Baxter is now a multi-Junior Champion!

Simon and I never thought that we would be going to dog shows when we picked up Freddie almost 3 years ago, but well, it ended up happening.  Well... not with Freddie. As I've mentioned, Freddie is over the weight limit for the DTK (a bit over 10 kg), which doesn't mean that he can't be shown. It just means that he can't be shown in German speaking countries, which happen to be the ones closest to us.

When we picked out Baxter, we knew that his parents were both heavily titled show dogs (they both also have hunting trials, etc... but both are multi-Champions, multi-winners) and his breeders/our friends, would like for him to be shown. We decided to go to a few shows within a 2 hour drive to see how the little guy would do. So far, so good! Baxter is a very promising young dog in a lot of ways. Now that he has some show titles, we're hoping to add in some hunting trials. :) This weekend will be his second Spurlaut practice up in Rheinland-Pfalz. I'm quite excited as it is supposed to be sunny and over 15C (over 60F) all weekend! YAY!

Anyhow, Baxter has now been shown at 5 shows in 3 countries under 5 different judges. He has been 5x V1, 2x Junior Winner and has earned 3 titles: Lux-JCh, SDC-JCh and WUT-JCh. We are so pleased with him! We are of course wishing for more good ratings in the future and a long show and hunting career for this little guy.

Happy Birthday Baxter!

On the first of February 2012, while I was sick in bed, Simon got a text from our friend Markku saying that Iiris had been mated in Italy and puppies should be expected around the beginning of April. We had asked to be on the list for puppies for kennel Barbwired's next litter. Both Iiris and her daughter Aura were mated around the same time and so the house may have been full of puppies when we visited for Easter. Unfortunately, only Iiris was pregnant, but she was expected to have 6 puppies. Roughly 4 days before we left to visit our friends in Finland, Iiris gave birth to 5 puppies, 4 males and 1 female. It was very neat to see such tiny puppies on our visit to Finland.

1 week old Baxter and siblings with mom Iiris

Teeny, tiny paws next to momma

 We knew that we wanted a male puppy. Freddie was really good with other males, not possessive or dominant and an uncastrated female in an apartment in the city with an uncastrated male seemed very impractical.We confirmed our request for a male puppy, booked a flight for Simon to return to Finland at the end of May to pick up our puppy (two tickets would have been around 1000CHF, so I opted to stay home) and waited.

Around 1 month old, Markku and Salla posted pictures of the B litter on their website (www.barbwired.fi) and 2 of the puppies caught our eyes: Blaze of Glory and Better than the Rest

Bax at 4 weeks old

We called Markku and told him our preferences of puppies. We also had other criteria such as dog and people friendly and a good coat (since Freddie is weak in that area), but those 2 puppies were our favorites. About 2 weeks later, Markku wrote me to say that based on what they saw, how the puppies acted, etc... he thought that Better than the Rest would be a great fit for us. They asked us what we wanted to call him and from then on they referred to him as Baxter.

As luck would have it, Simon was asked to give a talk at the University of Helsinki at the end of May when we had to pick up the puppy. This meant that he would have his plane ticket paid for and I could afford to fly as well! So Simon and I flew to Helsinki in order to pick up our new family member the last weekend in May.

Simon was in puppy heaven

playing in the yard

A tiny Baxter

One of the brothers with sister Iita (Barbwired Bella Bambina)

Big Sis knows what's going on!

gardening

Dinner time

Who can resist that face?

Simon arrived with Baxter in Switzerland 1 day earlier than I did, so he got some quality bonding time with Baxter and Freddie. Freddie wasn't too sure what this new little thing was in his house, but fortunately he and Baxter became fast friends. Over the coming months, Freddie was a playmate, friend and teacher for Baxter. We are so thankful to have such a great older dog to teach our little one. Over the coming months Baxter graduated from puppy class to regular dog school, began obedience training, blood tracking training, and general hunting training. In February, we started to show him and so far, so good. I have been training with him at home, but Simon is much easier on the eyes and a super novice handler. He and Baxter make a really great team! To date, Baxter's pedigree reads the following:

LuxJCh, SDC JCh (applied), WUT JCh (applied), Ortenaujugendsieger 2013 Barbwired Better than the Rest LZ: Sfk

This little guy has totally exceeded our expectations as an all around amazing dog. We are so happy to have him in our family!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Baxter and the rest of the Barbwired "B" litter!!

