Liina passes Spurlaut!

Hi again!

Breaking the silence after several months... but with great news!

Liina has passed her Sfk and Sp exams in Germany. :) I am so crazy proud of the little Zwerg! Better yet, her score (although still second prize) of 91pts is the highest of my dogs. 

So proud, proud, proud!

The smallest member of my family added new titles to her name
Officially she is now: NORD DK FI SEU(v) LT RO ROGr SLO WUTCH SEVCH
LZ: Sfk, Sp, SE-SchwhK
FW: Ex1 CAC CACIB BIG2

Although this type of testing is not required for breeding in Sweden, I, personally, like and support the German aptitude testing. Spurlaut is genetic and even though Liina's mother carries for Spurlaut-she earned her Sp with 100pts-her father was not tested. All of the family is hot on fox and have excellent noses, so I hoped the small girl would be Sp. She also hinted at it earlier this year giving some "yips" chasing rabbits in our neighborhood.

I love this little girl to bits.  Even though she is not the standard I signed up for, she has far exceeded my expectations in terms of beauty, temperament, and now function... earning her Championship in tracking in Sweden and aptitude merits in Germany. I also know that she is courageous enough to meet the badger (caged) as well as the fox (uncaged) and hope that we can also test her in underground this year.  

I have been dreaming to one day have a dog I could attempt a Vp with... Liina might be that dog, little as she is. Time will tell, but for now... machts weiter...

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.

A marathon Spurlaut exam

When I checked the weather for Altenheim on Sunday, I kept it to myself- 10˚C max temp and a 80% chance of rain all day. Yup, just what I wanted to see for a Spurlaut test... ugh. The thought of being drenched and wandering through muddy fields in search of hares did not make me very happy, but it was our last opportunity until March/April to perform the exam. Baxter had showed promise at our practice in Grünstadt (which I still need to write about) and the concept of hares + chasing + trailing + barking, seemed to finally switch on in his, sometimes thick, head. With trailing he is excellent. His nose is fantastic and he has been beautifully trailing hares since he was ~ 1 year old, but the sound wasn't coming. On the last few practices he actually saw the hares and I think that triggered something. Those few sichthase (sight hares) were a blessing and since the end of September we knew he was Spurlaut.

This pleased us and also his breeders. In the nordic countries, Spurlaut isn't a requirement for any tests and, thus, many don't know if the trait is retained. From their first litter, only their own bitch from their 1st litter, Baxter's 1/2 sister Barbwired Austria, was tested for Sp when they were living in Switzerland. Aura did a phenomenal job and earn 100 pts and tagessieger in Austria for her work. Baxter's mom Iiris (at age ~5 years) had also been tried on Sp, but by this time she was accustom to blood tracking and fox work and was quiet while trailing the hares. Maybe with sichthase, this would have been different and triggered her voice a bit, but as I've mentioned before, hares in Switzerland are not plentiful and even Germany can be a gamble. We knew from the Palladini's that Baxter's dad Apollo was spurlaut, so we hoped that Baxter retrained this trait. Once we knew that he was Spurlaut, even if he still needed practice, we figured that we would take the gamble and sign up for the last test of the year in our region in an attempt for him to earn the achievement: Sp. 

On Sunday the conditions were not the greatest for this exam, but they were better (rain-wise) than the forecast had predicted. A foreboding sky that looked ready to storm at any moment, standing water on many fields, still many fields covered in left over wheat and corn, and winds that reminded me of tornadoes made this an interesting exam. Furthermore, in order for all the dogs to have at least 2 hares (and for 2 dogs to have 3) we walked 3 different sets of fields from 10am until 3pm, making for a rather exhausting day and likely about 10-15 km worth of field walking...which I am feeling today!

Of the 5 dogs that were examined, Freddie and Baxter were the only dogs to pass.  Since Freddie had a score of 2nd place last year in Nordbaden, he was eligible to take the test again for a chance at 1st place. This was advantageous as we were in need of 1 more dog to partake in the exam in order for it to happen. In the end there was a late entry and Freddie wasn't needed, but he loves running hares on the field, so we thought we'd give him a shot. It was also an experience for me as it was my first time participating with a dog in the exam (I was handling Fred). Freddie's first hare was a rückwards hase (backwards hare) the jumped up from behind and ran where we just walked. I didn't see the trail of the hare as I was trying to calm Freddie down because a deer had jumped right in front of us and of course he saw it and wanted to chase it. So, all in all, it was a bit of a disaster. He tried to follow the hare, made some progress, but with the commotion, the scent of 10 people and dogs, etc... he just didn't do it. It would have been great if he did, but even the judges agreed that it was a difficult situation.Fred's second hare was much nicer. It jumped about 20 feet in front of me while we were waiting on another dog. Fred did a great job trailing it, but the wind was strong and I could tell in the end he was struggling to find the scent line, which by that time was likely dust in the wind. Regardless, he performed and was the best of the day with a 2nd place rating.

