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!

FCI & SKK approved!

So the month of January was a bit hectic. Between coming back from winter holiday, Liina going through her first heat, going back to work, and tracking trials with the dogs, something great happened... my kennel name was officially approved!

The name I have chosen...

So what does it mean? Why chose this name? Well, it wasn't easy. I checked out a variety of different names on FCI, but many were taken or similar to what I loved. I tossed around something German, French, Finnish to represent the dogs, but none felt right. I tried to go back to my Wisconsin roots, but the same. I couldn't choose anything. Then it came to me. What is something common to all of our dogs- multiple names. 

Ever since we picked up Fallilou he wasn't Fallilou, he was Freddie. Freddie evolved into Fredster, Freddog, F-dog, Fredrick Baxter McCloud (which, by the way, it where "Baxter" comes from; sadly McCloud and it's variants were taken), Leedrick, and Ledrick- just to name a few.  Barbwired Better than the Rest was a bit of a challenge. We didn't want to "steal" Freddie's name, but we loved Baxter, so that's what we decided on! Baxter's name list is a bit shorter, but he has: Baxi, Bax, Captain Wiggles, Stinkwiggles, and Wiggles. Lastly, our Barbwired Champagne became Liina and she has been Liina-Puti, Puti or LP. Simon is especially excellent at renaming the dogs. Surprisingly, they all respond to all their names, especially Baxter with Wiggles and Liina with Puti. Go figure!

So after checking some ideas on FCI and using my trusty thesaurus, I decided on Moniker. 

moniker

 (ˈmɒnɪkə) or monicker

n

1. a person's name or nickname

It was short, simple, and sweet. Not too far into the alphabet so my dogs wouldn't be shown dead last (in Sweden/Finland, maybe the other Nordics, dogs are shown alphabetically), but also not the very 1st ones either. Right in the middle. I am registered/approved to breed Wirehaired dachshunds in all 3 sizes- Kaninchen, Miniature, and Standard.

The process was surprisingly quick. I sent in my application in September, received an OK from FCI in November, was announced in the December SKK magazine and approved in the middle of January, about 4 months in total. Not too shabby! 

Just because I have a kennel name doesn't mean puppies are around the corner. I won't consider breeding Liina until after her litter at Barbwired, so that can be until age 4. Also, Liina is turning into a gorgeous little dog, but her size is currently unclear. She seems to be taking after her daddy quite a bit and although mom in standard, Liina may end up a mini. We will have to see how big she is at 15 months, but she hasn't grown chest or weight-wise since November, so I think she will just be my little girl. No worries about that, but it means that the search for standard bitch to carry my first litter is still out there.

So there it is! A new kennel name and hopefully a bright future awaits!

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

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!