Remi's hardest track yet

Thank you Justin and Suzette for this beautiful write-up of Remi's track. Remi  (Remy von Moosbach-Zuzelek) is owned/handled by Justin Richins of R&K Hunting Company. Now 7.5 years old, he is a son of FC Joeri vom Nonnenschlag and FC Gilda von Moosbach-Zuzelek. He is one of the most accomplished dogs we have ever bred. Thank you Justin!

Yesterday, was quite a day. It started off with waking up to our little Yorkie completely lifeless. We rushed him to Marion Lott, at River Valley Vet, barely breathing. They spent quite a while trying to bring him back & get him going again. He had gone into hypoglycemic shock, and I thought for sure he was gone. As we were anxiously waiting, praying he would respond to their treatments, he finally began to show some signs of life. 

During the midst of this, I received a phone call from our friends at J&J, saying they had wounded a deer Wednesday evening, and were wondering if Remi the wonder dog could track it down. I left with Remi & his gear in tow, and we headed towards the mountains. This turned out to be one of the most intense, grueling, difficult tracks this little teckel has done. We started out in the high country, in a mix of chaparral & pine trees, worked our way around the mountain, down a rock slide, through several thick oak brush and maple stands, down the middle of a few two track roads, and across some grazed off pastures.  Just as we were about to call off the search, due to extreme fatigue, exhaustion, and being completely out of water, we caught a glimpse of what looked to be an antler between some grass and sage brush. Sure enough, against all odds, and some extremely wicked terrain, Remi saved the day once again! 

The track was over 3.5 miles long, not including all the loops and back checking work the dog has to do, to continually double check himself. Calculating that distance in, the miles were easily doubled. Every time I work with Remi on a track, especially one of this magnitude, he never ceases to amaze me. Especially considering he has been run over by a 3/4 ton truck, which required him to have a total hip replacement, was gored by a deer, which lacerated his liver, and punctured his intestine, went head to head with a coyote, multiple throw downs with porcupines, disappeared the whole day, after jumping out of the truck in the rugged mountains of Wyoming, to go after an antelope that he watched fall down after trying to justo through a fence, signaling the "this must be a wounded animal I need to track" response. My little soul mate has definitely defied all odds on multiple occasions. We gutted the deer, gave Remi his liver reward, then quickly sped home to watch my other son play his last football game. He threw some amazing passes, and a long distance  touchdown pass. I am so grateful for these boys of mine. Definitely a proud papa, full of miracles day.

Justin Richins

www.thehuntingcompany.com

R&K Hunting Company Inc.

www.submoafirearms.com

Catching up with "von Moosbach-Zuzelek" teckels

 A winter issue of Hunting Illustrated Magazine has a really nice story about Justin Richins' Remi (Remy von Moosbach-Zuzelek) and his first 200-class mule deer. During the 2013 hunting season Remi recovered 10 mule deer for www.thehuntingcompany.com.

This picture shows Tarah von Moosbach-Zuzelek owned by Woody Harmon from Huntsville, TX at a recent blood tracking workshop in Hamilton, TX. Woody entered Tarah in a UBT-II test, which she passed. Congratulations Woody, and thank you for all your hard work.

On January 18 Tarah participated in another, local blood tracking competition. It was a multi-breed event that included 9 dogs. The breeds present there were a Bavarian Mountain Hound, Treeing Walker, Blue Lacy, and so on. The track was around 700 yards, and went through varied cover that included a knee-high grass and crossing 40-yard wide Harmon Creek (dog owners were in canoes). All the dogs were turned loose (off lead) at the same time. The first part of the track included a back track. As it turned out Tarah was the only dog who got to the end of the track and she did it under 30 minutes. Woody was happy to collect the $350 prize! Good things come in small packages - Tarah is just 15 lbs!

Woody Harmon with Tarah and Bill Schultheis with Ellie (Utah von Moosbach-Zuzelek) at the blood tracking workshop in Hamilton, Texas. It is no nice to see our dogs being trained for their real job!