11.5 month old Baxter with Simon in Offenburg

Luxembourg and back again

So in the past week, we have stayed in 3 different countries: Finland, Switzerland, and Luxembourg. Luxembourg was both a work and pleasure trip as we were kindly invited to stay at our friend Charles' place for the whole weekend so we could attend the Luxembourg dog show on Saturday.

This is one of the biggest shows in Europe and definitely the biggest show that we have been to thus far. On Saturday there were over 2500 dogs present and an equal, if not greater, number were shown on Sunday. For dackels alone (FCI group 4) there were 178 entries. That is a LOT of dackels! In Baxter's class there were 5 males (Baxter included), so the competition was tough. All the males, except 1, were older than Baxter and the oldest male in the class was 17 months and quite developed. We walked around Luxembourg city and walked in the woods when we arrived from Basel on Friday afternoon, so Bax was quite tired on Saturday. You would never know this in the ring though as he walked like a champ. No happy feet, no prancing, but real walking, with head high and looking great. He was the first male to be judged and although we did not get a written evaluation, the judge spent a lot of time looking at Bax and seemed to really like his head and presentation. He awarded him V1 CACL and in Luxembourg, as a junior or veteran, you only need 1 V1 CACL for Junior Champion.
So Baxter gained his first official title: Champion des Jeunes de Luxembourg/ Luxembourg Junior Champion!!

WooHoo!!

This certificate is nicer than a lot of my diplomas.

In Luxembourg, the males and females don't walk against each other for Junior BOB (only the adults do) and so both Baxter and the female Junior Winner (Alexandra v. Tollbach who you all might remember from Offenburg) both walked in the big ring for Junior BIS.

Although we didn't win BIS, it is always cool to make it to the big ring!

Simon was in shock and awe and excitement when he and Baxter won, that we completely ignored everyone's hands and walked out of the ring with a HUGE smile on his face (he later went back to apologize to the 2nd place dog owner for being so clueless). It was really a great day.

On the way home we bought our traditional bottle of champagne, this time, though, it was a delicious Luxembourger Rosé. :)

Aside from the dog show, we go to spend the weekend exploring the Luxembourgish countryside, meeting old friends, enjoying a LOT of wonderful food and company, and spending time with the dogs. A real thanks goes out to Charles' parents for being wonderful hosts and treating us like family. They really went above and beyond and even watched Freddie while we were at the show on Saturday. I think that we have converted Charles' mom into a dackel lover as she offered to keep the boys and for us to let her know when either Baxter or his sisters have puppies.

I really give our dogs a lot of credit on flexibility. They met a lot of dogs this weekend. Aside from Jij and Brigitte's dog Febus (a Griffon Fauve de Bretagne) a very friendly and laid back dog, they met Mika (an Australian shepard), a maltese and a Lhasa Apso, Egon (a Greater Swiss Mountain dog), and Jachen (a black Lab). The only dogs that caused problems, were the Lhasa and maltese, who just did NOT want to get along with Freddie. All of the dogs were male except the maltese and most were uncastrated. There were no battles, no biting, and no dominant behavior from anyone, just a lot of running and playing together.

Today we went on a nice long walk to tire the boys out before the 3.5 hour drive home. Here are a few pictures. Enjoy!

War Cry

Checking out the other side of the stream

Febus

 

Finnish Fox Trials

So we returned from a busy weekend in the North, only to find that the 10˚C (50˚F) weather that we left in Basel has long since disappeared. It seems that the snow followed us home. <Sigh> So much for spring! So aside from meeting and fussing over my new god-daughter, I was lucky enough to join my friend at a fox trial in Finland. I figured that this would be a good learning experience and an opportunity to compare trials from Germany, Italy, and Finland.

Although the weather in Finland was cold (-20˚C/-4˚F at night and -5˚C/23˚F during the day) and snowy, the skies were nearly always sunny and clear blue. The surroundings in Finland remind me a lot of Northern Wisconsin; pine and birch trees everywhere, small lakes, stony outcroppings, rolling hills, and sparsely populated. I really enjoy the feeling of a home away from home.

