Chris and Gerti

It seems like it was just yesterday when Chris Barr came here all the way from Indiana to pick up his new puppy Gerti (Gwen v Moosbach-Zuzelek). Actually it was 13 months ago as she was a puppy from Gilda's litter sired by Billy. Chris did a lot of research and communicated with the people who have already had dogs from us, like Chuck Collier and Joe Walters. Chuck and Joe's dachshunds are short coated with no beard, and Chris insisted on a puppy with this type of coat.

Today I got a nice e-mail from Chris, who wrote:

"Hi Jolanta,
Just a quick Gerti update. She got her shots last week and was less than impressed with the needle. She weighed 20.8 lbs and the vet was impressed with the shape she’s maintaining.

I know you know what I mean, you hate to say any dog is your favorite because you love all that you have or have had, but Gerti is absolutely the best companion dog I’ve ever had. The kids are running all the time. They basically just need dad for rides and cash. This allows me a lot of time to spend with Gerti. We have several places that we exercise, you know, I don’t want her to get bored or anything, including the neighbor’s pond where she has evolved into a swimming nut. I think she likes to swim as much or more than my lab did. I took her fishing last night with my daughter’s boyfriend and my son, and Gerti swam for an hour solid. She went from person to person, doing her best to catch their bait, (not a great thing) or the fish they were reeling in. My son finally stripped down to his skivvies and swam with her. She loves it. She’s especially fond of trying to catch the hundreds of squeaking frogs. Makes her as you put it, “a good/tired puppy”.

She runs rabbits beautifully; I can’t wait to try her on a field trial next spring. However, I’ve tried to limit the “rabbit exposure” this summer at Andy’s urging since Trackfest. She’s so gamey; just want her to focus on deer when we’re tracking. When we’re out and she bumps one though, it makes for a great opportunity to work on her recall.

It’s been too hot to lay any practice tracks since July 4th weekend when the mosquitoes and deer flies nearly carried us away. So we’ve just spent the month walking, running, and swimming. When it starts to cool a bit, we’ll do some more training.

October 1st is right around the corner, hard to believe. My goal for Gerti is 20 tracks, with hopefully at least 5 legitimate finds.

Anyway, I just wanted to say hi and tell you how much we love Gerti. The kids say she’s “spoiled rotten”."

Below there are two pictures of Chris and Gerti, first one with Joe and the other one with Chuck. They all have become good friends.

Thanks Chris for the update! We are really happy that you and Gerti bonded strongly and enjoy each other so much.

Update on Henry (Grizzly)

Steve Hardee from North Carolina wrote today with a nice update on Henry (Grizzly v Moosbach-Zuzelek)). "Henry had his forth find and second true find last Friday. A friend of mine shot two deer with one shot. The first fell dead and the second was gut shot. Both were does. We weren't sure if he had actually hit a second deer until we put Henry down on the spot. He tracked to her in less than 4 minutes about 125 yds very thick cover. Not too many deer have been taken this year here, too much rain and warm weather. There have not been as many opportunities to track as I would have liked. I have plenty of frozen feet and blood so we will train if nothing else."

Thank you Steve for sharing news on Henry!

Koa recovers his first deer

We were very happy to hear from Chris Surtees from Georgia. His tracking partner is Koa (Grock v Moosbach-Zuzelek), an eight-month-old son of Billy and Gilda.

"I shot a small buck tonight while bow hunting in a special archery hunt area and decide to take a chance and put Koa on the trail. As far as blood goes it was a steady easy track but the terrain the buck made his death run through was another matter.

Koa started out fine for the 25 yards but after entering a large ditch he hung a right and broke off trail. I let him go to see what he was going to do and to my surprise he found an easy way out of the ditch and came back on to the trail. While I struggled to climb out of the ditch Koa jumped back in with me and to add insult to injury he gave me a look of I showed you an easy way out and went back out the ditch his way.

Back on track Koa was moving at a good pace, nose to the ground, weaving in and out of the thick brush. Now we hit the next obstacle, another small flood area the deer ran through. Before I reached the area Koa was in the water trying figure out which way the deer went. Once I arrived he gave me a look of I lost the track. We crossed the flooded area, and I worked Koa up and down the back even though I knew where the trail was. I wanted to see if he would pick the trail up or just take off on a false one.

He locked back on the trail and was off again at a good pace. Koa only had one other issue on this track, and that is when my dad and daughter heard me tell Koa he was close. They moved in on my light and distracted Koa from the track. All it took was for me to tell them to stand still and remain quite until he was on the deer.

