Happy Friday!

Liina (Barbwired Champagne) would like to wish all our readers Happy Friday! Enjoy the weekend!

Happy Birthday Barbwired "C" Litter!

11 months old

The last of my little pups is having a birthday. Today Liina turns 1 year old. She is such a funny little girl and you can definitely see a lot of both her parent's in her. She has her vocalizations and funny demeanour from dad and her toothy kissing and attitude from mom. At 1 year old she is really an accomplished little dog! She has already finished her Swedish blood tracking championship (we are just waiting-impatiently- for a matter to be sorted out by the SKK so it can be confirmed) and received Ex1 JBOB, CK, Best female 2 in her first ever official show! How exciting! I will start working her on the badger this May and if she is anything like her parents, she should excel at this as well.

She is a special puppy for me because I met her when she was just 10 days old and watched her grown up!

She became fast friends with the boys, though Baxter is her favorite playmate (he lets her win!)

Liina and her sibling before their eyes opened

Pile of puppies! Liina is belly up on the bottom of the pile

Liina Puti traveling back to Sweden with us

4 month photo (bottom) & 9 month photo (top)


Soon I hope to add a 1 year old photo!

I couldn't be happier with this little girl. She is a little demanding, but very worth it as she really just wants ALL of the love and attention. ;) 

Happy Birthday Liina! Let's make the next year even better than the first!

My Silly Brown Puppy turns 5!

Today is Freddog's birthday!! Can you believe that he is already 5? I sure can't. He has become such a big part of my life and is one of the reasons that I am as involved in dachshunds as I am. For a "companion dog" we have been super ambitious dog owners and Freddie has taken each challenge with stride. He was the perfect dog to start doing trials with and I am happy to report that he has never failed a trial. Some days are better than others, but he got a lot of great instincts from his wonderful parents. Of course a good dog like that is also key to motivate new owners to keep going and do crazy trips for trials in Germany and Italy. ;)

He is a funny boy who would sooner kiss someone to death than anything else. Food is the best motivator (as it is for many dachshunds) and he will do just about anything for a treat. His kind nature is one of the reasons that I fell in love with dachshunds. To this day he still acts like a big puppy, bringing toys and jumping with joy when you come home from work.

Although he never made it big in the show ring, he has earned a Exc1 with VDH-CAC in working class as well as a junior winner title. Where Freddie has excelled is in hunting trials. His current results are from 3 countries:

Germany: Sfk, Sp, BhfK/95, BHP1, BHP2
Italy: BhFK/95(100pts), Fbja (100pts, RRCACT), SchwhK, SchwhK/40 (100pts, CACT)
Sweden: Grytprov Kval 1, 1st prize open class blood tracking

Hopefully we will get the chance to finish some working trials here in Sweden this year to earn him working championships, but we will see. He is a passionate hunter and ready to go whenever we are.

So once again... Happy birthday my wonderful brown pup! I hope that we share many, many more!!

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!

April is Birthday month!! Baxter turns 3

So I am going to brag a little bit about my baby boy, my Seelenhund, my buddy, my Baxter. He may not be the most absolutely prefect dog (but what dog is really?), but he is so in tune with my feelings. He has always been there when I feel down in order to snuggle and give kisses and try to cheer me up. He has secured a position in my bed and my heart. Although I HATE being woken up at the crack of dawn, it is really hard to stay made at this face:

Baxter's achievements thus far:

J, SEVCH, LU-JCh, CH (SKG)-JCh, CH (SDC)-JCh, WUT-JCh 

Jugendsieger Fribourg 2013 (JBOB)
Ortenaujugendsieger 2013
Jugendsieger Baden 2013
Jugendsieger Luxembourg 2013
Jugendsieger/Sieger St Gallen 2013 (JBOB & BOB)
Kaunas Winter Winner 2014 (BOS)

Exc 1 rating in 6 countries with CAC/J (3 countries) or CAC (4 countries)

Working tests:

Germany: Sfk, Sp, BHP-G (Tagessieger)

Switzerland: WaT (full points)

Italy: SchwhK/40 (92pts, 1st prize, 2nd place in trial)
Sweden: Bloodtracking 3x 1st prize + 1x Honor Prize --> SEVCH (Swedish Blood Tracking Champion);

Grytanlagsprov Kval 2 (underground aptitude test on badger, 2nd prize)

Baxter will be spending some time this year with a handler colleague for training and a few shows in central Europe. He will be home, however, in enough time for underground training and testing this summer in Sweden. 

So to my fuzz-face, I wish the Happiest of Birthdays with as much food as you can eat and bunnies that you can chase! 

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!

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...