This weekend in Pictures

The ring set up at the Swiss club show. The weather was absolutely perfect.

Spectators

Junior male ring at the Swiss Clubshow

Simon and Baxter, Barbara Palladini with Castelpetroio Fa' Baccano and Dr. Marlies Müller with Lukas vom Linteler-Forst

Baxter stacked

View from our balcony in Pringy

In the European Dog show in Geneva

Baxter stacked on the podium

Competing for Best Male (CACIB)

On the down and back

European Champion 2013 Lollipop della Val Vezzeno

Markku and Iiris (Baxter's mom). Iiris at 8.5 years old is now European Veteran Champion 2013! Congrats Iiris!!

Markku and Iiris competing for Best Veteran

Best of Breed from Kennel Idesüss

Awesome castle bridge on the way back to our hotel from Geneva

Enjoying the gorgeous scenery

CH Landessieger, Eurodog Show & Formwert

Hi everyone!

Please forgive my tardiness as we have been having a great couple of days in the Geneva/French area! Yesterday was the Swiss Landessieger show and today was the Euro dog show.
 I am happy to report that we seem to have broken our SG streak and now have a few more "V"s under our belt. In the Swiss landessieger show Simon and Baxter received a V3 in junior class. Not too shabby considering the other competitors were the WUT Weltjugendsieger and the German Klubsieger. Baxter was officially the best junior male from Switzerland. ;)  Maybe next year the competition won't be so tough!

Today was the Euro dog show in Geneva. Baxter was in a class on 12 junior males and managed to receive a V rating. The competition was tough and the dogs that won yesterday also received Junior Winner and Junior Reserve Winner today. Simon and Baxter are still learning, but showed very nicely after a few tips from our mentors/breeders.

Big congrats today go to Baxter's Mom: "Taxette's Isla Margarita" who was V2 Veteran Reserve at the Swiss Clubsieger yesterday and V1 European Veteran Winner today! Congrats Iiris!!!

We are so excited to own such a wonderful dog and hope for many more great show days.

Furthermore, Baxter received his Zahnstatus (tooth status) as well as him Formwert evaluation.  Bax has no missing teeth and received a great evaluation. After sending in the paperwork, Bax will be approved for breeding in Switzerland.

Great and fun weekend so far!!!

Back!

Dear readers,

I am back! The thesis has been turned in to my committee and the other copy will make its way to the Dean's office by the end of the week. I am happy that is over, now I have to study for my exam...

But currently, that is neither here nor there. This weekend is a big weekend for us as we are hosting our friends and breeders in Switzerland for the Eurodogshow! I'm more excited for the people than the show, but I think it'll be an experience. Over the course of 4 days there are supposed to be 11,000 dogs (of course some of those dogs are also registered for the all breed show tomorrow). It's a big deal and I'm a bit surprised that they would choose a country as expensive as Switzerland to host it.

We will not be partaking in the all breed show tomorrow. I wish we would have as the judge is supposed to favor our type of dog and there are NO intermediate males. Might have been a nice start towards a Swiss Ch title. Oh, well. That's life!

Saturday will be the Swiss Club show. I'm not sure how many Dackel will show up, but I am guessing that if they come for the Euro show, they will also join for the club show.

Sunday is the Eurodog show. There are 58 standard wirehaired dachshunds entered with 30% being juniors. Baxter is registered in junior class, so we'll see if the judge is forgiving with his bit of wobble in the back. His muscles are starting to nicely tighten up, but he still needs a few more months...

After these shows, we are taking a break and going back to more hunting practices. September brings spurlaut practices and we're hoping that the small one finds his voice. 

I'm going to try and blog on both days complete with pictures.  So get ready!

Good night from the boys!

Baxter Passed his Wassertest

Today in Uezwil, Switzerland, Baxter (Barbwired Better than the Rest) passed his Wassertest with flying colors! Simon and Baxter were the first team to participate and Baxter was SUPER excited to go. Simon said he flew into the water, grabbed the duck, and brought it back to shore like a pro. I wish I could have been there to see it. The judge said that there was nothing more to comment other than it was great work!

Klubsiegerausstellung, losing streak, and duck retrieving

Hello all, I know I have been absent lately. Between normal, everyday work, trying to finish up my degree, working with the dogs, and making a 3 tiered wedding cake for my very good friend's special day, blogging took a back seat.

Photo of said wedding cake. It was delicious, if I do say so myself!

So to briefly catch you all up...
We have been chasing a final CAC/J in Germany and we are on a "losing" streak. 3 judges, 3 shows, 3 SGs. All the judges (more or less) have agreed that Bax is a beautiful dog, but his movement isn't there yet. Some judges even commented that the movement may never come and thought that we should take him to a vet to have him examined or recommended muscle powder, etc... One actually said the he was "too low, too heavy, and too loose in the back to ever be a show dog" and that we should save our money or get him a working certificate as working dogs can be more faulty. Whaaa? That really blew me away...
I thought that youth class would be forgiving of these traits since many dogs are not finished at 1 year or 15 months or even 2 years, especially males. So, sadly, we are giving up on the last CAC/J since the shows between now and the end of October in our area are non-existent and the though of driving to Leipzig, Rostock, Bremen, or Dortmund (all at least 5 hours), plus the money and time to likely be told the same things that we have been told in the past seems like a waste.