I put Koa back on the last blood and he finished the trail in grand fashion. He was extremely excited over the deer and enjoyed his tug on just about every part of the deer. To finish it off he was rewarded with a piece of fresh deer heart.

I could not be more proud of Koa and seeing him prance around the house when we returned home I could tell he was proud of himself."

Great job Koa!

Roughhousing with Gerti

Chris Barr from Indiana e-mailed us this story:

I thought you could use a funny Gerti story that has nothing to do with tracking. We have a wall that is open on each end that separates our kitchen and living room. Gerti has found it quite amusing to play a cat and mouse game with me around that wall. After a few minutes of dodging and weaving, she’ll finally just start barking and chasing me around the kitchen and through the living room. Well, a week ago last night, while playing this game, I was just hitting my stride, probably on my third lap, when I cracked my left pinky-toe on the doorway as I rounded the corner. I went down as if I’d fallen from a building on my knees and elbows. Well, you can imagine, Gerti thought this was just an addition to a delightful game so she proceeded to run circles under my chest and around my head. Dawn and the kids could hardly stifle their laughter. I finally got up and hobbled to the couch where I iced and elevated it for the remainder of the evening. I didn’t have it x-rayed but am pretty sure I broke it as it’s still very swollen and sore. Gerti must have felt a little sorry for me because she curled up in my lap for the remainder of the night and didn’t make a peep.

If you can visualize that, and you’re like my family, you’ll probably get a pretty good chuckle out of it. The next night when it turned all kinds of purple and blue colors, the kids took pictures of it with their phones to send to their friends.

First moose for Gunner

This e-mail; from Guy Marcoux-Filion brought news about Gunner, a six-moth-old son of Billy and Gilda who resides in Quebec:


Hello John,

This story is rather short. Gunner began tracking at the hit site. He stopped at every drop of blood, working very slowly, and as usual he made about a 20 foot circle at the start before taking up the track.
When he arrived at the moose, he stopped and didn’t want to go forward. Then he decided to approach it, and he smelled it without any reaction. The total tracking distance, in very dense cover was about 300 feet.

On the way back the animal was towed by a 4 wheel drive utility vehicle, and in seeing it move, Gunner barked and wanted to jump out of his sac on to the beast. I let him have contact with the moose, and he had already gained confidence. I think that he’s turned on now. He was rewarded with meat from the moose, and he stayed in his sac while we prepared the animal to haul him out of the woods. He is really very calm…

So long.

Guy

A great learning blood tracking experience for Pepper (aka Grannie) from Georgia

Great news from Saralynne Hudgins from Georgia:

Terry, Pepper and his ~140 class (8point) scored buck!
3rd arrow shot was a perfect kill through chest on the second day of bow season in Henry Co. Georgia on September 13th 2009...
Entered buck in the GON publication's 'Truck Buck' contest for the state opening week.
I (Pepper's blood tracking coach to date*smile*) took Pepper to track because Terry called and said he thought would need the dog to find the deer, but he found the deer before Pepper and I arrived on location.
Pepper was beside herself, growling and intently assessing the situation visually and by scent, before wanting to lavish herself with the fresh meat! She loved it!
Pepper, was quite territorial about the kill which was covered with hundreds of thirsty seed/deer ticks who had just lost their host (so we had to monitor her contact with the deer and limit it to prevent her from also being covered with ticks)!

Greta's first "real" deer

Dustin wrote: "This a picture from our second week of bow season in Kentucky. This is my son’s first deer with a bow. It was quite the thrill for him as well as Greta. This was the first track she has ever been on that there was a real deer at the end. Greta is doing very well and I am very glad that I have her."

Update on Koa (Grock)

Chris Surtees writes about Koa (Grock):

Koa has adjusted very well. Our tracking sessions have been going good. He is very focused for the most part but does on occasion get side tracked on long tracks.

Our longest to date was 4 hour old and 500 meter with two turns. He was doing excellent on this track until some folks out for a walk seen us and got nosey. Koa broke from the trail when he heard them start calling "What a cute puppy". Once all the petting and questions were over we fiddled around for a minute or two so he could calm down. I then placed him back the trail about 20 meters from the first turn. He over shot it a bit but corrected himself very well. After that the trail went along without any other issues.

So far he has shown that he will track just about anything he is put on. We have worked with beef, and deer liver, squirrel, rabbit, and pigeon. We have a hunt coming up in South Carolina and hope he will get some work on deer and hogs.

