Wow!

I just saw that this little blog has had over 11,000 visitors! How amazing is that? Thank you to all of our readers for taking an interest in our dogs and our lives. I will continue to write about our successes (and failures) and am always open to questions and comments from you. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

SO close I can taste it...

So even though my Monday started out really crappy having to deal with just a lot of bureaucratic bull shit, it ended on a high note.

Baxter had his 2nd absolutely excellent result in tracking earning him a 1st prize with HP (Hederpris/Honor prize)! Not only was this result exciting for us, but for our judge Eva as this was the first HP she had ever given out. How can that not make you feel special?

Success!

Baxter earned this distinction due to the ultimate distraction... a herd of over 10 deer directly in front of them and crossing over and (as Eva put is) totally ruining the last 1/4 of the track.

Baxter is VERY fond of the forest and all sorts of game. For the first few sessions of our blood tracking course, he thought all of the wild animals in the forest were more interesting than the track. There are pluses and minuses to the course we took, but let's just say that it was nice to meet new people and see a new area of Sweden. Anyhow, our main focus with Bax since the course has been, well, trying to get him more focused on only the track. We had to resort to being a bit harsh in order to try and get our point across as the soft/positive only method was not working. No talking unless it was a "NO" and stopping with no forward movement until he returned and started tracking again or if he was spot on, then he got a "hyvä" (good in Finnish) and "Such verwund" (search for wounded type of command)... very multilingual. We didn't want to train too much and make him bored or unenthusiastic to be in the woods, so we limited practices to roughly 1 or maybe 2 per week for the past month depending on the weather. He has been doing well, but I am not the person to go along as an observer as I expect much more of the dog then his handler (Simon) does. The dog is good and has an excellent nose, but he was more intrigued with the animals than the blood. I think he is showing signs of an extended teenage-hood, because he certainly doesn't act like an adult yet. Does that happen?

I'll just take this over here...

Back to the track. So we have a good dog that is too interested in wild game and a herd that just crossed the path. Both Simon and the judge thought and said "oh, shit" this is going to be disaster. To their surprise it wasn't. Bax had to be kept on a slightly shorter leash, but kept on the track and even completed the very difficult corner. The deer decided to turn left, while the track continued to the right and what did Bax do? Followed the blood track to a "T" and plodded his way to his prize at the end. So I guess our additional trainings did the boy some good! Bax was much quicker, less ditzy, and Simon was more confident in reading his dog and all the elements came together in one beautiful day and track.

Of course now we have 2x 1st prize and inching ever closer to the tracking championship. When will we get there? I'm not sure, but when it happens, you can be sure that there will be a lot of celebrating in our household! Good boy Baxter. Amazing job!

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?