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/

Walt Dixon's Dachs is a very promising young tracker

Today our friend Walt Dixon and Chris Daley visited us at our hilly snowy home in Berne. We helped Walt prepare a PowerPoint presentation which he will be offering at the Professional Bowhunters Society Convention in March.

Walt brought along his young male dachshund, Dachs von Tierspur (born August 1, 2012), which he purchased from Genti and Beth Shero. Dachs was sired by our FC Billy von Moosbach-Zuzelek and is out of the Shero's Mae (FC Mae von Munterkeit).

Walt Dixon is holding Dachs, and Chris Daley

Dachs looks a lot like Billy and has excellent leg-length  and body proportions for a tracking dog. In our 11-acre running enclosure we liked his hunting drive and working style. Dachs has already found several deer, and we think that he is a dog to watch for the future.

Mielikki and Dachs had a lot of fun together.

We like Dachs' conformation - correct size, excellent coat, beautiful head, long neck, very nice topline, great proportions and ground clearance... and Billy's eyes.

Mielikki and Dachs hunted hard!

No offense to Mae, Dachs' dam, but we do not see much of her in Dachs.

We never posted this picture and message from Walt from October 15, 2013: Today I got a call on my cell for a bowhunter I tracked for last year. Ari and I recovered his buck in 2012 and when he got to it he got on his knees and began to cry. Finally, embarrassed, he looked up and apologized. He explained he had been diagnosed with cancer and had gone through all the treatments and thought he would die and never be able to hunt again. That buck last year represented something special to him as a cancer survivor.

Today when he called I took both dogs, unsure of which I'd use. The trail was 9.5 hours old when we met the bowhunter so I decided to run Dachs solo and give him a chance on his own. As a teenager (he's one year and two months old) he's been exhibiting a bit of a reckless teenage spirit and I didn't know if he'd have the discipline to buckle down and work this line.

I'm pleased to report that when given this chance he rose to the occasion! Dachs ran this trail well and you could tell he was proud to take over the as primary tracker today. The deer was hit in front of the rear leg, exiting the bottom, leaving 8 inches of entrails hanging out. Dachs tracked about 400 yards from the hunters last blood and did a good job of working the countless circles and beds this deer made in a thick, thick swale field with Buckthorn everywhere. At the deer he showed good possessiveness and aggression and adopted the "this is my deer" attitude. He warned the bowhunter away when he got to close. Dachs was visibly proud of his accomplishment! With gaining Deer Search Certification at just over 8 months old, subsequently working with Ari, and now beginning on his own I think he's going to be a good one! Ari is tracking as well or better than any dog I've ever had! Now, we've been on 5 calls and have been blessed with 4 recoveries! This run of good luck is great fun!

As it turned out in the end, Walt took 19 calls in 2013 and had 11 recoveries with his tracking dogs, Ari and Dachs. Ari is Dachs' aunt as she is Billy's sister.

Tracking wounded bear in the Catskills with two dachshunds, Billy and Joeri

On October 24 John and I went on a bear call that was referred to us through Deer Search. A big bear was shot at 6 PM on October 23 in the Catskills, and according to the bowhunter the bear was liver-shot. We decided to take two dogs with us, Billy and Joeri.

We started to track at 1 PM next day, and this was the steepest and roughest terrain we have ever tracked in. I have just gone through six weeks of physical therapy for the lower back pain, and did not expect to track in such a rocky, ledgy, mountainous terrain (a lesson learned - we should have asked more questions when talked to the hunter on the phone).

We started to track with Billy, who showed us some dry dark blood on the ground and saplings. This part of the track is showed well on a short video, which I took while John was handling Billy.

We started to track with Billy

But after a while Billy took us down the hill and since we were not seeing any signs of the bear, we decided to give Billy some rest, put him back in the car and go back to the starting point with Joeri.

John and I took turns handling him, and Joeri was able to advance the trail further up the hill. We ran out of blood signs fairly quickly, but Joeri was pulling pretty hard while we were climbing the hill. There were so many caves and dens that a wounded bear could crawl into. At one point we encountered what must have been a bear bathroom as there we piles of bear poop all over the place. Some of it was very fresh. Joeri was animated and wanted to go into one cave.

