Busy, busy, busy!

As we all know life gets really busy at times. The last few weeks have turned out to be busier than I could have imagined. Personally, I am making figures and doing writing for my paper (which will be submitted after Easter) and Simon is in the same boat. Even though the weeks are busy and stressful, we try to dedicate our weekends to the dogs.

This past weekend was spurlaut practice and the beginnings of normal training sessions with our DTK group. As I have mentioned in the past, Switzerland is not rich in rabbits and hares. This makes spurlaut training nearly impossible. Once per year they test the dogs in Kerzers (just west of Bern) and thankfully there are usually less than 6 dogs being tested because their just aren't that many hares.  Two years ago the group walked the fields for 5 hours to try and get enough hares to test the dogs on. Yuck! Last year on the otherhand Freddie did his Sp test near Mannheim- about 3 hours north of Basel- and walking 1 field, all of the dogs were tested on 2 hares. All the dogs had 2 or 3 hares in total and it took roughly 2 hours.

For our practice we went 1 hour north of Basel near the town of Rust. We had been to this location the autumn before and had good success with the number of hares. This time was even better. In addition to being a nice spring day with sunshine and temperatures in the 50s (10C), we saw 14 hares.  This was Baxter's first time going after the hares and we weren't sure what he would do. It took Freddie about 5 hares before he really got it, so we didn't expect Baxter to do too much. The little guy  did really well though. He followed the track well and was interested in where the bunny was sitting and on the trail. He went with Freddie running one track and I hope that he learned a bit by example. The last hare of the day seemed to be the trigger. It was not his turn, but the hare ran right in front of him and the other dog was not far behind. I think that Baxter finally had his "Aha" moment where he realized that the hare was what he was smelling. In two weeks we will again spend the weekend near Mannheim and hopefully Bax will get to run a few more hares.

Getting ready to walk the fields. What a great spring day! (Photo courtesy of H. Walker)

This weekend the boys are going to Luzern on "holiday" while Simon and I go to visit our friends-and Baxter's breeders- in Finland. I'm very excited to see them and meet their new baby girl! In addition, I will be attending a Finnish fox trial organized by Salla. I am really curious how it differs from what I have seen in Germany and Italy, so look for more on that for my next post. Have a great weekend!

Dirty noses are the sign of a good day!