Count down to puppies

Less than 2 weeks until Freddie and Freja's puppies are here! Needless to say we are all excited. Freja already has a rather big stomach and Sussi (the breeder) thinks there are at least 4 puppies.

The Skogsvettens' website has gotten a facelift and Sussi has added some nice videos of Freja and Freddie working- both in gryt/underground training and permodjur (animal reaction tests).

See more here: http://skogsvettens.nu/valpar%20v%C3%A4ntas/index.html

Freddie and his stick as a 5 month old pup

First go out at Drev

This was a post I meant to post more than a month ago... but, well, life got in the way.

After a year in Sweden, making connections, and trying hard to find land to practice on, we were kindly invited up to the Northern part of Skåne to try Freddie on Drev.

The only way I can describe Drev is that it is real hunting. The dog is released into the forest to search for animals. The dog then, hopefully, takes up the fresh scent of a deer, fox, or hare and chase it through the land. This was Freddie's first go out, and even though he did great on Spurlaut, it was hard to say how he would do with the "real life" situation.

In our area of Sweden there isn't the vast area lacking major roads that are ideal for Drev. Furthermore, as I am not yet out hunting, it is a really big deal to get an invitation. Well, a contact from our local dachshund club was so kind and she and her husband offered to let us go to them and try Freddie in their forest! 

For Drev, there are always risks, wild boars, wolves, cars, etc... but as Freddie is a smart dog and wolves (the biggest threat in my opinion) are not as common this far south and not in that area, we thought we would try. We were lent a GPS collar so we could see where Freddie was, how fast he was going, and how far away from us he was.

The first thing we did was go out and basically tell him that he could go search. Freddie was very good at going out and circling back to check where we were. While on one of his first searches, he opened a little, but it didn't lead to anything and we didn't see any animals (though their bedding and tracks/poop). After being out about 1.5-2 hrs, we headed back to let Freddie rest a bit and have lunch. We then took out Anna and Joachim's 11 year old shorthair Pixie, who was fantastic. She did indeed find something out in the forest, but by the barking and GPS track, Joachim thought it was a boar and called her back. When we went closer to pick her up/call her back, we definitely smelled boars and I am happy that Joachim had his rifle with "just in case."

We then took Pixie back and decide that as the weather hand turned beautiful for the end of October (15c and sun... see photo above) we would try a different area and see if Freddie found something. We did a little initial searching, then we came upon a glen and in the very back corner, Joachim noticed a couple of Roe deer. Freddie followed him into the glen (above) and Joachim and Simon told him to search. Then a few minutes later there was music! Freddie had taken up the deer scent and was off. I wish I would have thought to get a video! It would have only been barking, but who cares! Freddie worked really well for his first time out- roughly 30 min and about 300 m away from us. Anna said that we couldn't have asked for better work on his first time out. We only called Freddie back because he must have lost the scent and started circling in an area about 100m from us. Simon and Joachim went, called him back (with name and whistle) and you could watch him march slowly back on the GPS. Getting the dog back to you is a huge and important aspect of Drev, so Fred coming back was just as important as him taking up and chasing the deer.

On the way back to the car, Joachim asked if we wanted to swap a labrador for Fred. lol. I think he liked him. We are invited back out, but this autumn was a bit hectic for me as I was in the US for almost 3 weeks and writing papers at work. I recently bought a used GPS collar from another Swedish dackel friend and I am hoping we can get him out again this year for practice if the weather stays mild, otherwise, we are shooting for a few more practices and hopefully testing in 2016. Either way, Freddie definitely didn't disappoint! 

I really hope to also take Baxter out in the future to see what he's got, but we are taking one thing at a time at the moment. :)

A BIG Thank you goes to Anna and Joachim for allowing us to further work with Fred and offering their land!

Mission Accomplished!

So June was a good month all around... well, except for the weather! Swedish summer has yet to appear and as of yesterday, it was still totally necessary to wear a jacket to work. WTF Sweden!?!?!

End result of this day... CAC, CACIB, BOB, BIG1 :)

So one great thing... Baxter is home! Oh how I missed my fuzzy boy! Don't get me wrong, I love Liina and Freddie, but Bax and I have a special bond. Liina is not especially happy that he is home. They play and wrestle, but she constantly patrols the kitchen and any food bowl on the floor (empty or full) is hers. We are working on her guarding. I can take things away with no problems, but she is a true bitch to both Bax and Freddie in this respect. She is still young and we are working on it.

2x Barbwired dogs... one standard and one mini

 I also did something for myself this month... I took a course, practiced, and studied my butt off for the Swedish Hunting Exam. It was a lot of firsts; learning about Swedish hunting laws, learning European animals, of which I had NO idea of the Swedish names, though sometimes I knew the German, not that it helped me, and learned to shoot a shot gun and a 308 class 1 rifle. As I am a true beginner, I didn't always put the guns flush to my shoulder, resulting in some gnarly bruises now. The written/theory portion for me was ok. I can learn and understand laws and facts fairly quickly (thanks to a bajillion years of schooling), but I was nervous about the shooting since it wasn't something that I could practice or learn on my own at home. I was a bit down after our 2nd session at the shooting range the day before the exam. I seemed to do ok on the rifle, but the stupid clay pigeon shooting, ugh. I felt hopeless. My class was small and a nice group of people, me and 4 guys. I said our class sounded like a bad joke, " An American, an Irishman, an Englishman, an Aussie, and an Italian walk into a bar..." Anyhow, the guys all had previous shooting experience, two of which having served in the military. After inconsistently shooting clay pigeons for 2 days, I thought I was getting the hang of it, but nope. Final practice and I was stuck with a "score" of 3/6, just not enough. I was discouraged but reminded myself that tomorrow was another day.

So on Sunday we traveled up to Markaryd to take our theory and practical exams. The theory exam was ok and consisted of 70 questions, which we were allowed to have translated. I think I could have done ok on the test even without the translation. Once it was confirmed that we had all passed with at least 60/70 questions correct (we all scored much higher than that), we were allowed to go for the practical test. It consisted of several parts. I and 2 of the guys were up first on the shotgun. We first had to pass a gun safety test, in which we had to pretend we were on a hunt and come up to several obstacles, such as a river, fences, people out in our hunting area. Once we had been approved, we could go shooting. The first shooting test was on a running hare. We had to get a minimum of 8 pellets into the target area. Then off to another gun safety area where we had to determine if the various animals that "popped up" were close enough to safely shoot and (hopefully) kill. All of these tests were fine and we all got our cards signed off with no issues. The final test was the clay pigeons. We were given 6 rounds of shot and had to hit 4 of 6 clays. I was so nervous as this was definitely my worst area (though not horrible). We did one round and it felt good. I hit about 8 of 12 clay pigeons and decided that there was no time like the present and to just go for the test. Well, it was awesome. I think I hit 11 of 12 clay pigeons! I was so elated that I ran to my instructor afterwards to give him a bit hug! I was so excited that not only had I passed the theory portion, but I could now officially hunt with a shotgun (my favorite). :) Next it was onto rifle shooting. We performed gun safety again and then I was the first in the group to take gun safety and start shooting. We did precision shooting with a 22 calibre rifle, then onto the moose. For this the moose is about 80-100m away standing. Once the first shot hits, the moose begins running, then stops, turns around and runs again. You have to shoot the moose while both standing and running and hit within the target 4 times in a row and then complete 3 sessions of this. There are 9 chances to complete it. It was my last test of the day and I was tired. My first 2 rounds were flawless and after a short break, I finished... passing all aspects of my hunting exam!

Booyah!

I am now licensed to hunt in Sweden! Now to just wait until deer hunting season!