run.

From the left Barbie Wills with Veela (place #4), Sherry Ruggieri with Niya (place #3), Christina Wahl with Mischa (place #2)  and Jolanta Jeanneney with Tuesday (place #1. All these wires are out European bloodlines: Veela was imported from Germany, Niya from Hungary and Mischa from Slovakia. Tuesday was bred by John and me and she is out of European lines as well.

Lorraine Simmons and Carrie Hamilton were judges of the Field Champion stake.

On Sunday Tuesday ended up 2nd in the Field Champion stake, and she impressed me a lot with her performance and consistency. Kunox suffered a total mental block in the first series and acted like he did not know what he was in the field for. Is this a sign of adolescence (he is 14.5 months)? I was totally embarrassed but then on our way back to the car we came across a cottontail sitting in the lane. Kunox saw it and then recognized the scent. It was like "Oh, yeah, there are rabbits here!" Luckily he was called back as a bye dog and had another chance to run. He did much better in subsequent runs and ended up winning the trial.

The picture shows Kunox with all his first placements and Absolute wins he got so far, and it was taken for his breeder Annelie Grauer from Germany. Thank you Annelie for this talented dog! This was Kunox's third Absolute win. Unfortunately, even though so far he has gotten 3 first places and several other placements he is not a field champion yet as open stakes on the east coast are pretty small these days. Well, he does not care what stake he runs in, that's for sure.

I'd like to share some other pictures from the last weekend.

Anna Cook is only eight years old but she handled her mini wire Dillan like a pro. Kunox ran against Dillan twice and I admired Anna's poise as a handler.

Teddy Moritz's young mini longhair bitch Hedge was 1st in the open bitch stake on both days. She did great and her quickness and drive are going to be hard to beat.

To buyers of European dachshunds: Dual register your dogs with the AKC

By Jolanta Jeanneney

If you bought a dachshund from Europe, it was probably registered with one of the FCI kennel clubs such as the Deutscher Teckelklub. You bought your European puppy because you admired the hunting desire and the conformation standard that was developed to ensure stamina and agility. Now you wonder whether you should register your puppy with the American Kennel Club. You probably heard how breeders associated with this club breed mainly for the show ring and exaggerated conformation, with disregard for performance and health. And why would you want to register your teckel puppy with the AKC that has a different breed standard and provides no quality control when it comes to selection of breeding stock?  The reasons are practical rather than ideological.

If you live in the United States, you need to register your foreign-born dachshund puppy with an American-based registry. The American Kennel is your best option.

By the way, it should be mentioned that the terms like dachshund, teckel and dackel refer to the same breed. The word “dachshund” is actually of German origin, and it means “badger dog”, as in German “dachs” means badger and “hund” means dog. These days the Americans who work with dachshunds bred out of European lines often refer to them as “teckels”. But make no mistake about it – teckels are dachshunds!

The North American Teckel Club (NATC), which John and I co-founded, is affiliated with the FCI and DTK. It is a small club, which handles 9 teckel breeds that are differentiated according to the size and coat type (standard, mini and kaninchen x wirehaired, longhaired and smooth). In the AKC system dachshunds are registered just as “dachshunds” (one breed). It is obvious that the United States is very different from the European countries. The distances in our homeland are vast by European standards. Field and show events for FCI registered dogs are very infrequent and widely scattered. The NATC holds events once or twice a year.

This post is not intended to criticize NATC, DTK or FCI, but to show what a breeder loses by not registering an imported dachshund with the AKC.

If there is a possibility that you want to breed your foreign-born "Teckel" in the USA according to the FCI regulations, your dog must be approved as suitable for breeding by an FCI judge at a "Zuchtschau" and this may involve driving a thousand miles or more. After the breeding takes place the subsequent litter must be evaluated by a North American Teckel Club breed warden, and there are few of these in the USA. A procedure that makes a lot of sense in densely populated Europe is not very suitable for the USA. Quality control and genetic awareness in breeding are very important, but we must encourage them here through education, not through  the application of rigid regulations that may require traveling long distances.