Baxter was our wild card. We knew he was Spurlaut, but he was still rather inexperienced since he had run about 3 "proper" hares in practice not as sichthase. His first hare was a good one, the judges had to jump it from it's sitting place, it ran straight and over the road, but I think Bax, as the 1st dog of the test, didn't quite know what was going on and started doing more "Stöber" type work on the field. He failed this hare horribly, but we knew he at least got another chance. The second hare jumped on his own, ran a weaving pattern and disappeared over a hill and onto a grassy field. Bax was loud on the hare all across the first field until he broke the hill and then Bax was quietly searching for the scent. By this time the wind was getting extremely strong and though he searched, the little dog didn't pick up the line again. The judges felt that this work warranted a 3rd bunny to see if the 1st one was just a fluke. On his 3rd and final hare, it jumped, ran a straight line over the road and into the corn. Bax found the line, took off like a rocket and barked his little heart out. He searched the road for the scent and with a little coaxing, found it again and trailed it through the corn. We didn't hear much more due to the wind, but Simon had to retrieve him, still trailing, 2 fields over. Baxter found his voice, but still needs more practice to be very confident in trailing the hares, especially in hard situations like over roads. Regardless, the judges said, Yes, this dog is definitely spurlaut and has the desire to follow the game and awarded him a 3rd prize. Now we can continue on with more work with the small dog, such as fox and Stöber. We are all exhausted, but happy with the results.

Baxter was the BHP Taggessieger in group Hochrhein

 So the first in a series of updates and where to start...

Baxter and Simon took part on the 19th of October in the BHP exam in the Hochrhein club in the Badischer Dachshund Club of the DTK. The day started with coffee and choosing of the numbers (which were baked into dog biscuits).

The festively decorated table in the clubhouse

Which is the right biscuit...

Waiting for instructions

Finding out the order of the dogs

 This is an all day exam which consists of 3 sections:

BHP1:Führigkeit, Folgsamkeit, Ablegen, Verhalten bei Geräuschen, Verhalten gegenüber Menschen, Verhalten in Strassenverkehr

Ready for BHP 1 on the training space

BHP2: Führersuche & Warten

The view from the hills were the Führersuche was performed

BHP3: Wasserfreude

Baxter on a water retrieve

 So, for the non-Germans, I'll walk you through the test:

In the first section the dogs must show their obedience through a variety of tests, many of which can be performed with or without leash. First, the dog must walk at a heel over and around a variety of obstacles and they must demonstrate walking ~ 100 ft on heel off leash back to the starting point/judge. The dog must show that it is not afraid of loud noises, such as a pipe being hit with a hammer (ie, no running away from the sound). The dog is surrounded by people who approach the dog clapping and the dog also walks through a crowd. The dog must walk on the sidewalk next to a road and be approached by people with umbrellas, newspapers, bikers, cars, etc... going by. The owner must send the dog away from them and then call them back on command. There are variations of this part where more points are awarded if you can bring the dog to a stop on command before they reach you, but this is quite difficult. Finally, the dog can be free or on leash and they must wait. This test is done all at once whereas the other parts are done individually. The dogs are placed on a fence and told to lie down for 5 min in sight of the owner. During this time a person walks by and another dog walks by, etc... The dogs are allowed to stand and move a bit, but not to cry or try to walk towards the owner.

Waiting, waiting...

Iamira, the lone longhaired dackel in the test. She did excellent!

Waiting for 5 minutes to be called so the owners can go retrieve their dogs from the fence

Bax walking at heel with Simon during BHP1

Simon is a really great handler. Before each activity he makes sure the dog is calm and has his attention. This was before walking at heel back to the judge.

Checking for fear of sound. Baxter LOVES Eri! He didn't care about the long clang from metal on metal, he just ran laps around her until Simon called him back.

Jup and Kerstin showing off their skills in the street/traffic portion

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Baxter could care less about stopping to help with directions

Iamira was unimpressed by Eri and the umbrella

For the second test there are only 2 parts. First the dog is given to a handler while the judge and owner walk ~ 300 m (1000 ft) into a wooded area and hide. The track should include 2x right angled turns. Once the owner and judge are hidden, the dog is released and must track and find the owner. For the second part of the test, the dog is put in wait similar to in the 1st test, but the owner is out of sight. Again, bikes, people, dogs, etc... go by and the dog must stay calm and ideally not move.

Jup waiting while his mistress was out of sight.

For the third test, it is basically a variation of the Wassertest, except there is no gun shot and any toy can be thrown for the dog to retrieve.

Baxter with his favorite dummy duck

The dogs can pass each test individually which is then indicated BHP-1 or BHP-3, etc...

If the dog passes the combined test, it is given the title BHP-G (G=gesamt: entire)

We weren't sure how Baxter would do as we weren't able to go to many of the official trainings, but we do regularly train obedience and tricks with the dogs. Originally I was supposed to do the trainings with Baxter, but well, finishing up my degree got in the way and I was a mess of nerves.

Tallying the points

Handing over the score sheets

Handing out gifts to all of the helpers

Simon though is a star and amazing for taking over Baxter's training! He and Baxter totally shined and of the 6 dogs that participated in the test he received the maximum points he could get and was awarded BHP-G 1st prize Taggessieger (winner of the day).

We are extremely proud of our little dog! He performed like a star and worked perfectly with Simon. Simon said that the judge was especially impressed with the attention that Baxter gave him before each activity. Simon is big on making the dogs make eye contact with him before they start an activity and this was unique for the dogs at the test. It was a long day (roughly 6 hours), but well worth it! Baxter now gets to add the test score: BHP-G to his name. :)

The boys with the judge

Congrats Bax! Good job!

*** Many, many thanks to Peter for the pictures during the exam!!***