Great weekend at dachshund field trials in Pennsylvania and Michigan

The weekend of May 3 and 4 marked my first field trials this season, and possibly the last ones. Things are pretty hectic here this spring, and this is one of the reasons why you do not see frequent blog updates. Anyway, I was really looking forward to spending two days in the field with my dogs, in company of good friends, watching dachshunds trail rabbits.

These were new grounds for dachshund field trials so we did not know what to expect at Woyming Valley Beagle Club in Hunlock Creek, PA. The drive was easy, and it took me only 3.5 hours to get there. As it turned out the grounds were terrific with abundant rabbits and good visibility. Beaglers provided excellent food and support.  And it was great to see good friends after a long off-season.

On Saturday, May 3, Darren Doran from New Jersey ran his Theo von Moosbach-Zuzelek in the open stake for dogs. Theo had some great runs, was called back in the first place and held on to it. Since he needed only 2 points, this win finished him as Field Champion. Huge congratulations go to Darren and Theo on this new title! What a terrific season this team has had - a win at the Deer Search blood tracking competition and now a title of AKC Field Champion! It does not get better than that.

On Saturday it was the first field trial for our almost-ten-month-old Kunox von der Dohlmmühle. I have been working with Kunox for a month or so on rabbits in our enclosure. I know that he has a lot of hunt, can follow rabbits pretty well, and he will get better with experience, maturity and age, so the emphasis of our training was on partnership. We worked with a release cord and put emphasis on communication and recall. I was really proud of Kunox as all this work has paid off. Most of the time he was easy to recall, even from a long distance. I was very pleased. On Saturday he placed 3rd in the open stake of 10.

On Sunday, I was not impressed with open dogs' runs in the first series, Judges were very generous in putting them on multiple rabbits but it looked like very few dogs could recognize a rabbit scent line at all. Kunox was given two rabbits and did not smell them but managed to get on rabbits that he found on his own. I did not think that he would be called back at all. But two braces were called back for the second series, and he was called in the 4th place. In the second and subsequent series things got better. Kunox won all his runs and in the end won the stake. Since the first place in open stake for bitches was witheld, he did not have to run for the best of open. In his Absolute run he faced a 9.5-year-old standard smooth male "Donder" owned by Sandy and Joan Horskin. FC Harmony Hill Donder had some terrific runs in the FC stake and was a much more experienced opponent. The dogs were released to thick brush, Kunox first, Donder second, and both of them opened right away. They worked in the brush and Kunox took the scent line out of the brush first, with Donder close behind him. Donder was at disadvantage - because of his larger size he had a harder time moving through the brush. The judges, Alice Moyer and Phil Kirby, said "picked them up" and awarded the Absolute win to Kunox. Good boy Kunox!

One of the highlights of this weekend was watching Susanne Hamilton's almost-12-year-old Buster working rabbits on Saturday. The competition was tight (35 field champions) and Buster's runs were superb. He placed first in his stake, and after defeating a winner of open stakes went  Absolute Winner of the trial.

Buster (FC Clown vom Talsdeich) is one of the most accomplished tracking/hunting dachshunds in the States and it was a thrill to watch him in action. By the way, three weeks ago we bred our FC Mielikki Raptor to Buster and we are very much looking forward to having Buster's puppies.

While we were having fun in Pennsylvania, things were also happening in Michigan at Wolverine Dachshund Club trials. Cheri Faust's Danika (FC Danika vom Nordlicht) was Absolute Winner of the trial on Saturday. Danika is Buster's daughter and the most accomplished dachshund in the history of field trials. On Sunday the Absolute win went to FC Strolch von Lowenherz bred and owned by Laurel Whistance-Smith, our Tommy's son. Danika and Sky's puppies, Copper and Halo, placed 1st and 2nd on Sunday, Copper was also 2nd on Saturday. Sherry Ruggieri's dogs, Niya and Dixie placed well as well.

