Offenburg IHA and Specialausttellung for Dackels

He really is a carbon copy of his Mom- 11 months old

 So we spent this weekend in Offenburg, Germany for Baxter's 3rd and 4th shows. He is now 11 months old and developing quite nicely. We really need to work on ring training, as he is too happy and likes to prance around. I guess that it is better than dragging the dog in the ring, but we still have to work on it. Even with the prancing, the judge on Saturday awarded him the highest rating and asked us how we kept his teeth so white.

V1 CAC/J-DTK, CAC/J-VDH Ortenaujugendsieger

Today was a Special Ausstellung put on by the Badischer Dackel Club. This is our "home" club and of course we would go and support our friends and try for a few more awards. Today Bax behaved much nicer in the ring, but didn't want to stand on the table for the judge in order for her to inspect his tail and rear end.

Simon and Baxter in the JBOB ring competing against Dieter Engel and his junior Female Alexandra von Tollbach (which won JBOB both days)

Regardless, she gave him a very nice evaluation and awarded him: V1 CAC/J-DTK, CAC/J-VDH Jugendsieger!

What a great weekend! With these awards Baxter has earned his SDC (Swiss Dachshund Club) Jugend (Junior) Championship! He should also be eligible for his WUT (World Union Teckel) Junior Championship since he now has 4x V1-CAC/J ratings in 2 different countries.

This made us and Baxter's breeder extremely happy, but now puts us in the position that we should go to 1 more National or International dog show in Germany before he is 18 months old in order to try for the last CAC/J-VDH &/or CAC/J-DTK for him to get VDH J-Ch and DTK-JCh (with a SchwhK or BhFK result).

So a lot to think about.

During the shows we had several visitors come up to us to ask if we were A.) breeders or B.) knew when Baxter would have puppies so they could reserve one. This, I think, is a wonderful achievement and compliment to Markku and his small, but nice breeding program. What can I say? Baxter is a bit of a looker. :)

In addition, several members of our German Dackel club came to the show to watch and acted as a cheering crowd/fan club for Bax. In addition, we spoke with the judge today (Nicole Kübli) after the show was over. We were saying good-bye to friends who were organizing the event and she was waiting around so we said goodbye to her as well. She told us that we had a beautiful dog and really commended us on bringing new blood into the Swiss breeding program. She also encouraged us to keep showing Baxter because he will most certainly do well as he gets older. It was really great to hear such nice words from a judge and I think it made even the dog show skeptics (like Simon) extremely proud and happy.

Now it is getting late. The weather has turned a bit crappy and the two dackels sleeping on my legs have to go outside before we all turn in for the night. Until next time.