Joeri climbing the rocky hill had a good workout...

... and so did the rest of us

Bears must be using this small area as a toilet.

Joeri was very animated around this den and wanted to crawl there. We were sure that bears were using this den, but had no evidence that "our bear" was there.

I know that dachshunds are not supposed to move like mountain goats but this track underscored the need for sound conformation in the working dachshunds. Joeri who has excellent ground clearance never had any problems with the terrain.

At one point we came across bear vomit full of corn.

We searched the area for 3.5 hours and did not locate the wounded bear that we were tracking. Bears are abundant there and this fact plus the really steep and rough terrain made the tracking difficult. For calls like this a close working dog such as Joeri  was certainly a good choice. He has never showed any hesitation in following the scent and his great conformation allowed him to track for a long time. Both John and I were tired but we knew that even though we did not find the bear we did everything we could.

Importance of functional conformation in a working dachshund; NATC events - part 2

On Sunday, June 12, the North American Teckel Club held a Zuchtschau at Rockaway, NJ. A big thank you to Teddy and Carl Moritz who hosted the show at Winnebago Scout Reservation.

Zuchtschau is a conformation show where each dog is evaluated according to the FCI dachshund breed standard #148, and each dog receives a written evaluation from an FCI judge. This year the Zuchtachau was judged by  Mme Agnès de France, President of the French Teckel Club (Club des Ameteurs de Teckels). She judged for the NATC before, exactly two years ago.

What is the FCI and what is the FCI dachshund standard? The Fédération Cynologique Internationale (FCI) is an international federation of kennel clubs, and currently it has 86 members countries, with one member per country. You can see which countries follow the FCI rules by clicking here or here. Perhaps you will notice that the USA, Canada, UK and South Africa are not on the list...unfortunately. You can read more about the FCI on its website. The wikipedia states that "the aims of the F.C.I. are to encourage and promote breeding and use of purebred dogs whose functional health and physical features meet the standard set for each respective breed and which are capable of working and accomplishing functions in accordance with the specific characteristics of their breed; to protect the use, keeping and breeding of dogs in the member countries."

The North American Teckel Club is part of the DTK (Deutscher Teckelklub), which is in charge of the FCI standard of the dachshund breed as Germany is the country of the breed origin. The NATC holds two conformation shows per year and you can read about them on the NATC website.

Even though on paper the AKC and FCI standards of conformation are not that different, in reality as John says "the American show judges decided, in their wisdom, that if the original dachshund from Germany was a comparatively short-legged, long dog, then the ideal “improvement” would be to exaggerate these characteristics. Check out the big show winners in dog magazines to observe what passes for the most desirable show dachshund today. The exaggerations are most extreme in the smooth-coated  dachshunds. Perhaps they are fine lawn cruisers, but with less than two inches of ground clearance, they would be in big trouble if they had to hoist their long heavy body over a 12 inch fallen long." To download the text of the FCI standard for dachshund and commentary providing additional information go here.

The bottom line is that a hunting dachshund should be athletic and his built should be "especially suited for hunting game below ground, for beating the bush in search of game, and for trailing". So when you are thinking about acquiring your first dachshund for blood tracking, don't think about just his nose, tracking desire, intelligence and other hunting qualities, but pay attention to the parents' conformation too.

When I started to breed wirehaired dachshunds my first litter was a cross between a French working teckel (FC Fausto de la Grande Futaie) and American show dachshund (FC Rivendells Ruby Tuesday). Even though Ruby had a lot of hunt, her conformation was not extreme, and all the following generations of breeding involved FCI working dachshunds only, it was very difficult to get rid off the large- sized, low-stationed, long-bodied, deep-chested American show phenotype. When it comes to breeding, this type seems to be dominant over the lighter and more agile type with  better ground clearance and shorter body.

