Sorry for the silence!

I just realized that I haven't written any posts since the end of 2015!

Very sorry everyone! Our life here in Sweden has been a little bit quiet. The dogs were supposed to be on show tour starting this month, but that won't happy until later in the year. I was in a small car accident earlier this year, spinning out on black ice and damaging my poor little car. Well, now I have a sporty, little Ford and dog show money has been pumped into buying our transportation. C'est la vie! There will always be later this year...

My poor little car. Luckily I am perfectly fine.

Liina and I went up to My Dog in Gothenburg early in January and happily came home with 2x Exc and 1xCK. It was a nice weekend and we are hoping that the next couple months will bring a few more nice results. :)

Liina and I at My Dog 2016

Baxter will not be shown much this year. I am hoping he can finish his few titles with Nikos later this year and then "retire" from the show ring. He has done enough... Exc1 in 11 countries is quite a great accomplishment for a small dog... especially when he is/was mostly owner handled. Maybe we will show a little bit more in Germany or Austria or Denmark, but no stress for my handsome boy. Now I am working on taking a little winter weigh (off both him and me!) and getting ready for this fall. We may have *finally* found a couple spots to try out Drev and I would love to try out Bax and see how he does. Otherwise, he will be a happy, healthy, pretty boy. :) Maybe we will start training viltspår again and go for trials in Finland or Denmark or Norway... maybe even Germany! We will see.

Bax and his BFF Leo

My goals this year are mostly for Liina. I would love to see her get her CH in Sweden. I would love to try her again on Gryt and see if a year away sparks her interest even more. I would love to do a small show tour with her and try for a Nordic Champion. I would love for her to get a CACIB and start her international Championship. I would love to start looking for her future husband (though this is a few years off). Lastly, I would like to keep training viltspår with her and try for the 40hr exam in Denmark later this year.

Finally... This is year is a big year as Freddie should have a date in summer/autumn! We will keep you all updated if and when tiny Freddie's will make their appearance. It should be an exciting pairing and a COI of 0%, a mix of German-French and Swedish lines. If you are interested in knowing more, let me know!

Freddie on holiday in Oslo

A lot of goals... We will see what 2016 brings!

New Multi-Champion!

So as you all know by now, Iita (Barbwired Bella Bambina) is here in Sweden and staying with me for trials and show. Well, big news...

We passed our final tracking trial in 1st prize! Iita is a new Swedish Tracking Champion!!! Holy cow! It is one thing to work and pass with your own dog, but it brings a new confidence booster when you can pass with someone else's dog.

I am very lucky that Iita has the same personality as her brother and not only trusts me, but looks to me and wants to please me. She is very clever and a joy to have around. The one problem of her being so similar to her brother, is that Baxter is starting to get a bit jealous that he has to share "his" person with someone else. Let me tell you, I am not cold at night with a dachshund on each side of my feet!

So my "job" is now finished. We accomplished a whole lot in just 3 weeks... "unlocking" 4 championships (FI, LT, LV, WUT), earning 3rd Best Female with CK in hunting class and earning her Swedish Beauty Champion, and 3x 1st prize in blood tracking earning her Swedish Blood tracking Champion.

Iita came to me a great little dog and will be leaving as a multi-Champion! I am SO happy that I proved to myself I can be a good handler, both in show and in trial, and got to know this great girl.

My new Project

So where did summer go? Here it is, already the beginning of autumn and this year is just flying by...

I have been keeping myself nice and busy with work, visits from friends, and, of course, hanging out with my 4 leggers. Liina and I attended a couple of shows in the past month and although the results have not been spectacular, one exciting thing did happen. Liina is now officially registered as a miniature wirehaired dachshund. She has been finally measured to 34 cm at just shy of 17 months old, but even I think that is a bit big as she had previously been measured 32 & 33 cm. In any case, the little princess is indeed that...

Liina and I in Kjugekull this past May

Well, last weekend Salla came into town and brought with her a new friend for me...