We have also been working on cage training which is almost complete. He is for the most part house broken but does have an accident every now and then. Koa loves riding in the Jeep...both in and out of his crate.

He really enjoys playing with other dogs and kids. Overall I could not be happier with his temperament. Koa is very excited with his finds but is not so over possessive that I cannot take it away from him. He loves playing chase with his finds and really thrives on praise.

Our only big issue is his chewing. He has plenty of toys and chews but still insists on chewing just about anything he can find. He knows he is wrong but still does it. Hard headed is all I can say. He spends time in his crate when he is caught.

Gertie's great trail

From Chris Barr in Indiana: "I laid a 200 yard track using 2 oz of blood and 1 scent tracking shoe.There were 5 turns through woods, on and off quad paths (or two-tracks as you all refer to them). I aged it 3 hours. I wish one of you could have seen her run it to tell me if it was as good as I think it was. She needed a little help at the turns but otherwise, I think she did great.She even corrected herself twice. I was really excited. It was by far her best one yet."

Update on G-puppies at 4 months

We got a nice update with pictures from Steve Hardee from North Carolina on Henry (Grizzly):

I thought that I would update you on Henry(Grizzly). He is doing fine and weighs 17.1 lbs now. He has had all his shots until next year. He is doing better with his house training, but still has some accidents. We have been training 3-4 times a week and Henry has been doing very well. I have been using the scent shoes for the past week or so. Henry has been running blood lines with the scent shoes for 200 -275 yd lines. He has an excellent nose. He sometimes will miss a turn but that might be my fault I think the 90 degree turns are too tight and I need to round them out slightly. Today and tomorrow will be 98 so its too hot to train for a day or two, we might only get 2 sessions this week anyhow thanks for the info you send it helps a lot.

Don Dickerson from Michigan wrote:

Gunther is doing very well. We have done several tracks and he is progressing quite nicely in my mind. Friday night I laid down a track of about 200 yards with 4 turns. I have been using a combination of beef liver drag with deer blood placed periodically along the trail, it has been working well. I think he is working the line a little fast right now, he tends to overshoot the turns a bit, but he corrects himself right away and goes back and picks up the line. It is so much fun watching him work, he concentrates very hard and is not easily distracted. Let's just say I am very very happy with him all the way around. He has become a member of the family and fits in very well. He and our 5 year old Min Yorkie play a lot and have become buddies. He also gives the girls kitten a good workout and lets her know her place, if you know what I mean ;).

I have some friends that farm and because of the huge deer population in our county the DNR issues them block permits to kill deer to control the population and reduce crop damage. Last night I received a call from one of them and was able to secure four fresh legs, blood, a liver and a hide off of a deer they had killed with a block permit. I have the word out that any of them have a fresh kill and they are sure it is down and know the location to call me so Gunther can track a sure find. Thus, Gunther will should be able to do some live tracks on downed deer before the season even starts! Keep you posted on any finds and will send pictures. I tried to attach some pictures this Morning but I am having problems with my computer and can't get them to attach. I will try again in the next email.

And Chris Barr from Indiana wrote about Gerti (Gwen):

Hey Jolanta, I thought I’d tell you that Gerti is spurlaut as well….but so far just on the cats. I took her out to the back yard over the weekend and one of our two un-suspecting cats was in the back yard as well. Gerti started chasing her and sounded as pretty as any beagle I’ve ever been around. We’ll see what she does on rabbits in January.

I took her on a long walk last night. We stopped at a creek with ripples and a shallow pool. She waded right in the water and into the pool to swim. This is only the second time she’s been in water deep enough to swim in. I’m surprised at how much she enjoys water when I can hardly get her to go outside to do her business if there’s the slightest dew on the grass.

This morning she got into trouble for grabbing a shoe. She got a swat on the fanny and a firm no. She went into the living room, sat in the middle of the floor and barked at me. Just what I need, another woman in my life that talks back Ha Ha.

Ginie from Georgia

We heard from Wayne Varnadore from Georgia, who has Ginie, a Billy/Gilda daughter:

Just wanted to give you and update on Ginie. We have been working her twice a week and she has been doing a good job. We have got up to doing the lines about 250 yards and we let it sit for about two hours. I am very pleased with her. I purchased a set of deer scent shoes from Alan Wade and looking forward to using them with her. She is growing so fast.