This picture shows Hansi (Teuffel von Moosbach-Zuzelek), who was Ruby and Fausto's grandson and was born in June 1995. He grew up to be 35 lbs, and he had extremely exaggerated conformation. Of course, we did not use him for breeding. This is not the conformation type you want in a working dachshund...or any dachshund. However, this is the type that you see very often an American show ring.

Hansi is an example of "wrong" conformation for a working dachshund. He was too large, too long and too low to the ground.

There is a reason why I am addressing this issue in my post. Recently I have realized that a number of American show wires have been imported to Europe, and to my surprise, in spite of the long and low stationed conformation, they have done very well in a show ring there. Some of them have done well in blood tracking tests too. Now American show breeders are starting to sell their pups to blood tracking homes. All I can say - do you research first and be an educated puppy buyer. Let's hope that the conformation of these dogs is going to withstand physical demands of blood tracking.

After this long introduction to conformation let's turn to the NATC Zuchtschau. The pictures are telling a story how a dachshund is evaluated according to the FCI standard.


Patt Nance with Viljo, who was rated "excellent".

First a dachshund is put on a scale and his weight is recorded. According to the FCI standard dachshunds come in three sizes. Standard Dachshund has circumference of chest 35 cm or more and its ideal upper weight limit is about 9 kg. Miniature Dachshund has circumference of chest from 30 to 35 cm measured when at least 15 months old. Rabbit Dachshund has chest circumference up to 30 cm measured when at least 15 months. Dachshunds weighing in at more than 10 kilos may not be awarded the “Excellent”.

Stephanie Marcoux is handling Whiskey, who received the "excellent" rating.

Mme Agnès de France is measuring this wirehaired dachshund's chest. As it turned out even though he was out of mini parents, his chest measurement above 35 cm determined that he is of a standard size.

Dog's bite is checked thoroughly.

And all his teeth are counted.

Mme Agnès de France showed us these drawing illustrating dachshund's teeth and jaw. The FCI standard considers absence of one or more canines and absence of one or more incisors as eliminating faults.The same goes for the lack of other premolars or molars with exceptions : the two PM1, one PM2 without consideration of M3.

A tail is checked for kinks. This was embarrassing, but as it turned out Quenotte has a kink at the very base of her tail. I have never noticed it as I was checking the tail further down. A kinky tail is an eliminating fault.

Once a dog is checked on the table, a judge observes how the dog moves.

 

Movement should be ground covering, flowing and energetic, with far reaching front strides without much lift, and strong rear drive movement should produce slightly springy transmission to top line. Tail should be carried in harmonious continuation of top line, slightly sloping. Front and hind legs have parallel movement.

Teddy Moritz with her longhaired mini Garmin who received "excellent" rating.

A dog's temperament is tested by observing his reaction to the loud noise.

All dogs are rated, and possible ratings are: Excellent, Very Good, Good, Sufficient, Disqualified and Without Evaluation. At the end of the show the best dog in each coat is selected, and the show closes with the selection of the best dog in show.

MmeAgnès de France Alexandra whose red mini longhaired Jesse James von Reblick was "Best in Show". CONGRATULATIONS to Alexandra and Jessie James!

For pictures from the NATC Zuchtschau click here



Max von Bispingdorpe from Germany and his success in the show ring

We wrote about Max von Bispingdorpe before (click here), and now are pleased to report that he has been doing really well in a show ring. Max is just over six months old and he is being shown in a puppy class. At the AKC show on the Valentine's Day Max was Best of Winners.

Max was Best of Winners at the February 14 AKC dog show. 

Last weekend Max was shown at the Union Cynologie International shows and was declared the best puppy in the Hound Group twice. Congratulations to Max and his handler/co-owner Uta Fehlhaber-Smith!

A beautiful shot of Uta with Max

I have to admit that I had to look up info on the The Union Cynologie International as I was confused about the show setup and organization. In Europe the dachshunds constitute Group IV, and at FCI shows, no matter where they are held, dachshunds are judged separately from the Hounds. At the AKC shows dachshunds are part of Group II (Hounds). It looks like the UCI is an organization that competes with the FCI, but its standards are not as strict. I don't want to get into politics of purebred dogs organizations and standards, but I liked the fact that a judge had to prepare a written critique, which is a common procedure at FCI shows. That's much better than at AKC shows where no critiques are offered.