Everyone, meet Baxter's sister Barbwired Bella Bambina "Iita"

A few months back, Markku wrote to ask if I would mind "hosting" Iita and doing some training and tracking with her while Liina was with them in Finland. I, being crazy, said "of course" and so Salla and Iita flew in for the Copenhagen Winner show (Iita was Ex2 in her class). Salla and I spent the weekend hanging out and enjoying Skåne's bizarre weather... snow/hail in the morning, then blue skies, then heavy wind and rain- all in a matter of hours. 

Then on Monday I did the crazy think and signed Iita and I up for an anlagsprov/aptitude test tracking exam. The weather was perfect, a little damp, but not raining and we were in a wooded area with a lot of moss and grass. I was nervous as I realized as soon as we started the exam that I had NO IDEA what language the dog was used to tracking in! Her owner Marja told me that she had been speaking English with Iita during tracking, but I wasn't sure. Luckily Iita knew exactly what she was doing and I just had to read her. She was a bit quick and overshot a couple areas, but came back with little time wasted. She did NOT seem to understand why there was an unknown woman following her though! She came back a couple times just seeming to ask me "Why is this woman out here with us?" before touching her nose to my leg and moving on. After 13 minutes we were finished with the exam and passed with very nice marks from judge Jessica. Yay! Iita was now qualified for Swedish working class at show and we could move onto Open class tracks.

Godkänd anlagsprov!

The very next day was a super busy one. After speaking with Marja the night before, I had learned a new and important Finnish work "Jälki," which was Iita's motivational word for "track". Admittedly, I tried English and German on her with piss poor results. With our anlagsprov passed, we could move onto open class and the exam that I had optimistically booked at the beginning of the month could happen. Before that though, we had to take Salla and Liina to the airport. Liina would be spending the next 3 months in Finland for shows, training, and maybe taking the PIKA trial for mini dachshunds. So I sadly said goodbye not only to my good friend, but to my tiny little girl. 

Liina the traveler en route to Helsinki

Immediately after dropping the girls in Copenhagen, I raced back over the bridge to Sweden in just shit weather conditions. It was pouring rain, windy, and cold. I was not enjoying the drive and I knew I would like the tracking even less. I also knew that with the weather we would arrive late to Görel so I sent an SMS apologizing and hoping that she wouldn't be too pissed at my tardiness. When I arrived, Görel was kind,  but I of course was a bit frazzled, tired from driving, and just ready to go. I of course apologized profusely for being late, but she shrugged it off in a kind, Swedish manner. We then went to the woods and I immediately got nervous. These were the woods where a year earlier Baxter had failed with Simon. I knew there were a lot of animals in there and the brush would be thick, so it would be a challenge. We started and I remembered that Iita had never been taught the Swedish "starting box," but at least today I had her motivation word! I told her to track and she did. She worked well despite the thick brush and was relatively easy to read when she was off. All was going well and then all of a sudden, her head was super alert and up, the body was tense and she took off like a shot. I lost hold of the line and my saving grace was that she zig-zagged and was wrapped around a tree. I didn't see the animal, but Iita certainly was after it! I immediately ran to grab the leash and told the judge I would take my 1 call back. It took longer than expected to untie Iita and the judge double checked that I did indeed request a call back and I confirmed. We came back and she was very proud of me for reading the dog and situation and call for the callback so quickly (even if it took me a few minutes to get back). Whatever the animal was (I think it was a Roe deer or maybe a small Red deer) it decided to sit and watch us for a while. Iita was a bit more wide in her tracking after that, but she immediately picked the track back up and followed it with relative ease to the end. All-in-all a good track in tough terrain, but my quick thinking I believe secured our 1st prize. :) 

With that result Iita now qualified for her Finnish, Latvian, Lithuanian, and Welt Union Teckel Championships. 

