And then there were 3

It has been 3 weeks since Liina joined our little band here in Sweden. Where does the time go? She is a funny, vocal little girl. She loves snuggling on the couch, recently learned to use the dog stairs up to the bed (oh no!), and has quite the little nose on her. We have starting short tracking practices with her. She has gotten 25m tracks aged 30 min-1 hr and she works them SO well for such a young girl. She also is really good at following the scent from hoof drags. Deer hooves are quickly becoming one of her favorite things to play with. In addition, we practice basics and she is already really great walking on a leash, sitting, holding in stand (show training), comfortable in the car, and EXCELLENT recall on whistle. We need to find a dog class in the area for better socialization and basic obedience relatively soon. Anyhow, she will really be something at this pace.

Liina at exactly 4 months

She and Baxter are very close. They lay with each other, play together, and most often Liina is following Bax around in the house and in the yard. They both also have the very annoying habit of liking to be very close to me in the kitchen. Neither of them beg, instead, they think lying next to, or between my feet is the best place in the world. I think I need to institute a no dogs in the kitchen rule.

2x Barbwired

How can I be mad at these faces?

Freddie has also taken a liking to Liina. Even though he is over 4 years old, he still plays like a puppy. He has shown Liina all the best areas in the garden to explore (and dig). We are re-proofing our fence as we write this as Freddie and Liina decided to explore the neighboring field through a hole they dug. We don't let the dogs out in the yard unsupervised. With a new dog (and a female) in the pack and two males (even if they are great together 99% of the time), we don't want to take any chances of a fight or an escape. Luckily, we caught the dogs in the act and got them back into the yard within minutes and could fix the fencing. Oh dogs, what will you do next? 

For us, having Liina has been a new experience. It isn't having a female dog that is different, but living out in the countryside! Admittedly, we don't take long walks as much anymore with the dogs and certainly not several times a day as we did in the city. I know, it is horrible, but they get tons of time every day to run in the yard and explore. We do still go on walks around our area 3-4x per week depending on the weather. Additionally, we try to do a lot more individual activities with the dogs: dog shows, tracking and trainings, etc... With Liina, this has been taking trips to the city. We want to make sure that bikes, cars, crowds of people, and other dogs are not scary to her. Recently we went to the Stadtspark in Lund and took a nice walk and then practiced Liina's ability to be a "cafe dog" that could quietly sit under the table while we stopped for 20 min and drank a coffee. Baxter is an excellent cafe dog, whereas Freddie needs/wants more attention and would rather go, go, go. Liina did a nice job at lying down and observing, rather than barking at everyone that wandered by. Good training for a little girl. 

So this feisty little girl has wiggled her way into our heart and our home. I think in the future she is going to be the ruler of our pack, but for now she is enjoying being a puppy. The boys tolerate her to a point and then put her in her place, but I have found everyone happily lying together on our living room carpet. I think they like her all right. :) I can't wait to see what this girl can do!

The boys and the badger

All I can say is success! Freddie did an excellent job and worked a Kvalitet 1 (1st prize)!!! His one faux pas was that he had problems turning himself around  Baxter did an okay job, but was overall a little bit slow to start and could have been a bit more persistent, but barked himself a Kvalitet 2 (2nd prize). His practices were by far better than the test, but this was his first result underground, so I was happy! I think both of the boys could have done a bit better if there would have been a practice closer to the test, but I can´t be too sad.

The boys with their loot

Out of the 7 dogs that participated, 5 passed: 4 with Kval 1 and 1 with Kval 2. The judge commented on how happy he was to see dachshund participating in underground trials again. Supposedly there has been a steep decline in the amount of dachshund participating in, and being used for underground hunting, in Sweden. To have a test with only dachshund participants made him very happy.