Update on Gwen (Gerti)

We received the four pictures from Chris Barr from Indiana, a new owner of Gwen aka Gerti. The first picture shows Ross, 13, holding Gerti, and Shelby 15. Obviously, Gertie is getting a lot of attention. Chris wrote: "She’s had 2 liver drags and 1 blood track. The liver drags seemed to be too easy for her even though she drifted a bit. The blood line was a little different. It was about 125 yds on some two-tracks and a cut through the woods. I could definitely see her nose on the ground digging scent but sometimes she just looked like she was just walking, not really scenting. I’m going to try the whippy branch next."

Grock has left for a new bloodtracking home in Florida/Georgia

Today we had a pleasure of meeting Larry and Kelsey Surtees from Pensacola, Florida. They flew last night to Albany to pick up Grock, who is going to be a blood tracking partner for Chris Surtees, Larry's son and Kelsey's father. Chris is serving in Iraq, but he will be coming home at the end of July, and afterwards, he will be relocating to Georgia.

Grock's new name is Koa, which is of Hawaiian origin and means brave, bold, fearless. Let's hope that Grock will grow up to be Koa. He has shown a lot of talent for blood tracking and you can see a short video of his tracking here

Chris, be safe, and best of luck with Koa!

Four Pound Woodchuck with a Death Wish

These are two versions of the same story:

Jolanta’s version

I did not have a chance to get my second cup of coffee today when an unexpected visitor caused some disturbance. While washing dishes in the kitchen I heard the four puppies who were louder than usually. I can see their large yard from the kitchen window so I called them but nobody came to the gate. I knew that something was up.


John was pulling weeds in the garden nearby but he did not seem to pay attention to what was going on in the puppy pen. I had to go to investigate. There is a wooden platform in the puppy yard where they can lie in the sun, but all the pups were underneath the platform barking. Some pups were coming out but they would go under the platform right back. There was a lot of commotion and noise. I started to lift the heavy platform and called John at the same time. I peered under the platform and could see that pups had something there. As it turned out a young woodchuck must have gotten into the pups’ pen, got chased under the platform where he was cornered by the pups.

It was really surprising how ferocious these three month old pups were. I could not see as I was holding the platform but John swears that he saw Paika with her teeth in the woodchuck. Actually all the pups were very aggressive towards the chuck and towards one another once the chuck was removed. They were really fired up. Watch the video clip to see their excitement.



John’s version

The puppies (there are four of them left now) were barking, barking, barking. Clearly it was more than a puppy disagreement. Then Jolanta began to yelp too. “There’s something under the wooden platform! The puppies are going after it. They are going to get hurt!”

We lifted up the platform in the big puppy pen, and there was a young woodchuck with the puppies swarming around him. Attached to the chest of the woodchuck was 14 week Paika, oblivious to the dangers that Jolanta was foreseeing. With so much good puppy help it was an easy matter to tail the chuck and lift him above the fray.

The chuck was somewhat the worse for his uninvited venture into the puppy pup, so we asked Tom vom Linteler Forst to finish things off. He had never seen a chuck before, but he knew what to do. These German dogs have a lot in their ancestral memory.

Not wanting to waste the dead chuck, we used him later as an a dragged alternative to liver drags and blood trails that we had been using to train and evaluate puppies.

Paika is following John after a successful completion of the woodchuck scent trail.

Puppies work a deer liver drag

Today our forecast called for more rain, and indeed we got several thunderstorms and huge downpours throughout the day. As I am writing this post at 9 pm, we have standing water in our garage, mudroom and my office. However, in the morning there was a short window of opportunity to work the pups so we did.

This time I did a liver drag for the pups in our 12 acre enclosure. The pups are very familiar with other places around our house, and the field in the enclosure gave us fresh ground to work them. The line was long, around 170 yards, which is at least double of what they have done on blood so far. There were four turns, and a big chunk of liver was placed at the end. The temperature in shade was in the low 70s and rising. Parts of the line were exposed to the sun.

I ran Poppy first on the drag, when the scent line was an hour old. Poppy knew where the line was and never overshot it or lost it. Her work was quite slow and precise. However, her problem was weak motivation and desire - she needed a lot of encouragement to make progress. The good news was that she went nuts over the liver, and was extremely possessive of it. This is going to be a good motivational tool for Poppy.

The second pup was Grock. His desire was excellent and he was very fast. One time he was distracted when I praised him but was able to go back to the line by himself. The second problem he encountered when he was just 15 yards from the liver. He turned left instead of going straight. It did not look like he was going to correct himself and I had to bring him back. His loved the liver but was not as possessive of it as Poppy was.

The third pup running the line was Paika. On the last two lines she got the lowest scores but this time she aced it. She was a bit sloppy, but her desire was strong, and she never needed to be encouraged or corrected.