The new Champion playing at home

We have taken a short break from tracking as I had a work conference, but Iita is a natural. She loops a bit more than I like, checking and double checking corners, leading to me working hard to keep a long, loose line, but she is a good tracking partner. We will do a few more tests and a show before she heads home at the end of the month. She has been a very good houseguest and is basically a female Baxter. She wants to be with me and be my shadow and has decided that I am her person. It is rare to find dogs that are so calm and adaptable as these two. Feed them and give them love and they can be almost anywhere and with anyone. Baxter is a little jealous though that his sister wants to be my lapdog, but he just squeezes himself on there as well.

17 Beauty and work titles between these siblings

Tracking training and trials will start again this week. I decided I wanted extra practices with Iita so that I can learn to read her a bit better. Baxter will be so mad that he is AGAIN not going tracking, but your time will come Bax, we will train again next year, but maybe for Denmark, Finland, or Norway and their tests. ;)

And what of little Liina? She is enjoying time with her family at Barbwired in Finalnd. She is playing with Mom and uncle Ollie. Dad is a bit of a bother and she would like Grandma to play, but at 10, Iiris is starting to show her age. She tolerates the little girl well, but wants to be left to herself. 

3 generations in 1 basket! Here you can really see Liina's size difference.
 Grandma(Iiris) in on the bottom, Mom (Aura) on the left, and Liina on the right.

So my new project is off to a great start and I really hope that Iita will go home with a working title, but only the next few weeks will show for certain...

Freddie is a Champion!

Championat!! Found out today that Freddie received a 1st prize in open class at the Tax camp in Bassholma. This closed Freddie's blood tracking championship (SEVCH)! Freddie-Fallilou du Sangre Bleu- is a son of Kobeddus Effendi and Canaille de la Meute a Cheops. LZ: Sfk, Sp, BhFK/95, BHP1&2, I-Schwhk, I-Schwk/40(CACT), I-Fbja(resCACT), I-BHFK95(100pts), S-grytprov Kval 1, S-Schwhk 3x1st prize
FW: Ex1 JBob, int. Ex1 VDH-CAC
Many thanks to judges E. Hörnfeldt Ahlin & J. Nilsson for their time and judgement.

So proud to have all three dogs in the family complete Championships! Such a great group of dogs to work with. 😊

Freddie at 4 months and his first tracking practice

Freddie at 3 years old and 5 years old below

Skåne Blekinge Taxcamp

Sorry for the long delay, but there hasn't been too much to report. Baxter returned home on the 28th of June and then from the 11th til the 19th Kennel Barbwired was in Sweden doing tracking trials with Baxter's brother and 2 of Liina's full uncles. They had great success and ended up with 5 new titles for the boys: 3x SEVCH (Swedish Tracking Champion), 2x FICH! Now their first breeding bitch Iiris (Baxter' s mom and Liina's grandmother) has 5 Working Champions out of her 11 total puppies: Austria-MultiCH/Winner, SEVCH, IT Working CH; Andau-FIJVA (Finnish tracking CH), SEVCH & Drevprov (Mäaj-1); Amadeus-SEVCH, FICH; Better than the Rest-MultiCH, SEVCH & multi-working trial; Blaze of Glory-SEVCH, FICH. Quite an accomplishment for such a small number of dogs from a relatively young kennel! Grattis! Onnea! Congrats guys!

Team Barbwired: Salla with Viljo, Markku with Max(left) & Pronto (right)
More info on any of the Barbwired dogs, check them out HERE

So this was my last week at work before a short holiday. I wasn't going to take holiday this year, but the weather in Sweden has been SO cold and rainy, that I needed to get away for a little bit. On Thursday my vacation started bright and early by driving up to Bassholma for the Skåne Tax Camp. It was the 1st time this camp was being held and, overall, everything was well organized and went smoothly. 

I spent my days at gryt training with Baxter-who hasn't been in the den since last year- and doing Permodjur with Freddie and Baxter.

