What a weekend! New Champion!

So as I alluded to in my last post, Baxter is with a handler friend of mine in Hungary for training and shows. So far he has met with great success, winning his class in all 3 of the shows that he has been in. So he now has show results also from Hungary and Serbia.

The greatest news came today though... Baxter's show results from this weekend (1 national and 1 international show): 2x CAC, 1x CACIB, 2x BOB, 1x BOG2, 1x BOG1!

Aside from the nice trophies, Baxter finished several titles: SRBCh, which then also finishing SEU(V)CH, LTCH, WUTCH and finally... C.I.B (International Beauty Champion)!

I am over the moon and so excited for my little guy! I of course cannot take credit for showing Baxter though, that awesome distinction goes to Nikos Papadopoulos (Sunshineland kennel) for doing amazing work with Baxter in such a short time.



So, many of you might wonder why Baxter is away from home touring central/eastern European shows. Well, the answer is a bit simplistic... Simon and I have decided to separate. It has been an ongoing process and I have now moved to Lund (you may have seen this on the contact page). There were elaborate plans this year to do a few big "show-cations" to try and finish Baxter's Championships and do practice showing with Liina. Since a single income does not lend itself to crazy trips on the other end of the continent, I had to evaluate my options. The result was that Baxter would spend the month of April (and maybe part of May) in Hungary with Nikos and his family, who are totally wonderful! He spends his days running around in the garden with other dogs, show training, and getting love from the family and the weekends showing. Although I miss my little man, it has made the stress of moving a lot easier since there was a lot of tension between the boys at the old house and they had to be separated the past 2 months. Freddie just is not good with 2 other dogs... 1 of either sex is ok, but 2 throws off the balance and makes him nervous and on constant guard. It is also giving me a better opportunity to train and bond with Liina, since Liina and Baxter will ultimately live with me in Lund. So there is the past 6 months in a nutshell. Thank you for continued reading of my blog! I hope for many more dog-filled years to come!

Liina's first show success!

So yesterday was a dachshund clubshow held by the Kronoberg Taxklubben in Moheda, Sweden. It was a cold, but really nice day. It was also one of my first dachshund memories in Sweden as it was the first clubshow we went to last year and the first time I had the pleasure to meet Majsan in person! Now I am of course making a name for myself, popping up on several Swedish FB pages from the show. Hahaha! From unknown to "adopted Swede."

We had a WONDERFUL weather week leading up to the show- warm, sunny, beautiful weather. Then on the day of the last solar eclipse until like 2039, it was horrible, cold, and cloudy. :( We even had flurries of SNOW on Saturday in Skåne. It made me oh, so sad. I learned my lesson from Moheda last year and knew that I had to dress like I was going to stand outside for hours on end. So on went the long underwear, hunting socks, turtleneck, sweater, fleece, etc... and at half past six I was in the car and headed to Tjorup to join in on a carpool with Eva and Marianne. Around 7:30 we were on the road- 3 women and 6 dachshunds (mostly of the mini variety) heading north. Although it was a club show, it was by no means small. There were at least 100 dogs entered, probably more. Standard wires made up the biggest percentage of dogs- 28 males and 24 females- a crazy huge number of dogs. So many dogs means a big jaktclass as that is where one needs to win CKs towards the Championship. In the male jaktclass there were 11 dogs, so very stiff competition.

It was also an exciting day as it was Liina's first show! She had been to puppy shows, but those were mostly for fun and practice, this was the real deal. It was also the first time I had her officially measured. For a while now it has looked as though Liina may turn out to be a miniature, but of course it is hard to tell when they are young. At 11 months old, she has had her first heat and has stayed roughly the same size since about 8 months. So now I can say that currently the little girl weighs in at roughly 5.4 kg and is 34cm in the chest, putting her in the mini/dwarf category. So she was switched to the Junior class as a mini. She did an excellent job in the ring and we only have to work a bit on standing nicely for the judge. She preferred to sit on the table if no food was present. Regardless we got a wonderful evaluation:

"Excellent type, feminine, very beautiful profile, dark eyes well set ears, correct bite, good neck, enough chest, well angulated front and rear, excellent bone, nice feet, compact good body. Excellent topline, excellent coat, moves very well from all directions"

She was awarded Exc 1 and CK in Junior class and we walked for BOB. There were only females at the show that day, so there was no BOS. We were placed 2nd best female of the 3 competing for BOB resulting also in a Cert! In Sweden, a CERT is a bit pointless as the dog needs at least a CK from Jaktclass to go towards the championship, but oh well. Fantastic results for the little girl!

