Looking back at 2016 Part 1: Our dogs

We wish all our friends and readers a Very Happy New Year! We hope that the 2017 brings you many occasions to laugh and enjoy life.

Since we have posted very little in 2016, I'd like to take some time now to look back. We are going to skip dogs' registered names and their titles as this is not what this post is about.

OUR DOGS
At the end of December of 2016 we have ten dogs ranging greatly in age. Our oldest is BILLy, who in two months is going to turn 13. He has a heart murmur that is checked periodically but otherwise he is in a fine shape. He looks and behaves like a middle-aged dog. This fall he managed to get away from our enclosure and was gone running rabbits in the neighborhood for 5 hours. His old age has not diminished his hunting desire, that's for sure. And in spite of cloudy eyes, he can still catch a piece of cheese in the air!

The second oldest dog is Billy's daughter KEENA, who turned 11 on April 7. Keena is really our friend's dog. Dan Hardin had her for a couple of years, but when he got married and moved out from his parents' house, Keena came back to live with us. Dan visits us often and spends some time with her. This year Dan and Keena still tracked together and they found a number of deer. Keena is in a good shape though her stamina during tracking was not what it used to be.

Keena

Bernie turned 11 in October. Even though BERNIE is "just" our pet, he plays here a very important role. First, he always makes me smile as he is such a happy dog. His joie de vivre is truly infectious. And he has always been wonderful with puppies so he plays a role of a Big Uncle to all our pups and young dogs. They adore him and he is very patient with them.

JOERI (below) is going to turn 9 in February 2017. Readers of this blog probably remember that he had a back problem over 4 years ago. These days Joeri is feeling really well. He can gauge well what he can do physically. He was not allowed to climb the stairs and he obeyed the rule. But last summer, on his own initiative, he started to appear in the kitchen, which is on the second level. Now he scales the stairs regularly on his own. I guess he started to feel confident about his health and it is really good to see him enjoying life. He runs in our yard with other dogs and he can outrun some of them. Joeri is John's shadow and follows him everywhere.

Dan with Tommy after a successful track

TOMMY is going to be 9 in March 2017, and he has been our tracking star for a number of years now (basically since Joeri's surgery in 2012). This past tracking season was the first time ever when John was not able to track. But as it turned out Tommy was happy to track for anybody that was willing to take him out. He ended up being handled successfully by 5 different local handlers. So even though John has always attributed a "strong bond" as the key to a tracking team's success, Tommy showed much more flexibility on the issue :-) It just did not matter much to him who took him to track, and he was just very happy to go. I guess some dogs are a "one person" kind of dog, but he is not the type. He is ecstatic when he sees a harness and tracking lead, and since he is very experienced, easy going and not possessive of deer at all, we let him go. All his handlers have DEC tracking dog license and always say how much they learn by handling Tommy. At one point they will get their own dogs, but having handled Tommy has been very helpful to them. So Tommy ended up recovering 9 deer and having a lot of fun in the process. Tommy also sired our only litter of 2016 and Yukon is his son.

Tommy was handled by Nikki Salisbury for this recovery

TUESDAY is going to be 5 in April 2017, and at present she is our best field trial dog. Last fall I took her to 6 field trials and she placed in 4 of them with 1 Absolute win. Tuesday had a litter of 4 pups on July 3, but we will cover this in a separate post. She is in her prime now, this is her pack and she knows it. She has two "kids" here - Willow (sired by Kunox) and Yukon (sired by Tommy). I love everything about Tuesday - her conformation, temperament and her working ability. If we could breed consistently dogs like her, I would be really satisfied. As a puppy she was a pretty wild dog completely controlled by her hunting instinct. She would not recall. With very little training and a lot of attention she turned into a very responsive dog that is a pure pleasure to work with. 