Swedish gryt

The bear (Björn), Wild boar (Vildsvin) and Moose(älg)

Basically the Permodjur is a reaction test. The dog is put into a fenced in area with a bear, boar, or moose for upwards of 20 minutes to see how they react. The animals move via remote control, the pelts are all real, and all of the animals have scent. We thought it would be stimulating for the boys and just fun to try. Would I ever put them up against a real bear... no. I would also avoid the boar as they are usually a lot quicker than dachshunds, but with the Permodjur, it is a fun activity and the dogs leave unhurt.

Freddie was the real star! He is persistent, unafraid, but smart about how he works. He also can go, go, go! The 1 day that Freddie and Simon attended the camp he had 2 tests (one on bear, one on wild boar) and a tracking trial. He was awesome, but led to a very tired Freddie. 

Baxter also did well, but he isn't the natural hunter that Freddie is and he is a bit slower for the lightbulb to click on. When it does click, he shines, but he is slowly becoming a more self confident dog. He barked up the bear, but at a much further distance than Fred, and today he went in on the boar. He was slow to start and admittedly was more likely to go chase and bay at the boar when it was moving. He also did SO much better on the badger this year, working right against the bars a couple more practices and maybe a 1st prize is in his future...we will see.

For those interested, here are short clips of Freddie's boar and bear tests.

2nd great track for Freddie

Freddie and Simon went for a blood tracking exam today in Sjobö and it couldn't have gone better. With a time of 17 min and high praise from the judge regarding his work, Freddie was awarded 1st prize in Open Class! Hard work and extra practice to focus paid off for our oldest boy. :)

Big Congrats Freddie my boy! Let's get that last 1st prize!

Doesn't he look so proud of himself?

A new blood tracking Champion in the family!

So we have been practicing our blood tracking with Freddie. He is a great tracker, but at almost 5 years old, he is much more interested at finding the animals in the woods, then following an old blood trail. None-the-less, with 1x 1st prize, we are hoping to re-focus him, do some more training sessions and hopefully get 2 more 1st prizes for his blood tracking championship.  I would really like to start training him on fox in Denmark this spring, but I want to see if the old boy can focus enough to "finish" his blood tracking trial career.

A proud boy after a successful tracking training

Unfortunately for Freddie, last Thursday was not his day. With the warm weather there is always a lot of movement in the forest, which isn't good for a dog that is very interested in wildlife. Additionally, the forest where we went for the tracking trial has the ground mostly covered in dead leaves. With warm, relatively dry weather and the wind here in Skåne, that means that, of course, some of the trail is bound to blow around a bit. Anyhow, despite all that, Freddie just was not focused. He made it from start to finish in a time of 35 min, but not without several ventures off the trail to explore something else. He ended the day with a 3rd prize and suggestions from our judge that maybe he is a bit too old to track as he has gotten a taste of hunting. I think he can do it, but Freddie is a true stubborn dachshund and he needs a few training sessions with a real judge giving a few tips may be needed or he needs a VERY stern hand and a little yelling to get him to focus ONLY on the track. Regardless, I think even though it may be a bit complicated, Freddie will do it, but it may take a little time.

Freddie at almost 5 years and Liina at almost 1.

Liina on the other hand was on a roll and I wanted to keep the momentum. With 2x 1st prize in 1 week, I was hoping that we could get her last 1st prize and, thus, her Swedish Blood Tracking Championship. After Freddie's rather disappointing track, I knew the woods were alive and buzzing with animals and I was in for a challenge. Liina, though more distracted than on the previous tracks, was good. She circled more than usually and often went back to check herself, but in the end, she finished in 23 min and was very proud of herself. The judge agreed that it was still 1st prize work and with that Liina earned her first title at 10.5 months of age- Swedish Blood Tracking Champion (SEVCH)!

The newest SEVCH in the family!

Awesome, awesome, awesome! That little girl has a crazy good nose on her and definitely got some abilities from her parents- both are also Blood tracking Champions in Sweden and additionally, mom, Aura, received her Italian Working Championship from 20 and 40 hr blood tracking. I am especially proud as I handled this little girl! MY first CH as well. :) Baxter and Freddie were always handled by Simon, so even though they got their great results, it was never "officially" with me.

