A lot to update! I promise it is coming!

Hello all.

I realize that I have been HORRIBLE at updating lately.  Let me give you a brief rundown of what is to come...

Baxter is Spurlaut! He needs some more hares to run to get a really good score, but he is Sp and we will try to get him tested in the near future. Our friends got some FANTASTIC pictures from this weekend and we are now just waiting for the pics to arrive.

I crossed my own hurdle and completed my PhD. That's right. Baxter and Freddie now have 2 Drs. for "parents". Unfortunately we are not the medical kind. ;)

My "Dr" hat

Baxter passed him BHP exam with 188 points, 1st prize and was Tagessieger! Huge congrats to the small one! We are so proud and Simon did a WONDERFUL job with "my" dog.

Finally, tracking season has started and we are gearing up the boys to hopefully partake in some hunting exams here and abroad this autumn. Simon and I laid ~500m artificial tracks today for each of the dogs and so we'll see how they do. The forecast changed and now they are calling for rain tonight so the boys may be in for quite the challenge...

Look for updates soon! Best from Switzerland!

The boys

BHP-G (1,2,3 together) Passed!

Black and Tan Longhair dackel puppy looking for a home

Are you searching for a new puppy from hunting lines? There is a male standard, black and tan longhair Dackel pup looking for a home. Both parents have been rated "Excellent" and are in active hunting homes. If you are interested, please contact me and I will put you in contact with the breeder.

For the betterment of the breed?

There has been an issue in Switzerland that has been really irking me lately in regards to dackels. This happens to be the change that took place at the General assembly last March regarding dogs in working class. In Switzerland (as in many countries) up until this year a dog could pass a 1000m Blood track (of any known PO) or Sp+ BhFK/St/Vp/Was in order to obtain a working class certificate. This certificate makes the dog eligible for the working class in exhibition, but, to me, it also proves that the dog has qualities that are desirable and are more than just a pretty face. Furthermore, to obtain beauty titles from many countries, working results are required because why have a pretty dog that isn't at least somewhat functional.

This past April there was a vote to change the rules for working class, to add a working title, AND to also effectively make the International Beauty certificate unattainable to Swiss dogs owned by non-hunters. Basically the new rules read like this:
GHK (Working dog class):
The dog should have the following tests-Sp, BhFK/95,SchwhK/St/Vp

OK, this I was ok with. It is harder to obtain since there was 1 more test required for the certificate, but still doable. These are all tests that I would always train my dogs on anyhow as the dogs should be able to work above and below ground.

A new title was added, or rather resurrected, the VollGebrauchsHund (Full working dog), which entails that a dog complete BhFK/95 and Vp. Fine, great! We now have a title similar to a German Gebrauchssieger. The GS title is much more elite, though, as you must have a natural Bauprüfung as well as 1st or 2nd prize in a Vp.

 What absolutely irritates me is that for the international beauty certificate (which is sanctioned by the FCI) is now linked in Switzerland to the dog being a VGH. Again, why does this matter? Well, in order to participate in tests other than Sp, WaT and BhFK/95, in many countries requires a hunting permit. This means that only the people who have the money and time to obtain a hunting certificate (which can take 2 years and over 2000 CHF) could obtain this title.


So why am I annoyed? Why am I angry and getting opinionated about this? Let me tell you...

Traditional Jagdhornbläser. Simon has now picked up this hobby.

1.) The new rules were never formally announced before the meeting and, thus, should not have been voted on. Furthermore, there was a misprint in the official GV minutes, indicating that this was only a topic for discussion. The attitude over this mistake has been "the members should have policed the board," but most members do not know all the fine details of the statues. Also, very few people were in attendance (less than 60 of the 650 SDC members) because no one knew an issue like this would be voted on. Sketchy to say the least... The vote did pass (though just as many people chose not to vote as said "yes"). Either way, I find it horrible that this could have been presented online or in the SDC bulletin that came out 1 month before the meeting and neither was done.