Chilling after our ring time-photo by Majsan

Ribbons!

Me and the little girl

So of course I was so excited, but I had to do a quick change of dogs as Baxter had to be walked and prepped- ie, moustache brushed out- before his ring time. I was ready for a battle as Baxter was one of 11 dogs in the Jaktclass, many of whom we had shown with previously. So we showed our hearts out. Baxter was in good spirits, moving well, and looking great.

Part of the jakt class, including the judge asking us to start going around.

 We made the cut as 8 of the 11 dogs were awarded Excellent, then the judge narrowed it down to 5. Majsan with Jaktvallens Loke and I with Baxter walked again to try for a spot in the top 4. Baxter was chosen over Loke and we were in the top 4! Very exciting. We then did our final laps for the best male and we were placed 4th best, unfortunately with no CK, but with a very stellar evaluation. I was also happy to see a little note about me at the end.

"Excellent type and size, very masculine, good bite, good forechest, well angulated front and rear, excellent topline, well angulated hindquarters, excellent stride from the side, slightly wide in the front, excellent coat, very well shown"

I would have really liked the CK, but an Excellent and evaluation like that from such a big class is great. I am very happy to also say that in 4 out of the past 5 shows that we have gone to and I have shown Bax, we have placed in the top 4 in jaktclass. Not too shabby. He and I are making a pretty good show team. :)

My boy and I at the show

All in all it was a nice day, if not a bit long. I was very happy by the judgements and placings, happy to see old dog friends, and more happy to meet and make new ones. I had a woman tell me before the show that Liina was the prettiest dog she had seen and should surely win. Very flattering. What I love about my dogs is that they are SO calm at these shows. Both Baxter and Liina could easily sit on a camping chair instead of their kennel. They like to people and dog watch as much as I do. So great to have such laid back dogs. Hopefully more amazing things from these two youngsters in the future!

Dog ethics

Today I am bringing up a bit of an ethical question... When should a judge (show or working) not judge a dog?

Since showing, I have witnessed several occasions (in various countries) where the dog breeder is judging the dog. I also had at least 1 occasion where the dog that won best male, was to be bred that weekend to the judge's bitch. It is always a bit amazing to me that certain judges seem to have no problem not only judging dogs from their own breeding (read, dog's carrying the kennel name of the judge), but putting them up as Best male or female. I of course, like most people, like my dog to do well and win, but when I see a judge, judging a dog carrying their kennel name, it makes me sour. I think that this is really the right word...  I mean, why even try? If you see that "their" type of dog is not exactly your type, you may as well just go home. Ethically, I think that this situation is really shitty for everyone involved. Do you say something? Report it? Will anything be done? Or does this just make you a poor loser?

I realize in the show world that there are a lot of grey areas: You know the judge personally; you are on the board of the club that invited the judge/host the judge; the judge has used your dog in mating; the judge recognizes well known breeders; the handler of a dog in judging also handles dogs for the judge; etc... How do you handle this? Well, in FCI, each dog is evaluated individually and gets a rating, so if you are lucky, the dog/handler/breeder is not in your class. If you are unlucky, then you show your heart out and hope the judge likes you regardless of everything.

This type of ethical question doesn't just extend to shows though. If you are a breeder and also a working judge, do you judge your own dogs in tracking/hunting/underground, etc... trials? What about dogs from other judges or dogs from your breeding that are living with others?

I think sometimes I like to look through rose colored glasses. I know that you can't win all of the time and life isn't fair, but I wish the playing field was a bit more equal.

EDIT: I guess my post was rather timely. The BOB standard wirehair dachshund at the Eurodog Show was bred by the man that judged it. Needless to say, there was a lot of "colorful" comments about it on Facebook.