The last pup was Pushkin who did the best of all the pups on the last two lines. By now the scent line was two hours old. He started very well; he was precise, slow, methodical. But he lost his focus on the last leg of the line (last 1/3rd) and needed a lot of help there. He liked the liver but it was not too difficult to take it from him. He looked tired at the end of the line.

Since Poppy seemed to be so motivated by the liver at the end, we ran her on the same line second time. This time scenting conditions were more difficult. The line was trampled by other pups, was much older, around 2.5 hours old, and it was getting hot. As I suspected her desire to track was much stronger this time. Her work was not as clean as the first time around, she veered off the line some but she was able to correct herself and did not need any help. Several times she stopped for a moment and looked at us but this time we did not say anything and ignored her. She resumed her tracking right away. Again, once she got to the liver she wanted to devour it. When we tried to take it from her, she growled and snapped. This kind of behavior can be corrected but this possessiveness provides a good foundation for motivating Poppy to track.

All the pictures included show Poppy on her first track.

Observations from the field - puppies are starting to hunt

We are down to four puppies - Grock, Paika, Poppy and Pushkin. It is hard to believe that just three weeks ago there were 15 of them! As you can see the last three weeks have been very, very busy meeting pups' new owners. Within next 12 days two more pups will be leaving.

Yesterday was the first time in a while when I could spend quite a bit of time with the pups. Unfortunately, the weather has not been cooperating. It was way too wet for blood tracking, but I managed to take pups to the pond. They have not been there for a while, and I was surprised at their reaction. It looks like P-pups love the water! Pushkin went in right away in a spot where water is quite deep; he swam away and after a while started to have problems. I had to get into the pond and help him some. Luckily, I did not have camera with me so there was no damage done. Pushkin did not get traumatized, but now he may have second thoughts about swimming so far on his own. Poppy and Paika were swimming too; Grock did not mind to wet his feet but I did not see him going into the deeper water.

In the afternoon we had a huge loud thunderstorm, just when puppies were snoozing in their crates. When the rain stopped and it started to dry, I took them out for a long walk. Once they hit our freshly mowed lawn in front of the house, they put their noses to the ground and started to hunt. There must have been a lot of fresh scent left there by rabbits because the pups clearly were following some scent lines. They are precocious little hunters, that's for sure. When we went to our 11-acre enclosure, it was still very wet and water was dripping. Pups did not mind running into the thick brush, where they got completely wet. Their noses were glued to the ground and if the scent let into dense cover, they were not concerned. This is a good experience for them. All in all a good day in spite of the bad weather.

After the walk we came to the house, where pups dried in the kitchen. I cut two apples for them, which they devoured, and then gave them two more to play with. Grock claimed one of them and almost ate the whole thing.

Saying good-bye to two more Gilda's puppies

Today we said good-bye to Gunther who is going to live in Marshall, Michigan with Don Dickerson and Cori. Don impressed us with his enthusiasm and knowledge, and we expect great things from this blood tracking team.

On Saturday Grannie was picked up by Saralynne Hudgins from Kennesaw, Georgia. Grannie is going to track for Sara and her husband Terry Meier.

Good luck to all of you!

Gwen is on her way to her new home in Indiana

Yesterday we spent the whole day with Chris Barr and Joe Walters from Indiana, who came here to pick up Gwen. Joe Walters has already a tracking dog from us - a two year old "Doc" (Magnum v Moosbach-Zuzelek). Chris is the one who is Gwen's new owner. It was a real treat to get to know him. Chris has read John's book numerous times, and he has read all the blog posts. He was better prepared than anybody else...ever. He could even name dogs in the pictures on the wall in our dining area.

Anyway, we had a blast with Chris and Joe. We know that Gwen is in excellent hands.




One of the topics we discussed yesterday was Gwen's coat, which is short. A dog with this type of coat does not carry a gene for wirehaired coat. The smooth coat like Gwen's is a recessive trait to the wirehair coat. So while a whirehaired dachshund can carry a gene for the smooth coat (and many do), a smooth dachshund with the coat like Gwen's does not carry a gene for the wirehaired coat. If Gwen was bred to another smooth dachshund, the offspring would be all smooth-coated.

Another puppy leaves for a new home

On Saturday Grizzly left for a new home. Steve Hardee flew here all the way from Fuquay Varina, North Carolina. Grizzly's engaging and easy going personality made him a good match for Steve's family that includes two kids.

Good luck Steve and keep us posted!

Pictures of Gilda's puppies - at nine and a half weeks