Starting them early

The picture comes from Teddy, who provided the caption:

Pup is two and a half weeks, rabbit is about the same. Pup was easier to pose.

Tracker Barbie spreads her wings!

If this video does not make you smile, I don't know what will!  It is obvious that Barbie has had some serious experience in the field. Many thanks to Willette Brown! You made my day.

Contest for the best caption... and a winner is

Click to enlarge

I took this picture of Joeri and Keena the other day, and I have no idea what text to use for the caption. I am just not very creative in this department. But I thought that maybe we can have some fun with the picture and do a contest for the best caption. We held a contest before, and it was a lot of fun.

You can submit as many captions as you wish - put them in comments or e-mail them to me jola@born-to-track.com and I'll post them. The contest will be closed on July 17 at 12 PM EST, and John and I will be the judges. The winner is going to get the autographed hardcover edition of John's book, which is now out of print, or a check for $50. Enjoy!

Not a football fan

Chris Barr wrote - Gerti doesn’t share the family’s interest in football. This is her during the Super Bowl.

Blood tracker's lettuce

posted by John

It won’t be long before we are tracking deer again. The old legs and the old eyes are good for at least one more year. I want to share with you a secret I’ve learned for keeping my aged vision sharp. It helps me see those occasional drops of blood that verify my tracking dog’s work. I call it “blood tracker’s lettuce” and we use it in our salads during the summer. As you eat this salad, with its dull red spots, your eyes naturally become attuned to spotting the same thing on the leaves of the forest floor. Sometimes the lettuce seems to develop a funny taste, but the benefit to your eyes makes it all worthwhile.

If you want to try it, “blood tracker lettuce” can be purchased under the name of Forellenschluss lettuce at http://www.cooksgarden.com/.

Buster and Quilla's honeymoon

This picture was sent by Willette Brown, and it shows her Quilla (FC Quilla von Velbert) and Susanne Hamilton's Buster (FC Clown vom Talsdeich) on their honeymoon. The marriage got consummated recently over the period of eight days (it must be a record!), and now we have to wait two months to see the outcome of this union. We'll keep you posted. Willette is not taking more reservations as her waiting list for puppies is full.

What do working dachshunds do in winter besides blood tracking? Part 2

Hunt squirrels (Teddy Moritz's pack of mini longs)

Hunt wild boars in Spain

Powder their faces with snow (Andy Pedersen's Ruby)

Work like a snow plow and make trails for other dogs (Joe Walter's Doc)

Roughhouse (Chris Surtee's Koa and Beau)

Run in the snow for the pure joy of it (Jim Willard's Aspen)

Learn how to drive and redecorate the cab (Andy Bensing's Arno)

Survive Snowmageddon 1 and 2 (Sherry Ruggieri's Auggie and Dixie in NJ)

Get ready for the polar expedition (Henry Holt's Bear)

Learn how to model fancy outfits (Sally Marchmont's Petey)

Watch TV (Vamba)

Get familiar with wild boars (pic from Lenka Faraislova)

Play ball in the snow (Sherry Ruggieri's Dixie)

Find foxes underground (John's Ahab)

Sleep and read (Vamba)

Pretend "I'm cold" to make Mommy feel needed (Susanne Hamilton's Buster)

Establish rank in the neighborhood pack (Chris Barr's Gerti)

Hunt rabbits (Bernie)

Help to shovel snow (Sherry Ruggieri's Auggie)

Reduce the squirrel population in Florida (Curtis Beers' Juju)

Haul snowshoers in Quebec (Theo)

Pick teeth

Floss

What do tracking dachshunds do in winter?

THEY:

Hunt rabbits (Billy)

Snooze (Mischa)

Take over their owners' bed (Chris Barr's Gerti)

Take over their owners' treadmill (Robert Rubie's Mirabel)

Look for gators in Florida (Susanne Hamilton's Buster)

Socialize (John with Joeri, Elli and Billy)

Have puppies

Enjoy snow

Play

Get a lot of rest! (Joeri and Elli)

On the Scent: Missing dachshund turns itself in at lost-and-found

This story was posted few days ago on Spiegel Online International website:

Homing pigeons can famously find their way home over long distances, and there have been many reported instances of lost cats turning up at their owners' houses. But one dachshund in Bredstedt, a small town in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, showed herself to be even smarter than those animal navigators. She turned herself in at the local lost-and-found office.

The exhausted dog, who bears the somewhat aristocratic name of Druse vom Höllengrund, entered the municipal building where the lost-and-found office is located just after it opened for the day and lay down in front of the elevator, local officials told the German news agency DPA on Tuesday. A receptionist alerted staff from the lost-and-found office to the pooch's presence.
A local hunter who happened to be in the building recognized the clever canine, which had apparently got lost during a fox hunt on Saturday after losing the quarry's scent. Druse was reunited with her owner soon thereafter.