This is Freddie´s first result from Sweden and he killed it! Now we have to decide what to do next. With this score, if Freddie is able to pass a real life hunting test (equivalent to the German BhFN/BhDN) and spring a fox or hold off a badger, then he would gain a Hunting championship. Alternatively, we could start training him in Denmark or Norway or Finland and try to get results from those countries. Currently, we are hoping to try Fred on Drevprov here in Sweden while we try to decide what we want to do with the underground test. Freddie is readily Spurlaut and has a lot of hunting drive, so you never know. Maybe he will end up a hunting champion... One can dream. :)

Freddie showing us all how it's done!

Finland and more

Well, we are back and feeling rested after a nice holiday. We spent 10 days in Finland, visiting friends, enjoying the very hot summer (over 27C EVERY day), and attending the World Dog Show. We did a bit of swimming and sunbathing, but not a lot of outside activities with Bax due to the horrid heat since it was well over 25C every day by 10 in the morning. Hot, hot, hot! We were very lucky that we brought a fan with us since our hotel, though nice in a lot of other ways, had no air conditioning. This meant that Bax did some swimming and otherwise had a lot of activity in the early morning or after dinnertime when the temperatures dipped to a more comfortable temperature.

My favorite sign from the archipelago

 Freddie stayed with a friend back in Sweden since he wasn´t going to the show and sitting in a box or hotel room for several days in a row is no fun. He enjoyed the lap of luxury in a nice house in the suburbs and was treated like a prince. What a lucky dog! He was very happy to be home though, let me tell you!

Nothing exciting happened at the dog shows. We knew that at a big show like this, it was unlikely that we would get anything, but why not try? For the 2nd time in my life, I handled Baxter as his breeders, Simon, and I decided that he looked and behaved better with me, than he did with Simon. We only got Very Goods, but pretty good evaluations and it was a good learning experience for me since I will be handling Baxter this autumn at shows. He looked especially good at the World dog show (as told to me by his breeders), which made me very happy. Excellents would have been amazing, but at the same time, good evaluations and not falling on my face are just as important.

In addition to the show, we combined our holiday with the pick-up of our new puppy. Yes, that´s right, we picked up a puppy!  Meet our new girl Liina.

This is our new co-owned girl Barbwired Champagne (MultiCh. Gordon Forte-Forte de Buch de la Perouse x MultiCh. Barbwired Austria) aka Liina and she is just under 16 weeks old. As you might recognize, she is from the same kennel as our Baxter and Baxter's mother is Liina´s grandmother. Both of her parents are successful show dogs, both have working results including Tracking championships in Sweden, a Working championship in Italy and trials in Finland, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, & Austria, and both are very loving and people oriented dogs. In fact, Aura, Liina's mother, is the reason that we have dackels. She is the dog that turned Simon into a dachshund lover. :) Liina is a very loving and feisty little girl and one day I hope that we will be able to start our own breeding program with this little one. We will see what the future holds for this girl as she will start shows and working trials next year.

The boys are both tolerating the new addition very well. Baxter is more tolerant and willing to play with the little one where Freddie is a bit more cautious and seems convinced that if he ignores her, she may go away. Liina has gotten Freddie to play with her a bit in the past day, so we will see how their relationship develops.

The weather today is less than ideal and it appears that summer is over. The rain has been pouring all day and it makes the end of holidays/starting work again not seem so bad. Back to normal life!

Baxter is an Uncle!

On the 21st of July, Baxter's sister Iita gave birth to 7 puppies (3 boys and 4 girls) in Finland. Mom and puppies are doing well. The father of the litter is MultiWinner and Ch Lollipop della Val Vezzeno.

Iita's character is exactly like Baxter- a wonderful, lovey dog that is very people oriented. Iita has not yet been in trials, but her mother is a Swedish tracking champion and an Italian working champion and her brother-our Baxter-has proven himself to be quite versatile in blood tracking, spurlaut, water retrieving, and is coming along nicely with training underground. Additionally, Lollipop has earned an Italian working championship (fbja, bhfk95, Sp).

Father of the Litter: Ch Lollipop della Val Vezzeno

Due to the large litter size, some puppies are still available. The pedigree of these puppies is filled with beauty and working champions, and these puppies are looking for active homes (show, hunting, or trials). If you are interested you can contact Kennel Barbwired (in English, Detusch, Suomi or Svenska). I can also put you in touch with them.

