So about the shows. I realize that I talk about shows I never really state the obvious... they are beauty contests. Of course if you've seen Westminster, Cruft's, or even the fantastic Christopher Guest movie "Best in Show" (2000), you actually have a decent idea about dog shows or the crazy things that can go on there. There are good things about dog shows though. I think that one that I like the most is the comradery between the people. Of course it is a competition, but as you go to these shows, you recognize people and talk to people about their life and their dogs. You get to learn about them and even though some of these people can be a bit... intense... it is a great experience. The goal is to win, plain and simple. Winning brings you CACs and CACs bring you titles, which in turn make your dog more known in the dackel community and more likely to produce offspring. This is, of course, all theory. Hunting trials, to us, are just as important and more fun then going to these shows. In my opinion, a winning dog should still be a useful dog. I'm hoping that our little one will prove to be as good a working dog as he is a show dog.
Speaking of shows, I never posted pictures from Baxter's big BOB win last weekend. Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of the BOB ring because I honestly never thought that he would win. Shoulda, woulda, coulda...
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| Patiently waiting |
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| Having teeth, tail, head, etc... checked on the table |
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| Standing in the ring. This was a challenge since the judge kept the dogs in the standing position during his entire written evaluation. It seemed like forever. |
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| Walking |
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| The original picture was way too dark, this is a bit better |
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| V1 CACJ Jugendsieger! |
If you are interested in how dachshunds are judged in FCI countries, there is a wonderful set of illustrations from the DTK club of Baden Württemberg & Hohenzollern: http://www.dachshundklub.de/dwh/der-rassestandard/illustrationen-aktuell
It mainly shows what is a fault, but nonetheless, I think that it is a very informative set of photos.
Sorry that they are in German, but I think that you get the idea about what the judges are looking for.
This weekend we have a "normal" weekend with training with the dogs and some work for Simon and I. Luckily for us it is Ascension and that means that I have a 4 day weekend! Next week will be quite a week for us, aside from being off to Saarbrücken for a dog show, it is Pentecost, and I will be celebrating the last days of my 20s. Another year older and so much more to look forward to!
Julie,
ReplyDeleteThis is a great link - thank you! I really hope that Baxter is spurlaut. I was wondering about the focus on shows, thank you for the explanation.
I have been enjoying reading your posts.
Hi Jolanta,
ReplyDeleteFinding our if your dog is Spurlaut in Switzerland can be a bit tedious. We don't have the hares and since we currently live in the city there aren't a lot of animals to chase. There was a recent study by the hunting group in Basel-Land(the Kanton just next door to us) regarding the amount of hares in an area between Reinach and Aesch, which is ~3.5km if you were driving it and I would guess roughly 10 sq km was monitored, if not more. They found that in the past 5 years the number of hares has fluctuated between about 8 and 15. That's it. :(
When we were up in Rheinland-Pfalz (near Mannheim) in mid-April, we must have seen 30-50 hares in a roughly 2.5 sq km area. They were mostly at a distance, unfortunately, as it was the start of their mating period so they were much more active than usual. Regardless, Baxter was run on 3 trails. The first one was really tough, muddy, freshly plowed terrain, several hares had already run that area, and Simon was unsure of the place where the hare had jumped up since there were no visual cues to go on. The 2nd hare Baxter nicely followed the trail across a grassy field and was very accurate, even going back to check, but didn't open. Up until this point we are sure he hadn't seen a hare, so he didn't know what he was following.
Here is Simon's description of his last hare:
It was a hard hare trail as we were told that he should not run it at first and it was another dog's turn. This dog was too far away to make it to the trail in time, so Simon waited a before being told to take it. It was not from a hasenbesatz (where the hare was sitting), but already on the run, so a cross trail. Bax saw if briefly running and was interested and followed the trail beautifully, but we could not tell if he was Sp. There was a lot of other noise from dogs in the cars and the wind was blowing away from us. Another member of the group came over to congratulate us on Bax being Sp, but we are still not sure.
We were told up in Nordbaden that a dog should run about 10 hares before he is "good" at Sp. Freddie didn't open until almost 2 years of age. Baxter was 1 year and these spring practices were his first introduction to hares. We were hoping for natural talent, but are not so disappointed by the current outcome. I think he needs to chase a few hares by sight first to make the connection that this is what he is chasing.
Moreover, the April 1st until August 1st "ban" on running fields also applies to the forests. The dogs must be on their leashes at all times in most parts of Switzerland during this time since the animals are having their babies. If a dog is not on leash and you are caught you either get a fine or risk your dog being shot (yes, really, shot) because it is threatening the wildlife.
Anyhow, the only thing to do during the summer is Wassertest and practice for tests in the fall (St, SchwhK, Vp, etc...). It would have been nice if Baxter had opened and we could be working on SchwhK or BhFK now, but oh well. One thing at a time.
I agree that he needs more practice and experience. It is just too bad that the hare situation is so poor in your area :( Is it still possible to train for other tests? It sounds from your post like you are not allowed to do it. I can understand why they don't want you to take other tests with Sp, but I thought that training would be allowed.
ReplyDeleteWell, the reason to not practice on the fox or blood trails is really due to our time constraints right now. Simon graduates in June, I will be graduating in September, and we are both in the midst of thesis writing, submitting papers, finishing up, and applying for jobs. Simon might do a bit more blood tracking with the dogs this summer since he will have more time starting in July.
DeleteTechnically we could practice on all the other tests, but there are also not a ton of practice times set. I'm hoping that we'll be able to move across the border soon and afford a place with some land to run the dogs and practice tracking, etc... on.
We're going to try and focus on water retrieving and then hope for lots of bunnies this August/September. :)