Working Championships in Sweden

So, I realized that I have never really written a comprehensive post about the hunting test which are performed in Sweden.


While there are many tests that a dog can do: Rally, Eftersök, BPH, Viltsvin, Viltspår, Gryt, Drev, Mantrailing, Agility- I will focus this post on the most common hunting tests that Dachshunds do here in Sweden and what it takes to become a Champion.

Let's start with Gryt Champion (Underground/den work):

In theory, this Championship sounds relatively easy to achieve, but very few dachshunds nowadays participate in Gryt here in Sweden as compared to Germany, Denmark, or Finland where den work still seems quite popular and many tests are performed each year.

The Swedish GrytChampion-SEJ(G)CH- is made up of 2 parts:
1.) Passing the Grytanlagsprov (den aptitude test) with a Kvalitet 1/1st Prize
2.) Passing the Grytjaktprov (basically the BhN (D or F) as in Germany- den hunting in the field) in 1st prize
In addition, the dog must be rated "Good" or better in exhibition.

To me, the underground aptitude test is something that I want my dogs to have. It proves to me that they can do something that the breed was originally bred to do: go into dark, tight areas, and be interested in working a badger or fox. Plus, a dog being able to fit into the artificial den puts a limit on the size of the dog. Neither of my boys are particularly small, but they are determined and agile enough to still squeeze themselves through a 13 x 17 cm space (5.1 x 6.7 inches). The Swedish den also contains a middle arm with a 60cm (almost 2 feet) vertical jump that both of the boys jumped up an explored during practice. For more information about the den set up here in Sweden, please check out this post: http://whdackel.blogspot.se/2014/06/training-with-badger.html

According to Taxen- the magazine of the Swedish Dachshund Club-in 2012  there were a reported 36 dogs that participated in the Grytanlagsprov and only 3 which went on to take the Grytjaktprov. There was a slight rise in 2013, with 51 dogs participating in the aptitude test and 6 in the den hunting trial. Now mind you I say "participating," just because you participate does not mean you pass. Indeed, at out trial this year only 5 of the 7 tested dogs passed their exams. This year only 4 of the 20 clubs hosted a Gryt test. It is a surprisingly low number, but den tests are in danger of being abolished all over Europe by activists, so I don't really expect to see an increase in the coming years. Hopefully den tests will continue and Dachshunds will continue to participate.

Next let's move onto Viltspår (Bloodtracking) Champion:

To become a Swedish Viltspår Champion-SEVCH- a dog must:
1.) Passing a Anlagstest
2.) Receive 3x 1st prize in Open class tracking exams
No exhibition score is currently needed as I believe even castrated dogs are allowed to participate in blood tracking trials.

An Anlagstest is basically an aptitude test to see if your dog is interested in blood tracking. The picture above gives a description/ gives you an idea of how the test is set up. 2 dl (200 ml) of cows blood is used on the track and "Blodupphåll" is a bloodless stretch and the track is left to age for 2-5 hrs. For the length of the test a deer hoof is dragged along with laying a blood track so the dog can technically follow the smell of a deer hoof as well as blood.

The judge takes the dog to the starting point and the dog is given a maximum of 30 min to work out the track with a deer hoof at the end. The judge looks for interest, the dog's working ability, tempo, and accuracy and in the end that dog either Passes or Fails. If the dog passes, it can then move onto the more difficult open class tracking exams.

The open class exams are a bit different from the aptitude test. The length of the track, amount of blood laid and hoof dragged is the same, but the time and how the track is set up is different. First off, the track is to be allowed to age for at least 12 hours (overnight) and be at least 600 m (650 yards) long. Instead of a clear mark to start the track, the dogs must search a 25 x 25 m "box" for the starting point. The judge brings the dog and handler to the edge of the "starting box" and tells them where the boundaries are and the dog must find the start and continue with the track. There are several bloodless stretches on the track, including at least 1 corner and a "back track" area (återgång) where blood is laid, then only the hoof is dragged back to the line/no blood, then after about 20 m the blood trail continues. Finally, 50-100m before the end of the track, the judge fires a shot to test that the dog does not react (similar to German Schussfestigkeit).  The dog is allowed 45 min to track and again the judge is looking for working ability, tempo, and that they are not bothered by gunshots.