2.) The hunters are beginning to think of themselves as the elite. At a recent trial there was bitching over the fact that non-hunters were "taking spots" in blood tracking practices. One of the judges pointed out that this was a crap statement and it was first come first serve for those that want to work with their dogs! This is an attitude that I appreciate and admire. All of these tests which are listed above are artificial. There will be no injured deer or boar at the end of a track, no rabbits will be shot during Sp, no foxes injured in BhFK/95, so why need the license to take these tests? Technically according to the DTK, it is at the judges discretion if they allow a non-hunter to participate. It can happen and we know a few judges that would likely allow it, but you have to have an in. Simon asked our hunting test organizer last spring what the chance was that we could take a hunting test without the hunting license if there were open spots. His answer "Slim to none." Why? Our money is just as good as anyone else's! It is really a bit of an elitist attitude. For example, only 1 dog participated in the SDC blood tracking exam (1000m) this year. Freddie would have been qualified and I would have been happy to lay track, but we did not even apply since we were told earlier this year that we absolutely needed the license. This brings me to my next point:

3.) French hunting licenses. This is what is suggested to us EVERY time we mention that we don't have a hunting license. The french license is cheap, fast, and easy (by Swiss standards). The same hunting guy who told we needed a hunting license, followed up by saying, "Ya, but just get a french one!" Ummm... what? Technically the rules say that you can have a hunting license from where ever as long as it is valid. Why don't I just spend $100 and order one from the US? I would just need to take a safety course when I'm back home this fall. Ya know, I maybe I'll just do it.

4.) This whole change really dampens my attitude towards the club and the hunting club, especially since Simon and I have been some of the most active members. We began blood tracking practices on our own because of the attitude of some of the people in the Jagd club. When Freddie was a puppy his first practice track with the club was 500m. He did super well for the 1st half, but then started to get bored and sniff whatever because 500m is TOO LONG for an inexperienced young dog. Furthermore, the track was super near to a walking path, so everyone and their dogs, horses, etc... were walking past and poor Fred was getting distracted. We contacted the club president to ask if we could have a shorter track (250-300m) for our inexperienced pup and the response was "if your dog cannot complete a 500m track it is either very bad or you are very bad at motivating the dog." Well WTH! This is like expecting children to know how to read without ever learning the alphabet. Ugh. So we began blood tracking on our own and soon after Freddie was completing 500m, 40 hr tracks easily in 15 min. I think our work with Freddie has paid off as he was 4th on the working dog list in Switzerland last year for tests passed. He would have been 1st if both of our fox tests in Italy would have counted (he is missing 94 points), but no matter! I was very proud of the work that we did with him.

With all of these new rules I feel very torn as to what to do. I would love to continue with the club. We have friends in the club, but these new rules seem to target people like Simon and I and tell us that we are basically not good enough. Do I really need to learn French, German, and/or go into debit in order to continue working with my dogs? No. I don't. The problem is that any tests that we perform outside of Switzerland, Germany, or France will not count for anything in the eyes of the SDC.

5.) Oh yes, Switzerland now has the rule that only tests in Germany, France, Switzerland, or organized by WUT (Welt union teckel) will be counted towards working results in Switzerland. This means that any tests performed in Italy, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Hungry, Croatia, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, etc... essentially the whole of Europe, don't count towards the Swiss working dog certificate OR the VGH/CIB title. I realize that each and every country can decide which tests it accepts, but, for example, Italy conducts tests according to the DTK PO. It should count in Switzerland, right? Wrong. Sigh. Furthermore, the dog could be a working champion in any of the above mentioned countries, but unless it was a German or French Gebrauchssieger it would not count in Switzerland. Actually, a dog could technically be an International working champion, but not qualify for the working certificate in Switzerland. How messed up is that?

All these new rules would make sense if Switzerland was able to conduct all of the trials that it requires for its working certificates/VGH, but right now only Wassertest, Spurlaut, and SchwhK is conducted in Switzerland and this is only 1 of each test per year with a maximum of 8 dogs per test. We don't even have the facilities to do BhFK/95 in CH and this test is under scrutiny in many areas in Germany, so soon that may not be an option either. So the Swiss that want to work with their dogs will have to compete to get spots in the already crowded tests in Germany.

So what will we do? Well, we will continue on as we normally would. We will do the tests that we can in Germany/Switzerland (Sp, BhFK, maybe St if we can find a colleague to help us out). We will also do trials down in Italy this year and get results. It is not only fun, but fantastic practice for more tests later. Although I am not in agreement with all of the new rules, we will likely get a hunting license because we want to keep working with the dogs. We will likely never be hunters. I love to eat venison, boar, rabbit, but I rather be tracking the wounded animal than shooting it. Plus, I'm not actually sure that I could get a license for a gun since I am a foreigner...

