This is a topic that I have started writing about time and time again, but after a comment today, I felt the need to write about it. We were told today that our dog has "too many problems" with tracking and there is no way we should even be thinking/practicing for den tests. Now these "problems" with tracking is focus. Baxter is still a relatively young dog and in true dachshund fashion, is stubborn. He is amazing on all of the "hard" parts- bloodless areas, turns and the bloodless down and back (there isn't a good translation for the Swedish word). He is a high energy dog with a lot of drive, but he doesn't always want to track because we ask him. This will come with time and more experience for sure. The length, time, etc... doesn't matter, but deer tracks right across the path is WAY more interesting than our stupid artificial tracks. Anyhow, more practices and he will be fine. We would love for him to be ready now, but we are more than willing to spend time and energy on our little doggie.
It isn't the comment of "too many problems" that bothered me, the thing that bothered me was that someone other than Simon was trying to tell me what I should do with my dog. I know that it is a dog, but I feel like the semi-equivalent is when new parents are told how they should raise their child. Just a bit pissed off. I mean, if this was an especially close friend that knew our dog really well or his breeders, maybe I would have had a conversation about it. Luckily, Simon was approached with this question, because he is much more cool in these situations than I am. He basically replied "I think my dog is capable of telling the difference between an artificial den and a blood track" and that was the end of the conversation. This is not the first time that we have had someone try to tell us how to raise-people had their opinions of Freddie too-and train our dogs, in essence, tell us that we just do far too much with them. I'm not sure if some of these people feel the need to treat us a bit like children, since we are on average 20 years younger than many members, but it gets old. I am completely open to having an open discussion about these things, but I do NOT respond well to just being told I can or cannot do something for no great reason.
My question, though, is how much is really too much? If we were blood tracking every day or hunting or doing agility or whatnot, then yes, I would agree that we are doing FAR too much. For a while we were a bit overloaded: 2x per week dog class/obedience in 2 different clubs, training for BHP, training blood tracking. I mean, a dog is definitely a time consuming hobby, but between all that and work, we had no free time. We have cut back significantly in our activities since moving to Sweden. We are still busy, don't get me wrong, we have been showing Baxter about 1x per month, we practice obedience on our own in the garden, and we have taken a tracking course in order to get a feel for how to do blood tracking here. Now we have started gryt/den training now that tracking is over, but this was a total of 3x and maximum 1 time per week. I wouldn't call that intense training.
I also find that it is a little close minded to think that a dog is not capable of performing multiple tasks. I think my dog is smart enough to know the difference between an artificial den and a blood track or chasing rabbits or retrieving. We have different collars and different commands for each activity. Also, we aren't doing blood tracking in the morning and den in the evening or anything, these activities are days or weeks apart. Anyhow, isn't one of the great things about dachshunds is that they are supposed to be versatile dogs? They are the only breed that officially hunt under and above ground and many participate every year in Vp (versatility test) that involves: Spurlaut, SchwhK, Stöber, and obedience all on 1 day, these dogs have to have hunting drive AND know how to do multiple activities. These are not easy tests. They are taxing on the dog and the handler and we are hoping to some day participate in one. In fact, now in Switzerland to be a working dog 3 different test now have to be passed to get your working certificate: Sp, SchwhK, BhFK95 (rabbit trailing, blood tracking, den tests) and for the CIB, the dog has to also pass Stöber test or Vp, in addition to 2x CACIB in 2 countries.
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| An example VP form |
Can all dogs be equally versatile? I doubt it. We see huge differences between Freddie and Baxter in how they work. Baxter is more reserved and more meticulous then Fred. He thinks about things more while he is doing them and is more strong willed. Freddie is much more willing to please and is much more eager and excitable type of dog. He lets his instincts take over, especially during the hunting activities. On blood tracking and BHP (the companion dog test), Baxter far exceled even at his young age, but he needs a little more work to be truly excellent- he has a LOT of natural talent. Freddie took much, much more work to get him to pass the 2 tests that Baxter did amazingly well on. It's not that he isn't talented, but his excitability kept him from calmly, quietly waiting, or running (honestly, 500m tracks in 10-15 min when we were starting out), rather than carefully following a blood track and checking his work as Baxter does. On den test which is a lot of instinct, Freddie is far superior, though it took him 3 tries to master this different den set up(as compared to the German style), whereas today, on Baxter's 2nd ever practice in a den, he showed no problems in the tight entry space and moving around/exploring the different areas. Different dogs, different lineage, different ways of working.
Dogs are like people, they are different, but I think that the important thing is to try different activities and see where the dog does well. Maybe hunting isn't your dog's forte, but agility is, so go and work with them on that! Don't put the dog into a single category. If you have the opportunity and desire to try out different tests and activities, my advice is to do it! It can never hurt and it gives you the chance to further bond with your dog. Now, if your dog doesn't like the activity, that is another thing, but you'll never know until you try!
Will we do various tests with the boys in Sweden- yes. You have to pick your battles, but we are going to carry on with what we are doing since, overall, it seems to work. Maybe the dogs will prove the nay-sayers wrong, either way, they are champions to me!