Now a big part of the test is that it is performed in an area that is rich in wildlife. Here in Skåne that means several types of deer, wild boar, moose, fox, badger, hares, etc... We have seen all these animals, or tracks of these animals, while out blood tracking. Simon has encountered a herd of deer and a very large boar during his tracking exams. These are definitely distracting and for some dogs more than others. For us, getting Baxter to focus on the track more than the animals was a huge challenge as he much rather explore the forest and chase after all the animals, then follow a silly, old cow blood trail. 

In Sweden last year 1140 dachshunds participated in blood tracking exams, which accounts for roughly 50% of the dogs taking blood tracking exams in Sweden. It is a HUGE number. Blood tracking is by far one of the most popular activity being done with dachshunds in our area. I commend the Swedes for their forward thinking of allowing everyone to work with their dogs and not just those with hunting licenses. I know many people that have gotten their dogs 1st and their hunting licenses later. I will definitely be in that group and am excited to have well trained partners to hunt with me. Blood tracking is a great way to learn more about the dog and work as a team, plus it gets you out in nature! What more could you want? 

The last of hunting championships that a dachshund can get in Sweden is the Drevprov-literally translated "Drive test." This is the test that I know the least about at the moment, but the Drev season is starting now, so I hope to be able to write more about this in the future.

For more on Drev and dogs used for that purpose, I would highly suggest checking out the blog from Kennel Jaktvallens here in Sweden.

Swedish J(D)Champion
A dog must:
1.) Receive 3x 1st prize in a Drev exam
2.) Receive a rating of at least "Good" at an exhibition.
In order to get 1st prize a dog must:
Run/trail a hare or rabbit for 45 min or a fox, roe deer, or crown deer for 60 min or 2x 45 min.

The dog is judged on criteria such as searching ability, hunting ability, hunting drive, voice, etc...
From what I can gather, this test is a combination of the German "Stöber/Waldsuche" test and a very long spurlaut/sichtlaut type of test. Either way, it will be exciting to see and finally understand what is involved in this test.

This is a much more popular test than Gryt, but not nearly as popular as blood tracking. According to Taxen, 625 drev-tests were performed in Sweden last year. Sorry for my lack of pictures of dachshunds decked out in Drev gear!

One reason that I think there are so many trials performed in Sweden has to do with exhibition grades and championships. For example, to enter working class in a Swedish exhibition, one must pass an anlagstest. If you then get 3x CK (Certificate Quality) in hunting class, you qualify for a Swedish Show champion. To become a champion from a class other than hunting class, the dog must essentially be BOB or BOS at 3 shows, which is much more difficult. Though even if you get the CERTs or CKs, you still need a result. To be a Swedish show champion as a dachshund, the dog must also get either: 1st prize in Grytanlagstest  (G) or 1st prize in Open class blood tracking  (V) or 2nd prize Drevprov (D) or pass anlagstests in both blood tracking and 2nd prize grytprov (KoV). So being pretty isn't the only thing, the dog has to be able to work as well.

Well, that is my (more or less) comprehensive guide to what I know thus far about Swedish dachshund-related hunting tests. Even though the nordic countries all do very similar hunting tests, each are a bit different, with different rules or ratings or requirements, therefore I won't get into them now. Maybe another day...

Baxter's first CERT in Sweden

Happy news from Kjugekull today!

Simon sent me this picture around 12:45 this afternoon:

Wow, wow, wow! Bax got Excellent 1 in the working/hunting class out of 6 males with CK (certificate quality), then best male 2 to an already Champion male, so he also got a Cert/CAC! I am so excited and proud for my boys since this was their first show without me there.  Hopefully more good things to come from this handsome little guy!

Here is his evaluation:

"Attraktiv hanhund, vackert huvud o uttryck. Mycket bra hals, något brant skuldra. Utmärkt rygglinje o kors. Utmärkt välbyggd , välvinklad. Utmärkt päls o kvalité. Bra rörelser fram o bak, något vida frambens rörelser." 
Ex 1 (working class), CK, CERT, BM2

Dog Shows: The highlights and the hardships

 

You know, I’ve been trying to write this blog post for roughly a month now. I have started it, re-read, stopped, erased, and started over far more than I would like to admit. So what is the topic? Why so much back and forth? I’ll tell you…

So, I’ve decided that my first piece will be on dog shows.