Kunox is 3.5 now. Loaded with hunting desire, he loves to run rabbits at our place, and he is very good at it. Nothing beats hearing him voice freely while in pursuit of cottontails. Kunox is a dog with a lot of soul, and I love to have him by my side when I work on the computer in my office. One look at his giant brown liquid-center eyes and it seems like everything is all right with the world.

WILLOW will be two in March; she is a daughter of Kunox and Tuesday. She is a beautiful dog that inherited the best qualities of her parents. Her voice on rabbits is as good as Kunox's. She has been excellent on artificial training tracks. She is probably one of the best dogs we have ever bred, and we have bred quite a few of them. Last fall she finished her AKC Field Championship.

XENA is 18 months old, and she is a daughter of Dachs von Tierspur and FC Mielikki Raptor. This is a dog with a lot of energy and a ton of hunting drive. She is 22 lbs of pure muscle. There is still much unknown about Xena and we will be learning about her abilities in 2017. So far I have not heard her voicing on rabbits even though obviously she follows them. The picture below shows Xena with the rabbit she killed.

YUKON is a promising six-month-old son of Tommy and Tuesday. So far we like what we see in him, and the future will tell whether it was a right decision to hold on to him. He keeps us on our toes and he is highly entertaining. His conformation follows the FCI standard as he has good ground clearance and is long legged.

So at the end of 2016 we hope for all our dogs to stay healthy and well in 2017. They are our family and we care for them deeply. It is very rewarding to see that our breeding program (Willow is a great-great granddaughter of Billy) has produced dogs like Tuesday and Willow - under 20 lbs, with a great conformation, lovely temperaments and excellent aptitude for hunting and tracking. And it is even more rewarding to see what dogs out of our breeding can accomplish in the field for their owners and we will write about it in the next installment.

.... to be continued.

Born-to-track Dachshunds Calendar for 2016

For the last few years I have been doing a calendar showing our dachshunds. It used to be printed through cafepress. I was happy with the quality but not happy with commission and all the agreements that one has to sign with the company So this year we are going with lulu.com. Last year I tried lulu and quality of colors was actually better. If you'd like order a calendar for yourself, you can place your order at http://bit.ly/1lywqAD. These are the images in the calendar:

The cover shows Bernie, who is now 10 years old and still very much a puppy. He is a Big Uncle, always helps us raising pups as he is very good with them.

January features Luna (Luna du Domaine du Boise) who was born on April 13, 2014. She was bred by Benoit Blanchard and was sired by FC Sky von Moosbach-Zuzelek. When she was 13 months old we sold her as a tracking dog to Tom Rausch. Tom and Luna has been tracking a lot this season, and found a number of deer and bears.

The picture above was taken during the whelping of our "W" litter, which was born on March 9, 2015. It shows our Tuesday with her daughter Willette. Five puppies were born: Woody, Waldi, Willette, Wiki and Willow.

 This is Woody, who has turned out to be a talented versatile hunter.

Waldi reminded me of the sire of this litter, Kunox. He Lives in Michigan with Ashley Roseberry, DVM.

Wiki is a tracking dog in Michigan and she has already recovered a lot of deer this season with her handler Doug Brown.

The picture above shows Mielikki (FC Mielikki Raptor), who loves to dive and swim. Mielikki was bred this year to Dachs von Tierspur (a son of our Billy). She whelped 8 puppies (our "X" litter) on July 26. Because she needed a C-section, and it was her second litter born this way, we retired her from our breeding program.

Willette von Moosbach-Zuzelek is a tracking dog in Indiana.

 

Willow is staying with us, and now almost 8 months old, she looks very promising. In fact she might be one of the best dogs we have ever bred.

FC Keena von Moosbach-Zuzelek is 10.5 years old and she is still tracking with our friend Dan Hardin.

These are X-puppies. The picture shows 6 of them, but actually there were 8: Xander, Xenos, Xakary, Ximo, Xavier, Xoe, Xola and Xena. Xena is staying with us.