Teckel breeders in the USA must think ahead. At present, it is possible, if not convenient, to operate within the FCI system, thanks to the presence of the North American Teckel Club. However, it is not certain that the NATC will survive over the long term. The NATC membership of less than 150 has remained static for a decade, and it has not been very successful in recruiting those who use dachshunds for finding wounded big game and hunting. If NATC fails, those who have not registered their FCI dogs with the AKC will have nowhere to go in the United States unless they want to turn to such organizations as the privately owned United Kennel Club, which is  run more for profit than for quality. Most breeders will have to leave the country to qualify their dogs for registration.

We are very fortunate that the DTK/FCI allows their registered dachshunds to be dual registered with the AKC. In this respect it differs from the Verein Deutsch Drahthaar, which  does not allow their registered dogs in North America to have anything to do with the AKC.

The AKC offers a registration system, which provides pedigrees and DNA testing for parentage verification. But it offers more than that. For people who are interested in versatile dachshunds, the AKC offers performance events such as field trials, earth dog tests, human tracking, agility etc.

Last year, seven dogs in the top ten AKC field trial dachshunds in this country were either direct imports from Europe or American-bred descendants from European lines. The all-time best field trial dachshund FC Danika vom Nordlicht was bred in the United States, but her pedigree goes back to dachshunds imported from Europe. Her conformation was judged by an FCI judge as Excellent (Vorzuglich).  Besides her AKC Field Championship Danika has other AKC titles: TD, ME and EE2, which are earned in tracking and earth dog tests. She is a tracker of wounded game as well. This year, so far the number one spot in field trials has gone to Sherry Ruggieri’s Tüsöksori-Ugrasztó Husniya, who was imported from Hungary.

FC Danika vom Nordlicht,V, TD, ME, EE2 was bred in the United States by Larry Gohlke and she is co-owned by Cheri Faust and Larry Gohlke. Danika's ancestors are of European breeding. She is the most successful field trial dachshunds in the history of AKC dachshund field trials. She also tracks wounded deer, and is all-around very versatile dachshund.

Sherry Ruggieri's Niya (FC Tüsöksori-Ugrasztó Husniya, V) was directly imported from Hungary. Even though she is only 2.5 years old she has done extremely well at AKC field trials. The picture shows Niya at a 2013 NATC Zuchtschau, where Niya was Best of Wires and got Excellent rating.

Over the years we have imported more than 10 dachshunds from Germany, France and the Czech Republic, all FCI countries, where dachshunds are bred according to the FCI standard #148. All these dogs were subsequently registered with the AKC and they participated in all kinds of events and tests in the States and Canada: United Blood Trackers and Deer Search blood tracking tests (not associated with any registry), NATC shows and tests, and AKC field trials. The offspring of these dogs are also registered with the AKC so puppy owners can participate in the AKC events and breed their dogs within the American-based registry.

FC Tom vom Linteler-Forst, V, SchwhK, Deer Search certif. was bred in Germany by Dieter Engel. His conformation was rated at an NATC show as Excellent. So far Tommy has sired five litters registered with the AKC and CKC (Canadian Kennel Club). His son FC Vimy Ridge von Lowenherz was #11 at AKC field trials last year. 

If you choose not to register your foreign-born dachshund with the AKC, the puppies you are going to breed will not be eligible for registration with the AKC and offspring of your dog will not be able to participate in AKC events.

So for practical reasons it makes good sense to dual register your imported dachshunds with the AKC. This does not require you to give up the advantages offered by such FCI organizations as DTK, but it does give you maximum flexibility.  You will always have  the possibility of participating in AKC events like field trials, breeding to either FCI or AKC dogs, and finally the assurance that your puppies will have the status of being registered.

Ask yourself a question – what am I going to lose by registering my European dachshund with the AKC (nothing) and what am I going to gain (a lot)?

To register your foreign-born dachshund, you need to send a copy of an FCI export pedigree, two pictures of the dog and fill out the AKC application form http://images.akc.org/pdf/ADIMPT_1112_edit.pdf. The fee is $100. More detailed instructions are listed on page 3 of the form.