Just another day in the office for Ellie (Utah von Moosbach-Zuzelek). Thank you Bill for the great picture!

This is how puppies should be raised: Remi is a super dad to his pups

This short video posted by Justin Richins from Utah shows his wirehaired dachshund puppies at the age of five weeks. They are out of Remi (Remy von Moosbach-Zuzelek) and Macaria Raptor. The video shows how good Remi is with his puppies. Not all males are like that! The pups are being raised in a right way, by both parents. And they are fully socialized with Justin's six kids. For more information about these puppies bred for blood tracking contact Justin at 435-655-5484 or justinrichins@gmail.com.

Remi's incredible track

In Justin's own words: "You would not believe the track Remi just pulled off. Is was the most amazing track. It was incredible. I cried when we finally harvested the buck. Thank you, thank you, thank you for this Remi."

We are dying to hear details.

A tracking team in the making

Thank you Justin for this adorable picture of your baby and Remi.
What kind of shoes is Remi wearing??? He looks very comfortable.

I'd say this is a great tracking team in the making!

Remi's remarkable recovery

I asked Justin Richins to give us an update on Remi's recovery as many people have been asking for it. As you recall a month ago Remi underwent a complicated surgery. I am very happy to report that Remi is doing really well.

In Justin's own words: Remi is making a remarkable recovery. He is back to his old self. A little too much most times. I have to really try hard to keep him down. Other than a shaved hind quarter, to look at him you would never know anything was wrong with him. I took him out swimming today and he still swims like a champ, and he had so much penned up energy he was trying to bite the water out of the over flow pipe (see the video). We go for walks daily and the biggest challenge is trying to keep him from running or over doing, chasing the family cat, or playing too rough with our 3 lb yorkie. He is definitely our little miracle and apparently has many more tracking missions to complete while on this earth. We are all very grateful for his miraculous recovery.

Remi's return from disaster

The last three weeks were so busy that they feel more like three months. First, on May 12 John traveled to Quebec, where upon the invitation extended by the Quebec Blood Tracking Dog Handler Association he was helping develop a new certification test for handlers. When he came back, we almost immediately left for UBT Trackfest in Pocahontas, AR. We got back on the night of May 25, and not even two days later I traveled to Batavia, NY to attend  three field trials for dachshunds. I got back home late last night, and tomorrow morning John is leaving for Michigan to breed Paika. In the next week or so we will write about all these events and post pictures, but tonight I'd like to write about Remi and Justin.

If you search this blog for Remi, you will get a lot of info about this pup, who turned one year old on May 25. Two days before his birthday we received these two pictures from Justin Richins from Utah.

Remi was enjoying life. Then on May 26 e-mail from Justin brought devastating news and tears to my eyes: "I just ran over Remi. We were in the mtns identifying wildflowers, he was running 20-30 yards out as he usually does. I stopped to take a pic of a flower I wanted to identify. I then got back in and started driving forward when heard him yelp. It was then I realized what had just taken place. My truck is a big heavy 4 ton diesel. I'm at the emergency vet right now. He was going into shock by the time I got here vet. I'm an emotional wreck right now but I will keep u informed."

Few hours later another e-mail came: Initial X-ray showed fractures in the hip, ball out of socket and blood work showed elevated liver enzymes. They are not too worried about the liver as they think it could be from shock and say it will heal on its own. They are doing pain management before more X-rays to keep him from going further into shock. Also they think his spine and other organs are fine, We will be transferring him to 24 hr facility in a few hrs. I was just idling along slow with my foot on and off the break getting in and out of the truck to inspect and identify what wild flowers were on the property. I'm guessing this slow moving contributed to this accident because there was no increased engine noise signaling the truck was moving or about to move. I will go up latter today and go look at the tracks and pushdowns so I can figure out how this happened. 

Friday - Remi was stressed and in a lot of pain. He was refusing to drink.