Thank you Uta for sharing Max's official evaluation. Good luck with your handsome boy! 

Learning about European teckels - part 1 of our trip to Germany and France (1999)

This report was written by John in October 1999, after our return from the two-week trip to Germany and France. We visited seven breeders, attended hunting tests and shows, and took along our two dachshunds, Sabina and Vamba. This most informative trip was all about European dachshunds. Even though John brought his first German dachshund in 1965, in 1999 we were in need of new hunting bloodlines.

On September 1, 1999 we landed at Düsseldorf in the heart of the industrial Ruhr Valley. We picked up our reserved rental car, loaded our two dogs and luggage and headed for Embken, west of Cologne in a pocket of agricultural land tucked up against the eastern Dutch border. There in a small wooded valley, several light years from Düsseldorf is the old mill of the von Dornenfeld Kennels presided over by Frau Lore Schlechtingen and her patient husband Helmut.

Lore Schlechtingen was the facilitator who made things happen during our trip, and she merits a substantial introduction. For over twenty years our friendship, which began with the purchase of a dachshund, had been carried on by letter and telephone. Although we had never met, she had taught me more about blood tracking and the motivation of tracking dogs than anyone else. Lore Schlechtingen has been a top breeder of working wires, both standards and minis, and her specialty, for both the big and the little dogs, has always been blood tracking. She is also a visionary, who is globally minded when it comes to dachshunds. This vision was behind her support of Deer Search and later her endeavors to introduce Americans to the broader FCI world of dachshund shows and working tests.

John Jeanneney and Lore Schlechtingen (Sept 1999)

The inside walls of the renovated water mill were covered with dog photos and trophies, which somehow fitted in very well with three carved late medieval madonnas of museum quality. Even though there were about 50 dachshunds there were no kennel dogs in the American sense. The adjoining house two acre piece of land was divided into seven fenced pens where during the day dachshunds lived and dug together in social groups of six or seven. We saw similar arrangements when we visited other breeders. Usually puppies live with their parents or other relatives; stud dogs patiently tolerate the puppy-foolishness of their offspring. GS Puck vom Dornenfeld demonstrated that an outstanding fox dog can be laid back and friendly to people and dogs.

at the Schlechtingens' place

We visited seven breeders and we never saw the typical American kennel arrangement where there is a single dog to a run. At the Schlechtingens’ place all the dogs are brought home for the night and they sleep in their own crates or beds.

We spent two days with the Schlechtingens – we went over their dogs, but also had a chance to go the woods to work Sabina on two training blood lines, laid by Lore Schlechtingen’s friend. We could see how tracking conditions were affected by the bulldozer work of wild boars. We also came across a badger den, something we have never encountered in Dutchess and Albany County.

Above - Sabina on a training line

Below -  a badger den 

The third day of our trip found us driving to eastern France to see Hubert Stoquert, the man who gave me my first lessons in training blood tracking dogs. He was also a breeder of two dogs that I imported from France, Oslo and Sherif du Bellerstein. The visit was informative, though we left with mixed feelings. As it turned out, Hubert Stoquert is not tracking any more, but his son Patrice is very active in the field. He took over 100 calls last year, but we were surprised to learn that his dog of choice is a Labrador Retriever.

From the left: Hubert and Patrice Stoquert, John Jeanneney

at the Stoquerts' place

From France we had to drive a short distance to Stuttgart. We had taken two of our dogs to Germany, so that we would be able to see from the inside how the FCI system of shows and tests worked. Our first exposure to this came when we went with Frau Schlechtingen to the international all-breed indoor show at Stuttgart; we realized then how profoundly the FCI system of dog shows differs from the AKC system.