John Jeanneney (left) is holding FC Gerte vom Dornenfeld, SwI/1a, who was imported from Germany. Gerte tracked wounded deer and hunted rabbits, and she is one of the foundation bitches of our breeding program. Late Jim Pitcher is holding FC Zuzelek's Gold-digging Gita, who excelled on rabbits.

Gwendoline von der Dohlmühle, the best working dachshund in 2013 in the DTK Wiesbaden-Mainz Gruppe

Great news from Germany: Gwendoline von der Dohlmühle, Kunox's dam, got a diploma as the best working dachshund of the DTK Wiesbaden-Mainz Gruppe in 2013. She also received a challenge trophy, a bronze wild boar. Congratulations go to Annelie Grauer on Gwendoline's accomplishment! Gwendoline's dam, owned by the Grauers, Elsbeere von der Bismarck-Eiche out of Stefan Fuß's breeding was 3rd (she was 1st five years ago). We feel so fortunate to have Kunox!

Kunox - our new dachshund puppy from Germany

It was a week ago, on Wednesday, when John and I drove to Newark International Airport to pick up our new puppy from Germany - Kunox der von der Dohlmühle. Kunox  arrived in the United States, all happy and wiggly, not showing any sign of stress.

Interestingly, we did not plan to get a new puppy this fall, but sometimes an opportunity presents itself and cannot be denied. It was almost four weeks ago when Stefan Fuß of "von der Bismarck-Eiche" kennel in Germany posted some information on Facebook about a male "von der Dohlmühle" puppy looking for a hunting home due to some unexpected circumstances. When I (Jolanta) saw the pup's picture and outstanding pedigree, I knew that we must have him. More about his pedigree and family later.

So many, many thanks go to Stefan who made it all possible and to Annelie Grauer, Kunox's breeder, who trusted us with her puppy.

John has already started to work with Kunox and this is what he wrote: As Jolanta points out, we were lucky to get a puppy with such an outstanding pedigree for  blood tracking. Fortunately little Kunox doesn't know about the pedigree and how  good he is supposed to be. He is a nice, relaxed dog with good social skills around humans and canines. He departed from Lufthansa at Newark Airport totally relaxed and ready to sleep on my lap all the way home.

Of course the Old Man was especially interested in Kunox's desire and ability for tracking. The second day after his arrival in Berne we tried the first liver drag of 20 yards. No problem, but he learned what it was all about and had a fine chew on the deer liver at the end of the drag. The next day Kunox had a liver drag twice as long. Clearly it was too easy, but he liked the liver. On day three the liver drag was nearly 100 yards and an hour old. It was windy but Kunox got his nose down in the grass and  held to the scent line. Now he was ready for something more challenging.

Day four: This time I laid out a line with droplets of deer blood through  the labyrinth of paths in our running enclosure. There were many right angles to overshoot, and I let it age for  four hours. The line was only about 150 yards long, but there were many complicated turns. Kunox marched through it with ease, never overshooting a turn by more than five feet before checking and correcting himself. At the deer skin he approached with caution, but after my assurances he grabbed on. The prey drive was there! He actually preferred shaking the deer hide to eating the deer heart treats.

I kind of like this puppy!

This puppy loves his food, even home-grown kale. We need to take just a little bit of weight off him.

He is a low-key pup that can just relax and sleep while we go about our daily routine.

Kunox has met most of our dogs and proved to have good social skills. Mielikki is a good playmate as she is patient and gentle with him...up to the point. She set some boundaries by now for Kunox and one of them is that he is not allowed to hump her (he tried).

 

Kunox has been accepted by his new family; the picture shows Paika and Sky

Kunox licking Billy's face

Kunox has a very good switch: he is on in the field...

...and off in the house. Don't you love a puppy that you can take a nap with?