We did, however, enter Bax for the first time in Zwischenklasse (15-24 months) at the Klubsiegerausstellung in Kaunitz, Germany. We chose this class because we knew that the youth class would be large and full of young up and coming dogs from large, well known breeders. Opting out of youth class was a good choice since there were 12 males entered! It was a VERY full ring! In ZwK there were only 4 males and Baxter was the youngest. I think that he stands out in the ring, not only because I'm partial and think that he is a pretty boy, but because there seems to be a trend lately in taller dachshunds with narrower fronts. Baxter is lower to the ground compared to many dogs and he has a wider front, but it is a straight front and if he stands properly (and not like an A-frame tent, which is his favorite to do in the ring...) he looks beautiful and well built. We came in 3rd of 4 dogs, so not great, but also not a disappointing start. We know his faults and we will get his evaluation tonight to see what the judge commented on. For the time being he is signed up for 1 more show weekend this season: the Swiss club show and the Euro dog show in Geneva. After that set we are planning lots of blood tracking, swimming, running rabbits (if we can find them) and maybe some boar work to get the little one fit and working his nose. For the time being, we will be stationed in Switzerland, but a move will be in our future. Now just to find the jobs!

The Klubsieger was a cool show to be at since a lot of prominent breeders were present and there were of course 350 dachshunds of all sizes and hair types running around. I spoke a bit with Barbara Palladini about her dog Lollipop, who is a beautiful dark, male and went WUT-WS, KS, BIS this weekend. She in turn gave me a nice evaluation of Baxter and suggested that we take about 6 months off from showing and let him have fun being a dog. She said that most of their dogs aren't ready before the age of 2 and that he just needs time. She also told us how much she liked him and then laughed, saying that "Well, he is 1/2 mine!" :) She said that a lot of his qualities reminded her of Apollo (Baxter's dad) and you can tell that she loves that dog. We also were fortunate to briefly meet Brigitte Preuss, who is one of the very well known breeders of wirehair dachshunds and helped to shape how these dackels look today. Our Züchtwartin Tanja owns dogs from Frau Preuss and they have been friends for years and she is the one that introduced us. Frau Preuss loved Baxter's head and coat and asked if she could steal him. So, even though the small one didn't win any prizes, he received a lot of love from the bystanders.

Last but not least we have been practicing our duck retrieving! I think Baxter will retrieve no problem, but Freddie is a bit of a wild card. I think that with a little pressure and the real duck, he just might pass. We'll see in a week! We are planning on taking the boys out swimming and retrieving at least 2 more times in the next week, hoping to solidify their skills. I think that this fall we will again try our dogs blood tracking and spurlaut. Hopefully we can get Baxter his working certificate before we start up with shows again. Time will tell. 

Quiet, but all is ok

I know that I have gone quiet recently. It is not because we aren't active with the dogs, but there isn't anything spectacular to report show-wise (we are currently on an SG-streak in Germany) and hunting trials are up and coming.

Never fear, there should be more to report in the next few weeks. Until then...

Baxter passed his Wesenstest!

So just a brief update for you all. We had a very eventful week, Simon successfully defended his PhD thesis and now Baxter passed his Wesenstest with flying colors!  Unfortunately Baxter was 2 days too young to also do his Formwert, so we are doing that privately in about a month. I was not able to attend as I had my own challenges today... I'm making a wedding cake for our very good friend's wedding in 2 weeks. So I have baked 9 cakes today, but I still need to bake 3 more and work on the frosting. Maybe tomorrow.

Anyhow, for dogs to be approved for breeding in Switzerland there are 3 things that are needed: Wesenstest, Formwert, and an eye test. The Wesenstest can be performed after the dog is 12 months and the formwert after the dog is 15 months. The eye test can be done at 15 months as well...maybe before, but I don't see the point in having it done unless you plan on breeding your dog. The Formwert is basically a dog show. The judges check the teeth, testicles, tail, etc... make sure that the dog is structurally sound and if it is awarded a SG or V (very good or excellent) they can be bred. 2 judges are present in case of discrepancy. I'm not too worried about the formwert, but we have to wait now until August to have Baxter approved.

Our little guy hanging out after a show

So the Wesenstest is basically a character test for the dog. The dog shouldn't be too afraid or aggressive or needy. These are all traits that aren't good for breeding stock. The test goes something like this:
First the dogs in the test group are unleashed in a field to run around while a shot is fired from a starter pistol. This is to make sure that the dogs aren't afraid of gunshots. The dogs are then called back and the testers proceed one by one.
The next step is an obstacle course where the dog has to go over different surfaces (wood, concrete, metal, etc...), go through tunnels, through hanging bottles, by open umbrellas, boxes, and buckets of toys. All of this  is done off leash, but with the owner and judges walking with the dog. Baxter had no problems and was more than happy to go through all the obstacles. The dog and owner then have to walk past a man with a chainsaw/lawnmower/weed wacker type equipment. Baxter was really interested in this guy and went in for a bit of a closer look. Then the dog and owner have to walk through a crowd of people, again all off leash. One of the people in the crowd read Bax's name off his hunting collar and said "Hi Baxter," which got his attention and made him go all happy, wiggly. All got a little laugh and then it was time to finish the test.
The last part of the test is to check for aggressiveness. The dog is tied up and the owner goes away out of sight. Whining is ok, but aggressive barking is not tolerated. Freddie whined a lot during his wesenstest. Baxter, in Simon's words, "sat there looking like a doofus." No whining, crying, barking, just watching. There are 3 things that go by: a person on a bike, a person with crutches and a hat, and a person with a dog of another breed.

All in all the weather was crappy, but the little guy passed with no problems! Furthermore, even though Simon was alone, there were several other club members that we knew there, so he didn't have to be bored. Now just an eye test and "show" eval and the little guy is ready for breeding. :)

"Self-confident male that mastered the obstacle course with no problems. Again, great dog!"