Anyhow, back to the Fox trial. The first difference between the German and Italian trials was the location. We arrived at this beautiful little barn and country house, but as you can see, there was a LOT of snow. So how do you have a artificial den test when you can't see the ground you ask? Easy. You put it in the barn! The second story of the barn was more or less dedicated to the trial set up. The boxes, compared to the German test was much smaller in scale and even a bit smaller than the Italian set up.

 

Unlike the previous tests that I have observed, this test wasn't limited to dachshunds. There were a variety of dogs there that day-12 dogs in all- including a smooth dachdhund, a wirehaired dachshund, a few parson and jack russel terriers, border terriers and a couple German Jagdterriers. Each dog is allotted 20 minutes for the test, but based on it's skill, the test time could last as little as 10 minutes. 

How the test runs:

Here is how the set up looks from above. I can't remember the exact dimensions, but the idea is similar to what I have encountered in other countries.

The luolakoirien taipumuskokeessa(LUT), aka underground trial, as I experienced it/was explained it has different levels: LUT D-B and LUT A.  LUT A, being the most advanced. I will talk about this a bit more later.

First, all dogs are put through the empty den to check for Baulaut (voicing in an empty den with no quarry). After the dog has successfully completed the Baulaut portion, the test can begin. The fox is released into the cave and separated by bars (the blue entry way). By the way, these foxes weren't the red foxes I was used to. They were beautiful, fuzzy grey foxes, which are still a form of red fox (Vulpes vulpes), but the coloration is different. The fox is then allowed to run to the first holding box. The dog is then released (left tunnel with the green run). Unlike in the German test, this green block represents the "small" part of the tunnel and the dog must do it right away. Also, unlike the German test, the tunnel does not narrow in width (height staying the same), but the width stays the same and the height becomes much lower.

Very basic schematic of the dog's side of the tunnel. The green is the shallowest part at ~6 inches (15cm). It may be slightly more, but I remembered my friend saying it was similar in size to the German test.

In order for the dog to go through this part, it literally needs to crawl through on it's side... at least the dachshunds need to because of their large chests.

After the dog is inside and past the narrow part, the dog must pursue the fox as that fox is moved from box to box, much like in the German exam.  It must bark and put pressure on the fox for a few minutes. I believe it is at this point that determines the B, C or D grade of the exam. On the overview above, you will see that the right hand tunnel of the figure 8 has yellow stars. The dog is graded on how close it gets to the fox, while giving pressure. I believe the markings are put something like 10, 25 and 50 cm away. The closer the dog gets and barks and pressures the fox, the higher the rating.

To end the trial, the fox and dog are put in contact with each other. All of the boards separating them are removed and the dog is allowed to pursue the fox as it would underground. The foxes of course can fight back, so this really determines the courage of the dog. The judge and veterinarian have to keep a close eye on the going on so that they have the opportunity to separate the animals by bars before anything can happen. In one case, there was a dog that was snapped at by the fox and did not want to pursue it any further. The test was stopped and the dog failed, not physically injured, but mentally unable to continue.

The LUT A exam is more difficult than the LUT D-B because of a further obstacle: sand. In the LUT A, there is a pile of sand that the dog must dig through in order to continue with the test. I was surprised at the amount of sand added. The blue trapezoid below is a fairly accurate representation of the added sand amount. Once the dog has dug himself through, the exam continues similar to before.

Sand has been added after the first box as an additional barrier

In Finland you can gain working championships through most hunting trials. To become a working champion on fox in Finland, a dog must pass LUT B 2x and LUT A 1x.  I hope that I got most of the test details correct. I spent a lot of the day babysitting and not as much watching the dogs, not that there is so much to watch besides some small flags flapping to show the location of the animals. It was a wonderful, amazing sound to be underneath the trial set up though! The dogs and foxes running through the wooden boxes above your head and the barking...Wow. I'd love to try our dogs on a test like this, but I think that this is a wish for the future.

Busy, busy, busy!