 

Kunox's dam is Gwendoline der von der Dohlmühle, who just three days ago won the International Vp test in Italy with maximum number of points of 280. Gwennie's mother Elsebeere von der Bismarck-Eiche got 268 points. Both got their CACIT (Certificat d’Aptitude au Championnat International de Travail) and became International Working Champions.

When we were in Germany in 1999 we visited Manfred Siekmann of von Rominten kennel. He is an extremely knowledgeable and accomplished breeder and handler, and we learned from him a lot. At the time his male Nurmi von Rominten was flying high as a blood tracker. I think he won Chorin Suche blood tracking championship twice. We loved the dog, and we saw him again on subsequent trips. He got to live to be 15. We always wanted a puppy sired by him but it has never worked out. The sire of Kunox is IACh GS BSS Doktor von Rominten, who is linebred tightly on Nurmi, and is an outstanding dog in his own right.

Happy 14th Birthday Asko!

Fourteen years ago FC Asko von der Drachenburg, V, SfK, VpoSp, Laut Jager was born in Germany and he was bred by Steffen Matthai. We picked him up in Germany when he was 3 months old. Of all the dogs we have imported in the last 15 years Asko made the biggest impact on our breeding program. Now at 14 he is still very much a playful puppy, now with some gray hair. Happy Birthday dear Asko!

Upcoming North American Teckel Club events

Dates: Thursday, June 13th - Sunday, June 16th

Judge: Wolfgang Trumpfheller, hunting and conformation judge from Germany

Location: 1411 Cross Keys Road, Reading and Weiser Forest, Hamburg, Pennsylvania

• June 13: 12 pm JGHV Judges Seminar (required for all hunting judges and great tool to understand FCI hunting tests)June 14: 8 am Gun Shyness Test (blood tracking participants only), Blood Tracking Test 40 hours
• June 15: 9 am Hit Site Evaluation Seminar, Gun Shyness Test, BHP (DTK Companion Dog Test), Water Test
• June 16: 9 am Zuchtschau (DTK Conformation show), dogs will get a written evaluation according to FCI Standard #148

Blood tracking training lines will be available upon request only for Thursday morning, Friday late afternoon or Sunday before/after the Zuchtschau. Contact Andy Bensing for more info abensing@pbkennels.com.

Entry forms can be found at www.teckelclub.org, for more info e-mail Alexandra Weber, NATC Secretary dbarw@dejazzd.com.

Pictures from previous NATC events can be viewed at http://jola.smugmug.com/NATC

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!

Celebrating Joeri's 5th Birthday

As regular readers of this blog know, Joeri suffered a herniated disc on August 27, 2012. He underwent a surgery almost immediately, and then on November 15 he went down again. At the time we were very close to putting him down as he was paralyzed and he lost bladder control. We put him right away on prednisone and some other drugs such as tramadol, methocarbamol and gabapentin. He also received several acupuncture sessions and cold laser treatments. Luckily Joeri responded well to this conservative treatment and has been improving steadily.

This picture was taken this morning in my den on the day of his 5th birthday. We both are so glad that he is with us wagging his tail and slowly regaining his life.

The video below was taken today as well. A direct link to the video is click here. You can see that he is not 100%, not yet, but we are optimistic. He feels very good, would like to jump and run. It's been now only three months since his relapse so we are still restricting his activities. He gave us a scare the other day when all of sudden he tried to jump on the couch. He did not reach the top, fell down on his back (on the carpet), but it seems that nothing happened. He was disappointed that he did not succeed but was not in pain and did not suffer any damage. We hope that by mid-April he will be able to resume normal life.

 

Blog on wirehaired dackels and a video on dachshunds

For those who'd like to learn more about European dachshunds from perspective of an American living in Europe, this is a new blog to follow: http://whdackel.blogspot.com/. You will find a link to the blog in our blogroll.

Julie Weidner is a graduate student from Wisconsin, who currently lives in Switzerland, and she has acquired two European wirehaired dachshunds.  We got connected through our blog, and it looks like we are on the same wavelength.