Additionally, I was offered an apprenticeship once I get my hunting license to train as a blood tracking judge.  Quite flattering and I think I would DEFINITELY like to try it. So much to do and so little time! We will see what the future brings, but what I can say is that the new champion was treated to a special dinner of sausages and I bought a bottle of bubbly to celebrate.

So now there are 2 SEVCH in the family... 

2x Barbwired, 2x SEVCH hanging out in the sun

Will Freddie pull through and prove that his nose is as great as ever? Only time will tell...

2nd great track for Liina!

Originally I had planned a track today for Freddie in the hopes that we could finish a Championship with him quickly as he is such an experienced tracker. Well, Freddie had been away from the forest a bit too long and his first overnight tracks were good, but not great. Lots of new wildlife here in Skåne and he decided he wanted to do a little spurlaut at one point instead of tracking. So we decided that since Liina was such a star on Wednesday, I decided switch her out and take her to track today instead.

So yesterday it was about 6C all day with heavy fog in the morning that lifted and gave us sunshine in the afternoon. I was excited as this would be perfect tracking weather for the next day and hoped it would stay. Well, I woke up this morning to a grey sky, the thermometer reading 3C, and raindrops on the windows- not so ideal, but ok, I could deal with it. As we drove through Skåne to make it to the tracking test at 11:00, the temperature dropped to 0.5C and the rain turned into fat snowflakes. Great. Ugh.

Well, the track was the most difficult the Liina had been on, lots of icy stream crossings and mud puddles, lots of crossing and tracking next to heavily used animal trails,  lots of fresh animal droppings and obvious places where animals had just been, even a few crossings over low stone walls. The day before the judge said that when she showed up to lay the track, there was a large Red deer  (Kronhjort) standing and watching her for a good minute or two before turning tail and running over the stone wall. Liina was not as quick on this track as her last one (35 min), but with snow starting to accumulate, cold, and wind, I still think she was SO good. There was only 1 spot where she freaked out a bit and that was at the first stream crossing. There were a lot of fresh tracks (boar and deer) in the area and Liina was a little apprehensive to cross over the 1.5-2 m "puddle" and was looking for the easiest way across. She is quite a clever girl, though a bit frustrating for the handler that just wants to cross. ;)

Anyhow, after that little hiccup, Liina did awesome and really showed that she could track. near the end there was one last blip where an animal had clearly run recently and Liina took off wanting to run after it, whining a bit when I told her no. Once I asked her to find it and show me the track, she went back to work and finished it with flying colors.

By the time we had walked back to the house from the tracking area, we were all wet, cold, and the snow had started to accumulate.

A view from the warm house after the track

The judge said that she really liked the working style of Liina and that she thought she did a really good job, especially considering the conditions. I also have to say that I thought it was a rather long track and the little girl did an excellent job and she was awarded a 1st prize. Now the Championship is close... only 1 more first prize needed and then Liina has her first title. She really is a natural and has quite the nose on her. I really appreciate this little gem that Markku and Salla entrusted with me.

Here's to hoping for more more amazing track... and better weather!

A Great Day out in the Forest

Today we headed out to Sjöbo for tracking trials and we couldn't ask for better weather this time of year, a bit damp and around 6C- heck, the sun even peaked out for a bit!

Both Freddie and Liina were signed up to do tracking trials today. Freddie went first and although there was a lot of wildlife in the forest today and he was a bit distracted, he squeaked by with a 1st place due to his ability to check the track and restart if Simon was sure he was off. He hasn't been tracking much since the end of 2013 and it was clear that he needed a little "practice" in his obedience on the tracking lead. He was just a bit too excited to be out in the forest today. Sadly, the poor boy had no "prize" at the end of his track as an animal had stolen the hoof.