As we all know life gets really busy at times. The last few weeks have turned out to be busier than I could have imagined. Personally, I am making figures and doing writing for my paper (which will be submitted after Easter) and Simon is in the same boat. Even though the weeks are busy and stressful, we try to dedicate our weekends to the dogs.

This past weekend was spurlaut practice and the beginnings of normal training sessions with our DTK group. As I have mentioned in the past, Switzerland is not rich in rabbits and hares. This makes spurlaut training nearly impossible. Once per year they test the dogs in Kerzers (just west of Bern) and thankfully there are usually less than 6 dogs being tested because their just aren't that many hares.  Two years ago the group walked the fields for 5 hours to try and get enough hares to test the dogs on. Yuck! Last year on the otherhand Freddie did his Sp test near Mannheim- about 3 hours north of Basel- and walking 1 field, all of the dogs were tested on 2 hares. All the dogs had 2 or 3 hares in total and it took roughly 2 hours.

For our practice we went 1 hour north of Basel near the town of Rust. We had been to this location the autumn before and had good success with the number of hares. This time was even better. In addition to being a nice spring day with sunshine and temperatures in the 50s (10C), we saw 14 hares.  This was Baxter's first time going after the hares and we weren't sure what he would do. It took Freddie about 5 hares before he really got it, so we didn't expect Baxter to do too much. The little guy  did really well though. He followed the track well and was interested in where the bunny was sitting and on the trail. He went with Freddie running one track and I hope that he learned a bit by example. The last hare of the day seemed to be the trigger. It was not his turn, but the hare ran right in front of him and the other dog was not far behind. I think that Baxter finally had his "Aha" moment where he realized that the hare was what he was smelling. In two weeks we will again spend the weekend near Mannheim and hopefully Bax will get to run a few more hares.

Getting ready to walk the fields. What a great spring day! (Photo courtesy of H. Walker)

This weekend the boys are going to Luzern on "holiday" while Simon and I go to visit our friends-and Baxter's breeders- in Finland. I'm very excited to see them and meet their new baby girl! In addition, I will be attending a Finnish fox trial organized by Salla. I am really curious how it differs from what I have seen in Germany and Italy, so look for more on that for my next post. Have a great weekend!

Dirty noses are the sign of a good day!

Offenburg IHA and Specialausttellung for Dackels

He really is a carbon copy of his Mom- 11 months old

 So we spent this weekend in Offenburg, Germany for Baxter's 3rd and 4th shows. He is now 11 months old and developing quite nicely. We really need to work on ring training, as he is too happy and likes to prance around. I guess that it is better than dragging the dog in the ring, but we still have to work on it. Even with the prancing, the judge on Saturday awarded him the highest rating and asked us how we kept his teeth so white.

V1 CAC/J-DTK, CAC/J-VDH Ortenaujugendsieger

Today was a Special Ausstellung put on by the Badischer Dackel Club. This is our "home" club and of course we would go and support our friends and try for a few more awards. Today Bax behaved much nicer in the ring, but didn't want to stand on the table for the judge in order for her to inspect his tail and rear end.

Simon and Baxter in the JBOB ring competing against Dieter Engel and his junior Female Alexandra von Tollbach (which won JBOB both days)

Regardless, she gave him a very nice evaluation and awarded him: V1 CAC/J-DTK, CAC/J-VDH Jugendsieger!

What a great weekend! With these awards Baxter has earned his SDC (Swiss Dachshund Club) Jugend (Junior) Championship! He should also be eligible for his WUT (World Union Teckel) Junior Championship since he now has 4x V1-CAC/J ratings in 2 different countries.

This made us and Baxter's breeder extremely happy, but now puts us in the position that we should go to 1 more National or International dog show in Germany before he is 18 months old in order to try for the last CAC/J-VDH &/or CAC/J-DTK for him to get VDH J-Ch and DTK-JCh (with a SchwhK or BhFK result).

So a lot to think about.