I like Julie's post about dachshunds in the media. If you have 87 minutes to spare, watch the video she refers to at

http://videos.arte.tv/fr/videos/a-poil-dur-a-poil-long-a-poil-ras--7302468.html (French) or

http://videos.arte.tv/de/videos/dackel-kleiner-hund-ganz-gross--7302468.html German)

Julie's comments about the video are right on the money. If you watch the video, you'll see Antonio Palladini, a prominent breeder from Italy http://www.val-vezzeno.it/. Tommy's sire Skuleskogens N Boris is owned by Palladini (Boris was bred in Sweden).

Even if you do not speak German or French (there is no English version as far as I know) the video is worth watching just to see how dachshunds are raised and handled in various countries. I know for sure I would not want to be a dachshund in Japan. I think around 7:30 minutes into the video you will see a dachshund playing with a young lion and standing its ground!

 

Enjoy!

Mielikki Raptor becomes a new Field Champion and passes a Small Game Hunt Test

A wirehaired dachshund Mielikki Raptor was born on December 10, 2011, in the Czech Republic. She was bred by Gabriela Skruzna, and our friend Lenka Faraislova brought Mielikki and her sister Macaria to this country at the end of February 2012. 

She went to her first field trial on October 27, and 8 days later she finished her Field Championship with three 1st places and one Absolute win. She also passed a gun steadiness test and North American Teckel Small Game Hunting Test. At a NATC Zuchtschau she got a "very good" rating with a comment that in 3-4 months she will be "excellent" when she matures more. BTW, she weighs 7.9 kg (17.5 lbs).  

Patience gets rewarded! At one point we had some doubts about Mielikki, especially when her second teeth erupted and they all looked out of place. But some friends, especially Patricia Nance, advised us to wait. We are glad that we followed the advice. Her teeth are OK now, and she proved to be a very talented versatile hunter.

On Sunday, November 4, Mielikki won her stake of OAAB, then was Best of Open and Absolute Winner of the trial

 

Easy natural lines are the best tool for training a young tracking dog: Cliff Shrader and his longhaired dachshund Tasha

Cliff Shrader is a new United Blood Trackers member, and he is has been working with a young standard longhaired dachshund Tasha. Tasha was born on May 27, 2012, in Denmark. He has been updating me about Tasha's training, and I asked him to write about how he got involved in blood tracking, dachshunds and how he went about importing a puppy from Europe. Thank you Cliff!

I was born and raised in South Louisiana. We were a family of duck and deer hunters, and we did our hunting in a swamp called the Atchafalaya Basin (this is the same area where Swamp People is filmed).  We used Walker hounds to run deer and we used Labrador retrievers for duck hunting. If someone had told me that I would grow up to own and love Dachshunds, I would have laughed at them.

I ended up with two dachshunds, Boudreaux and Thibodeaux. They were just pets until I brought home a deer to clean. When I showed the deer to my hounds, they went crazy. Their prey drive was very high, and they didn't want to let me have my deer back. This is when I first thought about Dachshunds as tracking dogs. In the south, people would laugh at you if you said anything about dachshunds being fieldworthy.

 My idea of actually training dachshunds laid dormant for quite a few years. Two years ago, I needed a tracking dog several times to trail wounded deer but there were none around. I pride myself on my tracking abilities but even after long and hard tracks, I lost two deer. Last year I started doing research on tracking dogs. John and you Jolanta had several things that I read and a friend of mine loaned me his book...Tracking Dogs for Finding Wounded Deer.

I contacted Patt Nance after visiting her website. Timing was very good because Patt and Tina Knoll  were just considering breeding Owl to Tina's dog Babe. I was lucky enough to be able to attend an AKC tracking trial that Laura and Tina Knoll were bringing three of the girls to. After that I was hooked. I waited several months for the mating of Babe and Owl to happen. Finally, all the stars were aligned and the mating took place. Unfortunately, it didn't result in a pregnancy. Patt Nance and I spoke several times and she told me of two litters in Europe. It was during this time that my favorite dog Thibodeaux passed away.