The requirement for the woods for tracking in Sweden are that there are different types of terrain (and ideally not flat) and full of wildlife. Judging by the boar damage, deer and boar tracks, and fresh poop I saw today, there is no doubt that the woods were alive. Liina's track proved just that...

Liina was such a natural talent on her anlagstest, that I decided to risk it and try an open class track with her today. She definitely didn't disappoint me! She did excellent work and completed her track in 18 minutes! The biggest challenge for us was on our 2nd corner (the återgång- a back track) when we got to the turn around point, Liina turned to head back to the blood track and, whoops!, up popped a deer! All I could think was, oh shit, do I try to take her back to the start, do I pick her up and calm her down, do I try to continue, what? Luckily, the judge saw the situation and after Liina started to whine and longingly watch the running deer, we were called back to the start of the corner. Liina was a bit quick and more excitable than usual at that point, but she was working like a pro. I couldn't have asked more of her. Super dog and super time- 1st prize!

Needless to say that I am overjoyed with my talented group. I also have to pay great thanks to the ancestors of both these dogs. Though in different ways, both dogs  have Suddebok/Kobeddus in their lineage- dogs known not only for their beauty, but for their working abilities. Fingers crossed for more great results to come!!

Trimming and training

February has been a bit of a whirlwind so far. I can't believe it is already 1/2 way gone! I spent the past weekend in Helsinki for a very special little girl's birthday. My dear little godchild Emma turned 2 and Auntie Julie was invited to the party, but I also was the birthday cake baker. It was a Moomin themed party and we had Moomin drawings, balloons, and of course winter Moomin figures for the cake. I was happy that the Finns appreciated the American style cake and only 1 small piece was left after the party. :)

Now back home in Sweden things are getting back to normal. Liina was in need of a trimming, but I was debating on when to do it. I was unsure if she would be going on tour to shows with Markku and as she is now looking as though her size will be mini instead of standard I didn't know if or when she would be shown. I figured that now was as good of a time as any and spent yesterday trimming the little girl.

Pre-trim

Pre-Trim

Post Trim photos

 The weather has been pretty good and we are able to do some blood tracking practices. I realized this past week that neither Freddie nor Liina had ever seen/practiced the "starting box" that they have here in Sweden in open class tracks. 

example of an open class track

So yesterday morning, we went out with the object of laying starts for each of the dogs along with about 100m afterwards. Short and sweet, but a good confidence boost for each of them and good practice. The tracks were down for approx 20 hrs and we took the dogs out in the blustery, cold wind this morning to do the tracks. Conditions weren't so ideal as I woke up to 2C (about 36F) and 25 mph wind gusts, but we didn't want to waste the opportunity or leave our deer hoof out in the woods. Liina did great with the start and confidently started on the track, but then got a bit distracted. There are a TON of deer and boar in the woods near us and I saw a lot of very, very fresh poop in the forest, but Liina was very good about coming back to the track and working. She found the end of the track very quickly and confidently and was thrilled to have a deer hoof to play with it!

Freddie was an old pro, what can I say? I was taking down the markings from the box and he was already done. He is so fast and accurate that I don't expect him to have many problems... unless he jumps a deer or hare or boar. Then we have to really get him calm before starting up again.

Overall, a nice, calm weekend. Now I am hanging out with my favorite champion on the couch, enjoying a little quiet time. :)

2x Anlagstests, 2x GK!

Our oldest and youngest dackel rocked it today! We were going to Sjöbo for a tracking practice, but last minute our trainer/judge asked if we would want to just take the test as she thought both dogs were excellent on their previous practice. So, we took the last minute decision to test both of the dog and boy am I glad that we did!

Both Freddie and Liina were stellar and managed their tracks in 13 min and we doing SUCH great work! Simon handled Freddie and I took Liina. Freddie was a total star and did exactly what he loves to do-TRACK! He worked brilliantly and years of practice made this Anlagstest look like a breeze. If Simon had let Freddie go the speed he really wanted to, then we would have all had a nice jog through the woods. He is a wonderful dog to watch and I would love to use him on real game tracking.

