Tucker finds his first real deer!

Paika and Moose should be proud! One of their pups, Tucker (Storm von Moosbach-Zuzelek), just 3 months old, recovered his first deer. The deer was already munched on by coyotes as he was shot on Saturday evening. Sunday morning Tucker followed the line for around 300 yards and found it. Without Tucker's help the deer would have been lost. A big thank you to Ray and Pam Maurier for training and working with the pup, and for the exciting phone call! Way to go Tucker!

What a journey! In three months from this...

....to this. Tucker, the hunter and Tucker's deer.

Summer at three months - on a daily walk in the woods

Sky at 13 weeks

Sky is a lovely pup, who can stand up to his sister Summer. He has a very good potential for blood tracking.

A morning walk with Summer

Summer and Sky are almost 13 weeks old, and raising them together has its challenges. On the one hand some things are easier as they play together a lot and burn some energy off this way (a tired puppy is a good puppy!). On the other hand we need them to bond with us so we have to spend some time individually with each puppy, playing with them and training them on one-to-one basis. In the morning I take separate walks with pups - today I had a nice long walk with Summer, and then another walk with Bella. Tomorrow is Sky's turn. These are some pics taken during our walk.

Puppies' first snow

This is October 27, and puppies got to see their first snow. They liked it!

Summer working a liver drag

It has been a while since we had time for puppy training. So today while John was tracking, I had Summer on a liver drag, which was probably 150 yard long and aged an hour and a half. Summer is a high-spirited, fast working puppy, and we still don't know whether we are going to keep her in a long run. But today she has showed her best work yet. Actually it looks like she is ready for an older line. Also it is time to start working her on a leash!

Glowing reports about Paika's puppies

Raising a litter of puppies is a lot of work, but if puppies turn out well, it is a very satisfying and rewarding experience. It looks like Paika's pups are doing really well in their new homes. They are eleven weeks old today.

Joe Mason shared this e-mail with us:

 

Shome just completed his first liver drag find in the state of Kentucky. He did a great job under probably very trying conditions. We have 15 mph winds and sunny. I laid the line out about 120 yds. long with four 45 degree turns and waited 40 min. He strayed off line a few times just maybe 5-6 yds. and always on the down wind side. He would immediately come back and find the line and start out again.I think I was as excited as Shome was.

-----

Ray and Pam Maurier from New Hampshire sounded really pleased in this e-mail from few days ago:

 

Tucker (Storm) is doing awesome. We have been introducing him to new things all the time and he learns fast. Sunday morning I laid a blood line in the hard woods 125 yards. At the start was a drop of blood and a finger nail size piece of liver then one drop every foot and every ten yards another tiny tiny piece of liver. I hung a ribbon over the each piece of liver so I'd know where it was. At 60 yard I put a left hand 90-degree turn down a hill to a creek, another 65 yards to a half of fist size piece of liver under his bowl. Four hours later we took him to the start, changed his collar and a 30 ft leash and he was off. He stayed right on track and found every piece of liver. The wind was blowing 25 mph, two times he went up wind of the track about 5 feet, put his nose up and checked the wind and then jumped right back on the track. He went through in under 20 min, he really took his time and did absolutely awesome...We got it all on video, it's great.

 

So this morning just to see what he would do I took him back and I ran to the end a different way and left a small piece of liver under his dish, and then took him to the starting point. This is a 24-hour blood trail and no liver or man scent on the track, again the wind was maybe 15 mph. He followed the line  right on and got to his piece of liver in 5 min tops. I couldn’t believe it , I am so proud of my little guy. I just have to let your know how he is doing and see what you think. I think we got a great pup he is house broken already. He goes to bed at 9 and gets up at 6 and sleeps right through the night.

 

We couldn’t be happier thank you both so so much. Ray & Pam 

Today we received pictures and some of them show Tucker with another wirehaired dachshund, Ted , who is owned by Mike Lafleur. Tucker and Ted are related through Billy, who is a sire of Ted and a great-grandsire of Tucker. Ted was bred by Gail Berger from PA, and his pictures are at Mike's website at www.trailsendguideservice.com

 

Tucker and Ted

Dubya goes for a first swim

When Matt and Jenny were here they asked whether pups had started to swim. This August and September we got so much rain that our pond was overflowing. There was no easy entry into the water so even though pups were going for frequent walks around the pond they never really got to swim the way pups from 2010 did.

Yesterday Matt sent us this nice update on Strut aka Dubya:

Dubya had a busy weekend. He spent time at two of our family's farms and a family get together that served as a send off for Jenny's cousin to an overseas posting. Dubya saw lots of people including some kids of all ages at the gathering. He was excited to see the kids. He also did liver drags and went for his first swim!

The first two pics are of Dubya on a liver drag this weekend. The first is of Dubya on the track and the second is of Dubya with his "prize" at the end. The conditions were very dry and windy with blowing leaves, this line was 1 hr old and about 50 yards with three gentle curves. He ran it with an incredible amount of precision and stayed very focused despite the blowing leaves, they usually provide a distraction he has trouble overcoming.

 

The next couple pictures are of Dubya's trip to the water. He was very hesitant at first which you will see in the the third photo. All of the sudden he jumped in and started swimming. It scared the heck out of me, I had to compose myself to get a photo! His head never went underwater and he looked like a natural, the fourth picture is of him swimming. He seemed to really enjoy the water!

 

 

Shome left for Kentucky

We spent Sunday with Joe and Marlene Mason from Mayfield, Kentucky, who came here to pick up Shome (Blue boy). Joe went out on a deer call with John, and even though the deer did not bleed Joeri had no problems with finding it.