With Westminster last month and Cruft’s just around the corner, it seemed to be a rather timely topic.

I love this poster because I'm waiting for a dachshund to actually WIN at the Garden.

This should be an easy topic, right? Pshhhh. Dream on.  People show dogs for SO many different reasons and as this is my blog, I finally decided that instead of writing just another piece on dog shows, I am opening up about the good and the bad, the highlights, the hardships, the competitions and the comradery we have experienced. We are of course still novices as we only started showing dogs in 2011 and only seriously started in 2013, but that is also the purpose of a blog-to catch a moment in time.

Maybe a little crude, but the message is spot on!

How did we get into showing dogs? Well, I can honestly and fully blame Markku and Salla. Once they helped us get Freddie, they took us under their wing and showed us the full potential of our little brown dog. Whether it was inviting us to group trainings in the Hochrhein dackel group (where we eventually became members), laying blood traces and teaching us how to do it for ourselves, and, of course, going with us to our first dog show. In fact, that is where I first met those two… at a dog show. Now our lives are very much entwined and I couldn’t imagine our life abroad without the fond memories and invaluable information we have received from them. Our first “show adventure” was actually on a trip to Croatia. We were all together on holiday in France and Markku mentioned that he had asked Simon if we wanted to take Freddie to a set of shows with them…in Croatia. Me, being an overenthusiastic travel junky, first ran to Simon to ask why I hadn’t heard of this, before saying heck ya! That was it, 4 months later we were in sunny and stormy Croatia, braving the rain and having a blast at the 4 Summer Nights show. Our goal was to get Freddie a Junior Champion title and although that didn’t happen, we couldn’t be too angry about 2x Very good and 2x Excellent with 1x junior winner/Junior BOB. Though it was very clear that Freddie was not a show dog. Although he is a very obedient dog, he didn’t want to stack and was more than happy to head out of the ring. Besides that, his large size (Freddie weighs in now at 11 kg) hindered him in the show ring in Germany and Switzerland that, until this past year, did not allow Excellent ratings for dogs over 9.9 kg. With that set of shows, though, I was hooked and I knew I wanted our next dog to be showable.

If only you could say this to a judge from time to time.

Fast-forward almost 1 year later and the arrival of our new little boy “Barbwired Better than the Rest.” This little dog had a lot to live up to, not only in name, but in pedigree, as his mom “Taxette’s Isla Margarita” has so many titles, I stopped counting and his dad “Apollo della Val Vezzeno” is a Bundessieger, World Winner WUT, Klubsieger and multi-Champion. I guessed that our work with Freddie paid off, because Markku trusted us with such a promising puppy. In taking this little guy, we had a kind of unspoken agreement that he would be shown as well as worked in the field. Since Simon and I were busy with the last legs of our PhDs, we didn’t show the small one as often as we could, but rather chose ~1 show weekend a month that was within 2 hours driving distance. The first shows had a steep learning curve. I had been practicing with Bax at home to get him to stack, but Simon, as a handler, decided to “just wing it” and practice ring walking only at the show grounds. Ugh… My gosh what a disaster! The first judge was extremely forgiving with his novice handling and told him to slow down a bit so the happy puppy could walk instead of run! This all got better with time, but sometimes I think Baxter’s idea of the show ring is a place to take a leisurely stroll. 