I think what was great about this last minute decision to do a test is that it didn't give me any time to be nervous that I would be handling the dog in a test for the 1st time. I am usually the organizer and track lay-er, but not the handler. The past few months have been totally nerve-wracking for me as now I have been dropped into the role of both show handler and now tracking handler. Liina didn't let me down though... that little girl has a great nose on her! Her mom and dad would have been so proud. :)

The woods were quite wet today since there was snow last week and rain on and off since then, so quite a few ponds and mud pits had formed. Honestly, they didn't seem to phase Liina (I on the other hand, was very, very happy I had decided to wear my tall rubber boots) and she happily moved forward through the whole track. At one point a large Hare jumped out in front of us, but I didn't see it. Liina followed after the fresh track for a few meters, but when I stopped, she looked at me, and went back to the last point she had the track and restarted herself without my help. She is really great about back tracking and checking if she is unsure. She doesn't need much encouragement-only the occasional "Suche" or "Hyvää."

The judge was so incredibly happy with the work that Freddie and Liina did and the critique was not only kind, but extremely flattering for us and the dogs.  

2x Anlagstest (Beginners class tracks), 2x PASSED with FLYING COLORS!

I can't wait to start these two in open class tracks!

Back on Track

I know, I know, what an inactive blog, right? Well, as I stated before, the weather and multiple other factors (life, work) has prevented us from doing a lot of work with 2 of the 3 dogs in the house. Baxter had a great year earning a Swedish and Lithuania CERT as well as getting 2nd prize in underground (gryt) and his Tracking Championship (SEVCH). We neglected our brown dog a bit, though he worked his way towards a fabulous 1st prize underground late this summer, and we decided that it was his turn to go out and have fun! We are still trying to set up a natural underground test for him, but this has been easier said than done. In the meantime, we decided that Fred and Liina would go and do some practice tracks.

So Tuesday we went down to Sjöbo and did some practice tracks despite the rain and crappy weather. Actually, we were supposed to go on Friday, but a strong storm called Alexander put a halt to that. It is fine to be out in the woods in the rain, but high winds and hoping that branches don't land on your head is a whole other matter! We had set up 2 tracks, one 650m track with Fred and one 250m track with Liina, both anlagsklass level (2-5hr old). For Freddie this should have been a walk in the park as he has previously received 2nd prize in Schwhk/20 and 100 pts CACT in a SchwhK/40, but we haven't worked him much in the past year, so we just hoped that he would be as good as ever.
Well, we weren't disappointed. Freddie managed the 650m track in just 17 min and would have been even a bit quicker, but deer had recently been on the track. Freddie was "laut" and would have easily gone after the deer if we would have let him. We took a few minutes and allowed him to calm down and he was back at it. Freddie is interested in wildlife, just as much as Baxter, but very easy to read on the track as when he is off or "uninterested," he looks like a pointer; head up, very stiff. The thing which is great about Fred is that if you stop moving, he immediately goes back to tracking. So a little bit of obedience training with Fred and he'll be fine, he just has to remember exactly why he is out there.

The best treat of the day was Liina. I handled the little one and she was AWESOME! She was super interested in the blood, stayed really well on the track, went back and checked the line, took the corners without hesitation like a pro and plodded confidently and not too quickly (always moving, but not running) to the end of the track. I think that she was fortunate to get a great noise from her mom! She thought it was SO fun and was very proud of herself and her hoof prize. :) She is not yet 9 months old, so she can't officially be tested yet, but I see a bright future ahead of her in tracking!

We will have another round of practices with both of the dogs on 600m+ tracks a few hours old in January if the weather holds up and then testing starts again! Wouldn't it be great to have 3 Champions in the family?

Wandering in the woods on a non-rainy day here in Skåne

It's official! Baxter got his diploma!

Folks, we have our first Champion! This piece of paper makes me very, very happy.

So proud of you Baxter, my boy!