In November Mielikki went to her new home in Maine. This is a picture I took of her while I was there. This was a very tough decision as we both were very much attached to her. This is the dog with a big personality! But she is four years old and will be able to adjust to a new life - plenty of undivided attention and love, and companionship of Bazel, a five-year-old son of Buster and Quilla.

Tommy is 7.5 years old and is now in his prime. It is pleasure to watch him track.

Shot analysis by Bob Yax on the two deer recovered by his tracking dog Thor

These two bucks were recovered last weekend by Bob Yax and his tracking dachshund Thor. 

The Pittsford buck was hit low in the chest with a bow on Sunday morning. See entrance photo attached.   Also, check out the kid wearing shorts while he was tracking with us! Ouch!   We  jumped this liver hit buck twice, 6.5-7 hrs after the hit.  In its 3^rd bed, the kid was able to put another arrow into it.  We found a 1 inch deep slice thru the edge of the liver when he gutted it. That was a long survival for a liver hit!

 *****

We jumped the Honeoye buck 17 hrs after the 7 mm hit,  from its 1^st bed, about 700 yds from the hit site.   Up till then we had only found a few spots of blood to confirm Thor was on the bucks trail.  At times, I was really wondering since Thor took us close to 2 houses and across at least 200 yds of cut lawn and a main road with no blood.  After jumping up from a very bloody bed, the buck ended up  (luckily!) in a deep ravine 100 yds further up the trail.  The hunter was able to shoot  it a 2^nd time from about 40 yds as it tried climbing  up the far side of the steep ravine.   The 7 mm hit was really low in the front of the chest and hit the top of both front legs – see entrance and exit photos attached.  The buck was quartering to him a little.   Not really sure what vitals he hit (maybe low lungs?) but I know he missed the heart entirely, since after close examination, it’s now in my fridge.  I’m going to check out the rib cage after the guy finishes butchering it to see if the bullet did make it inside the chest cavity. 

      

The last deer recovery for the old tracking dachshund, Ari von Moosbach-Zuzelek

This is a bittersweet story submitted by Walt Dixon of Ari's latest and most likely last recovery. Ari was born on March 11, 2003, and she is an older sister of our Billy. Her heart disease has been getting worse recently. 

Jolanta,

I wanted to share this with you. Old Walt (with my back problems) and old Ari (with her heart problems) found this big buck for a bow hunter this morning. Although the gun season is open, they only bow hunt on this private property. The buck was hit at 3 PM yesterday, while I was at the Vets with both my dogs. Ari was being analyzed and now treated for a UTI in addition to adding Vetmedin to her other heart meds. Dachs was only in for a regular checkup. After the Vet listened to Ari’s heart she said she would not take her tracking any longer. 

Friends called me after dark to ask if I would bring the dog to try to track their deer if needed and since both dogs received shots and meds I said no, not until this morning. The hunter and friends tracked this deer until 9 PM with flashlights, before giving up, and it never laid down in about 500 yards. They marked their last blood and called me about 9:30 PM to ask if I would track in the morning.

This morning, after calling the hunter’s info into DEC law enforcement, I thought about which dog to take. We needed to move slowly and carefully in this bow only area, so as not to chase deer out to where the gun hunters sit. After some soul searching I decided to take Ari. When we got to the hunter’s last blood she immediately got a little too excited and began panting like she was not getting enough oxygen so I sat down with her and calmed her down. Once calm, the old girl started tracking and never wavered over 150 yard trail through tall swale grass and into a thorn apple thicket to recover this 130”+ buck! She was visibly possessive and proud of herself! The coyotes had eaten the entire deer, but the hunter was extremely happy to know this buck was not still wounded and on the loose.

So, all’s well that ends well. I really felt that if she went slowly she’d be okay, but also that if she passed away with a heart attack on this track she would die a happy and honorable death doing what she was bred to do. She’s a happy girl resting downstairs right now. The Vet felt Ari’s health could worsen any time. This is likely Ari’s last recovery. As you know, it’s sad to think of her aging. She and I have traveled many miles and recovered many deer over her lifetime. Her old eyes look up at me wondering where we’re going on our next adventure. The love and companionship a tracker and dog share is special! We’ll keep her as healthy and comfortable as we can as  she approaches her 13th birthday and beyond, Lord willing. I thought you’d like to hear this story and see a picture of Ari!