Most appealing was the procedure of having the judge dictate an evaluation of each dog. Each dog gets undivided attention from a judge as there is only one dog judged at a time. The dog is put on the judging table and judge goes over a dog in a great detail and dictates his critique to a secretary. The secretary's typewriter is right on the long judging table, and our dogs, unused to such noisy antiques, were all set to pounce upon the squatty, rattling creature. The exhibitor of each dog receives at the end of show a copy of the judge's evaluation, which is meticulously detailed. Much more attention is paid to dentition. In addition to correct bites all molars must be present. If a molar is missing the dog is rated "unacceptable for breeding."

at the Stuttgart show

FCI judges also pay more attention to dachshund tails than their American counterparts. The judges feel each tail vertebrae and any hidden kink or deformity can be a basis for the "unfit for breeding" designation. This is believed to be an indicator that there may be spinal weaknesses as well; these dogs are rated less than sehr gut (very good). In the German view a dachshund that is rated gut (good) is really not very good at all. Two wirehaired dachshunds were disqualified because of the poor behavior on the table during examination. They were not used to handling, did not let the judge look at their teeth and therefore were excused from the ring.

After the evaluation on the table the dog is gaited according to judge’s instructions. Dogs should be gaited on a loose lead, and the whole procedure is informal and relaxed. At the end the exhibitor waits in the ring with a dog standing in a natural position. This may take several minutes as a judge watches the dog and dictates the finishing touches of his evaluation. There is no stacking since the judges are interested in how the dog stands naturally. After each dog from a class is evaluated individually, the whole class is brought to the ring together and all dogs are gaited again. This is when the placements within a class are awarded.

The emphasis in this show was on soundness, balance and adherence to the standard. A lot of attention was paid to ground clearance in dachshunds. The FCI standard states that it must be one third the shoulder height of the dog. The judge found that both of our bitches, including Sabina who is 100% FCI breeding, were too low. Sabina was rated “gut” because of her low station, excessive size (22 pounds) and a slightly high rear. Vamba, who had similar size and ground station, but a correct topline and more elegance slipped by with a sehr gut. Judging was to a different standard, but it was rigorous. Sabina and Vamba are certainly not low-stationed dogs by AKC standards.

The quality of European dachshunds should not be judged on the basis of the average dog, which the Germans export as pets. Perhaps we were biased, but the standard wires in Germany seemed better than the longs and smooths. Keep in mind that wires represent about two thirds of the DTK registry with longs second and smooths making up only 1/9 of the DTK dogs registered. At the show in Stuttgart there were 28 wires, 13 smooths and 12 longs. Heads in the smooths that we saw did not seem very good but we did not see any narrow, Borzoi type heads. For some reason the dachshunds that we encountered on out trip made a better impression than those pictured in the Der Dachshund magazine and the DTK studbook. We would like to have a better explanation, but it seemed to us that Germans concentrate more upon breeding good dachshunds than upon photographing them.

We did not see many minis at the Stuttgart show, and in general they are proportionately less numerous than minis in North America. FCI minis are divided into two classifications. The zwerg or dwarf teckels are defined on the basis of their chest measurement, between 30 and 35 centimeters. The kaninchen or rabbit teckel is literally bred slender enough (under 30 cm. chest measurement) so that it can go down a rabbit den and flush out the residents.
Dress, even at this big show, was more casual than what you would find at an AKC show. It was amusing to talk to some exhibitors who despite their hunting clothing were not really hunters. Hunting is associated with dachshunds and the hunter's look is part of the tradition. How different it is at dachshund shows in America.

From Stuttgart we rushed to the Hartz mountains for a blood tracking test for Sabina who is an experienced natural tracker of wounded big game. We had prepared carefully with training lines at home and again in Germany on the Schlechtingen hunting preserve. The bulldozer-like rooting of wild boars across the blood trail was something that we were prepared for, but Sabina's general loss of intensity and focus was a surprise to me. Jet lag, too many kilometers on the autobahn, new surroundings; any excuse will do I suppose, but it took all of my skill to get her through to a passing score. I learned that it was not easy to drop a dog down onto a new continent without a short-term loss of performance. There were other dogs in the test that did better, and they were good looking dogs as well. What continued to amaze us was the number of beautiful, hard coated wires of all ages. You saw them at shows, of course, but you also them at hunting tests.

Opening ceremony of the blood tracking test

Jolanta with a German dachshund puppy