Our breeding plans for 2019

We get a lot of questions about our breeding plans for 2019. Yes, we are going to have puppies. How many litters, we don't know yet. To help you plan we have created a sign-up form, where you can add your name and email so we can notify you once we make a decision. By adding your name to the list, you are guaranteed that you will receive email from us once we decide to have puppies. In no way it means that you are on our waiting list or that you will get a puppy. We screen all our buyers very carefully and it is a multi-step process that involves filling out a questionnaire and phone conversations. 

To add your name to the notification list, go to http://eepurl.com/c3v7Rf. It would not hurt to read more about how we raise and sell our puppies:
www.born-to-track.com/buying-puppy.htm
www.born-to-track.com/how-we-raise-our-dogs.htm
 
We sell puppies only to people who are serious about tracking and would like to track for other people, not just their family and friends. A tracking dog learns a lot on the job. He will never be developped to his full potential if he is used only 5 times a year.
 
We do not ship puppies so you will have to come to Berne, NY (40 minutes from Albany, NY, which has an International  Airport) to pick up your puppy when the pup is 10-12 weeks old.
All our puppies come with the AKC limited registration.  

Limited Registration conveys ownership to the buyer and allows the dog to participate in any AKC events (except for shows) but does not allow the buyer to breed the dog and register the dog’s offspring with the AKC. We will lift the Limited Registration and convert it to Full Registration only when we are sure that:

· The dog is of breeding quality.

· The buyer has become sufficiently knowledgeable about the dachshund breed.

· The buyer is dedicated to the responsible breeding of the dachshund as a hunting dog.

Tuesday had two puppies in 2017, and they were born on April 9. Andi is owned by Jerry Gregston from Oklahoma and Artie is going to track for Blair Smyth from Virginia.

FC Uta von Moosbach-Zuzelek, co-owned with Cheri Faust, whelped six puppies on March 26, 2017. They are Zeus, Zorro,, Zack, Zander, Zale and Zenyatta. This litter we co-bred with Cheri, who decided to keep two puppies - Zeus and Zenyatta.

Lisa is still recovering wounded bear at the age of 13.5!

I have not expected to receive any pictures of recoveries from Pete Martin this year as his Lisa von Moosbach-Zuzelek is 13.5 years old. Boy, was I wrong! This recovery is the 19th bear in Lisa's tracking career. Huge congratulations to Pete and Lisa!

Pete wrote in his email:

Sunday, October 21, 2018  was the day of this awesomely memorable bear track. I received the call the nite before. The shot was taken @ 5:30 p.m. Hunter waited a good hour before looking. In the dark he took up track with his buddy and proceeded to follow blood for about 75-100 yds. No arrow found but recovered the luminock glowing in the dark. When he came to a 1/2 acre recently cleared logged area, hunter backed out for the night. This is where Lisa and I started track next day 18 hours later. 

No blood to get started on, but Lisa picked up scent and went across this soft wet dirt/rock area to the woods on the other side. We crawled 30 or so yards in on our hands and knees, and Lisa took me right over top of blood. Our confidence soared. Now Lisa was very vocal. Another 25 yards, another spot of  blood. Little ways more hunter noticed blood. After a very thick mountain laurel we came to logged road.  

This was Lisa's first check. 15 minutes, round and round, and back again, where we came from only slightly to the left. A while later another check in the laurel. Small circles and zig-zags. After figuring this one out, she had positive body language and nose glued to the ground. Then another point of confusion before she picked it up again. All this time she was vocal when tracking and quiet when checking. So focused you could see what she was thinking. Just when we started to have some doubts, Lisa got quiet, pulled me to a beautiful black bear and started to claim her prize.

Yet another two hour lesson in trust taught to us by Lisa. She wiped all shadows of doubt anyone could have had about her ability to track so flawlessly because of her age and weight. This was black bear #19 at age 13 1/2 years old. I can't ask for anything more of a blessing. Thank you John and Jolanta.

John's last training line

by John Jeanneney

You young trackers  have many good years ahead of you, but eventually things wind down. As old tracker, I can give you a preview of what is coming eventually. First I had to give up taking calls to find deer. I just couldn't navigate steep slopes and thick cover due to poor balance and lack of leg strength. But at least I had the comfort of knowing that I could still train puppies on easier terrain. I could still work with my dogs.

At the end of January there was a break in the winter weather and the ground was bare. I took out Odin, age five and a half months, on a 22 hour line, 375 yards long.  Odin's is a puppy from Germany, and he had not had much training in tracking before the snow came. Odin was doing amazingly good work on the old line with its six right angle turns. Then I fell down in the flat, easy  woods and lost my grip on the plastic clothes line that I use as a tracking leash with half-grown puppies. What a nuisance it is to be 82 years old and semi-competent!

Odin took off, as I struggled to crawl to a tree and  pull myself back up on my feet. When I hobbled ahead to the last turn I could see Odin a 150 yards ahead. He had followed the blood line around the last turn and was "baying" at the deer skin. He didn't quite know what to do with it, but he knew that it was the treasure at the end of the track, and that this was important.

My instability in the woods, falling down and all, forced me to admit to myself that even training  puppies to track was now beyond my capability; this sad day  was softened by Odin's brilliant work at a young age. I will live on in the memory and spirit of my dogs.

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

Winding down...

by John Jeanneney

My old German tracking dog Joeri (pronounced Yori) and I are winding down from our tracking careers. For me that career lasted 40 years. Dogs, even if they are of German origin, aren't as fortunate.

   Having to finally retire, when you are a dedicated and passionate tracker, is not easy. Here are the ways that Joeri and I handled the transition.

   First, let me write about Joeri, who understands well that the bond between tracking dog and handler endures, even when adventures in the woods are over.  Joeri is beside my chair as I write this. If I go to another room, the bathroom, for example, he follows. He sleeps with me on my bed.

   Joeri has several big rawhide chew bones, which he leaves around the house. But it is an old, dry deer leg, hair, hoofs and all, which he carries with him everywhere in the house. This is not for chewing, but it is a souvenir of the best years of his life that he will not forget.

In parallel with Joeri I have my own souvenirs. On my desk are my "trophy antlers” that a little, six point buck knocked off against my jaw and chest as he charged me near the end of the track. The buck "cold conked" me and gored Sabina, my tracking dog. With a deep gash in her flank, Sabina was licking my face as I came to and opened my eyes after the blow. We kept on tracking.

   Still fresh in my memory are the two cases where hunters teared up with joy when I found their deer. My tracking dog and I shared the hunters' emotions.

   I still dream of tracking, but I shuffle through the woods and realize that I am no longer capable of taking a real live call. I feel useless, and all I can do is answer the telephone and dispatch calls to other trackers Some of them use another of my dogs, Tommy, whom I trained and tracked with up until my final good year at age 80.

Getting old is not easy; Joeri and I comfort one another.

Joeri sunbathing in John's office, next to his deer leg.

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.