Deer Search tracking team finds a heart-shot deer still alive 23 hours after the shot

Today we got two tracking stories from Bob Yax, a member of Deer Search of Finger Lakes. He tracks with Thor von Moosbach-Zuzelek, who is now 3.5 years old. So far in 2015 this tracking team has recovered 18 deer for local hunters.

The first story was labelled by Bob as "interesting", the second one "incredible", so tonight we'll post the latter one. Bob writes:

The evening of November 9, I got a call from Shawn.  I had tracked a deer for him a few years back and he remembered how Thor had stayed with that buck for multiple hours and multiple miles until we had to turn back due to posted property, we jumped that buck 6 times.

      Shawn had hit a 6pt buck at 9:30 that Sunday morning, Nov 8^th.    He explained that he had shot the buck with a  crossbow while standing on the ground.  The buck was facing him with just a slight quartering angle.  His bolt hit the buck low in the front of the chest.  After hitting the buck, it turned and ran, leaving the entire bolt shaft, with the broad head and insert missing,  just a few feet down the trail. (Note, this is always a bad shot to take.  The front of a deer’s chest is like armor, and even if you get through it,  you’ll very likely end up with a marginal / unrecoverable 1 lung hit). 

      The bolt only had about 6 to 8 inches of blood on it.  The initial blood trail was really good with pretty heavy rich, but not dark, blood.  Shawn waited 2 hours to take up the track with a friend and was then able to easily follow it till he reached an empty bed in a mowed trail about 100 yards from the hit.  They then continued to follow a dwindling blood trail till finding a 2^nd empty bed about 250 yards from the hit site.  After leaving this 2^nd bed, the light blood trail led up the side of a pretty steep ravine.   Shawn and his friend continued to track till they got to the top edge of the ravine, but after not seeing any sign of the buck ahead in the open woods, they decided to turn back and to call Deer Search.

After hearing Shawn’s story,  the fact that the buck had bedded twice had me very interested.  To me, the only explanations for the buck's behavior would be a nicked liver (if the arrow got back that far) or a nicked heart.  If only the lungs were hit, it’s very unlikely that the buck would have bedded like it did.  Since the arrow hadn’t penetrated very much,  my best guess was a nicked heart.  We’d already found 2 this year with a shallow slice across the outside of the heart. One of them we jumped twice after 8 hours before I was able to shoot it in its 6^th bed, about 500 yards from the hit site.

        I arranged to meet Shawn and his friend the next morning at 8:30 – 23 hrs after the hit.  We started down the blood trail and Thor was hot on it the whole way.  The blood looked pretty dark,  but not like liver blood.   We easily got through the 1^st and 2^nd beds and then headed up the pretty steep side of the ravine.  At the top, where Shawn had backed out, Thor was still showing me small spots of blood.   For the next half mile or so Thor was still hot on the untouched trail.  We were seeing periodic, widely spaced, spots of blood.  Finally after about 20 minutes of tracking at a fast pace, Thor began jumping and looking wildly ahead – a sure sign that the dead buck was close by.  A few seconds later, Thor circled a brush pile about 5 yards ahead of me, that’s when I saw it, 3 feet in front of him – The Buck was looking at me!   A second later the buck was on its feet with Thor jumping at its tail.  The buck fell down then got up and fell again.  Shawn was yelling “Shoot it”.   After clearing the brush pile a little,  I was able to put a 20 ga slug in its back & liver.   I couldn’t believe that buck was still alive 23 and a half hours after the hit.  But it was about to get even more unbelievable….