During the shows we had several visitors come up to us to ask if we were A.) breeders or B.) knew when Baxter would have puppies so they could reserve one. This, I think, is a wonderful achievement and compliment to Markku and his small, but nice breeding program. What can I say? Baxter is a bit of a looker. :)

In addition, several members of our German Dackel club came to the show to watch and acted as a cheering crowd/fan club for Bax. In addition, we spoke with the judge today (Nicole Kübli) after the show was over. We were saying good-bye to friends who were organizing the event and she was waiting around so we said goodbye to her as well. She told us that we had a beautiful dog and really commended us on bringing new blood into the Swiss breeding program. She also encouraged us to keep showing Baxter because he will most certainly do well as he gets older. It was really great to hear such nice words from a judge and I think it made even the dog show skeptics (like Simon) extremely proud and happy.

Now it is getting late. The weather has turned a bit crappy and the two dackels sleeping on my legs have to go outside before we all turn in for the night. Until next time.

The Spay and Neuter Debate

So tonight was my very first SKN course and it was just as I expected... a waste of my time. I really feel that this course is for the absolutely clueless absolutely, 100% first time owners.

There was one point that I have to say I was happy to hear about: Spay and Neuter. She laid out the facts: Neutering a dog is a fairly minor surgery for males and a major, more complicated surgery in females. Not only that, but emphasis was put on the fact that there are alternatives to surgery, such as chemical castration for dogs, but that most of the habits that some people may think of when they hear that a male is uncastrated like marking, aggression, etc... can be avoided through socialization and obedience training. In any case, the overall message was to consult with your veterinarian if you are considering castration of you dog.

Sounds pretty good right?

This has been a recent topic amongst many dog people lately. In the USA it is fairly taboo NOT to castrate your dog. Not only that, but they want it done ASAP, usually well before the animal is 6 months old. This is just how it is and is the mantra in the US. Now living in Switzerland, I rarely run into dogs that are castrated- at least this is very obvious in male dogs. Never at the dog park or during training periods have our dogs ever had issues with other males. Usually they go off and play and everything is fine. During one training period there was even a female in heat and 2 unaltered male dogs. They were not as focused as usual, but were able to work and even run around on the training place, with supervision of course, with no incidence.

Not only do I not believe in castration altering behaviors, but many studies show the same. An aggressive male dog is not going to automatically become a lamb because you cut his manly parts off. Forget it! If your male is aggressive, take it to a trainer and put in the time and effort to try and alter the behavior.

In addition, there was also a recent article -I believe it was Labradors- that tracked dogs that were castrated before 1 year of age and dogs that were castrated after 1 year. Unfortunately, I can't find the article at this time, but one thing that stood out to me was that dogs castrated before 1 year of age had more "structural" problems, e.g. Luxating patella, because the hormones that signal to stop growing are no longer produced. This can cause the dogs to grow taller, resulting in higher, lankier dogs with overgrown bones. This hit close to home as my parent's last dog, an American Eskimo, had this in both her knees. It is listed as a potential ailment in the breed, but not common. My parents shelled out $2000+ in surgeries because she slipped her knee once around the age of 1 or 2 and the other at the age of 5. I now wonder if perhaps her spay at the age of 6 months contributed to her knee problems. In addition, the dog battled with being overweight for a good portion of its life (not morbidly, but a maximum 10% at her fattest), which is another common "symptom" of castration.

Christmas at my parent's house in WI in 2009. Here "Lexi," our 12 year old American Eskimo, joined in on the fun.

Jolanta Jeanneney (of the Born to Track blog) wrote a very nice article a couple months ago about castrating working dogs:
http://borntotracknews.blogspot.ch/2013/01/should-tracking-and-hunting-dogs-be.html
I think she really highlights a reason against the normal fix it ASAP view, especially with working dogs of a specific breed in such a big country. You don't want to bottleneck your breeding stock and furthermore, if you have a talented, structurally and mentally sound dog, why not pass on its genes?

I personally am not opposed to spaying or neutering of dogs. I totally understand that non-breeders, for example, don't want to deal with a female coming into heat twice per year, especially if you have males in your house or nearby. I've experienced a love-sick Freddie, yearning to escape our room and make a B-line for Baxter's half-sister. It wasn't pretty for anyone involved.

I just think that we should let dogs grow up and mature. Unlike people, dogs mature in about a year. Is that so long to wait, especially if it means a healthier and mentally more mature doggie companion? I feel like the European mentality is starting to slowly make it's way stateside and I have my fingers crossed that dog lovers take notice.