So all in all it was a GREAT weekend for dachshunds out of European hunting lines, who won 4 Absolutes at 4 trials!

I'd like to end this report with more pics taken in Pennsylvania.

Susanne Hamilton and Teddy Moritz engaged in conversation.

Linda Snyder and her mini wire Hopi (DC Rellih's Hopi Cachina Spirit), who was number 1 field trial dachshund in 2013.

The two pictures below show Joan and Sandy Horskin's Donder, who gave a super performance on Sunday.

At dachshund field trials you get to see all kinds of dachshunds. This brace included two black and tan standards, a longhaired and smooth.

The grounds of Wyoming Valley Dachshund Club were well maintained and provided good visibility. We hope to be back!

Larry Gohlke's Nix vom Nordlicht wins the 11th Annual Buckeye Invitational Field Trial

Huge congratulations are in order to Larry Gohlke, a breeder, co-owner and handler of "Nix" (FC Nix vom Nordlicht JE) on winning yesterday the 11th Annual Buckeye Invitational Field Trial! This is a great accomplishment. I don't have a current picture of Nix so I am posting my favorite picture of Larry and his dog taken in 2007. Nix is out of "Buster" (FC Clown vom Talsdeich) and "Rika" (FC Fredrika von Moosbach-Zuzelek). 

Larry Gohlke with Nix

Reserve winner was Sherry Ruggieri's "Niya" (FC Tusoksori-Ugraszto Husniya), and Oscar's Award went to Scot Davidson's "Vimy" FC Vimy Ridge von Lowenherz (sired by our Tommy). Congratulations!!!

The format of this trial is different from a "regular" AKC trial. Twenty best field trial dachshunds from a previous year are invited to compete in this annual event. They are braced for the 1st and 2nd series. Each brace is judged by two judges who determine which dog loses and which one wins a given brace. After the 2nd series, dogs with two losses are eliminated from the further competition, and remaining dogs get braced again. This process goes on until in the end there is only one brace and the dog winning that brace gets the title of Winner of the Buckeye Dachshund Club Invitational Trial.

These are the top 20 field dogs from 2013. The numbers following their registered names indicate points and placements accumulated in 2013. Not all of them competed yesterday. Michael Pitisci's super-talented and accomplished "Brooke" passed just a week ago and Shawn Nies' Pixie was too advanced in her pregnancy.

1 HOPI   DC Rellih's Hopi Kachina Spirit-MW TD CGC 470 26
2 NIYA   FC Tusoksori-Ugraszto Husniya 411 21
3 LILY   FC Diamant Lily von Lowenherz 319 15
4 AUGGIE   FC Augden von Moosbach-Zuzelek RE ME 251 14
5 BROOKE   DC Town Farm Water Wings 242 8
6 ZUNI   GCH DC Rellih's Little Indian MW TD SE CGC 240 13
7 DANIKA   FC Danika vom Nordlicht TD ME 221 13
8 OSLO   FC Audi Oslo Von Dorndorf CA 206 13
9 GYPSY    DC Short Shadows Runaround Sue CD RE TD AX OAJ NAP OJP JE 205 13
10 DIXIE   FC Anja von Moosbach-Zuzelek RN SE 186 11
11VIMY   FC Vimy Ridge von Lowenherz 186 11
12 CARMEN   GCH DC Siddachs Carmen MW CGC 178 8
13 LANCE   DC Wingover's Lancelot Du Lac ML RN TD OA OAJ NF JE CA CGC 170 8
14 HUNTER   FC Windspirit's Hunter Von Wingover 168 12
15 EMMETT   DC Town Farm Emmett Sweeps the Spotlight JE CGC 160 11
16 NIX   FC Nix vom Nordlicht JE 146 10
17 STROLCH   FC Strolch von Lowenherz 141 7
18 STANZE   FC Stanze von Lowenherz JE 132 7
19 MIEKA   FC Annamieka vom Jagdfeld 128 8
20 PIXIE   FC von Schatten Knight of Mischief 106 7

Theo wins the Deer Search 2014 Blood Tracking Competition

Last weekend, April 12 and 13, 2014, Deer Search of Finger Lakes hosted the Annual Blood Tracking Competition at Campbell, NY. The judges were Ron Hausfelder, Gary Neal and Kevin Fisher, all members of Deer Search. The DSI competition is open to Deer Search members only, and eight dogs and handlers participated over the course of two days. The dogs competing were Standard Wirehaired Dachshunds (5), a Labrador Retriever, Bavarian Mountain Hound and German Shorthaired Pointer.