Sweden has granted us a warm welcome

We have now lived in Sweden for 6 months. Can you believe it? There has been a lot of changes and a lot of frustrations, such as a never-ending waiting period for my residence permit, which I am still waiting for by the way, but I digress. One thing that I didn't expect, but which has been a completely wonderful surprise has been the kindness of the people.

Of course most of our early contacts were dachshund (tax) people, so naturally they must be wonderful, right? ;)

The group after a gryt training (photo H. Arlock)

 
It has been so much easier to start to integrate into the new culture and surroundings with the dogs. We had activities and busy lives once again. We weren't just sitting home alone in the middle of the countryside, we were going to practices, shows, and social outings. Social media has been crucial to getting to know people and Facebook has connected us with a lot of Dachshund people. It is really a wonderful thing to meet and hangout with your Facebook friends on a regular basis. We even met one of our blog followers (Lindsjö Taxar) that was kind enough to chat us up, give us training tools, and invite us for future hunting practices with the dogs. 

Majsan & Simon at the show in Tvååker. Neither of us got the results that we needed, but it was fun to get together none-the-less

Simon has even started playing his trumpet once again due to our friend Elisabeth. Luckily, we now have a house with no neighbors, so he can play all he wants... now I'm just waiting for the drum set to appear.

Simon and Elisabeth playing horn at the club show in Kjugekull (photo E. Ahlin)

We haven't necessarily been as successful in showing as we would like to be since moving here, but it will come. We have a young dog and  The dogs have made up for it with their natural abilities. We had to "re-learn" how to track since the Swedish method is different than me previously learned (which reminds me that I should have Simon do a write-up regarding it). The dogs are doing just fine, but it is the handlers that need more practice!

All in all, things are going well here in Sweden and summer holidays are just around the corner. What more could a girl and her dachshunds ask for?

Baxter's first open class tracking trial a success!

This week started out really shitty with my computer being stolen from our car while out with friends in Helsingborg. Ugh. It was my work/home/everything computer. Thankfully everything was backed up somewhere and the car did not have any major damages. Still annoying none the less.

Anyhow, Markku and Salla were visiting for a holiday/shows/tracking trials with their dog and while here, chatted with a few tracking judges. Markku found out that at least one judge would be available this week and so we signed Baxter up for a tracking trial. Our trainers this spring suggested that Baxter needed more focus in order to do well, but after speaking with more people, they thought he sounded ready and suggested we just try a "real" test track. So today Simon and Baxter headed off to Sjöbö to do their first open class tracking test.

I am overjoyed to say that the boys did very, very well and were rewarded with a 1st prize in open class! Not only is this a great result, but Baxter needs the result if he ever wants to be a Beauty Champion in Sweden. We are all really happy and hope for at least 2 more 1st prizes in our future! :)

Congratulations my boy and very good work!

Photo by Eva Ahlin

How versatile is your dog?

This is a topic that I have started writing about time and time again, but after a comment today, I felt the need to write about it. We were told today that our dog has "too many problems" with tracking and there is no way we should even be thinking/practicing for den tests. Now these "problems" with tracking is focus. Baxter is still a relatively young dog and in true dachshund fashion, is stubborn. He is amazing on all of the "hard" parts- bloodless areas, turns and the bloodless down and back (there isn't a good translation for the Swedish word). He is a high energy dog with a lot of drive, but he doesn't always want to track because we ask him. This will come with time and more experience for sure. The length, time, etc... doesn't matter, but deer tracks right across the path is WAY more interesting than our stupid artificial tracks. Anyhow, more practices and he will be fine. We would love for him to be ready now, but we are more than willing to spend time and energy on our little doggie.