Who knows what will happen in Switzerland in the future, but I can tell you I think that this new set of rules is not going to help the breed. From what I have seen personally, there is already a distinction between show dogs and working dogs. As we were told, "working class is for dogs with more faults," which I think is complete bull shit. By implementing these types of rules, I can only imagine that the difference between working dogs and beauty dogs will grow. In the worst cases, it could end up like the dackels in the US where it is hard to convince people that the overangulated lawn-mowers are the same breed as the agile, light weight trackers. I think that this is a negative step for Swiss dackels, but only time will really tell. Until then we will continue doing what we are doing and trying to make our dogs the best that they can be.

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!"

Spiel ohne Grenze

 Literally, this translates to "Game without Borders" and it is a yearly event at our dog school in Basel. This year roughly 20 dogs of various breeds ranging from Chihuahuas to Yellow Labs and mutts of all sizes participated with their people. It was a lot of fun and I'm only sad that I didn't get more pictures! Many people were there with their cameras though, so I'm hoping I can link you all to the photo gallery in the upcoming days,

So what is Spiel ohne Grenze? It is an obstacle/challenge course with different stations. At each station one is graded on how well he and his dog perform the task. This year we had 10 stations set up in the training space.

Station 1: Blow dart practice
Our trainer Karin is a wonderful woman, if not a bit crazy. She is a Poodle and Border Collie breeder and a hell of a trainer. She believes in positive reinforcement, but also realizes that some hard-headed breeds (like bulldogs and (cough) Dackels (cough, cough)) do not always respond well to soft training. She does not enforce things like choke collars or shock collars or anything that intense, but basically she lets the dogs know that she is boss and when she says play time is over, it's over! Anyhow, she has a farm in Germany and aside from her dogs, she keeps chickens, geese, goats, etc... Well, one day a goat got out and the neighbor was threatening to shoot it since it was trespassing on his property. Karin tried to catch the goat, but couldn't. For some reason she owns a blow gun and had tranquilizers on hand. I think you can guess the outcome. The goat is still alive and doing well.

She decided that we should all practice our blow dart skills. There was a small stuffed doll worth 10 points and a stuffed bear worth 5. Hardly anyone was able to hit the targets. I managed right under the bear's foot. Boo! Simon and I went back after everyone was finished to try again and I have to say, we got much better at aiming and hit the targets multiple times! Practice makes perfect I suppose.


Station 2: Sausage, sausage everywhere!
In this exercise, there were about 10 bowls of sausage set up along a 15-20 ft track. You had to leave the dog at the starting line, run to the finish and call him. The dog lost points he he stopped along the way for a snack. Baxter did this amazingly well. Simon called, he ran, he stopped to peer into a dish, was promptly told to "leave it!" and continued on his way. Freddie on the other hand was a little shit head and decided that eating sausage from one of the bowls was nicer than listening to me. He came to me very guiltily afterwards...

Station 3: What do you know about dogs?
This station was all on the people. We were asked questions about dogs such as:
What was the dog breed featured in the movie "Babe"?
How many groups are dogs divided into in the FCI?
Do dogs sweat?
Do dogs display "handedness"?
How many teeth to adult dogs have? etc....
 Both Simon and I passed with full points. :D

Station 4: Bend over and throw it!
This was again all on me. We had 5 balls and had to toss them through our legs and into a bucket a distance away. I managed to make one or two! Ya!

Station 5:The great search.
At this station there were 3 hula hoops hidden in the bushes. In each of the hoops a few pieces of Frolic, which is labeled as "dog food" but the nutrition in that stuff is horrible. It would be like feeding kids nothing but candy. Needless to say, most dogs go crazy for it. Well, all except our garbage can Baxter. He turned up his nose at it and instead decided to use that bushes as a toilet. Anyhow, the goal was for the dog to find the treats in all 3 hoops within 1 minute. Freddie was much better than Baxter, even though he thinks that the hula hoops are really evil entities.