Sometimes this is one of the MOST difficult lessons to remember

We had the good fortune of being the only young male for our first few shows in the ring, so there was a lot of time to practice and assess what to do better for the next show. As Simon got more comfortable with handling, Baxter showed better and they were a great team in the ring. My most memorable show from this season wasn’t when Baxter went BOB, though I will ALWAYS remember the screams of joy and surprise from my friends and colleagues in the next ring, but winning Best Junior Male in Luxembourg. I signed us up for the Luxembourg dog show mainly because it was over Easter weekend and we had very good friends that lived about 20 minutes from the show grounds. I figured that it would be a great opportunity to have a “show-cation” and see more of beautiful, little, Luxembourg. When the statistics came out, I saw that we were up against two other males. This was of course nerve wrecking, as it was our first time with competition. It also proved to be a LONG day as our judge was going to judge ALL standard dachshunds-75+ dogs.  This would also be the first show we went to where we wouldn’t know anyone, which was a bit intimidating. When we got to the show and checked out the catalog, we noticed that our competition had grown from 2 other males to 4 males (2 late entries) and Baxter was the youngest of the bunch. Simon and Baxter went out and did their best and in the end, on the final go around, the judge pointed to Simon. Simon stopped dead, shook the judge’s hand, and looked on cloud nine! He ignored the handshakes of his fellow exhibitors, though not on purpose, picked up Baxter and ran out of the ring to say… Did you see that?!? We won!! The cool thing about Luxembourg is that with 1 best junior certificate, the dog earns a Junior Championship. This means that 2 Junior championships per sex can be given per breed and per year and in 2013, Baxter was one of them. How neat is that? 

Yup, this was our Luxembourg

 

That gives me a good lead in to why do we show our dog. I mean, we have both the junior and adult ratings that say he is an excellent dog, why continue? To me, champion titles are a record of your dog. They leave a legacy and a memory; long after the animal is gone. Shows are so much more than titles though. They give us the opportunity to show our boy to other owners and potential breeders. Maybe they will like him, maybe they won’t, but his results are a kind of advertisement, not only for us, but for his breeders. At almost every show that we have gone to, we have had people come up and ask us: Are we breeders? Where is our dog from? and Will he be fathering puppies? Often they then ask for a business card (which as scientist in academia we don’t have…) or website to contact and “check-in” for puppy news. Needless to say, I think Bax’s breeders should be quite honored by the attention the handsome little dog has attracted.

We have met many breeders and owners at shows and some have become quite good friends. It is always nice to see a familiar face, especially at a big show or in an unfamiliar area. Until this point, we have not had to directly compete against our friend’s dogs, but I hope that win or lose, this won’t affect our friendship.

Furthermore, shows give me time to practice my knowledge of the breed. My favorite activity at shows is to judge the dogs and make my picks to see if what I like is in agreement with the judge. Sometimes I’m right and sometimes I’m wrong, but each and every time I’m learning, if not about the dogs, then about the preferences of a judge. Who knows what will happen in the next 5, 10, 15 years? Maybe I’ll look into breeding or judging and then all the time I have had studying pictures, pedigrees, and watching dogs will finally make sense.

Decisions, decisions...

If you are showing dogs for the fame and glory, then you better have a once-in-a-lifetime animal and a LOT of money. Showing dogs isn’t cheap and it isn’t for the faint of heart. You have to realize that your pet that you love very much won’t win 100% of the time. The first time it happens it hurts…bad. For us, it was in Saarbrücken. I thought that we had this in the bag. We were the only junior male, Bax was showing well, and we were just coming off a BOB win in St Gallen. The evaluation that we got was completely sparkling with Excellents all over the place, except where it counted. Baxter is a late bloomer and at that point his movement in the back was very wiggly (this is continuously getting better), but with a 13 month old junior dog, we didn’t think we had to worry. Well, the judge thought otherwise and wanted the absolute whole package. I didn’t agree at the time because it is junior class and the dogs are still growing. Some lines just aren’t ready at that age and Baxter was one of them. It was our first SG and it wasn’t the last. It felt like a personal affront at the time and I was heartbroken. His German Junior champ title slipped away from us and that was that. We had only signed up for 1 of the 2 shows as we were sure we were going to win. NEVER think that just because you are the only dog in your class that a win is a sure thing. Would I show to that particular judge again once my dog is mature and his movement has solidified? Absolutely. His evaluation was beautiful and his judgement fair, our dog just needed more time to be his best.

...and this was my feeling in Saarbrücken

When you show you have to develop thick skin and an attitude that “we’ll do better next time.” We’ve had streaks where we lost and that sucks. Not only the losing aspect and how that affects your pride, but the time put into driving to and from a show and the money for entry fees, food, and potential lodging. I, though, have thought of our “year 1” as a learning experience. As we begin our second show season, we are no longer Greenhorns. We know the drill and even though the Nordic rules differ from those down south, the idea is the same.