Patt Nance contacted several of her friends and they helped me find The Right Dog, not just a dog. I was very fortunate that Lise-Lotte Schultz at Tranevang Kennels in Denmark had a puppy left. Diane Webb of Doxifun and her husband checked out this litter of puppies when they were around four weeks old. She liked what she saw. When it was time, Marie Gadolin administered the Volhard puppy test. Tasha scored mostly 2 and 3s which indicated that she would be a good dog for an experienced trainer. Patt Nance had been studying the possibility of getting a puppy from this litter for herself. She loved the bloodline and Lise-Lotte provided information on all the hounds in that line.

When Patt bought a puppy (Taya) from the litter she was very impressed with her. From everything that I knew, Taya's sister Tasha was the right dog for me. Tasha was shipped from Copenhagen to Chicago on a direct flight. I was nervous as I waited in the rain at the airport. When they brought Tasha out and I saw her peering through the crate, I fell in love.

I have enjoyed getting to know Tasha. Training has been a bonding experience for us. John Jeanneny's book has been my bible. Your blogs and YouTube videos have helped tremendously. I started Tasha out on very short tracks......tracks that she couldn't fail. It only took a few of these and she started to realize what her job was. Tasha started really well in tracking but these were only training tracks, practice tracks...at home tracks. When we headed to Illinois for the season opening week long bow hunting trip I was very hopeful but still unsure of how Tasha would perform in the field.

On Monday it rained almost all day. Monday afternoon, my friend sent me a text that he had shot and killed a 9 point. He had already located the deer but would I like for him to leave it where Tasha could track it. I headed over there as soon as my hunt was over. The deer was shot in a field with a crossbow about 25 yards away.  The arrow struck the deer pretty far back through the guts. The deer ran 40 yards in chest high grass and laid down. After an hour, he approached the deer. The buck stood up and he shot it again. We decided to start the track where he had made the initial shot. Tasha was able to find guts on the vegetation and she found his arrow, something that he had not been able to do. Tasha fumbled around on this track having  problems getting a good read on it. I picked her up and placed her where he had made the second shot. This time she took off bouncing through the tall grass. She ran her track straight to the buck. When she ran upon the buck laying dead in the tall grass it scared her half to death. It took a couple of minutes with me kneeling beside the deer to get her over the initial shock. After this she was fine with it.

Tasha's next track, her first true track was over five hundred yards on another gut shot deer. Most of this track was without any blood. I have never been so impressed with a puppy.

I left Illinois Sunday morning heading home. One hour into the trip, I got a page from my hunting buddy Jerry. Jerry told me that two does were shot and one hit was questionable. I turned around and
headed back. We decided to put Tasha on the questionable shot first. The shot was made at 28 yards with a vortex broad head. The arrow struck the shoulder blade and very little if any penetration was achieved.

We started out on the track and Tasha showed us blood. The blood was bight red and was up on vegetation as well as the ground. The trail was steady and led to a wound bed about 75 yards away. The blood stopped but Tasha never slowed down. We proceeded to track another 100 yards with no blood but Tasha was pulling hard. We came upon something that I never encountered while tracking before...the property line. This neighbor would not allow any tracking upon his land. It was also understood that trespassers will be arrested.

We took Tasha to last blood and she tracked the identical track again. She was on this deer but we had to pull her off the track. I do not think that this deer was mortally wounded but I really wanted the chance to complete this track.

The next track we brought Tasha on was a deer shot at less than 20 yards with a 2 inch cut Grim Reaper head. This track was extremely easy to follow. You could see a wide heavy blood trail for
quite a way. Tasha ran this track as fast as I could go and there was the deer as expected 80 yards away. This may be the easiest track that she will ever get! It is amazing that this deer could travel that far after a shot like that. It was nice to end our week long hunting trip with an easy track like this.
During the week in Illinois Tasha ran six tracks making five recoveries. Tasha was fortunate to have a group of hunters that lent a helping hand in her training. They called us on nearly every shot, both good and bad, even though two of the deer could have been recovered without a dog. The lines were all pretty fresh. The averaged about two hours old with the longest being about 4 hours old.