It isn't the comment of "too many problems" that bothered me, the thing that bothered me was that someone other than Simon was trying to tell me what I should do with my dog. I know that it is a dog, but I feel like the semi-equivalent is when new parents are told how they should raise their child. Just a bit pissed off. I mean, if this was an especially close friend that knew our dog really well or his breeders, maybe I would have had a conversation about it. Luckily, Simon was approached with this question, because he is much more cool in these situations than I am. He basically replied "I think my dog is capable of telling the difference between an artificial den and a blood track" and that was the end of the conversation. This is not the first time that we have had someone try to tell us how to raise-people had their opinions of Freddie too-and train our dogs, in essence, tell us that we just do far too much with them. I'm not sure if some of these people feel the need to treat us a bit like children, since we are on average 20 years younger than many members, but it gets old. I am completely open to having an open discussion about these things, but I do NOT respond well to just being told I can or cannot do something for no great reason.

My question, though, is how much is really too much? If we were blood tracking every day or hunting or doing agility or whatnot, then yes, I would agree that we are doing FAR too much. For a while we were a bit overloaded: 2x per week dog class/obedience in 2 different clubs, training for BHP, training blood tracking. I mean, a dog is definitely a time consuming hobby, but between all that and work, we had no free time. We have cut back significantly in our activities since moving to Sweden. We are still busy, don't get me wrong, we have been showing Baxter about 1x per month, we practice obedience on our own in the garden, and we have taken a tracking course in order to get a feel for how to do blood tracking here. Now we have started gryt/den training now that tracking is over, but this was a total of 3x and maximum 1 time per week. I wouldn't call that intense training.

I also find that it is a little close minded to think that a dog is not capable of performing multiple tasks. I think my dog is smart enough to know the difference between an artificial den and a blood track or chasing rabbits or retrieving. We have different collars and different commands for each activity. Also, we aren't doing blood tracking in the morning and den in the evening or anything, these activities are days or weeks apart. Anyhow, isn't one of the great things about dachshunds is that they are supposed to be versatile dogs? They are the only breed that officially hunt under and above ground and many participate every year in Vp (versatility test) that involves: Spurlaut, SchwhK, Stöber, and obedience all on 1 day, these dogs have to have hunting drive AND know how to do multiple activities. These are not easy tests. They are taxing on the dog and the handler and we are hoping to some day participate in one. In fact, now in Switzerland to be a working dog 3 different test now have to be passed to get your working certificate: Sp, SchwhK, BhFK95 (rabbit trailing, blood tracking, den tests) and for the CIB, the dog has to also pass Stöber test or Vp, in addition to 2x CACIB in 2 countries.

An example VP form

Can all dogs be equally versatile? I doubt it. We see huge differences between Freddie and Baxter in how they work. Baxter is more reserved and more meticulous then Fred. He thinks about things more while he is doing them and is more strong willed. Freddie is much more willing to please and is much more eager and excitable type of dog. He lets his instincts take over, especially during the hunting activities. On blood tracking and BHP (the companion dog test), Baxter far exceled even at his young age, but he needs a little more work to be truly excellent- he has a LOT of natural talent. Freddie took much, much more work to get him to pass the 2 tests that Baxter did amazingly well on. It's not that he isn't talented, but his excitability kept him from calmly, quietly waiting, or running (honestly, 500m tracks in 10-15 min when we were starting out), rather than carefully following a blood track and checking his work as Baxter does. On den test which is a lot of instinct, Freddie is far superior, though it took him 3 tries to master this different den set up(as compared to the German style), whereas today, on Baxter's 2nd ever practice in a den, he showed no problems in the tight entry space and moving around/exploring the different areas. Different dogs, different lineage, different ways of working.

Dogs are like people, they are different, but I think that the important thing is to try different activities and see where the dog does well. Maybe hunting isn't your dog's forte, but agility is, so go and work with them on that! Don't put the dog into a single category. If you have the opportunity and desire to try out different tests and activities, my advice is to do it! It can never hurt and it gives you the chance to further bond with your dog. Now, if your dog doesn't like the activity, that is another thing, but you'll never know until you try! 

 

Will we do various tests with the boys in Sweden- yes. You have to pick your battles, but we are going to carry on with what we are doing since, overall, it seems to work. Maybe the dogs will prove the nay-sayers wrong, either way, they are champions to me!