Station 6: Show off!
This was where our trick dog had time to shine. Each dog had to perform 5 tricks that were not "sit" or "platz/lie down." Freddie is very willing to learn new tricks and so Simon had taught him quite a few. We did roll over, give paw, speak, manly (sitting on his haunches), and dance. The trainers were all very entertained. :)

Station 7: Find the dog
This was a challenge, but really funny to watch. We were blindfolded and then had a tarp put over us before being spun around several times to disorient us. The dog was tied in the pen and we had to find them within 1 minute. Simon was lucky enough to get an excited Baxter than ran to him when he did excited talking. Freddie was very apprehensive about why I was dressed in a sheet and somewhat avoided me. I found him though, but I think I stepped on his foot. Oops! All was forgiven and I received a lot of kisses once the tarp came off.

Station 8: Dackels rule!
This was the station that I first was quite freaked out by because the hurdles were set REALLY high. They were taller than both the dogs and I was worried about them trying to jump them. Instead, they were there for the dogs to crawl! Ha! Having dogs that are only 1/2 as tall as normal dogs had an advantage! :) Both boys looked at us like, what? This? It's like the coffee table at home. Do do do do.

Station 9: More ball throwing?
For this task that dog and our trainer stood in a kiddie pool and we had to throw balls into it. These are the balls like they have at McDonald's playlands, so they aren't hard, but nonetheless, I thought that Freddie might get freaked out by this. Nope. He stood there and looked at the couple balls that managed to plop into the kiddie pool. Baxter tried to play with them once they made it there.

Station 10: Follow the carrot.
Remember in the old cartoons how if someone wanted to get a lazy horse walking they would tie a carrot on a string to the end of a stick? Yes, well, that was essentially what we had, except it was a 2 foot stack of dog treats. We were given a serving tray with 2 water-filled glasses, the stick with treats on to hold and had to walk with the dogs in slalom. This was not the easiest, but it was certainly funny to watch and perform. It was funny to watch the different dogs reacting to the treats, some were very determined to get them, no matter the height!

In the end, this year's obstacle course was a bit more people based than in past years. Last year was supposedly very agility based and had moving platforms, the high platforms, hoops to jump through and a see-saw as well as questions. I love that the group really tries for a wide variety of activities and changes it up every year. Of course all of the hard work is rewarded with beer, grill food, lots of yummy salads and desserts and at least a gift for the participating dogs.

All in all, Freddie and Baxter were 4th and 3rd respectively. :) Both received treat bags with lots of goodies and Freddie got an extra bag for 3rd place filled with treats and toys. Additionally, we went for a run around the park and some river swimming and ended up with a couple very tired dogs. It was really a wonderful way to spend the first official day of summer.

(Note: I will update with pictures in the upcoming weeks so you can all see the silly things that we had to do!)

The boys are gearing up for Wassertest!

So we had an EXTREMELY cold and rainy May. There wasn't a lot of opportunity for the dogs to go swimming since the river was super high and super fast. We were in Central Switzerland visiting Simon's parents last night and decided to take advantage of the fantastic weather today to explore some spots on the lake for Wassertest (Water test) training. Simon's father suggested a little part of the lake near a swimming area and nature reserve, but not in either. The water is fairly shallow, so Simon and I could easily go in about calf/waist deep and get the dogs if they were in trouble.

Not a bad view, eh? I think we will be coming back for more practice in July.

 One of our problems with Freddie and water retrieving was always that if the toy wasn't interesting enough and went too far in, then pffft, forget it. The toy was gone. We have lost several floaty toys due to our hard headed, brown dackel. I saw this wonderful idea on http://borntotracknews.blogspot.com/ a while back, but I currently can't find the post! Basically, one of the dog owners tied feathers to a floaty toy in order to make it more interesting for the dogs. Since we had 2 frozen ducks in the house, I thought I'd give it a try. We took a wing off of one of the ducks and tied it to the dog's orange floaty. Man! You would think it was Christmas!

I love swimming dackels! They look like otters.

Baxter easily went into the water for a few short and progressively longer swims. He did a couple ~8 meter retrieves before getting tired. Swimming is new exercise for him and although he loves it, he seems to get a bit tired after a while and gets a more nervous about the longer swims. I'm not positive if he really is tired, but this is what it seems like. Not wanting to have a negative experience, we kept the remainder of the swims shorter (max 4-5 m) and provided a LOT of praise. I know he would have gone in for the toy without the wing, but this really helped with the prey drive.

