Uta is now residing in Wisconsin

We were planning to keep one of female puppies from Sky and Mielikki's litter for ourselves. Four weeks ago when Cheri Faust was visiting us, we saw a deep connection and quick attraction between her and Uta, the smallest puppy in the litter. So I offered Cheri a co-ownership of Uta with me keeping breeding rights, and she liked the idea. Last weekend Cheri was back breeding Danika to Sky, and we had a chance to see Uta again. She was still the smallest and probably the feistiest puppy, with a lot of potential. Good luck Cheri with the puppy!

 

10th week in the life of puppies

During the tenth week of pups' life we have continued to work with puppies on tracking. We also took walks in the woods, fields and to the pond.

Puppies were not bothered by the noise of the tractor working nearby.

We exposed pups to unfamiliar situations and objects to observe their response.

On Friday, July 19, Uncas (red male) left for his new home. We are going to miss this lovely puppy, but luckily occasionally we will get to see him as he is going to live not too far from the MD field trials grounds.

Uncas' calling name is going to be Moose, just like his grandsire's.

Uncas' new owner Adam H. is going to give him a lot of opportunities to use his nose. We are very excited about this future tracking team. Best of luck Adam and Moose!

Thor and Theo leave for new homes

Today was a busy day as Thor and Theo left for their new homes. I will post more pictures of the three pups tomorrow but today will have just pics of the pups with their new owners.

Thor is going to live with Bob Yax and his family from Springwater, NY. Several months ago Bob lost Gusto, our Gilda's brother, to an accident. As a member of Deer Search Bob takes a lot of calls, and Thor will have a chance to live a great life of a working and companion dog.

Bob and Emily Yax with Thor

*****

Theo is going to live in East Brunswick, New Jersey, with Darren Doran and his wife Phyllis. Darren is a good friend, and he is a coordinator for a special blood tracking program implemented in New Jersey. He is also a member of the United Blood Trackers and Deer Search.

Darren Doran from New Jersey with his new puppy Theo

We wish Darren and Bob best of luck with their new puppies, which we believe should make fine blood tracking dogs. I am sure that we will be reporting about them in the future. It is nice for a change to have two pups living not that far, within a four-hour drive from Berne.

More pictures to come...

Tarah leaves for a new home

Yesterday we said good-bye to Tarah, who is on her way to Huntsville, Texas. Woody Harmon, an avid bowhunter, flew here to pick her up, and we had a chance to spend a good part of the day with him. Tarah is in good hands. Normally we keep puppies with us until they are ten weeks old, but because of Woody's schedule we had to let her go early. We are going to miss the little girl, who is one of the most social dogs we have ever bred.

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.

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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

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!

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  

 

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!

Ruger is on his journey to a new home in Georgia

Josey Visnovske from Georgia was planning to come here to pick up his puppy on Friday evening. He was planning to drive from Maryland, where he was for his job, and next day he was to go back to MD to catch a flight back home. The hurricane Earl complicated things tremendously. So last night Josey came here after 11 pm, stayed with us overnight and left today at 7 am with Ruger in his arms...well in a Sherpa bag.

We hope Josey and Ruger make home tonight without further complications. Good luck to both of you; please stay in touch!

We have been receiving good feedback about puppies but have had no time to post it. Things should get better soon, especially after Saturday, when we are hosting a United Blood Trackers test here in Berne.

We are getting spoiled!

When Lynn and Ann were here last Saturday we lent them our Sherpa bag for transporting Rosette in the cabin on their flight back to Louisiana. Today we received the bag back and before I opened the box I had wondered why it was so heavy. As it turned out the bag was full of Louisiana goodies. Thank you Lynn and Ann!!! You have been way too generous. I guess you must really like Rosette :-) Now we have all the food to go with the beer and wine we received from Stan. And since next Friday we are hosting a UBT blood tracking test, we'll serve some of the Louisiana treats to trackers from Quebec.

We are truly blessed by all the wonderful people who got our puppies. They quickly are becoming part of our extended family.

I should mention that the Sherpa bag was a gift too that we received from Sherry Ruggieri several years ago. We have been putting it to a good use. The bag will go on its next trip to Georgia where Ruger will be going to his new home.

Quick and his new home in Reading, PA

Today Quick left for his new home in Reading, PA. He is going to live on a 55-acre farm, where Pam Ellenberger and Paul Stelmach's family is going to move this fall. Pam is a surgeon, but she quit her job to become a farmer and raise alpacas. I can relate to that career move :-)  Pam and Paul fell in love with the wirehaired dachshund Georgia (Nellie von Moosbach-Zuzelek) owned by their friend and hunting buddy from Texas, Paul Vrana. Quick is going to be their daughter's dog.

Hanna, good luck with Quick! Stay in touch; I am sure that Quick's life will be full adventures.

Pam and Hanna with Quick

Today we said goodbye to Ranger

Today Ranger left for a new home with Gail and Vince Latella from Long Island. The Latellas have already one dachshund from us, an eight-year-old Hannah. They have been on our waiting list for two years now. The "problem" is that Gail and Vince do not hunt so they have been patiently waiting for a "pet" puppy. We never know in advance whether we will have a pet puppy so actually getting a puppy like this from us sometimes requires a very long waiting period. In the last week we decided that Gail and Vince's home will be a right one for Ranger.

