Kennel Barbwired has a new look

I haven't been a very active blogger lately, but I have been busy with a couple other things. One of which was re-vamping the Kennel Barbwired website. I think it came out pretty well if I do say so myself. ;) So if you just can't get enough of Baxter or want to check out his mom or siblings as well as all of the dog's accomplishments, go take a look. I can fully attest that they have some very nice looking and working dogs for anyone interested.

Starting our Swedish testing

So I have been preparing a piece on doing so many different activities with our dogs, but the past two days halted it a bit.

Today we performed our first test in Sweden, an Anlagstest for blood tracking. This test is a beginner test to basically to see if a dog has the drive and ability to do blood tracking.  The test calls for a 2-5 hr old track that is at least 600 m through various terrain that the dog must complete in a maximum of 30 min.

We signed Baxter up to participate in a open class blood tracking course so that we could learn about blood tracking in Sweden, which is certainly different from what we are used to in Germany/Switzerland/Italy. Plus, the young dog could use some more experience. On Wednesday we went to the theory course.... All in Swedish (luckily we had a translator), but surprisingly, I understood more than I thought I would. The organizers/ judges for the course are very nice women that, thankfully for us, speak excellent English. They wanted to be sure that we took the Anlagstest before starting the course and were confident that the Bax would do fine even though we haven't tracked since October. So yesterday we got a email that they would have time today if and asked if we could make it and we were on the road to Hässleholm around 10:30 this morning.

Our track was 4 hr old through a forest with moderate cover, though lots of fallen trees, hills, and relatively steep downhill. There was a large stream and some boggy areas, and quite a bit of wildlife (we saw fresh moose prints on our track and 3 deer as we were leaving). Baxter did great and the judge thought so as well, stating that he was a really good blood tracking dog that stayed exactly in the middle of the scent line. With that he got the pass and will now be able to participate in open class blood tracking trials!

Next week we'll take part in some Easter activities with the club as well as laying our 1st open class blood track for practice. Here's to hoping for more good things to come!!

Our April Fool's boy turns 2

Today Baxter turned 2 years old. I can't believe that he is 2 already! Where does the time go? Baxter has matured into a very nice looking boy (if I do say so myself), although he is still a big puppy. I've written about his numerous accomplishments over the past year, so  I won't brag about them here. All I can say is that we are SO incredibly proud of him and looking forward to many more years together.

4 weeks old

On the beach today

A little photo shoot at the pier near our house 

Multi JCh Barbwired Better than the Rest Sfk, Sp, WaT, SchwhK/40, BHP-G

After our photo shooting, we took the dogs for a bit of running in the sand. The water has been a bit high lately, but in the past few days it has receded and the beach has returned. The boys had a good time, even though it was a bit cold this afternoon.

Beach runner!

tug-o-war

Playing in the water

Natural water retriever  (in the background your can see the Øresund bridge that connects Sweden to Denmark)

Life isn't too bad by the beach

The Champion

Show season is upon us again. At times it gets very, very difficult to not take the judges evaluations personally. Showing a dog is a bit like showing a piece of yourself. You put it out there to be judged, sometimes favorably, sometimes not. While one judge might think you have the next World Winner in the making, the other may suggest that this dog is too flawed to continue showing. It's a game of preferences, since no dog is perfect.

Taken from the blog: "The long and short of it all," illustrated by Sheila Dolan

That being said we will likely not be showing as much this year in order to save up a bit of money and give Baxter a bit more time to mature. Never fear, we won't be short on activities. Baxter and Simon are attending a tracking class this spring to learn the rules of tracking in Sweden and to practice. We are planning to work towards tracking championships with both of the dogs this year as well as learn more about the den tests in Sweden. Much more to come, I'm sure.

Question to all the readers: Dog breeding? What's your criteria?

I have been seeing a lot of litter announcements recently, or have spoken to a number of breeders personally, where the parents of the litter are quite young-sometimes not even 2 years old.

I know that in some countries there are restrictions enforced by the kennel club on the tests that the dog much pass in order to be bred or evaluations of character or general appearance.

So my question to you, dear readers, is: At which age do you breed your dogs for the first time? Moreover, what do you put emphasis on when breeding (titles, seeing/knowing the dogs, pedigree)?
On the opposite end of the spectrum, when do you retire a bitch from breeding?

If you feel like giving an opinion, feel free to comment or send me an email at whdackel@gmail.com
Maybe it'll be worked into my next opinion piece. :)

Looking forward to hearing back from all of you!

Baby Freddie and his siblings

Can you pick out Baxter?

Our new display case

When we moved to the new house something became apparent... the dogs also have things. Tracking leashes, spurlaut lines, winter coats (though they rarely wear them), safety vest, and last, but not least, awards.

So where to put this? Since our new place is significantly larger than our old one, Simon and I each have an office. My office is also now the "dog room," but that's ok. I like looking at our dog's accomplishments. Originally we were going to put things on the walls, but then I found this cool room divider/bookcase:

I think it's perfect :)

Maybe we will eventually need something more, but we will tackle that obstacle when we get there.

Also... This came in the mail yesterday:

I think it fits well: Besten Hundeführer 2013 

So needless to say, I'm happy. :)

Double Feature in the Badischer Dachshund Club magazine

I was ecstatic to receive our quarterly magazine from the Badischer Dachshund Club about a week ago and see that both Simon and I had articles in there. Mine was about our spurlaut exam (based on this text) with translation assistance from Simon and Simon's was about his BHP exam with Baxter. I know I have written about both tests on the blog, but I thought it would be fun to see the articles. Sorry to our English readers for the German!

I love the photo of Freddie at the top. It captures him perfectly.

A good time had by all and lots of great results!

Last, but not least, our SDC magazine came the other day and we were happy to see our results in the Ausstellung in Ausland section (Exhibitions outside of the country-for Karlsruhe and Wels) as well as in the Prüfungs in Ausland section (Tests outside of the country). As I mentioned last week, Simon won the Wanderpokal given out by the Jagd group for Best dog handler in the section, and these tests contributed to that score. 

Even though I am a driving force for practicing and participating in tests with the dogs, Simon really is the man that does the performance work and I am very thankful for that. Now as we start on new practices and tests, I will definitely be helping out. This year we will be working with the boys on tracking and getting into the fox/badger dens and we hope that we will have success on both fronts. Time will tell, but for now we are happy with our success in 2013!