Little future blood trackers are here!

Happy Easter to those who celebrate it! It is only appropriate to post our new puppy pictures on this day. Sorry that we have not posted for a week, as we had to deal with life "events".

Paika started to whelp on Thursday night but we ran into complications. On Friday morning she had to have a C-section as her uterus got twisted and flipped. We did not lose any puppies, and now Paika is doing really well, but Thursday night and Friday morning were intense.

Anyway, we have four puppies, two males and two females.

We have not named them yet, but they were born in this sequence:
Pink girl weighed 10.4 oz, now she is 12.8
Blue boy was at birth 11.8, now he is 14.2
Red boy was 12.8, now he is 15.0
Yellow girl was 7.8 and now she 9.4 oz.

To read more about what happened go to our puppy journal, where we post regular updates. The below pictures were taken this morning and they are showing pups, which are two days old.

What it took to breed Moose and Paika

The distance from Berne, New York, to Hillman, Michigan, where Chuck Collier lives, is 700 miles, which is 1127 km (one way). John left with Paika on Thursday and he will be coming back tomorrow. Paika and Moose "connected" two times, and hopefully we will have puppies in 9 weeks. This is a repeat breeding that produced our S-litter last year.

You might wonder why on earth we are making it so difficult for ourselves while we have our own stud dogs that live with us. We firmly believe that our obligation is to produce the best pups we can, and for Paika Moose (FC Nurmi von Moosbach-Zuzelek) is a better choice than any of our own boys.The picture below shows Chuck with Moose (on the left) and John with Paika last summer.

2011: Chuck with Moose and John with Paika

We actually were very lucky that the weather cooperated as the beginning of February can be really nasty. But this year our winter has been very mild, and John reported that the drive to Hillman was smooth and easy (just very long).

While in Michigan, John and Chuck went to visit Scott Leindecker, who lives in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, Canada. Scott has been working very hard on making the use of leashed tracking dogs for tracking wounded big game legal in Ontario. He also owns a wirehaired dachshund Arwen, who was sired by our Tommy. The men had a good visit with lots of talk about tracking and work on legalization in Ontario. Thank you Scott for all your hard work!

From the left: Chuck Collier with Moose, John Jeanneney, and Scott Leindecker with Arwen.

In case you missed it

On Thursday, August 4, 2011 our Paika (FC Paika von Moosbach-Zuzelek) whelped five puppies - four males and one female. The proud sire of this litter is Moose (FC Nurmi v Moosbach-Zuzelek) owned by Chuck Collier.

Picture taken on the day of breeding when John traveled to Michigan to breed Paika to Moose. On the left - Chcuk with Moose, on the right John with Paika

Paika during whelping - first pup came out at 10:30 AM, last at 3:40 PM

Pups are identified by the color of ribbon around their next. The pink one is the only girl in the litter.

We will be reporting on the pups at our puppy journal http://borntotrackpuppies.blogspot.com/.   

Paika looks pregnant

Our Paika was bred on June 2 and 3, and it looks like she is pregnant. She still has three weeks to go in her pregnancy, and we expect her to whelp around August 3. It has been an unusual spring/summer without puppies here this year, but the timing of our females' cycles is beyond our control.

To learn more about this brdeeding click here. We are not taking more reservations now as first we need to know how many puppies will have.

Tracking dachshunds at work and play

Joeri tracked this buck across a wind-swept field to the creek 23 hours after the shot. Location: Palenville, Green County, NY

There is something unique about fresh snow - young dogs love to play in it. I have included several shots showing how much fun they have when the snow is fresh. Joeri (above and below) was acting like a clown, carrying a branch and jumping around.

Paika and Tommy were play fighting and racing. Oh...to be young again!

Paika, a new AKC Field Champion

It seemed like it was yesterday when Paika was born. Actually it took place on March 30, 2009, just a bit over a year ago. Last weekend at the field trials in Maryland Paika placed first in the OAAB stake of 30. Now with three placements, one win and 63.33 points she is a new AKC Field Champion. Good girl Paika!