Now with my adult dog and a more competitive show scene, I am having to pull back the reigns and learn when to show and when to stay at home. In the Nordic countries, only 1 dog and 1 bitch receive the CAC, so you really have to shine in the ring. I also have to learn about the judges up here, since previously I had mainly acquainted myself with the German and Swiss judges. I firmly believe that all judges deserve to be shown to once, but with that being said, we now have started compiling a DNS list. I am not willing to throw away money on people that can’t make decisions and march dogs in the ring FOREVER or judges set on only picking their friend’s dogs. I’ll sit out on those days or maybe join as a spectator, but not an exhibitor.

When all is said and done, I always take the best dog home. He is my companion and often my shadow. My life is better for having him in it… Win or lose.

Bax & I after my first time handling him in Lithuania. He was V1, CAC, Best Male-Winner, Best Opposite Sex losing only to his mom. :)

 

** I want to give a shout out and big thank you to Kabuki Cartoons for such great dog show comics (They are used throughout this post). She really does a great job in capturing just what it is to be an exhibitor!**

What a way to end our show year!

We decided this fall that we wanted to take a week long vacation to celebrate finishing our degrees. Of course we planned on bringing the dogs with, so I looked for a few locations that I'd like to go to and also possibilities for dog shows or trials. Low-and-behold, there were double CACIB shows in Wels, Austria, only 2 hours from Vienna. Even better, there was a lovely Wine and Spa hotel, that I had seen on CNN about 2 years ago as one of the top wine destinations in Europe, only an hour and a half away. We've been wanting to visit Austria for the past couple of years, but never made the 8 hour trek to Vienna. So after I finished my degree in October, the first thing I did was to book hotels and sign up for the dog shows.

Well, I have to say, our last dog shows of the year paid off! After a disappointing weekend in Geneva in November, in which Baxter received the Excellent 1, but the CAC was withheld, this was a great pick me up. Not only did Baxter receive Excellent 1 with CACA (Champion certificate in Austria) on Saturday, but he repeated the win on Sunday and, in addition, picked up another CACA and a reserve CACIB! The CACIB is given to the best male, so our little guy was picked as 2nd best male dog.

There were over 30 dachshunds from all over Europe there this weekend, so we were very happy about our first wins in Austria. Now we have at least 1 year to collect at least 2 more CACAs. :)

Not only did we have a nice time and, of course, had some nice wins, but we finally met the breeder of Freddie's father Kobeddus Effendi, Caroline, in person! We have been Facebook friends and emailing back an forth for years now, so it was nice to finally meet and chat.

Now Simon, the dogs and I are having our vacation. We explored Linz a bit and visited the Christmas market and had great views of the city, even though the weather was a bit crappy. Now we are settled in for the night at our fantastic fancy hotel. It is the best graduation present that I could have at the moment. :)

So with our wins, we are ending our show season. It has been an amazing year and I couldn't ask for more from the dogs. They have both done amazing and been incredibly successful this year. I can only hope that 2014 will be as fruitful as 2013!

IRA in Karlsruhe

We spent the weekend in Karlsruhe for Baxter's first round of shows in the more "adult" classes. In addition, Freddie came along to receive an adult rating (his only other shows were at 15 months in Jugend class). We wanted to get Fred a rating in a Katalog show since Simon would like to try and put a Gebrauchssieger title on him eventually and a rating of at least SG/sehr gut is required. The exhibition hall in Karlsruhe was large and bright and airy, though a bit cold today, and it was nice to see old show friends. Overall, it was a very successful trip. Both boys received an Excellent 1 rating and VDH-CAC on Saturday in their respective classes (intermediate and working) and we were elated. This means that Baxter has "started" his German VDH championship (he needs 5 VDH-CACs) and the minimum amount of time to the title is in 1 year. Freddie was a complete shock as he is not a show dog, as I have mentioned in the past. What we didn't know is that the judge on Saturday has a soft spot for brown wires. :)

All in all, a nice weekend.