This is the best on the job training I could every hope for.
  

Cliff with Tasha

Niya, a young wirehaired dachshund from Hungary shows a great potential for tracking and hunting

Last weekend was very busy and filled with fun, dachshunds and friends.We wrote about Genti and Beth Sheros' puppies in the previous post. 

We also had a chance to get to know Sherry Ruggieri's wirehaired dachshund puppy Niya, which she imported from Hungary. Niya's registered name is Tüsöksori-Ugrasztó Husniya, and she is five months old. She has a perfect tight coat with nice furnishings, and her size is quite small, just under 12 lbs.

Niya has never been exposed to water before, but she took to our pond like an otter. She did not need any encouragement at all, just entered the water and started to swim. Sherry was a little nervous to let her go all the way as Niya looked like she wanted to swim across the pond. You are a good and brave girl Niya! We finished the session with throwing a ball for her, which she promptly retrieved.

Sherry Ruggieri watching Niya, who is just about ready to swim.

 

Niya is a natural swimmer and retriever.

When we did some blood tracking work with Niya on Friday and Saturday, we quickly realized that she is ready to pass UBT I evaluation. Both John and I are United Blood Trackers judges and eligible to judge Niya. The UBT-I demonstrates the basic skills necessary to track wounded game by assessing the ability of the handler/dog team to follow an artificial blood trail. This is not a test comparable to a 20-hour-old line prepared according to the European tradition. More information about the UBT evaluation program can be accessed here.

Early Sunday morning John laid a 400 yard track for Niya with scent shoes and three ounces of deer blood. The line had two turns and one wound bed. Niya was put on the line two hours and 20 minutes later, and her performance was flawless. It took her 15 minutes to get to the deer hide placed at the end of line, and she showed a good interest and aggressiveness towards the hide.

Since Sherry, a United Blood Trackers member, lives in new Jersey, now she will be able to put Niya on a special permit required to blood track in that state.

Niya at the end of the track.

John Jeanneney, a UBT judge, and Sherry Ruggieri with Niya.

Niya wants to go back to the deer hide.

Good luck to this new blood tracking team!

Max in the Cowlitz River: German wirehaired dachshund and his love of swimming and retrieving

So far this summer has been like no other. It is very dry here. So even though it is only mid-July, yellow leaves has been falling and grass is turning crispy brown. Days are hot and sunny, with temperatures in the high 80s and low 90s. Luckily nights are refreshingly cool. The water in our pond is very low, at the lowest level I have ever seen. The weather forecast does not predict any short term changes. Other parts of the United States suffer from even drier and warmer conditions.

Considering all this pictures of German wirehaired dachshund Max (Max von Bispingdorpe), who loves to swim and retrieve from the water, might serve us well. Max's owner, Uta Fehlhaber-Smith sent these pics with a note:

Just before Max got in a strong whirl in the pursuit of a large stick that had floated into that whirl. He made it out off it, an enormous physical challenge! The Cowlitz River is deep and fast and it curved a the place we were. The photos were shot by Laura Stutts.

Also I love the below video of Max, which Uta sent last fall. She said in her caption: The barking noise is from Luna, the hovawart, who is an excellent water retriever herself and wants to go too. ( The tiny dummy is not her thing...) She goes for the big branches and wood pieces - but I can't do both at the same time and video tape too...

BTW, congratulations are in order as Max was Best of Winners at an AKC show in Chehalis, WA on July 8. Several FCI teckels were entered at the show with the intention to educate the American judges.

Uta says: The other judge the day before preferred typical American Dachshund, but we had great time afterwards at the Pacific ocean were this little daredevil decided to swim voicing all the way through the heavy turf in pursuit of teasing seagulls. He scared me to death, since I did not know the undertow. And then when he finally returned he decided to chase the large kites people let fly at the beach, again furiously opening and running circles and figure eights with his head in the air. A kite crushed down, drilling in the sand just a few inches beside him.

Max has sired his first litter this year. For more information about his stud service contact Uta directly.