We always select a puppy for new owners with a puppy's best interest at heart. Ranger is a gorgeous puppy, who actually uses his nose a lot and follows a scent line well. He has a hunting drive, but his temperament is not as solid as we like to see. He is on a somewhat nervous and timid side; he does not want to be crowded by other pups and dogs, and he is very submissive with people. We could see the difference in his behavior early, especially when we started to expose puppies to loud noises. His first experience with the sound of bubble wrap was caught on this video. He is the puppy who is very nervous about the crackling sound of bubble wrap and tries to hide.

Ranger is now 13 weeks old and he has come a long way. He does not show noise sensitivity any more. But we decided that he will be better off in a home where there is not going to be any pressure to perform in the field. Gail is retired now and Ranger will have an excellent home with a lot of love and attention. Hopefully he and Hannah will become good buddies and will enjoy a large back yard together. Below are the pics of Vince, Gail and their niece Elizabeth.

 

Roulette aka Rosette and her new owners from Louisiana

Yesterday we had a pleasure of spending a day with Lynn and Ann Pierce. They came all the way from Cut Off, Louisiana, to pick up their new puppy. I have included a map of the nearby area where they live; it is 60 miles south of New Orleans and quite close to the recent oil spill.

Lynn is an avid deer hunter and outdoorsman. He approached us in January about getting a puppy that would have a good potential for blood tracking and at the same time be a companion for their family. Ann and Lynn have three grandchildren and another one is expected soon so the pup would have to be good with young kids. We think that Roulette, who now is going to be called Rosette, is a good choice.

Lynn impressed us a great deal when he showed his binder with the very neatly organized information and pictures collected from our blogs. Usually we give puppy buyers a binder with some printed info, but this man's binder was already at least two inches thick. Wow!!!

View Larger Map

Lynn and Ann - good luck with your puppy. Call or e-mail any time.

A new puppy for Craig Dougherty of NorthCountry Whitetails

Time flies when you are having fun. So the seven hours that we spent with Craig Dougherty and Sharon Scholl of NorthCountry Whitetails felt more like an hour. Craig and his son Neil have taken food plot management to its highest level, and they are the authors of highly successful and popular  Grow 'Em Right: A Guide to Creating Habitat and Food Plots.

We are sure that Craig's work with Quentin (aka Radar) is going to generate a lot of interest in the use of blood tracking dogs in the recovery of wounded whitetails.

It was great meeting you Craig and Sharon. Good luck with Radar!

Another busy weekend spent with new puppy owners from Ohio

Saturday was a busy and long day. We usually spend 5 hours with new puppy owners and this was not an exception. In the morning the Byington family from Sandusky, Ohio made an early appearance. As it turned out they drove all night long and were in our driveway at 7:45 am. We enjoyed our time spent with them, and they left with Quint at 2:30 pm. Quint is a good match for Ben, Heather and their two kids, 1 and 4. He is an affectionate and easy going pup, who never growled at us, even at the end of the blood line with the deer liver in his mouth. I think this year our biggest challenge has been to decide which puppies should go to families with small children. All the puppies have shown good potential for blood tracking and from this point of view we have been very impressed with both litters. At the same time the pups have demonstrated a wide range of temperaments and activity level, and we had to take these factors into consideration when making decision how to match puppies with their new owners.

We spent the rest of Saturday and morning on Sunday with Bill and Laurie Brown, and their two sons Billy and Wiley. Quanta, who most likely is going to be called Maya, will be living with the Brown family in Paris, Ohio. This is a family of deer hunters, and Quanta will fit right in.

Ben and his new puppy Quint

Billy, Bill, Laurie and Wiley Brown with Quanta

And then there were eight...puppies

Last weekend was a busy one as we said good bye to four puppies. On Saturday two puppies left for their new homes.

David Bell and his wife Jacqueline came all the way from Ohio, and they left with Quella (orange collar).

Stan Kite, his wife Vonnie and son Lee came from New Jersey and left with Rilla (white collar).

Both David and Stan are members of the United Blood Trackers and will be using their dachshunds to help hunters recover wounded deer. Stan lives close to Maryland and Delaware and will be able to track in these states. Let's hope that New Jersey is going to legalize blood tracking really soon.

Then on Sunday we spent quite a few hours with Gunn and Mary Lou Gardner from NY and Justin Richins from Utah.

Gunn Gardner (above) is a member of Deer Search of Western New York, and Questa is going to be his tracking partner.

Justin Richins and his partner  http://www.thehuntingcompany.com/ operate the largest outfitting company in the western part of the US, and Remy is going to track a variety of big game - deer, elk and moose. Justin spent almost all day with us and had a chance to see Remy working a liver drag. Justin's hunting season starts on August 15 and this is a very busy time of the year for him.

We are very fortunate that the pups are going to be in excellent working homes and will be doing what they were bred to do - track.

We are going to end this post with the latest picture of Geiko, who now is being called Waldo. How cool is that picture? On the weekend he also got to swim in the ocean!