This weekend in Pictures

The ring set up at the Swiss club show. The weather was absolutely perfect.

Spectators

Junior male ring at the Swiss Clubshow

Simon and Baxter, Barbara Palladini with Castelpetroio Fa' Baccano and Dr. Marlies Müller with Lukas vom Linteler-Forst

Baxter stacked

View from our balcony in Pringy

In the European Dog show in Geneva

Baxter stacked on the podium

Competing for Best Male (CACIB)

On the down and back

European Champion 2013 Lollipop della Val Vezzeno

Markku and Iiris (Baxter's mom). Iiris at 8.5 years old is now European Veteran Champion 2013! Congrats Iiris!!

Markku and Iiris competing for Best Veteran

Best of Breed from Kennel Idesüss

Awesome castle bridge on the way back to our hotel from Geneva

Enjoying the gorgeous scenery

CH Landessieger, Eurodog Show & Formwert

Hi everyone!

Please forgive my tardiness as we have been having a great couple of days in the Geneva/French area! Yesterday was the Swiss Landessieger show and today was the Euro dog show.
 I am happy to report that we seem to have broken our SG streak and now have a few more "V"s under our belt. In the Swiss landessieger show Simon and Baxter received a V3 in junior class. Not too shabby considering the other competitors were the WUT Weltjugendsieger and the German Klubsieger. Baxter was officially the best junior male from Switzerland. ;)  Maybe next year the competition won't be so tough!

Today was the Euro dog show in Geneva. Baxter was in a class on 12 junior males and managed to receive a V rating. The competition was tough and the dogs that won yesterday also received Junior Winner and Junior Reserve Winner today. Simon and Baxter are still learning, but showed very nicely after a few tips from our mentors/breeders.

Big congrats today go to Baxter's Mom: "Taxette's Isla Margarita" who was V2 Veteran Reserve at the Swiss Clubsieger yesterday and V1 European Veteran Winner today! Congrats Iiris!!!

We are so excited to own such a wonderful dog and hope for many more great show days.

Furthermore, Baxter received his Zahnstatus (tooth status) as well as him Formwert evaluation.  Bax has no missing teeth and received a great evaluation. After sending in the paperwork, Bax will be approved for breeding in Switzerland.

Great and fun weekend so far!!!

Trials, Shows, and The DTK Dachshund Illustrated

I know that I have veered away from hunting tests lately and have only been talking about our show successes. This is mainly because this spring our main goal was to focus on Spurlaut with Baxter as he needs to pass a Sp test in order to continue on with other tests. As we are still not 100% positive that he is Sp, the rest of our tests are on hold until the fall. From the 1st of May until mid-August there is a hold on Sp tests in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and I believe France. This is when the Hares are mating and having their babies and so it would be disastrous to have a bunch of dachshund running the fields. So we will wait until August and enjoy the "show" season. We are hoping to get the dogs swimming this summer and perhaps we can do Wassertest this August. This will be a bit of a challenge with Freddie as he is a wonderful swimmer and retriever, but a bit unreliable when he has to do both at the same time. I'm hoping that with practice and a real duck instead of toys will motivate him enough to be a good water dog.
 
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...

Patiently waiting

Having teeth, tail, head, etc... checked on the table

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.

Walking

The original picture was way too dark, this is a bit better

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!

Baxter goes Best of Breed

We had one goal for today when we signed up to go to St Gallen for the dog show. Our goal was to get Bax the last CAC/J needed for his Swiss Jugend Championship (SKG-JCh). Well, I am happy to report that not only did Bax get the last CAC/J that he needed, but he went Junior BoB and Best of Breed in Wirehair Standards! He then went on the walk for Junior Best of Show and Best in Group IV. By the group IV time, he was about done with showing for the day and instead wanted to run and sit down. I can't blame the little guy, I mean he is only 13 months old. Regardless, Baxter had a fan club and got a lot of cheers when he won BOB against 3 champion dogs.

The little certificates are nice, but ribbons would be nicer. ;)

We are now home. The boys are sleeping and Simon and I are enjoying our celebratory prosecco. Have a great weekend everyone!