All dogs passed, and the table shows results with scores, time and placements. A winner of the competition was a two-year-old dachshund Theo von Moosbach-Zuzelek, owned and handled by Darren Doran from New Jersey. As Theo's breeders we could not be happier, and we are very thankful to Darren for all the training and work he put into Theo.

A big thank you to Andy Bensing and Darren Doran for pictures from the event. 

Deer Search of Finger Lakes modified slightly a traditional scoring system.

Darren Doran with Theo and a beautiful trophy for the 1st place (92 points, Prize I).

Eibe handled by Andy Bensing placed 2nd with 90 points, Prize I.

Our Tommy handled by John Jeanneney placed 3rd with 83 points and Prize II.

Garry Huber with his Bavarian Mountain Bloodhound Beya (73 points, Prize II).

Casandra was handled by Dale Clifford (70 points, Prize II).

Remington handled by Joe Dallas scored 67 points, Prize III.

Braylee handled by Paulene Eggers scored 60 points and Prize III.

Buddy was handled by Kevin Ulrich and received 52 points, Prize III.

Congratulations to all the participants, and especially to the winning team! A big thank you to members of Deer Search of Finger Lakes for organizing such a fine event.

Happy Easter! Tuesday's puppies are one week old.

This week has gone by so fast, and, again, I have found myself way behind with posts. Sorry about that as there is a lot to report.  Let's start with Tuesday's puppies, who are now one week old. They have already doubled their weight at birth:

Volt (lime) was 221 gr at birth, now 515 gr

Vincent (blue) was 232, now 470

Viola (pink) was 210, now 465

Vonnie (yellow)was 215, now 460

Vivica (red) was 232, now 470 gr

The first few days were a bit difficult as Tuesday was producing too much milk and puppies could not keep up with her "production".  She was uncomfortable, but this quickly passed and things have normalized.

Tuesday has a good appetite but she has not touched dry food yet. She has been living on raw venison, mixed with rice and egg, plus she drinks goat milk. Occasionally she gets several cubes of cheese. She turned out to be a superb mother, and so far she has been staying with the pups in the whelping box all the time. They are spotless clean. What I like about her that she not too possessive of her pups. She completely trusts us, and even if dogs bark outside my den, she does not get too upset about it

Happy Easter Everybody!

Tuesday and Tommy's puppies: a new litter of wirehaired dachshund trackers

We bred our FC Tuesday von Moosbach-Zuzelek, Sfk, V, to FC Tom vom Linteler-Forst, SchwhK (Prize I/100), Deer Search cert., V, twice, on February 6 and 8. Her pregnancy went smoothly; she had a good appetite and was active. She looked actually full of puppies as this below picture shows. We chose not to X-ray her as we knew she was pregnant, and a question "how many pups" would have its answer soon enough.

A whelping box for Tuesday was set up few days in advance and she stayed in it almost constantly. She really liked it. This was a relief as with first time mothers you never know how things are going to go.

I started to take her temperature twice a day, and on April 9 it went below 99 F and stayed there. Around midnight of April 10, Tuesday started to nest and scratch the bedding in the whelping box. We knew that the whelping was coming closer. But things were not progressing, and at 4 PM I called our vet for advice. We decided to give her more time since her water still did not break.

The water bag finally appeared at 8:15 PM (April 11), and first puppy arrived 45 minutes later.

This little (7.8 oz) boy was born without any difficulties and appeared very dark.