      Being totally into deer anatomy/CSI, I couldn’t wait for Shawn to gut the deer and see what he had hit.   The bolt had definitely entered low in the front of the chest.   The lungs were untouched, so the broad head never made it back to the liver. The only sign of arrow damage to the internal organs,  was to the heart – major damage!  

The hole in the heart was massive and deep and showed the 4 blade pattern of the Muzzy broad head.  It entered, but did not exit out the other side of the heart.  There is no doubt that it penetrated into the chambers of the heart.  I could put my finger into the hole and out the main artery (aorta?) at the top.  Three of us were there to witness these events. Three other neighbors saw the heart shortly after.  I’m still trying to get the ribcage to examine the entrance hole.  I’m really hoping to someday talk to a cardiologist about this. It seems that the broad head only penetrated about 2 inches into the chest cavity – those 2 inches were into the heart.  My only guess as to how this buck had survived so long, is that the front wall of the chest acted as a backup wall for the heart and held in enough blood to keep the deer alive that long.

Tracking wounded deer across river yields some surprises

By Darren Doran

2015/11/05

I had a track today for a hunter that I tracked for last year. Last year we tracked his deer to a river that we didn’t have permission to cross. It took the hunter 4 days to get permission, and he found his deer 75 yards on the other side with his head cut off.

This year permission to cross had been secured just in case. Anyway the hunter shot the deer at 45 yards with a crossbow, and only had a split second to observe the deer through the foliage before it was gone. He thought the shot was good. He got down and didn’t find his bolt or any blood at the hit site. He didn’t search any further and called me.

I started Theo where the hunter thought the deer had been hit and Theo took a line. We went down into the bottom and started hooking around and heading behind the hunter. I hadn’t seen any blood and we had gone far enough. I told the hunter I wanted to re start and went back to the hit site.

Theo restarted and took a different line and the hunter thought that this was the way the deer had run. After some distance I marked a drop of blood and knew that: 1) the hunter actually hit the deer and 2) we were on a right line. Theo tracked into the bottom and to a bed. I had found about a shot glass of blood to this point and the bed was blood free.

We continued on and I knew the deer was heading for the river. Sure enough we tracked in ankle deep water and muck to the river’s edge. I sent Theo up and down both banks as far as we could go in the mud to make sure the deer didn’t turn but it was evident it swam across. This river is not real wide but too deep and muddy to get across. I flagged the spot and marked the GPS, and we went back to the trucks to drive around. The hunter called the landowner and told him we were coming on his side.

Once on the opposite side of the river where the deer crossed, I noticed a gas pipe line across the river. The weeds and brush along that bank were mowed about 30 feet wide where the pipe went under the river. I restarted Theo and he was checking all around. He was sniffing the grass and all the weeds along the edge on our side.

When Theo can’t find the scent he is looking for he will circle and go back to a spot he knows he had it. Today was no different. He jumped into the river and swam back to the side we had just left. Here’s where a 50 ft. lead comes in handy. I was able to wade out some with the water below my boots and give him enough lead to do his thing. He checked around on the bank by my flag and satisfied the deer crossed he swam back.

The river in this spot made an S bend and Theo then swam out to the belly of the S. He was standing in the water at the bank sniffing the weeds and grasses at the edge. Here’s where it started to get a little messy. I didn’t have enough lead to let him get up the bank and this was the way he wanted to go. I had to wade out to my knees to give him enough lead to get up the bank. Theo’s really pulling now and I’m stuck I can’t go any further forward. I told the hunter that we need a boat.

The hunter called the landowner and just so happened he had a jon boat. It took about 20 minutes to get the boat and the whole time Theo wants to go. In my training with Theo I’ve trained an EASY command. What this means is that I’m coming but you have to give me time. I use it a lot when I’m crawling and snipping my way through briars or navigating dead falls. I told him EASY and he just stood slightly pulling on the lead. We got into the boat and paddled across and Theo took of down a run on the ox bow of the river. We were tracking along on a run in about ankle deep water. I hadn’t seen any blood and suddenly he turned right into some thick swamp grass and brush. Next think I know all hell is breaking loose. I thought for sure the deer was getting up and I yelled to the hunter there he goes. Only thing it wasn’t a deer it was a giant gobbler that flushed out. I’m not used to seeing turkeys in a swamp like that and that was the last thing I expected to see.