Our big surprise came in our water hating brown dog! I've mentioned several times that Freddie is NOT a water dog. He goes chest deep and then does a lot of thinking, seeming to weigh his options in order to decide if he really needs whatever it is that's in the water. We were planning that our practice today would be just for Baxter, but nope! Low and behold Freddie's amazing hunting drive turned on and that one duck wing was more than enough to make the orange floaty worth saving!

Freddie jumped in in front of Baxter on a long swim...

and the boys brought in the toy together!

close up of the long swim

Here you can see the distance a bit better. The other shore was ~25m (70+ feet away)

There was a sand bar, so some of the time Freddie was able to "hop" his way along for about 4 m before swimming. Baxter, being shorter, had to swim more. Regardless, both dogs did fantastic! It was a great surprise and now I'm hoping that we'll be able to sign these 2 up for Wassertest with the SDC this August. Now both boys are pretty tired from their morning swim. The ducks are ready and waiting, all we need is a bit of time. :)

News from the North and Swimming!

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. Simon and I are deep into thesis writing and paper re-writing/submitting, which are putting long posts and dog-related activities on the back burner.

We went up to Saarbrücken for the 1 day National Dog Show in hopes to get Baxter his last CAC-J for his German junior Champion title. The judge gave him a wonderful evaluation, but only a SG (sehr gut) rating. It was a bit shitty since his main complaint about the dog was his movement. He said that he had good stride and ground coverage, but was wobbly and his joints were still too loose. We have heard this comment before, but most judges realize that he is just about 1 year old. I have to admit that I felt better knowing that only 1 junior dog (of 6 total male and female) received a V (Excellent) and I would guess that at least 1/2 of the dogs entered received SG ratings. Of course we were disappointed that the winning streak was broken, but 7 shows and 4 Junior Champion titles is not a bad career start! On a side note, I have to recommend Saarbrücken as a real hidden treasure of a German city. The city itself sits on the border to France, is incredibly green, hilly, full of beautiful old buildings, and has a great little old city center. Despite the result, we had a wonderful time and enjoyed the city more than I could have imagined. :)

In other news...
Baxter's mom Iiris "Taxette's Isla Margarita" came out of "retirement" last month and added new titles to her already impressive list: Latvian, Lithuanian, and Baltic Champion! It was great news to hear that a 7 year 11 month old dog could still make a huge impression in the ring. Iiris turned 8 a couple of weeks ago and now competes in Veteran class. At a recent show in Kuopio, Iiris and her daughter Bella Bambina "Iita" (Baxter's sister) were both rated Excellent and CQ. CQ, if I understand this correctly, we don't have this distinction in Switzerland, means "CAC Quality" and these dogs would then compete for CACs and/or CACIBs. Iiris received BOB-Veteran and Iita, Best Bitch 4. A HUGE congrats to Baxter's family!!

Looking good at 8 years old! Iiris (left) with 13 month old daughter Iita (Photo: M. Varjosalo)

    
Lastly, I don't want you all to think that we have given up on our hunting activities! Unfortunately, all of our "normal" dog activities are a time sink. I love them, but we had to prioritize right now in order to get everything accomplished for ourselves. Since Baxter was not able to get in enough tracks for us to be confident that he would pass his Spurlaut exam, we decided to wait on further training until fall. We were going to do a few tracks throughout the spring and summer, but it has been so cold and wet this year that laying out blood tracks would be a bit of a waste. Maybe the sun will finally make an appearance in June...