We will certainly miss Shome as this little pup loves people and is really affectionate. He has a potential to be a great tracker. Good luck with him Joe!

Puppies' last walk as a trio

Pups are ten and a half weeks old now. Tomorrow Shome (Blue boy) will be leaving for his new home in Kentucky so today's afternoon walk was the last one as a trio. Colors in our field are at their peak but it was very windy and on a cool side. Paika was with us but she was moving much faster, especially when she was running rabbits. Only Summer tries to keep up with her, and surprisingly she usually manages to find her way back to the rest of us.

Even though not all of them are leaving us I will miss Paika's pups as in many ways this was one of the best and easiest litters ever. Maybe because there were only five of them, and usually our litters are larger. Last year we had 14 pups being raised at the same time!

All the pups were precocious in their tracking but also responsive and super people oriented. We really have high hopes for them, and most likely repeat the litter next year. For now Sky (Red boy) and Summer (Pink female) are staying here.

I could not stress enough how helpful my training with Suzanne Clothier has been when it comes to evaluating these puppies. The CARAT course made me look at them from a new perspective, and now I can articulate much better their strengths and weaknesses in terms of sociability, excitability, resiliency, biddability and so on.

 

Sky (Red boy)

Shome (Blue boy)

Summer (Pink female)

Pups are trying to follow Paika

Lightning Mountain Outfitters - a new home for Storm

Storm von Moosbach-Zuzelek (Green boy) left for his new home today. He is a going to be a tracking dog at Lightning Mountain Outfitters in Manchester, NH, run by Ray and Pam Maurier. We hope to see him from time to time as Storm (his calling name is going to be Tucker) will be only four hours from us.

We had  a lot of fun with Ray and Pam today and the time flew quickly. We know that they will provide an excellent working home for the pup and he will have a chance to do what he was bred for - track and hunt.

Storm at ten weeks is a very handsome dachshund.

Strut (Dubya) at his new home in Missouri

We got a nice report from Matt and Jenny about Strut whose calling name is Dubya (variation on a "W" letter).

We all made it home safe. Dubya/Strut whined a little on the way back to the hotel Saturday and only briefly during his travels on Sunday. We were very proud of him! During our travels there was a ton of interest in Dubya from other travelers with everyone agreeing he was very handsome. Everything went according to schedule so we were able to minimize our travel time the best we could.

Yesterday afternoon we had a get together with some of our family to introduce Dubya. The attached pictures are of Dubya from yesterday's get together. He was a big hit! He really enjoyed the interaction with the family and spread out affection among everyone. Dad was especially impressed with Dubya, and when they weren't interacting Dad was looking over the family tree from the folder. It was a great end to a long day.

We really enjoyed spending the day with the you and John and appreciate the opportunity!

Best,

Matt  

 

Puppies get their registered names...finally

Finally we made our decision which puppy is going where and what their registered names will be.

Boys:
Blue - Shome von Moosbach-Zuzelek is going to Kentucky
Green - Storm von Moosbach-Zuzelek is going to New Hampshire
Red - Sky is staying here
Yellow - Strut has gone to Missouri

Girl:
Pink - Summer is staying here...for now

Thank you everybody who has helped with names!

First puppy, Strut von Moosbach-Zuzelek, left for his new home

Yesterday we spent all day with Matt and Jenny from Arnold, Missouri, who flew here to pick up their puppy. We selected yellow boy for them as he is a very easy going pup. This young couple is planning to have children in the future, and Yellow pup should be a right choice for them. His registered name is going to be Strut von Moosbach-Zuzelek, but we are not sure yet how he is going to be called.

It was a full day as John got a call from a northern zone about a wounded deer, and he and Matt went to track. Matt was happy to have an opportunity to see how real blood tracking with a dog is done. Joeri did a good job, but the deer was shot too high and trackers were not able to catch up with him.

I had a lot of fun with Jenny as we took puppies for a walk and talked about dogs and hunting almost all afternoon. When John and Matt got back it was already getting dark, and this is when I took this picture:

Good luck Matt and Jenny with your new puppy!

Puppies get a clean bill of health

Today puppies were examined by Dr. Rebecca Kryzak and her husband Matt. Don't you miss those good old days when vets and doctors made house calls? Well, we got lucky as about a year ago Dr. Kryzak moved to our area and established Cottonwood Creek Veterinary Services. She makes house calls! So today instead of loading puppies to the car and driving 30 minutes to our regular vet, we asked Dr. Kryzak to come to our place, examine puppies and vaccinate Bella for rabies. We loved the whole experience.

Puppies are healthy, and their hearts sound strong. They got a clean bill of health.

Pups had their temperature taken.

Summer was not easy to handle as she insisted on covering Matt with kisses. She is wiggly and pushy.

 

Pups are extremely people oriented and were happy to see strangers.

Puppies at nine weeks

Paika's puppies are turning 9 weeks. Tomorrow a local vet is coming to examine them. So far they have had one vaccination and have been dewormed three times.

Today the pups went for a long walk in our enclosure where they raced through dry leaves, played with sticks, climbed over branches etc. Yesterday they did a 30 minute liver drag, and we really liked what we saw. The pups are really people oriented and carve human attention. Their favorite place to be is our kitchen. They have been reunited with Paika now that they are completely weaned and she does not produce any milk. In a few days the first pup will be leaving and we have some decisions to make who is going where and who is staying here.

Green boy

Red boy

Green boy

Yellow boy

Blue boy

Pink girl

Noses to the ground