Picking the perfect puppy

First of all, I know that I stated at the beginning of the year that I wanted to take more time to write opinion pieces and just post more in general. Well, one would have thought that being unemployed would lead to a lot of time to write. Wrong. Between searching for openings, re-writing my CV and cover letters to fit the company, and moving-yes, moving AGAIN- time slipped away. It wasn’t the highlight of my life and after spending all day on the computer, the last thing I really wanted to do was sit down and write additional articles. Funnily enough, now that I have started my new job, my motivation to blog has really started up again. Who knows the reason, but I’m going to try and stick to my original plan and post more often.

 

Out on a stroll at the new house

One great thing to come out of the rather busy 6 months that I spent unemployed was that it gave me a lot of time to read up and research different dogs and bloodlines. I’ve looked at dogs throughout Europe and even some from the US looking for what is “my type” of dachshund. Why you may ask? Well, we were searching for a puppy. Yes, Simon and I decided that we would like to eventually breed and so for the past year or so my ear was to the ground and all eyes were on the internet looking for the perfect puppy. We weren’t sure how long it would take or where the little one would come from, but why not start looking and asking around.  

Now there is no such thing as the “perfect” puppy. Once in a blue moon does a dog come around that really, truly has it all, and that “all” is different for every person. I had to ask myself what I thought was important in dachshunds, what traits I liked, and what bloodlines I liked or disliked and why. I asked around to my mentors for suggestions and several breeders to ask about upcoming litters. Since this bitch would be my brood bitch, I wanted to ensure that I could get the best puppy I could. This is where Simon and my crazy dog lifestyle really came in handy.

 

The World and European Dog Shows are great venues for peaking at upcoming "Superstars" in the show world.

I talked to both large and small kennels and all the kennels I asked told me that they would love to give us a puppy. They had seen us at shows, seen us at trials, followed our adventures with our dogs via Facebook or the blog and knew that we would be an active family for their dog. Not only would the pup get a lot of experiences and be in an active home, but of course show and trial wins are great advertisements for the kennel itself.

So did we want a puppy from a show breeder or a working breeder? Well, ideally we were searching for both. Our mentors were pivotal in shaping our idea of the breed and even though their dogs were from mostly show lines, there were working dogs and dogs with multiple working trials in their pedigrees. In fact, in the Nordic countries, dachshunds cannot become a beauty champion WITHOUT a working trial. That’s right, the pretty dogs have to do some work too. In Sweden they must get a 1^st prize in open class blood tracking (20hr), 1^st prize in artificial underground test, or 2^nd prize in hunting test. The requirements are similar in Norway, Finland, and Denmark. I personally think this is a great thing since what is the point in having a beautiful dachshund if it can’t do the work it was meant to do? So we wanted to be sure that our future puppy had a promising background with both working and show results.

Freddie's Dad Effendi (above) and Baxter's mom Iiris (below) are good examples of dogs that have multiple show and working titles.

We were also looking for parents that were structurally sound, with good proportions, and good size. I bring up size because I have noticed much bigger dogs since we have moved up North. In Germany or Switzerland, Baxter was not enormous, but was on the larger size being ~9.5-10kg. Baxter is still able to squeeze into tight spots and run around in artificial dens and this, to me, is important as dachshund should be able to chase their original quarry. Ideally, I would like a female that is on the smaller side. I think that size in dachshund can be just as difficult to keep in check as good hair quality. I know I rag on the Nordic dachshunds being big, but it isn’t just in the north that you find big dogs… they are everywhere! In fact, for several years there has been a debate about allowing a 4^th size of dachshund into the ring-one that is over 10 kg. In Germany before 2013, any dog weighing over 9.9kg was not allowed to be given an “Excellent” rating and, thus, could gain no certificates towards a championship. As of July 2013, this rule was abolished and scales are no longer in use. Actually, I think Switzerland and Germany were the last countries to abolish scales for dachshunds as they aren’t weighed almost anywhere else. There are good and bad points to this decision, but at least as of November last year, I wouldn’t say that there was a huge influx of show people bringing in big dogs. In fact, I only once noticed “giant” dachshunds in the ring that made a 9.2kg male look like a mini. Ideally, I would like a standard bitch, from small/average sized parents in the hopes of maintaining small, feisty hunting dogs.  Of course this may all backfire and the puppies may end up as 12 kg monsters, you never know.

One thing that I find both exciting and frustrating is looking through pedigrees. My Bachelor's degree is in Genetics and it was really the topic that not only started my love of science, but also directed me to the career that I am in today. Dogs genetics are, therefore, quite an interesting subject for me. There is a lot of information out there (titles, trials, temperment, disease testing, etc...) and pedigree dogs are very well documented. Of course, perusing through pedigrees can be frustrating when looking for a puppy, an example, Revestreken's Frikk. Now, I have nothing against Frikk himself. He is a very nice dog with a lot of working and beauty titles and is still going strong as a veteran. The problem came when I found a dog I liked, ohh and ahh'd over it, found the pedigree and... Frikk. Due him having so many nice qualities, Frikk is in the pedigree of many dogs throughout Europe (and the US). My own dogs are included in that statistic as Frikk is Baxter's Great-Grandfather. Did I want to line breed on Frikk? Ultimately, I decided that I wanted to look for a puppy that had no Frikk bloodlines or quite far back in the pedigree. This would give me the opportunity later on to use one of the many wonderful dogs I had seen and researched or their offspring without having a high inbreeding coefficient. 