Freddie is not a water dog. He swims beautifully, retrieves like a champ, but is unreliable with the two things together. I kind of think he developed a dislike for the water when he was about 1 year old, swam a bit too far into the river and decided to climb onto a rock, refusing to come back to shore. I had to wade out to get him (luckily the river was only 2.5 feet deep or so) and bring him in. Since then, he will swim, but the toy has to be worth saving. Baxter on the other hand is looking to be a much braver water dog. As a puppy, he spent a bit of time watching the fish in a colleagues back yard pond and tried to catch them by walking on lily pads. Needless to say, lily pads do not hold 4.5 kg puppies and at 9 weeks old, Baxter showed us (Thankfully!) that he could swim. Lately he has been wading in a lot of the little streams around the dog park, but these were at most chest deep. Last night we decided to take a walk after a long day of work at our local dog park. The river that runs through the park is the Wiese and connects with the Rhine just slightly downstream of the dog park. With all the rain we have had this year it is quite fast and deep at the moment (still less than 5 feet deep, but that is several dackels high!) and we were reluctant to let the dogs swim. Baxter had other plans though and kept trying to go to the edge and take a dip. Finally we got to an area with a small inlet where the water was mostly still. I threw a nice big stick in about 6 feet from shore and the little one jumped in to get it. No problem! Simon threw it a bit farther on the next go and Baxter retrieved it and decided to swim a bit farther out before turning around and heading back to shore. He got a lot of praise and treats and I figure that if he'll go in with little problem to get a stick, then a real duck should be just fine!  We got a few recommendations regarding more still water in the area and I hope that we'll be able to do some practicing before too long.

Ok, that's it for now. I'll try and update a bit more in the coming weeks, but until then, I wish you all a great start to June!

Trials, Shows, and The DTK Dachshund Illustrated

I know that I have veered away from hunting tests lately and have only been talking about our show successes. This is mainly because this spring our main goal was to focus on Spurlaut with Baxter as he needs to pass a Sp test in order to continue on with other tests. As we are still not 100% positive that he is Sp, the rest of our tests are on hold until the fall. From the 1st of May until mid-August there is a hold on Sp tests in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and I believe France. This is when the Hares are mating and having their babies and so it would be disastrous to have a bunch of dachshund running the fields. So we will wait until August and enjoy the "show" season. We are hoping to get the dogs swimming this summer and perhaps we can do Wassertest this August. This will be a bit of a challenge with Freddie as he is a wonderful swimmer and retriever, but a bit unreliable when he has to do both at the same time. I'm hoping that with practice and a real duck instead of toys will motivate him enough to be a good water dog.
 
So about the shows. I realize that I talk about shows I never really state the obvious... they are beauty contests. Of course if you've seen Westminster, Cruft's, or even the fantastic Christopher Guest movie "Best in Show" (2000), you actually have a decent idea about dog shows or the crazy things that can go on there. There are good things about dog shows though. I think that one that I like the most is the comradery between the people. Of course it is a competition, but as you go to these shows, you recognize people and talk to people about their life and their dogs. You get to learn about them and even though some of these people can be a bit... intense... it is a great experience. The goal is to win, plain and simple. Winning brings you CACs and CACs bring you titles, which in turn make your dog more known in the dackel community and more likely to produce offspring. This is, of course, all theory. Hunting trials, to us, are just as important and more fun then going to these shows. In my opinion, a winning dog should still be a useful dog. I'm hoping that our little one will prove to be as  good a working dog as he is a show dog.

Speaking of shows, I never posted pictures from Baxter's big BOB win last weekend. Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of the BOB ring because I honestly never thought that he would win. Shoulda, woulda, coulda...

Patiently waiting

Having teeth, tail, head, etc... checked on the table

Standing in the ring. This was a challenge since the judge kept the dogs in the standing position during his entire written evaluation. It seemed like forever.

Walking

The original picture was way too dark, this is a bit better

V1 CACJ Jugendsieger!

If you are interested in how dachshunds are judged in FCI countries, there is a wonderful set of illustrations from the DTK club of Baden Württemberg & Hohenzollern: http://www.dachshundklub.de/dwh/der-rassestandard/illustrationen-aktuell
It mainly shows what is a fault, but nonetheless, I think that it is a very informative set of photos.

Sorry that they are in German, but I think that you get the idea about what the judges are looking for.

This weekend we have a "normal" weekend with training with the dogs and some work for Simon and I. Luckily for us it is Ascension and that means that I have a 4 day weekend! Next week will be quite a week for us, aside from being off to Saarbrücken for a dog show, it is Pentecost, and I will be celebrating the last days of my 20s. Another year older and so much more to look forward to!