New Year is coming - wishes from Lenka Fairaislova

From Lenka Fairaislova (Kalokagathia kennel) from the Czech Republic

...and the winner of the best caption contest is

Is the ice cream ready yet?

submitted by Andy Bensing

In total we received 31 responses, and here they are:

1. Do we eat em when we catch em?
2. Dear who?
3. Slow down mom, I need a drink
4. Got milk?
5. I'm not lying Mom, it had a big white tail and a dead tree on its head!
6. I'll be glad when tracking school is over and I can get my own license!
7. Mom, don't look now, but we lost the rest of the pack!
8. Now let me get this straight, if we find something...we get to eat it?
9. Udder curiosity!
10. Got milk?
11. Move over Mom, I was born-to-track
12. Are we there yet?
13. Mama tell John to lay me a blood trail...I`m a big boy now.......I`m tired of these milk trails.
14. This little piggy went tracking
15. I just love Mom's built in hydration unit!
16. Mama's boy
17. There are dreams in your eyes, Ollie. Tall reaches of wind sweep the clear blue. The winter is young yet, so young. Only a little cupful of winter has touched your lips. Drink on … milk with your lips … dreams with your eyes.
18. Hey Mom, are we there yet?
19. I smell it too, Mommy, but I’m having a hard time getting the same view as you.
20. Cold-nose hounds!
21. Darwin may have been on to something...
22. Cold scent hounds!
23. What's a guy gotta do to get a meal around here?
24. I don't know about you, but I like cold milk.
25. So I put my nose down like this - and then what happens Mum?
26. Neither rain, nor SNOW, nor sleet, nor hail shall keep THIS tracking puppy from his appointed LUNCH.
27. If I TRACK her long enough, she'll STOP to rest and the PRIZE will be all MINE!
28. She's going away and taking the milk with her....HEY, not a problem, I was BORN TO TRACK!
29. You mean like this, mama?
30. Is the ice cream ready yet?
31. I know I smell a milkshake somewhere

A big THANK YOU to all for the creative captions - we had a lot of fun going over them. Some of you submitted multiple entries, and we really appreciate your participation. Even though the decision was not easy, there can be only one winner. It was a close call, but in the end, no other entry caught our imagination as much as Andy Bensing's "Is the ice cream ready yet?". Congratulations Andy!

Contest for the best caption

I took the picture of Emma and her six-week-old son Ollie this morning, and we decided to have some fun with it. I think it lends itself very well to the contest for the best caption. You can submit as many captions as you wish by e-mailing them to me jola@born-to-track.com. The contest will be closed on March 8 at 12 PM EST, and John and I will be the judges. The winner is going to get the autographed hardcover edition of John's book. Enjoy!

The Price of Tracking

Kevin Armstrong wrote this nice piece:

The Price

Brand new prescription eye glasses lost in a 100 acre thicket in Wayne County; $233.00

Numbered #2 of 5 special edition custom hunting knife lost in a 300 acre thicket in Yates County; $110.00

350 minutes of cell phone overage charges, from talking to hunters with lost deer, at $.50 per minute; $175.00

Recovering eight beautiful whitetail deer that would have been lost and wasted if not for my effort; Priceless!

Kevin & Karma

On the spellings of “DACHSHUND”

by John Jeanneney

I was never a very orthodox speller myself, but the creative talent I’ve encountered in e-mail and over the phone astounds me. The various spellings of “dachshund” reveal so much about the deeper yearnings of the human heart.

I talked to a guy over the phone about his desire for a DASHOUND. He was into racing, dogs not cars. He feared that greyhound racing would be outlawed in his state, and he had heard about dashound racing. He wanted to hedge his bets.

An e-mail correspondent was a bit confused. He wasn’t sure whether he wanted a dog or a car. But he did know that it had to be a DATSUN.

I talked with an old New England logger, who had used oxen all his life to snake logs out of the woods. Now he was retiring and he wanted a DOXEN for companionship because his wife was so boring.

A hardworking man told me his pension plan had been wiped out in the great financial crash of 2008. Since no one could spare him a thousand he would settle for a DAUSAND.

Of course there were also some people with nothing much on their mind at all. They used all sorts of silly, meaningless spellings such as: DOXSUND, DASHUND and DACHSHUN.

After this spelling review, I fear that some of us will never be able to spell the breed name of this important breed in the “orthodox” manner. Here is a memory aid. DACHS is German for badger, one of the animals that dachshunds were and are used to hunt underground in their dens. HUND is simply the German word for dog. DACHSHUND = BADGER DOG. Got it?

Source of image: http://www.teckel-vom-bruchsee.de/infosarchiv.htm