We named him Volt (he latched to a nipple right away), and we are still not sure whether he is a very dark wild boar or black and tan. We will just wait and see.

Puppies arrived in this order:
9:05 PM Volt (lime collar), 7.8 oz
11:50 PM Viola (pink) 7.4 oz
12:04 AM Vonnie (yellow) 7.6 oz
2:45 AM Vincent (blue) 8.2 oz
3:10 AM Vivica (red) 8.8 oz

We gave Tuesday a shot of oxytocin, and as it turned out she carried only 5 puppies. At this number they should not be difficult to raise.

Tuesday is taking a great care of the pups, but she suffers from excessive milk production, a painful condition called galactostasis. According to the Merck Manual: "The affected glands are warm, swollen, and painful to the touch, but the animal is alert and healthy. Warm compresses should be applied to the affected glands 4–6 times daily, and the young should be encouraged to nurse from these glands." So for the last 24 hours I have been doing warm compresses and expressing some of the milk excess. Tuesday had a slightly elevated temperature, and to avoid mastitis, I put her on Clavamox. She is doing very well, and has a good appetite. Puppies have already put some weight.

By the way, all the puppies are spoken for. 

We do not want to monopolize this blog with reports on Tuesday's litter, so from now on we will be posting them on our puppy journal at http://borntotrackpuppies.blogspot.com/

Spring brings ducks to our pond and hopefully... puppies to our whelping box

While I am waiting for Tuesday's puppies to be born (this is my second night of hovering over Tuesday's whelping box), finally I have a little bit of time to catch up with the blog.

Spring has finally arrived in the Helderbergs! We thought that it would never happen this year. Yesterday, on Thursday, was very warm, in the mid-60s, and even though a lot of ponds and small lakes in this area are still frozen, our pond is clear now. This year we have a chance to watch some migratory diving ducks, which have paid us a visit. Most likely they will be soon on their way north, but in the meantime we have been enjoying them.

The two pictures were taken three days ago, when we still had some ice on the pond. These are Ring-necked Ducks, and the small flock on our pond has three females and five males.

A week ago we had a nice visit from Walt Dixon, who brought Billy's son with him to run him in our fenced-in field.  Walt just got back from Cincinnati, OH, where he gave a presentation "Why in the World would I need a Blood Tracking Dog?" at the recent Biennial Gathering of the Professional Bowhunters Society.

Walt Dixon and John Jeanneney

Dachs is maturing nicely.

It seems that some rabbits survived our tough winter, and finally our dogs can get some runs on the snow-free ground. The two pictures below show Kunox von der Dohlmühle, who tomorrow is going to be nine months old. He is not a little puppy any more!

Kunox's best buddy is Mielikki, and my camera just loves her. Taking pictures of dogs is not easy, but Mielikki's engaging personality and her athleticism came through well in these two photographs.

A new litter of tracking teckels in Quebec

Our not-so-distant family of wirehaired dachshunds expanded two days ago as Bernard Demer's Foxy whelped a litter of four puppies: three males and one female. The dam of the litter is Foxy du Petit Bois de la Chapelle imported from France (bred by Philippe Rainaud). She is Fiona's sister (Fiona was bred to our Sky 7 weeks ago). The sire is Gunner von Moosbach-Zuzelek (FC Billy von Moosbach-Zuzelek x FC Gilda von Moosbach-Zuzelek), who is our Keena's full-brother, and he is owned by Guy Marcoux-Filion. Foxy and Gunner are serious blood trackers in Quebec, and puppies are going to make excellent tracking prospects.

Two male puppies are available to serious tracking homes. Bernard can be reached at 418-657-0316. His wife speaks English, but if you have problems communicating with Bernard, contact John at john@born-to-track.com.

Foxy du Petit Bois de la Chapelle

Below pictures show some of many recoveries by Foxy

Gunner is five years old now, and he came from a very successful breeding of Billy to Gilda. The pictures posted below show Gunner.