Baxter goes Best of Breed

We had one goal for today when we signed up to go to St Gallen for the dog show. Our goal was to get Bax the last CAC/J needed for his Swiss Jugend Championship (SKG-JCh). Well, I am happy to report that not only did Bax get the last CAC/J that he needed, but he went Junior BoB and Best of Breed in Wirehair Standards! He then went on the walk for Junior Best of Show and Best in Group IV. By the group IV time, he was about done with showing for the day and instead wanted to run and sit down. I can't blame the little guy, I mean he is only 13 months old. Regardless, Baxter had a fan club and got a lot of cheers when he won BOB against 3 champion dogs.

The little certificates are nice, but ribbons would be nicer. ;)

We are now home. The boys are sleeping and Simon and I are enjoying our celebratory prosecco. Have a great weekend everyone!

First time in the Saugatter

Even though the spring weather has turned from warm and sunny to gloomy and rainy, training never stops. Yesterday Baxter went to his first clicker class even though it was quite cold and rainy. I think that this may be the magic trick to getting him to walk normally on a leash. It is really amazing, he walks nicely on the show line now, but goes like a bat out of hell on the normal line. Time will tell.

In other news, we ventured to France today to try our luck in the Saugatter. It was a 27 hectare fenced in area (roughly 67 acres) contain 2 boars ranging from 30-60 kg (65-130 lbs). The area was roughly 1/2 covered in brush and forest area and 1/2 field, but the forest wasn't continuous so there were a lot of places for the boars to hide. Our group was made up of 6 dackels and 1 Bavarian Mountain Bloodhound and 2-3 dogs were out searching at one time. We followed the dogs, with large sticks in hand, through the whole area, up and down steep, slippery, muddy hills for about 1.5-2 hours, but alas, we did not find the boars. Maybe we were lucky. The first group of the day did find the smaller of the 2 boars and it didn't end too well. The boar decided to run at the dog and handler instead of turning and running. Luckily no one was too hurt. The dog had a minor injury on its foot, which needed to be looked at and bandaged and the handler had to get 3 stitches to close up a cut on her shin. Nonetheless, this really illustrates the real dangers of hunting for these animals. The boars we were working with were relatively small and tame. If it were bigger it could have done quite a bit of damage.

We decided to only go out into the enclosure with Freddie, since he is older, more experienced and has better obedience and recall in case we needed to quickly get him out of the situation. He did really well in searching the forest on his own without going too far. It was good practice for a potential future Stöber exam. Only one dog let out any indication that he had found something, but it was really short. A few barks and that is it. Ideally, the dog should work the boar, alerting it's owner as to where the animal is and keep it from going too far. I think this was a great place to practice, but too big for the inexperienced dogs in our group. Later this year, there will be the possibility for going to a 2 hectare (5 acre) saugatter and I think we will try our luck there. For now we are all quite tired and I'm sure we'll all have sore muscles tomorrow. Til next time...

Happy 3rd Birthday Freddie!

Today is dreary and rainy here in Basel and, frankly, I'm a bit apprehensive to spend 2 hours in the rain for dog training. Luckily we have a lot to celebrate since today is Freddie "Fallilou du Sangre Bleu"'s  birthday!

Freddie was one of 2 males in a litter of 5: Fallilou, Fauve, Furka, Fargo and Frieda were born April 20th, 2010 about an hour southwest of Paris. There were 2 dark wild boar puppies and 3 brown puppies. They were the first litter from Canaille de la Meute a Cheops and Kobeddus Effendi in the kennel "du Sangre Bleu".

Freddie is (of course) the puppy standing on the other puppies.

Playing with Mom

All the brown puppies liked to stick together

Chewing on sticks with sister Frieda

We drove from Basel to Paris in July of 2010 and picked Freddie up and the rest is history.

The first meeting

Tiny Freddie

In his 3 short years Freddie has accomplished a lot (considering his first-time novice dog owners). He was rated V at our club zuchtschau in Germany and V,V1 JBOB at the Split 4 Summer Shows in Croatia and yes, there were other dogs in Junior class. ;) He has successfully completed Schussfestigkeit, Spurlaut, BhFK95 in 2 countries, Schweissprüfung, Fbja (IT fox test) and BHP 1&2. We continue to go to hunting activities and practices with him and hope that in the future we will be able to add to his list of accomplishments. In addition to hunting work, we actively take him to obedience/ability trainings. He is extremely bonded to Simon and the two are a fantastic pair.

Many happy returns Freddie! I'm looking forward for what's still to come!!