Justin's frantic search for info how to fix Remi started right away. He wrote on Sunday: Ok, so I have been on the phone, internet and researching like crazy, and there are very few options for smaller dogs as parts just are not available.. However, I have found a few vets located in Colorado and one in the Ski resort town of Sun Valley, Idaho who have done hundreds of total hip replacements. I found their info through a manufacturer from Liverpool, England that produces Micro hip replacements! Anyway the vet's secretary in Idaho was kind enough to forward him my emails and x-rays and he called me back within 10 minutes even

though she said he was leaving for England and would not be back for several weeks. From my conversation he had much more knowledge than any other vet I have talked to and has done over 800 total hip replacement surgeries. Tomorrow morning I'm headed to Idaho as he is assembling a team of 4 doctors to work on Remi Monday because he leaves for Liverpool, England Tuesday morning . He believes one of the pelvic fractures must be fixed /plated before doing any work on the side with the broken hip & he will take all options into consideration. I feel good about this decision.

Yesterday, when I was still in Batavia, Justin called that the surgery was successful and Remi's prognosis is very good. John sent this letter to Justin: "Hi Justin, I just spoke with Jolanta as she started back from a field trial 250 miles away. She told me a little about the operation and your sense that the prognosis was good. I have a lot of respect for the way that you handled the whole thing. The tragedy was well publicized in the Borntotrack Group and you have a lot of admirers out here in the East. You set the standard for a man’s relationship with his tracking dog. I’m glad the pain has diminished for both of you."

Today Justin sent a picture taken on his way from Idaho. He said that Remi can walk and he even wags his tail. What a relief! We'll keep you posted about his progress.  

Remi with his new hip on his way home.

This was his message:

Thanks to everyone for the prayers and support. As you all know we traveled to Sun Valley, Idaho for Remi¹s surgery. The doctor Randy Aker there was phenomenal. He spent an extensive amount of time with us prior to the surgery explaining all of the different options and exactly what was involved with each. He was extremely knowledgeable and made sure we understood and felt comfortable before he began the surgery. He was going to try to salvage Remi¹s hip, but once they got in there they found the hip socket was broken, femur head was severed and the end of the femur bone was shattered making it impossible to reconstruct. They ended up doing a cemented total micro hip replacement.

The doctor called me after the surgery to let me know all had gone well. They kept him over night to monitor him. When I arrived to the clinic expecting a lethargic post-op puppy, especially since he had been struggling the previous days to even have any desire to move his head to acknowledge someone lying down near him, to my surprise, it was like the old Remi, full of life and energy. Wagging his tail vigorously and giving me a face full of kisses! They told me he had eaten breakfast that morning and had walked outside to use the bathroom. I could not believe he was walking again let alone 18hrs after his surgery. We have been home for a few hours now and it is clear to me my greatest task at hand will be trying to keep this active little guy down to allow his body to heal. I would never have believed that after being ran over by a 8,000+ lb truck that this little dog would be doing so well. He is truly a little miracle. Apparently he still has many more days of hunting to live out. I will continue to keep you all updated with his progress. Thanks again for your concern.

Remi X-Ray Before

http://www.centralpt.com/customer/image_gallery/309/guns/REMI_BEFORE.JPG

Remi X-Ray After
http://www.centralpt.com/customer/image_gallery/309/guns/REMI_AFTER.JPG

Sincerely-
Justin and Bionic-Remi

Remi's blood tracking training

Justin Richins from Utah sent us this video a couple of weeks ago. Justin, I hope that by now you see more signs of spring. For those who missed earlier posts on Remi (Remy von Moosbach-Zuzelek, a son of Joeri and Gilda) -- he is a wirehaired dachshund, and in the video he is just over 9 months old. He has done really well so far in real tracking and training on artificial lines.

The video shows Remi's work on a line, which is 17.5 hr old, laid with scent shoes and blood, and it includes a lot of sharp checks. I think it is another stellar performance. Remi has some very minor difficulties, and Justin analysis and conclusions are sound. Thank you Justin for sharing!