I corrected Theo and continued to search the rest of the ox bow for the deer or sign while the hunter paddled down the river looking. Theo wanted to go back down the run he was on before he got side tracked by the turkey, but the water was getting too deep and muddy to get through. I do believe the deer went that way but I also believe the deer was still alive.

The hunter didn’t track or attempt to pursue the buck the night before and I believe him. We should have found the deer in the first bed or another one very close if he was mortally wounded.

I called the track, got in the boat and we went back to the pipe line. I searched the rest of the river bank and brush back to the bridge at the road just in case we missed something.

And so it goes I told the hunter if he finds the deer or sees him alive to give me a call.

A new generation of canine deer trackers is born

It all started with breeding our "Tuesday" (FC Tuesday von Moosbach-Zuzelek) to "Kunox (FC Kunox von der Dohlmühle), which took place on January 4 and 6. All went well. This is going to be a second litter for Tuesday, and she has very good instincts and mates easily.  Kunox, even though inexperienced, finally figured out how to use his equipment.

Tuesday's pregnancy went smoothly. She had a good appetite for the first few weeks and towards the end she ate mainly home made food. She never got overly large and we did not bother to do an ultrasound or X-rays. We knew she was pregnant, probably with 5, tops 6 pups. Last year she whelped 5 pups, when she was bred to Tommy.

We have had a very cold and snowy winter so she did not get almost any exercise in January and February. But her spirits remained high. I love this dog, who has an excellent on/off switch - off in the house and on the field.

On Sunday night, March 8, I stayed up with Tuesday all night, and then in the morning was relieved by John.

 

We knew that the whelping would start soon. On Monday morning she started to pant heavily, shiver and she felt like she needed to go to bathroom every couple of hours. Finally her water bag emerged at 12:30 PM and the first puppy arrived at 1:40 PM. This was a female pup, dark in color and weighing 9.6 oz. We call her Willette (she has a pink collar).

Then we had a long break, which was quite nerve wracking. Just about when I was going to call our vet, the second pup was born at 4:14 PM. It was another female, Wiki (yellow) weighing 8.6 oz. Three more pups followed:
4:37 PM a female weighing 9.4 oz, whom we named Willow (lime collar)
5:37 PM an 8.8 oz male Woody (blue)
6:30 PM an 8.8 oz male Waldi (purple)
I can't believe that the whelping actually took place during the day! John had his first litter in 1965 and I had mine in 1991 so we have assisted our bitches to whelp over many decades, yet one never knows in advance how things are going to go. We were lucky this time as everything went smoothly without complications.

From left: Willette, Wiki, Woody, Waldi and Willow.

Today (Saturday, March 14) puppies are five days old and continue to do very well. Tuesday has a good appetite and pups have put already a lot of weight. Waldi put on 6 ounces!

Born-to-track Wirehaired Dachshunds Calendar for 2015

The calendar with pictures of our dogs is ready and can be purchased for $19.99 from this link 
http://www.cafepress.com/calendarsbyjolanta.1447679902
MAKE SURE that you choose January 15 as a starting month. Cafepress has daily discounts so you can probably order at a much lower price if you wait. Today I think it is 20% off. This is a "print on demand" technology so a calendar is printed when it is ordered. I have not seen how the calendar looks printed (only on my printer) so if there is something wrong, please let me know. Cafepress has 100% guarantee so you will be able to return it if you don't like it. The calendar includes only my pictures and they are of only our dogs. Why did I choose these particular pictures? Because they were speaking to me so I hope that they will resonate with you as well. John liked them too. 

THANK YOU for being a fan of our dogs!!!