Revestreken's Frikk

That brings us back again to breeding. Did I want a female that I could pair with my males? The answer: maybe. I have nothing against my boys, they both have their strengths and weaknesses, as do all dogs. I think Freddie is an excellent dog. He is a hunter, but also a goofy companion and sofa dog. His anatomy is very nice, but he would definitely need a partner with excellent hair. Baxter is a very pretty dog with great hair, great head, great body, but his front is a bit wide. His hunting skills are excellent, but he is not as intense as Freddie, though he is high energy with a lot of drive, he is very reserved at home. With qualities like these and rather unique pedigrees (French/German & Italian/Finnish), I hope that they are appreciated by the breeders here in the north for their own merits. If I had a female with a pedigree that was compatible with Freddie or Baxter AND compliment and improve upon their faults, then yes, I would consider it. Would I be sad if neither Baxter or Freddie had puppies? A little. In the end, I would personally rather find outside daddies for my future puppies.

So, have I found my perfect puppy? Well, maybe not perfect, but there were several wonderful and very promising candidates... but much more on that later. :)

Training with the badger

So I realize that the blog so far this year has been SUPER Baxter heavy. He is our youngster and since we did not do extensive training with him last year, we are trying to make up for it this year. Although Freddie has had to sit out on a lot of our activities, I think it is for the best as shows and tracking are no fun when you aren't participating. That being said, when we heard that Gryt (Den/Pot) training was starting in our local dachshund club, we jumped on the opportunity.

As I've talked about previously, despite being a bit bigger, Freddie is a monster in the artificial dens. He has completed both trials in Italy with 100 pts (and one RRCAC) and BhFK95 in Germany, where he was complimented by the judges for his working style. We figured that trying him on
the dens in Sweden would be worthwhile.

from pitchcare.com

So there are a few things that are different about dens in Sweden:
They are smaller overall and hexagonal in shape.
The entries are narrow so the dog must go through the smallest spot in the den first.
There is an arm through the middle with a decline and 60 cm "jump" up to the kessel.
There is a badger, which is enclosed in a den to protect it from the dog and the dog from it.

Here is a diagram of the Swedish den

So earlier this week we went out to practice with our dachshund club in the den. There was a very nice and very experienced coach there as most of the 7 dogs that would be practicing were first timers. He was really good at making the whole experience positive for the dogs and not keeping them too long with training, especially since it was quite warm, which isn't nice for the badger, dogs, or people. For an initial experience, the dog was allowed to sniff and react to the badger in the light. Like in German, the top of the den were covered in wooden board that could be opened in several spots. The dog was placed in and given a LOT of praise when it started being very interested and barking at the badger. You could tell in the dog when instinct kicked in as the god sunk down and the bark changed. Of the dogs there one dog other than Freddie had experience in den testing, but in Denmark. Denmark is more like Finland in how they run their tests (I reported on a Finnish fox test early last year) and have an open den where the dog and fox are able to make contact. It was interesting to see this dog work as she seemed to keep waiting for the badger to come at here and kept running in and out of the den.

Then it was Freddie's turn. Fred was already crazy before he got to the den as he could hear the barking of the previous dog from outside the barn. Obviously the dog was saying there there was something interesting and Fred starting barking high pitched excited barks. He then ran into the barn and looked like a complete idiot with his tongue lolling out of his mouth. The trainer initially wanted him to do as the other inexperienced dogs had done and go to the open arm, but Simon said no and instead wanted Freddie to enter as you would in a test (though without the narrow part). Fred wanted to sniff around a bit, but Simon quickly convinced him that going in the tunnel was a good idea. A few seconds of silence and then-BAM-music. Ok, music for me. Freddie working is a wonderful sound to my ears. He has a very strong and powerful bark and is extremely persistent. This is both good and bad as in the Swedish test, the fox doesn't move, but there is a portion of the test where the opening between the dog and badger is closed and the dog must be quiet. The trainer tried to do this with Fred while he was in the tunnel and Fred would stay quiet for 30 sec or so and then get frustrated and let out some pathetic "why can't I get at this?" barks. He promptly was told off for that, since this isn't what we want. We also tried Freddie through the narrow starting tunnel. This was new and he wasn't so sure, but with a little coaxing, he went in just fine (and the 2nd time was better). Overall it was an excellent practice and Freddie received a lot of praise from the trainer.

 The trainer also took it upon himself to personally ask us where the dog was from and what his pedigree was like. When we told him that he was 4 years old from French and Austrian/German lines, he asked if he was available for breeding. We said that he was, to which he loudly replied "Every breeder in Sweden should use this dog. This is one of the best working wires (in den) I have seen in a long time." He promptly tried to pimp Fred out to the Danish wire breeder that was also present. It made me both proud and slightly embarrassed that this man I had just met was so in love with our dog's working abilities that he wanted to line up ladies for him. After the practice we went to go say thank you and good bye to the trainer who spent the majority of the time convincing Simon to get Freddie his Swedish Championship in Gryt (den). This involves real work underground on badger or fox (as well as the artificial test) and we are thinking about it. With the right hunting crew -of which we know a few now- I think it would be possible.

Freddie really is an excellent hunting dog and I'm happy that we can start to do more with him. I foresee Drev (Hunting) and Spår (tracking) training in the future for our brown dog.

Good boy Fred!